When looking back at the previous projects certain ones really stand out for me. The majority of the ones I enjoyed the most were portrait projects as I enjoyed manipulating peoples faces and distorting them in different ways as well as bringing out certain important and striking features. I enjoyed doing staged photo shoots, shoots that were different and interesting. These often caused problems however I enjoyed work around those problems and working on them. Just like the shoot that is displayed on the left above. Here I had to work round the drum kits but also incorporate it. I also enjoyed Johnny Briggs task as I found it enabled me to have an even more creative stance in photography giving me more freedom to not get everything perfect and encouraged to make mistakes. Like the previous projects I have talked about I also enjoyed working on the identity project as I found an artist that produced creative and striking work. I wanted to recreate this in my own way but still doing the original artist justice.
I also really enjoyed my exam project as I was able to tear and rip my work. This felt much more creative than just taking photos. I also liked taking good photos with good lighting then ripping them up. For some reason I felt a sense of freedom in this project. Throughout all these projects there is a sense of creativity and something different. I’d like to incorporate this in my next project as this will encourage me to actually get work done as I will enjoy want I am doing.
Churches are all around us in different shapes, sizes and forms for different religions. I am going to specifically focus upon the Christian church as this is an area I have the most knowledge in and within the Western region of the world, particularly England as Christianity is the most prominent religion according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom.
Initially, I researched the influence of religion within my tiny Channel Island and that’s when I discovered; “two fifths of the island are… irreligious”, signifying the decreasing power of the Christian church over society. Getting as close to home as possible, I studied the history of Saint. Clement’s and the four churches within the parish, although only two of these are Christian churches. This is the parish where I live so these churches are very accessible, but with the help of my trusty moped and due to the small nature of Jersey I am able to study all Jersey Christian churches. Following my research upon the religious scene in Jersey, I discovered Jersey’s established church is the Church of England, and although Christianity equates for half of Jersey’s population, wikipedia states irreligion has been an increasing force in Jersey. A demographic which I come under as I am an atheist, however, I do respect the values that Christianity promotes, especially as they correspond with modern day law and legislation.
The Parish Church
Fundamentally, what I do not support about Christianity is how in history and even more contemporary, in less educated global regions, the papacy have exploited the good-will of church goers for their money, demonstrating their indoctrination to religion. Recently, I watched a documentary known as “Deception of the Ages Nigeria”, which is available on YouTube. The documentary establishes this sense of exploitation of the lower class which angers me as these people have no money, they cannot afford for their children to have efficient education, yet the church is coercing finances from these families as they are not educated enough to understand the hoax they’re being gulled with, portraying life’s vicious cycle. This is just one of many examples I could provide to signify my anger towards the purpose behind the church.
A Christian Church in Nigeria
In response to the task set, I have decided to steer my focus towards the Christian church and how they have exploited the ancient literature of the Bible to gain money and power from the common people. Another reason why the Christian church has angered me is as recently, I unfortunately had to attend a funeral for a family friend who is the mother of one of my close friends. At the young age of 47, this lady lost her ten month battle with cancer. This lady was a mother of four extremely successful and lovely natured children and this death would leave a void in their lives all too soon. However, on the day of the funeral, with hundreds of people attending who were crying, sobbing, snuffling, the church televised an extract from the Bible. The b***** Bible. At such a tender time, the priest discussed how now sweet Elizabeth will rest with God. I can’t really justify why this angered me except to say its selfish. At this point, these four suffering children are numb with tears streaming down their face whilst a priest recites a quotation from the Bible. It goes unsaid I appreciate my mother’s health and eternally grateful that I wasn’t in that position, but I envisioned myself in that position of my close friend. I imagined that I was stood in her position, crying and having to say goodbye to my mother for the final time whilst this priest mumbled and gargled shit from the Bible. I stand outside of the ceremony starring inside to again, see my friend crying which is when I remember a thing I once discovered from a source I have now forgotten but it was the ‘seven’ stages of grief and this relates so well to what I can see happening to my friend.
Another reason to base upon my work upon grief, the church and orientate the production around the number ‘seven’ is that, within the content of the Bible, it states there are ‘seven’ deadly sins. I think basing my piece around the number seven will also give me some guidance to how I should arrange my work.
7 Deadly Sins List & Meanings
Envy = the desire to have an item or experience that someone else possesses
Gluttony = excessive ongoing consumption of food or drink
Greed or Avarice = an excessive pursuit of material possessions
Lust = an uncontrollable passion or longing, especially for sexual desires
Pride = excessive view of one’s self without regard to others.
Sloth = excessive laziness or the failure to act and utilize one’s talents
Wrath = uncontrollable feelings of anger and hate towards another person
On Sunday the 15th of October, I plan to photograph as many churches as I can from outside in order to create a typology of churches. This will give me experience with photographing churches and discovering what churches are the best buildings to capture images of for future preference.
Due to my shoot being on a Sunday, I may also capture the services churches hold on a Sunday in order to gather more images for the future.
From my current project by looking at family and Environment, I am looking to move onto my own project based on where I explore my own environment that is of particular significance of me. I have completed activities recently by trying to include influences from archives when and where I could. This has included my own personal archive and public archives such as the ones at Alliance Francaise. I have found it particularly interesting taking shoots of documentary and Tableaux and understand the principles of how this can be implemented in my work for this year.
After this past year since joining Hautlieu, I have explored many different topics, some which I enjoy particularly more than others which essentially some have stimulated my creative desire to explore certain topics further. I believe that from this, I have a strong understanding of certain subjects which I believe I can strive in. I particularly enjoyed looking at my landscape: Abstract and Surrealism, and structure topics that I believe I have explored the differing environments which fascinate me which has influenced my decision to persue looking at my own Christian environment. However topics which I feel I haven’t felt I have enjoyed as much is particularly the portrait work that I have completed. This is because portrait work for me I feel limits me in expressing my on views and opinions where landscpae photography opens up a lot more opportunity in order to be creative.
When working alongside Jonny Briggs and Tanja Deman I feel I have learned to appreciate different motives of photography and broadened my horizon in possible choices when considering how I can explore my independent project. By working with both artists, I have gained skills that are transferable in how I can construct a photograph in order to convey a particulate message like Jonny, or with like Tanja, how we can show others how we see the world through or eyes. With this I am more confidant, considerate and careful in when I construct a photograph, or when I look for something to document in a certain way.
By looking at both very different photographers who look at different genres, I now can look for specific details and wider composition within photographs that help define the image and has influenced the format in the particular photographs relating to my independent project. I have a strong interest in expressing my own feelings towards a particular interest, and with this independent project which I shall explore my own Christianity, I can focus on the specific details which I have learned from my previous topics to help convey what the meaning of faith and Christianity is to me. This concept will be very significant this year in how I use this composition to explore my feelings at a certain time towards a particular point in my Christian Journey.
One major aim is to explore to the full extent of my own current state of emotions and feelings at a particular point in my life, with the help of archives, producing links between now and the past and so hopefully I can elaborate where I have come from, where I am, and where I may be going next. In the past I have worked on a lot of photograph manipulation, particularly in my landscape work, However in my own independent project I shall be looking to work on a more documentary approach to this where I shall do much less manipulation than in the past. This is because I want to focus more on the realities of my life, and don’t want to distort the truth from the truth and I believe minimal manipulation can help paint a most accurate picture of my Christian journey. Therefore my work I expect will be a much more simple approach in my editing process where I will particularly look to enhance certain colors or make minor changes that help enhance the truth of how I feel.
Can a photograph lie? A photograph can tell a 1000 words – but sometimes those words may be a misconception or they may be interpreted differently from on person to another – depending on your own general knowledge of current affairs etc. you may be less educated about a subject than someone else and therefore a lie may be different for each person.
Even something like the photograph above comparing a naturally coloured image to a manipulated black and white image can be classed as lie because it is not showing the image in its natural colour once converted to black and white and therefore because of this change in colour of highlights and shadows, the whole meaning and mood of the image is transformed – in the coloured image, the mood is much more cheerful due to the bright sky behind and the healthy and vibrant skin tones of the subject, however, once converted to black and white, the shadows become much darker and the highlights become much lighter – affecting the mood and ,making it more melancholy and serious and we immediately feel much more sad emptions when looking at the black and white alternative. This image is not telling the truth and it is a very simple example but something that it is evident as a lie in phtooagrohy everyday as on photo editing and sharing apps such as Instagram – editing an image is the norm and it is what is used to attract the attention of the viewer and improve the quality of an image by enhancing colours etc. but it is a lie!
A more serious example of this is in Dimitri Baltermats’ image of grieving family members seeing the deceased bodies of their loved ones after the Crimea War in 1942. Due to the inability and inaccessibility of digital cameras in these days, images were shot on negative and then developed in dark rooms with the use of chemicals etc. However, photographers till has the ability to choose to enhance or alter some of the colours in black and white images they were developing by changing the qualities of chemicals. This was the old way to manage the ‘levels’ we are now familiar with in photography when we are editing image on Photoshop and artist could change the shadows by lightening them or darkening them to change the mood – exactly what Baltermats did in his controversial image of the 1940’s (below).
As you can see, in the image, the sky looks quite dramatically dark and this is because of Baltermats efforts to alter the darkness of the shadows produced by the clouds in the sky. The original would have been much lighter but the artist chose to darken these colours in order to overall alter the mood and tone of the image. The image consist of families grieving and mourning over their loved ones lost in the war as they look lovingly yet full of grief and sadness over the dead bodes on the floor. The whole context and content is hard-hitting alone but the use of darkening the shadows in the sky has added to this but it is a way of lying in an image and it is the true representation of what was happening but it was used as a way to provoke sympathy from the audience.
There is no doubt, that generally in life, we all class a lie as something forbidden against and something it is classed as morally and ethically wrong due to its consequences that cone with it after a lie has been committed, if you like. We are taught not to lie as this is not right and may result in controversy and we always want to tell the truth but a lie can be used a s a manipulation tool to play with the minds of people, whether it be a little white lie or bigger – it has its often negative results and that’s why we intend to always speak truth – however, people can also lie through photography and imagery and cab be seen as less inflicting on society or people due to it being non-verbal – a pre-conception that it is a lie in itself because a lie in photography can be just as risky as that of information passed on by people. Therefore, the answer to whether a photograph can lie is ‘YES’, it can but the severity of the lie can depend on the hands the image may be in and how far of a lie it may be made into.
The image above (above) can even be called a lie inn photography. This is an image taken by famous celebrity and fashion portrait photographer, Rankin. The image is called ‘3 Lips’ and can be argued to be a lie and not true due the use of make-up and special effects to manipulate the physical look of the models face. Her face would originally be naturally free of make-up and instead is now caked in make-up and sequins to benefit the look of the image’s outcome – it is not a true representation of the subject as she is covered up by make-up and this is essentially a lie.
You can argue that a lie in photography is the use of Photoshop’s very handy and useful tools such as skin touch-ups and the ability to turn a slice of pizza into a ‘supermodel’ for magazine cover, and you can also argue that a lie in imagery is cropping part of an image of frame so that it is does not exist anymore, or a lie a may be manipulating an image manually, like in Jonny Briggs’ work where he uses other subjects such a chewing gum to cover the faces of two people in a portrait. However, a very iconic lie in photography is derived from the image of that of Robert Capa’s – the world-renowned war photographer whose image of a loyal soldier mid-fall from being shot by the opposing country as a result of appearing above the ditch on no man’s land (below).
The truth of the phot above was not revealed by Capa at the time it was taken and then published because he did not feel comfortable talking about it – which is understandable. In the image Capa captured above, it was amazing at the time and it has gone down in history as images that changed the notion of photography. The image shows a soldier being shot down and then falling on the ground as he releases the grip of is shot gun – and thi is what happened and what Capa captured so very conveniently ands at the perfect moment in time as he has just been impacted with the bullet and it is nit very pleasant ot see and we as the audience can feel a sense of anger towards the photographer who hasn’t done anything except see it as a perfect opportunity to take a photograph when someone is dying on a battlefield and although it is useful he documented this moment in time with his camera as it shows the camera as a tool which can act a witness for events like this, we have only recently learnt how the moment actually came about. Capa has recently spoken out about how the soldier got shot and he said that he asked the soldiers he was with for the last few days as he documented their life on the battlefields to get out of cover on this particular day and “act out war” and “play out” what war would look like and surprisingly, the soldiers did as he asked and as a result of this very light-hearted act of kindness and humour, one soldier received the inevitable punishment of putting himself out on No Man’s Land by getting shot by the opposition. So although the death of this soldier is real and true, the tragedy never has to happen and can be argued to be a lie. We struggle to see whether truth has been depicted.
Although there has been the introduction of digital photography and the ease of capturing a second in time with a digital camera and then uploading it to a computer through the advancements of technology all within a couple seconds of each other, manipulation of the reality and actual truth of images in the 19th and 20th centuries was very common.
Concept Analysis
The image above is an image of Tom Pope’s from the series ‘The Escapades of The Higher Man’. Tom Pope is a young British photographer and has previously done a residency in Jersey fro Archisle like what Jonny Briggs and Tanja Deman have just completed over the last six months of this year.
‘Escapades of a Higher Man’ is a new body of images and is derived from Nietzsche’s idea of ‘Gods successor’ as being the higher man, an un-conformist, who lives by a new set of social values and interactions. This lifestyle has potential to veer between brilliance and madness, which makes it a wonderful creative space for art to occupy.
Pope’s work is influenced by the likes of Yves Kline and in particular his 1960 image of himself diving horizontally from a rooftop onto a French street. The image below is named ‘Leap Into The Void’. Most of Pope’s work is inspired by this artist and his use of a suit that he pictures himself margin in each image. The suit becomes an outward sign of conformity, but it is worn by the artist as a means of social camouflage and to show a juxtaposition of conforming to the need to appear sophisticated yet at the same time, have fun and feel a sense of freedom. In the image below and in the images Pope has previously created and exhibited widely, we can begin tot question the notion of truth because us as ethically correct audiences feel it very wrong that this subject has appeared to be falling out of a building window and onto a street without any protection below or without any safety equipment – we force ourselves to not accept the reality of what is actually happening within the frame because it seems wrong and socially unacceptable due to the absurdity.
An image by Yves Klien in 1960, ‘Leap Into The Void’An image by Tom Pope, ‘Little Solsbury Hill’ where he is pictured as well, in a suit jumping into mid-air at during this leap, he releases the shutter of the camera to capture the picture of him levitating above ground
A concept we have to address when looking at images like the above where there is a subject floating in mid-air within the frame of a photograph without nay explanation as to how they got there is how it is manageable and how he actually managed to capture this moment in time which seems very unrealistic because it goes against the knowledge that humans cannot fly – that we belong on the ground on our feet and not floating in the air.
Many conclusions can be drawn from what is shown above and the one that is most common as Pope told me after working with him at an old school during his residency on the island, is that people assumed he had photoshopped himself into the image of the vast fields he had pre-photographed. However, this is not the case and in fact Pope has psychically jumped into the air on the edge of this hill I assume to capture the background and whilst in mid air, the camera he has set up on his tripod is connected to a shutter release remote and Pope would have this in his hand and once in the air, he would press the button to release the shutter. Using a slow shutter release speed, he as manged to capture the blurred movement of himself coming up then down again and it creates a very futuristic yet confusing concept which is actually true and real.
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.
Photojournalism is based on assumptions that the photograph represents a one-to-one correspondence with reality, which is nearly accurate and adequate, and that the photographic image is capable of conveying information objectively.Traditional documentary believes the viewer to be a receptive subject taking in the objective information of the world through the photograph.
Photographs can be interpreted differently to how the photographer planned for it to be perceived. This can change the meaning of the images or what the photo is perceived to be for example Rorschach Inkblot test shows how different people interpret images differently and how this means different things about the individual’s unconscious mind. When you look at an image you can ask yourself whether the image is a truthful image or fiction by asking yourself questions about the particular images. Doing research into the photo and the photographer who took the image can tell you a lot about the image itself and what the meaning behind the image might have been. The photographs can be staged, which means the photographer would have had actors act out a particular scene. The photographs could also be a snapshot of a scene happening in front of the photographs eyes, which they then document.
“I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.”
-James Nachtwey-
James Nachtwey, Rwanda - Survivor of Hutu death camp, 1994
Propaganda
Photographs can be used as a form of Propaganda.This is the belief that Photographs are used to raise awareness (good or bad) of particular issues and can be made to represent a particular point of view. This is often used in politics, voluntary organisations and charity to promote their organisation to request support from the public. In war, governments and the media use propaganda as a ‘weapon’ to encourage patriotism and promote national interests. These images can also however change the public’s attitude or opinion on specific events happening within the world.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is concerned with what is a good work of art, principles of taste and traditional systems of what is deemed beautiful in art. Thus the aesthetics of photography have been concerned with formal matters such as composition, subject-matter, form, medium and style. It has also encompassed questions of technique.A photographer such as Sebastiao Salgado has been criticized for anesthetising the poor and deprived through his unique visual style, mastery of technical skill and highly detailed and artful prints which renders his subject matter almost too beautiful.
By Sebastiao Salgado
Huynh Cong (Nick Ut),Trangbang, Route 1, South Vietnam, 8 June 1972
This image was taken by Huynh Cong during the vietnam war. The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The divisive war, increasingly unpopular at home, ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973 and the unification of Vietnam under Communist control two years later. More than 3 million people, including 58,000 Americans, were killed in the conflict.
This was a chilling photograph that came to symbolise the horrors of the Vietnam War and ultimately, helped to end it. This image was taken just before the photographer saved the life of Kim Phuc, who is the second child from the left and has no clothing on her skin. She was 9 years old at the time as she was attacked by south Vietnamese planes, who sent Napalm bombs down to kill civilians. This is a flammable liquid used in warfare. It is a mixture of a gelling agent and either gasoline (petrol) or a similar fuel. It was initially used as an incendiary device against buildings and later primarily as an anti-personnel weapon, as it sticks to skin and causes severe burns when on fire.
On the 40th anniversary of the iconic photograph, she invited all the people who helped her during this time to a dinner. These were doctors, nurses, who treated her injuries as well as the photographer Huynh Cong, who took the image and also other journalists.
The photographer took the photograph, then immediately after drove the badly burned child to a small hospital, where he was told she was too far gone to help. He flashed his American press badge, demanded that doctors treat the girl.
Mr. Ut said “I cried when I saw her running. If I didn’t help and she died I would have killed myself.”
“It changed the war. I met so many American Soldiers who said ‘Nicky because of your picture, i’ll get to go home early”
The photograph ‘Napalm Girl’ is a picture of young children running down a road in Vietnam on June 8th 1972. The children all have a look of sheer terror and fear on their faces, and it seems as though they are running away from something horrific. Behind the children there are some soldiers, who do not look phased by what is happening, and who aren’t helping the injured children in any way, but instead herding them down the street. There is a huge contrast between the two different subjects. The children are helpless and hopeless, screaming for aid. They look small and weak. The soldiers however are tall and powerful, with their guns and helmets. They are not injured and are not conveying any emotion. In the background, it is clear that there has been an explosion of some sort as there are clouds of smoke billowing from the ground, and the area looks destroyed and damaged. The main subject in the picture is a naked young girl, who looks like she is in extreme pain. This girl is Kim Phuc.
There were a few issues associated with this image, one reason he claimed the photo had been fixed was that he thought the journalists and photographers were trying to make the war look more horrific and dramatic than it actually was. The photo had not been fixed in the slightest. This was very much evident when interviews were had with the Kim herself and stories told about her.
Another issue that was raised about the photo was the fact that there was a naked young girl in it. The photo was taken in the 70s and there had not been images of naked children released before this. However, you can argue that the image was too important to be hidden from the world. It showed the victims of war, a war that had not before been thought seriously about by anyone else around the world except the victims of it. So even though the sight of the naked young girl could have been an issue, it was overlooked, as the story behind the picture itself was far more important.
The image is a snapshot, showing what the photographer had seen in this particular moment. The theme of the photograph is war brings pain to the innocent, which is an extremely powerful message.
“Based on your chosen themes, FAMILY or ENVIRONMENT make two images, one that you consider truthful and one that is not.”
This image has been manipulated using photoshop, the original photograph is of the upper arm, cutting off at the elbow, I decided to insert a hand just after the elbow, which was included in a different photograph. This is an example of manipulating the truth in an image, to make it untrue. This was inspired by Asger Carlsen as he uses different parts of the individuals body to create an image. I them experimented with photographs I had taken myself and used varies parts of the same body to form an image. This is taking the truth and making it untrue by adapting it. This is something that is seen as abnormal to this generation, however in the 60’s this was common as the government had persuades pregnant woman to take a pill to help the babies growth. This lead to babies in that generation to be born with shortened limbs as a result of this drug thalidomide, it was told it would help the woman with their morning sickness. The drug impacted the fetus, leading to thousands of woman blaming themselves for their “thalidomide babies.” This image I have created therefore is partly true and partly untrue, which shows how hard it is to claim a photograph to be true. This image represents something that was true, the “thalidomide babies.” However the image itself is not true as it has been manipulated to look this way.
Examples of Asger Carlsen’s work:
Drowned Syrian boy
A paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of Alan Kurdi off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey, where he was found. Photographer: Nilufer Demir from Turkey’s Dogan News Agency
Can change the world or change people’s perception?
In the summer of 2015, this three-year-old Syrian boy of Kurdish origins and his family fled the war engulfing their country, hoping to join relatives in the safety of Canada. They were part of a historic flow of refugees from the Middle East to Europe this year, and they followed the dangerous route taken by so many others. The family crowded onto a small inflatable boat on the beach of Bodrum, Turkey. A few minutes into the journey to Greece, the dinghy capsized. Alan, his older brother Ghalib and his mother Rihanna all drowned, joining the more than 3,600 other refugees who died in the eastern Mediterranean this year. This is where Alan’s story would have ended, were it not for the work of a photographer.
This photograph shocked the population and changed their opinion on war and the killings of thousands of civilians. This provoked the debate of whether an image could potentially change the world or change people’s perception. ” Great achievements have been piled around the totem of photography.” This can result in “environmental awareness” and “conclusions of armed conflicts.” However, a photograph itself “bits of paper” can’t change the world but photographs can change people’s perception and their views and opinions can change the world. When seeing an image, a viewer can not possibly claim that seeing this photograph of a drowned child is the same as experiencing the situation with your own eyes, but knowing that their is a drowned child, who has died as a consequence of situations which might be more “within our power to change,” This means that by the public voicing their concerns, changes will have to take place as the activities will be frowned upon socially, which would decrease the amount of countries participating in war. The photographs “present the idea that things are happening, or exist, or are possible.” This brings the worlds problems to the public eye, photographs have the power to “change the ways we see and understand the world and want to act in it.” However, some images are capable of influencing for the worse, of reinforcing negative attitudes and unrealistic expectations about the world, which makes the influence on the public a negative thing as some images may lie or deceive the public by editing the image to make it look different to how it was seen through the eyes of the photographer, leading the public to believe the photograph is real. I personally, do not feel this is the case for the Syrian boy as I do not feel this is a staged image. However, the image could have been cropped or focused on that particular part, we as viewers do not see the full scene making it difficult for us to judge what is really happening at the scene. The beach could have been filled with washed up bodies, it may not have just been him but we do not get to see this, we are only shown what the photographer wants us to see. This makes it hard for the public to really know if an image is a truthful images or a staged image.
A photograph cannot change the world we live in by bringing it them to light, however “the real impetus is on us to respond to the things we feel when we view certain photographs and to decide to make things change.” This is what makes photographs so powerful. It’s not what the photograph consists of but it’s how it makes people feel and how it makes people want to react and change. The story got published in varies newspapers, a sand sculpture had been made on the beach in his memory and a cartoon characters were made all in his memory as it hit the hearts of many people. In conclusion, images themselves cannot change the world and things going on in it, however it can make people feel something resulting in them making a change to the way they live, changing the world they live in.
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.
Here are examples of excellent Personal Studies from last couple of years from students very personal and mature subjects.
Jasmin Ross: Handle With Care
I have made a book which is called Handle With Care, it is about the history of St Saviours hospital from when it first opened in 1869 to when it closed. The layout of the book starts from the outside, goes inside then, then you meet 3 patients, it stays inside then it goes outside again to finish the book. My book is 108 pages and it has a combination of text, double page spreads and single image pages. My book is split into two parts of Archival material which was the basis of my work which i went a collected and photographed then next part is of my own images which i made of the outside of the abandoned building.
Rosanna Armstrong: His Master’s Voice
Overall I have found my personal study project very interesting. Assisting with the wider project in collaboration with the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive and National Trust has meant that I have been involved with research and discoveries as well as having access to exciting photographic opportunities. I was originally introduced to the collection of Francis Foot’s photographs in October last year while interring at the SJ Photographic Archive and since then have been involved in a lot of work developing a project around it in connection to the building restorations. I started by researching the family and history of the buildings and familiarising myself with the collection by updating the database. One of the most interesting areas of my project was actually visiting the buildings while they were in the process of being restored. This allowed me to connect the knowledge of the past to the present and explore the idea of preserving built heritage in connection to the historical photographic aspect. This relates to my interest in local history and the development of photography as an art form. Having knowledge of the past inhabitants reflects the human side of buildings and memories and traces associated with them. Some of the small details such as the image found behind the mirror and writing on the walls were particularly striking examples of this. It has also been interesting to explore family portraiture throughout time and conduct various shoots with my own family including one specifically connected to the Foot Shops.
Nina Powell:Jersey Folklore Beliefs and superstitions revolving around mythical characters in Jersey, Channel Island are common. The ancient lanes overhung with vegetation look almost like dark tunnels leading into the unknown. Unexplained ruins dotted around the coast add to the air of mystery and Island people with a long and proud history have many stories to tell which have been passed down from generation to generation. In this photo book I have explored three of Jerseys most famous and well-known legends, portraying each one with a series of environmental portraits, studio shots and landscape photographs. The first legend tells the story of the poor Bride of Waterworks Valley, the second shows the demonic presence down at Devil’s Hole and the third looks into the many tales of Witchcraft in Jersey. This project is my response to the provided themes of ‘truth, fantasy and fiction’, as well as the beautiful depictions of myths created by other photographers. My aim for this photo book was to recreate some of our islands most interesting history using beautiful and insightful visuals. By doing this I hope to bring these legends back to life in this colourful yet ominous series.
Cerian Mason:Untitled
I produce a large amount of documentary style images revolving around the more shadowed teenage social life. This involves being in a lot of places we shouldn’t be, drinking too much and probably a little more nudity that this blog is ready for. Below is a selection of my project work over the last few weeks presenting a range of locations – from abandoned hotels to out of hours nightclubs – featuring my friends being strange and causing trouble. There are some clear trends in the image I create such as the selective palettes and tight range of colours and the positioning of characters – these images were not directed at all though the figures were of course aware I was photographing them. This photobook was made using bookwright software and will be printed as a portrait A4 project. Many of the design ideas for this projects are inspired from artists and graphic designers I have studied over the last two years such as Lotta Nieminen. Studying the graphic designer’s personal projects. I took particular notice of the image layouts and use of overlapping text. There is a carefully controlled colour palette and minimalistic design which aids the presentation of images in such a publication. Benjamin Koh’s project work again has a strong graphic theme which uses a muted colour palette to emphasize the continued sense of photographic narrative. His pages tend to be uncluttered and minimal which draws attention to the graphic images in each of the carefully constructed double-page spreads. These elements were crucial to my own work, ensuring that images would be easily visible and clearly presented.
Max Hillman: The Getaway
There is a consistency of monochrome tones and grainy, heavy contrasted images. Throughout my project I have looked at documentary photographers such as Larry Clark and Jacob Sobol, and upon reviewing their work i have grown a love for their styles. The layout and the order of the images is important as the book needs to flow, almost the same way a story does. I need to find similar groups of images and order them carefully one by one so the book feels as if it has a narrative. I started with a small, shadow filled image of my face as the book is about my teenage life with friends. I followed this by a double sided silhouette of a friend in the school car park leaning up against a car. I wanted to start the book of with images based around friends and our utilisation of cars. These next pages were organised to follow the theme around cars, starting with another image of friends in the school car park between lessons, leading to images in cars at night time.
Gio Rios: Home Sweet Home?
In terms of my title, I called my book ‘home sweet home?’. This is of course a common household saying, that I have added a question mark to. Due to the fact that my home life is fairly broken and has been on and off my entire life, which makes it far from ‘sweet’. On the first page within my book I write the quote ‘family means no one gets left behind or forgotten’. This is controversial from the start, as my farther had done exactly this from my birth, which is ultimately what stems my thoughts and feelings towards a lot of my family life and the reasons for the decisions made within this book.
Here I feature a stand alone image of an ultrasound of me. This is used to imply that I am the center of this book and that this is my own representation. The inclusion of juxtaposing images, put alongside one another, help to emphasise my emotions towards certain characters within my book.
My granddad is someone who has consistently been in and out of my life, throughout my upbringing. Therefore I feature him alongside a set of spiraling stairs to imply that he has spiraled out of my life.
Rochelle Merhet: Ryan
The first step I took to my project inspired by the work of the artists I have studied and discussed was look at my own archived family photographs. I have a huge selection taken by my parents featuring me and my brother, many appeared very informal depicting me and my brother playing and laughing at each other, which gave the ability to see the relationship between me and my brother and how it has developed. Much like any family album, these photographs share a very personal importance to me. I wanted to use photographs that depicted who I was as well as my brother in my book as a way of a candid reflection of what my childhood was like and how I felt about it. Similar to the work of Carolle Benitah I wanted to make physical alterations to the photographs to further explore the notion of nostalgia, memories and the relationships between family members, in particular between me and my brother. I wanted use their project as a way to further understand myself through the use of memories and photographs to build and develop and understanding of who me and my brother are today and in particular our differences which are created from the notion of ‘nature and nurture’.
Matthew Knapman: Is that My Blue Butterfly?
The research of both these artists informed and influenced my personal project, which focused on the life of my mother who is currently diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in Easter 2014, but when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, it is called metastatic cancer. The liver, lungs, lymph nodes, and bones are common areas of spread of metastasis. Using art and physical materials, I wanted to draw into and edit the photographs I take in order to illustrate my emotions and what my mother is going through. The physical art would be a visual guide to the audience, telling a story regarding the illness. This is something that I was excited to do, given my passion and abilities in art and design. I can draw, scratch or edit the photograph using chemicals and other kinds of destructive methods. This can demonstrate some kind of investigation into the relationship between traditional art and Photography as mediums. This is something that I touched upon for my AS project.
Christianna Knight: Women of Yesterday
During my personal study I enjoyed having freedom to explore my own ideas and take inspiration from artists and photographers that I am interested in. I was very inspired by Cindy Sherman’s work, I wanted to explore themes such as masquerade, costumes and stereotypes which are very present in Sherman’s studio portraits. When first collecting ideas as to what I should base my project on I decided I wanted to explore female stereotypes through costume and studio portraits. However, with so many stereotypes existing within my gender I decided to create a series of portraits depicting stereotypes from each decade of the 20th Century. As I was born in 1998, I was looking at these stereotypes with a retrospective. I also kept feminist theory in mind, relating my stereotypes to important movements in feminist history including the three main waves as well as smaller social victories for women. I felt that this project was very successful and that each decade was well planned and executed and that the nine image work well as a series.
Max Le Feuvre: Untitled My photo-book is based around my Grandfather. He died 30 years ago and so I never got the chance to meet him. I wanted therefore to find out more about him and develop an understanding of what he may have been like if I had got to know him. This project was therefore very much about exploring and investigating the theme of absence, a story based around someone who is no directly part of it. I photographed off and on for 9 months to create this project, re-tracing my Grandfather’s steps and using photography to express my findings. Archival resources in particular have played a huge part in my project, especially through the access I have had from the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archives, and the resources I have found play as much a part in this story as does my own responses. I wanted to make my images and narrative feel as simplistic and personal as possible and so I constructed my photo-book by hand, I style I believe gives my work a quirky, old-fashioned feel.
Shannon O’Donnell: Shrinking Violet
Shrinking Violet stemmed from a short film that I created as part of my project of my mother. I made a film based around an interview that I did with my mum and made it up of archival images as well as documenting her everyday life. Part of the interview sparked my interest when she said ‘I’m not one of those shrinking violets in the work place’. This caught my attention as I see her role as simply doing what is expected of her, something that I want to challenge through my photographic work. This brought on the idea for creating a parody shoot where I dress as a persona, similar to my mum, and pose around the house mimicking the role I see my mum portray. I wanted this photo book to embody the traditional role of women our society perceives and for spectators to view the images I have created to recognise themselves, their mothers, their sisters and their wives. Gender defines everyone and, at times, can be limiting. It makes us feel that we need to belong and conform to the expectations placed on us at birth solely on whether we were born male or female.
Watch her film below about feminism, her mother and her role in the family. This film was the starting point for her photographs above by re-staging herself as a domisticated female
“Good friends make you face the truth about yourself and you do the same for them, as painful, or as pleasurable, as the truth may be.” – Corinne Day
An autobiography is an account of the life of a person written by that person. In other words, it is the story that a person wrote about themselves. My inspiration for this study came from memories that are forgotten, and the ‘things’ that re-jog our brains to remember them. These could be objects from a childhood collection box or a set of images from a blurry holiday. For this piece of work I attempted to join two ways of memory revival into a book as well as a layout presenting some of my final images.
Hayli Ducker: My Bones Hurt
I took huge inspiration from photographers such as Thilde Jensen, Jo Spence and Francesca Woodman, these three photographers all explored their illnesses through photography which I thought would help me come to accept my diagnosis. As Jo Spence explained, photography can be used as therapy, “literally using photography to heal ourselves.” Through taking these photographs to document my illness like a diary I came to terms with it and learnt to adapt and slowly started to be able to have a normal life again just at a slower pace than before. For me this was a difficult subject matter to explore as I try and keep it rather private, friends know about it but I try to keep it private from classmates and the general public. I don’t want people to look at me differently and I found I felt rather vulnerable exposing the one thing I do my best to hide.
Jessica Freire: Domestic
My personal study is about my mother who immigrated to Jersey in 1987, from a disadvantaged background in the hopes of having a better life. My mother is the eldest child of six, who grow up in a village called Machico on the south east side of the Island of Madeira. After leaving school at the age of 9 to work on the land to provide for her family, she developed a hard working discipline. Currently, she is the breadwinner within my family working in five different jobs all within the domestic area. In my personal study I am exploring how my mum’s role as a breadwinner abdicates from her culture and stereotypical role within a household.
Sian Cumming: The Butler As a photographer, it is important for me to express details about my life to almost create a biography through photographs. I chose to use my dad for my project as his job has impacted my life since day 1. My dad is the Butler for the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey and has enabled me to have an insight into the life of royalty. My dad’s responsibilities are; ensuring the house events run smoothly, he also manages the house staff and liaises with his Excellency and Lady Mc Cole for all their requirements. I have lived in the grounds of Government House all my life and have truly honoured living here. Our tight community has really impacted my life and the way I am, as I also work as a waitress for Government House functions, I have been taught the type of service required for the Governor and his guests by my Dad himself. It was an honour to follow the footsteps of my dad and what he does at work and for the Governor to allow me take photographs of him off duty was a privilege in itself. To me, family is the most important aspect in life, it’s the root to our personality. Family is the single most important influence in a child’s life. From your first moments of life, you depend on parents and family to protect and provide for your needs. They form your first relationships with other people and are your role models throughout life. Researching into the way different photographs express the notion of home was truly inspiring and made me want to produce something that shows how my life has been
Link to her blog https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo16a2/author/scumming05/ Viviana Maia: Destruction is Creation
I created this photographic book called “Creation Is Destruction” as an outlet to show how not everything we see is the truth. As part of our exam project, I decided to focus on the theme of truth to be able to have a chance of telling my own version of events that have occurred throughout my life. The main theme of my photo book is the sense that when you destroy something, you forget that you are always creating something new. I used that notion to therefore allow myself to create a whole new truth about who I am, where I came from and what it all means to me. I decided to use archival images from when I was a child as well as images taken from family photo albums which I then digitalised and this is when I began my destruction process. I ripped up, stitched together, erased people and added people to my photographs to create a new truth and a new sense of reality that, at that time I still had no idea what it was going to be until I left everything I grew up with behind and started a whole new life in a completely different place.
Holly Benning: Three Chapters I have explored how the invisible can be captured and portrayed through the medium of photography. And why memories hold such a powerful influence over our past, present and future. I have looked at what makes a photograph meaningful, what gives a photograph reality and how through photography the memory of a person can live on. My project focused on exploring the invisible through three female generation’s memories; this included my grandmother, my mother and myself. These distinctive viewpoints enabled my project to become more personal and really seek the depths of my grandfather’s life. I think memory is more than simply remembering a once present thought, but it is about connecting with the past in order for it to live on. We are made up of fragmented memories and forgotten dreams. Our entirety rests in the fate of old letters, burnt photographs and meaningless possessions. We never question the invisible, it is as though we are on a relentless pursuit to try and capture what we cannot see. We abide by the rules and limitations that are enforced by the concept of death. But what happens to those who become untouchable, those who are no longer part of the flux. Their existence becomes empty and lost; they are no longer perceptible to the eye. We yearn to cherish the ‘good’ memories and except the restrictions we are faced with, regarding mortality. In doing so, the feeling of life is created; the tangibility of pleasure and pain enters our worlds and consumes us. But, photographs hold heritage and meaning, they have a depth of knowledge and feeling to them.
Bryony Sanderson: Gie us a wee word wi’ yer Mum:
The title of this work is phrase I would hear both my Scottish Grandparents say almost every time I answered the phone. During this project, I focused on my Scottish Heritage and the difficultly living in Jersey has bought to our relationship with my Grandparents.
Bryony’s exam project:Artificial
Being surrounded and fascinated in the prosthetic world through my parents’ occupation, I felt that this to be an appropriate area to explore under the theme flaws and imperfections. From the moment the idea sprung to mind, I knew this was going to be a challenge, being well aware it would push my abilities as an amateur photographer. However, I was firm in my decision to pursue this, making it my goal to depict the power, strength and determination of amputees, and how in-fact, their ‘imperfection’ or ‘flaw’ as some would call it, is certainly not a flaw at all. Stuart Penn, the focus of my photographs, was such a pleasure to work and a huge inspiration, giving us the powerful message that anything really is possible. I feel honoured to have had the opportunity of taking his photographs and gaining insight into his incredible lifestyle.
Eve Ozouf A Lekker Christmas For this project I captured the highlights of my family holiday to Durban, South Africa for Christmas 2014. The images were captured in a documentary style, which is my preferred approach as I enjoy capturing family life as well as landscapes where human activity has occurred. The word ‘Lekker’ which I used to describe my Christmas means ‘good’ in the native language of Afrikaans. My photographs show a variety of environments that South Africa has to offer with its vast land including urban built up areas to the deserted African plains. Some images show the ‘Durbanite’ way of life, including where my 14-year-old cousin demonstrates how to use my grandfather’s rifle to shoot the annoyingly noisy ‘Hadeda’ birds. South Africa is full of vibrant colours and textures which I particularly focused on when producing this body of work as a photograph isn’t just about how it looks, it’s how you imagine it feeling. A lot of experimentation was used to bring out different styles of photography including slow shutter speeds to dramatise events such as the bonfire sprites floating towards the sky. For me, these images capture the quality of life South Africa has to offer and should make the viewers want to visit this beautiful country for themselves.
Oliver Sharman You’s Company, Me’s a Crowd is a photo book in an autobiographical form, whereby I am re-enacting events that occurred in my recent life, venturing from visiting my brother at university and the hungover pain this brough, to partying and hanging out with friends in all manner of ways and the aftermath of this. So, here is an insight into me, often eventful life of a teen in the island of Jersey.
Matt Palmer: I Need A Shovel is the story of my Granddad, the house he has lived in since the 1960s and the clearing out of the house as it is now need to be sold. The name of this project came from my Dad. Him and a couple of others when ahead to my Granddad’s house whilst I went with my Aunt to pick my Granddad up. My Dad had the job of removing the upstairs toilet, which, when it stopped working, my Granddad kept on using it until it overflowed. When my Aunt and I arrived the first thing my Dad said to his sister was ‘I Need A Shovel.’ We all found that line funny when we heard it and then that line just stuck with me.
Lots of people can see little bits of themselves when they see my granddad’s hoarding, be it from collecting newspapers, or postcards, or whatever they’ve collected, it can all be related to what my Granddad has done over the past 50 years.
It is a growing problem. The family need to sell the house as the people next door want to buy the house, however, my Granddad doesn’t want anything to go or be moved. I feel that this could be happening to lots of people across not just the UK but the world. This project will speak to lots of families who are facing the same problem.
Matt Palmer: A Little Bit Longer: Not all disabilities are visible. You could know some your whole life and never know that they have a severe, life-long condition. On Tuesday 14th July 2009, I was diagnosed with an invisible illness; Diabetes Mellitus Type 1, a condition when the pancreas in the body loses the ability to produce insulin independently. Day to day, my life hasn’t changed; however, I have to inject myself four times a day, and manually balance my sugar levels for the rest of my life.
As diabetes is something you cannot see, it was very hard to photograph it. I took inspiration from Elinor Carucci, an Israeli-American photographer who photographed herself with her children from when she was pregnant, through the birth to her children growing up. Her work involves very revealing, close-up self-portraits to capture her emotions. I found this style to be inspiring in capturing one’s self, and adopted this style into my own.
This is the first time I have ever turned the camera on myself. You would think it would be hard, however, it was just like I was being a model for someone else, and since I’m very open, talking about my diabetes, I found it easy to show my emotions. Photographing events from having low blood sugar level in the middle of the night, to a regular check-up at the diabetes Centre, to an eye-screening at the hospital, and the different physiological outcomes I had to injure, all within one week.
Tom Rolls: Angel; The Perfect being? With this work, I am exploring Angels in relation to the project brief “Perfection/Imperfection” which I chose as part of my A2 final Photography exam. Throughout the project, my aim was to rekindle an idea of the Angelic being in relation to different people’s perceptions; for faith, protection, happiness, balance etc. I spoke with a number of different people about their definition of an Angel and what it meant to them.
I interviewed my local church vicar who gave me a very brought insight into angels in both a religious and personal sense. I came away bewildered at the fact that Angels are a very important part of people’s lives, and realised that there is a whole other dimension to the subject. Having researched and gained enough primary knowledge, I began transforming these different perceptions into my own interpretations and pieced together a visual binding of all the ways in which an Angel spoke to me through others. I made a film which documents my journey in the sense of exploring what angels actually symbolise today, and how its image and meaning has changed over time. I hope you will also find this a journey for yourself and come away reflecting on this inner dimension from your own personal viewpoint. Are angels in fact the perfect being, or is it in fact their imperfections which make them so sacred?
In retrospect, it’s clear I have thoroughly enjoyed the photography course as a whole over the past fourteen months. Being given the opportunity to capture images which will be assessed and given critical feedback by professionals is a very beneficial and enjoyable experience.
In Year 12, there was a particular freedom when capturing images which enabled us to work around a camera and explore a multitude of areas in order to find our own photographic style. Through this liberation, I was able to analysis and create my own images in relation to particular photographic genres, for example typologies. Although I couldn’t conjure up a meaningful image to photograph, I really enjoyed that subject which I could follow up in Year 13 but with more knowledge and photographic experience. Furthermore, I enjoyed landscape work that consisted of photographing buildings and suburban areas as I could explore unique angles and pay attention to infrastructure that we usually ignore, opening my eyes to the world around me more. Overall, I believe that was the most beneficial and significant factor about the photography course; opening my eyes to things I never noticed and took for granted. Photography has allowed me to become more open and more appreciative of the world around me.
In this image, I took four typology styled photographs of a garlic from all different angles and cut them up into even pieces of paper and stuck four of them together to create a refaced clove of garlic. I thoroughly enjoyed this hands on approach to photography.
For the future, I am looking forward to creating a collection of subversive photographs in order to create a visual rebellion against the powers that control, or once controlled our society. A focus on religion and death gives me an opportunity to link my three favourite subjects; English Literature, History and Photography altogether and create a memorable and hopefully influential piece of work or series of images, combined with writing which is another passion of mine.
In response to working towards this sense of subversion, I created a mood-board to help depict and draft some ideas together in order to chose the best route to go down to fulfill my photographic potential and to select what would best fit.
Following my drafting, I am contemplating and conjuring up a method of combining the stages of grief, the setting of a church and the services you associate with a church with the struggle of adolescent life and finding identity.
Tony Howell is “one of England’s finest Landscape photographers”, born in 1960 in Plymouth. I stumbled across this photographer whilst researching significant church photographs as his work was a prominent and regular feature in my search. I began to explore him directly and identify Howell’s different images of churches which gave me inspiration to create a church based typology. Admittedly, Howell is a commercial photographer whose main purpose is to sell judging by the information provided on him website, however, you cannot fault his work for this.
I would like to expand on this idea of subversion and inversion by ridiculing the influence and the power of the church. No religion in particular would be targeted but merely objecting against the concept of religious faiths. I’ve considered buying a priest or pope costumes and acting like a struggling or naughty adolescent in their clothing. This would coincide with the stages of grief, especially with the aspect and emotion of anger.
