Monthly Archives: March 2018

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Planning, Research

Primary Exam Project Planning

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For my exam project, I have decided to focus my time on exploring the theme of fashion photography, and, in particular, streetwear fashion and the photography that surrounds this genre in relation to both freedom and limitations, but more so freedom. I have begun planning this idea briefly but intend to carry out much more research on the background, history and context of this type of photography because it something I have never done before but have wanted to for a long time; also a contributing factor to why I have decided to carry out a project like this.

My primary intention was to use streetwear fashion as a way to combine my interest in fashion and brands with photography and document this ever-growing and ever-changing industry with my camera. I then started developing my ideas more and began to think of other ways I could explore this. I began collating some inspirations and other artists I could use as well as thinking of what I want my final product to look like. Artists I saw I could as inspirations include modern, contemporary and young UK based photographers Vicky Grout, Ben Awin and Saskia Ivy. Furthermore, I had recently purchased a music/fashion magazine called PUSH. This a UK based company that produces monthly issues of their magazine which covers upcoming artists and their fashion and the trends they are following. The magazine is completely free and the only fee paid is the postage an packaging price. As soon as I saw this magazine, I was instantly attracted because of its heavy focus on design, graphics, typography and photographs; visuals as a whole and when the magazine arrived and began reading it, I was hooked on creating a magazine alike to this because I felt I would be able to utilise my ability to create effective design and graphics for features like the cover page and different layout styles within the magazine. I then decided that for my intended project looking at fashion and trends of youth in Jersey, my final product could be a magazine and I came across this feature to create magazines on Blurb when I was producing my book for my coursework.

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I began carrying out some brief research into other contemporary artists I could use as inspiration and as a guideline for how to go about producing my own fashion imagery. I started looking on Instagram for any new artists I could follow and began to come across recommendations for young photographers to follow when browsing the internet. I found several different websites which were advocating the work of several young, UK based photographers who are beginning to make it big in the fashion/music photography industry, in particular, an artist called Vicky Grout, 20 years-old who has already established herself as a household name in the way of grime music photography and has photographed the likes of Stormzy, Novelist and Skepta and J Hus.

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Vicky Grout
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Vicky Grout

A website I came across which was representing the work of five different young UK-based photographers can be found here and this is where I came across the work of Saskia Ivy and Ben Awin and in my PUSH magazine, Issue 3, the photography team is made up of about 10 different artist whoa re responsible for providing her visuals of the artists they are covering in the magazine and I can take inspiration from these photographers also for reference of contemporary work which will provide the main body to where my work originates from.

Furthermore, although I will be using the contemporary photographers such as the ones used above as primary influences to produce my own, it is important that I explore the history of fashion photography because it is so rich in information and visual evidence that has shaped the way fashion and art have integrated over the last 50 years as we have progressed into the 21st century and fashion is ever-changing with new trends. The line shave gradually been blurred between the combination of art/photography sand fashion and people feel it necessary now in a world driven by social media and photo sharing where people are constantly in the face of the public to be fashion-aware and document this with their camera and this why photographers such as Bill Cunningham made such a success out of his work as a street, fashion photographer and events such as London/Paris/New York Fashion Week do so well in terms of popularity, publicity and attendance because people see it as a chance to flaunt their to dress well and show their knowledge of the fashion world. I intend to produce blog posts outlining all my inspirations for this project as I continue to plan for the several shoots I hope to end up with which will contribute to my end product.

To enhance the sense of my final product being a magazine, I will be using text within also to add more structure, depth and body to the hard copy which will accompany the images also be written by me. The words will consist of interviews or statements from the models/individuals I photograph and my own words throughout to put into action my research produced throughout.

The project will consist of several shoots produced by myself looking at individuals in Jersey, and in particular young individuals and their own fashion and unique look – because everyone does have their own look and style which makes them stand out and it is these people that I will approach for the project. I have not yet decided whether I want to photograph both male and female or solely male. I came across a mini project by Saskia Ivy which looked at teenage boys in London and I feel like this could be a fascinating project if I were to also look solely at teenage boys in Jersey and photograph them both individual and in groups. However, I will explore all options further in other blog posts and alongside this, I intend to carry out practice/experiment shoots with models to get a sense of how I want to go about it.

Saskia Ivy
Saskia Ivy

Alongside these photographers, I will be exploring the work of classic fashion photographers who pioneered the genre such as Bill Cunningham, David Bailey and Jurgen Teller as well as, briefly, the work of Terry Richardson, all of whom also pioneered the use of the street as a studio and this what I want to do throughout and don’t intend to use my camera in a studio set up at all so I can add to the feel of an urban look heightened by the fashion and clothes/brand worn by my models.

In terms of how I will retrieve models fro my project, my intention is to approach particular people with a style I feel will works – because I essentially a director in a film where I have to create shot lists (the photographs), the script (the interview questions), pick a cast (the casting director for models) and then I have to produce it all and make it all come together. Therefore, I will approach particular people I may be friends with but also may have never spoken to before but am aware of their style and look which I feel will fit the part. I already have ideas of models and these included my friends as well as people I am not too close with. However, an alternative is to distribute an advertisement on social media such as Instagram and let people come forward themselves but it nay result in me rejecting some people if I feel they will not fit the look I want to achieve.

My shoots will also require a lot of planning where I outline the colours and looks/style I want my model to style. I may, if I know a particular them of clothing I want he model to wear, tell them to wear it or will likely leave the outfit they wear on the day up to them. However, once on location for the shoot, I can improvise with poses and shot styles whether they be close ups or long shots. I will also need to plan thoroughly the locations I want to shoot in and intend for these to be quite urban, for example in town or in multi-story car parks like Minden Place on the top floor which is open air and over looks the whole of St Helier. I will also need to take into consideration if I am shooting with females, whether I want them to wear makeup or not and the style I want this to be.

The only issue I have encountered this far with my plan is my actual confidence with my intentions and whether to not I can carry my intentions out and follow through with them because I never done anything like this and don’t really know how to go about it. I will need to be every proactive, confident in myself and my abilities but my people skills are good so believe this will aid the communication between myself and my models and I wish to make the whole project fun, especially when out on shoots – it should be fun and exciting.

I also need to decide what format I want to shoot with but intend to, as I did in my coursework, to shoot on all formats, including digital, analog; in particular, with my half-frame film camera and as well as on my iPhone. The shots taken on my phone with the app ‘Huji’ will likely be informal shots to contrast that of the more formal, intended posed shots. I also want to combine colour and black and white.

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Ben Awin
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Ben Awin
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FREEDOM AND/OR LIMITATIONS // GENDER EQUALITY

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I am planning on looking at Gender Equality, Womens Rights and Feminism in my exam in response to the freedom and limitations title. I was initially inspired by Instagram accounts that i follow which include and regularly post images of women in a 70’s style of photography which are always tasteful and express the women which are being photographed as strong women who are embracing their sexuality and femininity. I began to consider how prior the 1900’s women were extremely restricted in their rights and ability to be in the workforce and held the stereotypical ‘House mum’ role and were expected to stay at home cook, clean and look after the children. The images which inspired me showed women expressing themselves for who they are and highlights the growing power of ‘The Woman’. For my project i want to focus on how women became more open about their femininity and artist and photographers started creating pieces of work which highlighted the positives of femininity. However there were some negatives with this as actresses in the 70’s were portrayed as only being beautiful and sexy and not intelligent. I want to link these different ideas together in my project to make photographs in the style of 1970’s photographers but put a modern spin on it by using adolescence females and showing femininity and the women in a positive way through the use of strong empowering portraits.

Before just taking these images i wanted to research the feminist movement and look at how it has progressed through time, enhancing the role of the female and improving their rights to bring about gender equality. Below is a mind map of initial ideas, research, artists and ideas for my project.

From my mind map i pinpointed key themes and dates within Feminism including the Suffragist rally and will further explore who the Suffragettes were, whilst exploring the impact they had on improving the lives of women for protesting for their rights.

History of Women
Women's rights -rights that promote a position of legal and social equality of women with men.

Women’s rights were fought for worldwide and formed the basis for the women rights movement in the 19th century and feminist movement during the 20th century. The issues which are commonly associated with womens rights are extensive varying from the right to bodily integrity and autonomy, to have equal rights in family law, too fair wages and the right to education.

Ancient History

Mesopotamia- Women’s rights have always been questionable even since the earliest times periods such as the Mesopotamia. Women in ancient Sumer could buy, own, sell, and inherit property, they could also testify in court as witnesses. However their husbands could divorce them for mild infractions, and a divorced husband could easily remarry another woman, provided that his first wife had borne him no offspring.Divorce in these times left women with little to know rights in the area and power seemed to lie with the husbands.

Ancient Sumerian bas-relief portrait depicting the poetess Enheduanna

Egypt – In ancient Egypt women enjoyed the same rights under the law as a men, however rightful entitlements depended upon social class. Landed property descended in the female line from mother to daughter, and women were entitled to administer their own property.

Statue of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Women’s Rights Movement, 1848–1920 – The beginning of the fight for women’s suffrage in the United States, which predates Jeannette Rankin’s entry into Congress by nearly 70 years, grew out of a larger women’s rights movement. That reform effort evolved during the 19th century, initially emphasizing a broad spectrum of goals before focusing solely on securing the franchise for women. Women’s suffrage leaders, moreover, often disagreed about the tactics and whether to prioritize federal or state reforms. Ultimately, the suffrage movement provided political training for some of the early women pioneers in Congress, but its internal divisions foreshadowed the persistent disagreements among women in Congress and among women’s rights activists after the passage of the 19th Amendment. The sometimes-fractious suffrage movement that grew out of the Seneca Falls meeting proceeded in successive waves. Initially, women reformers addressed social and institutional barriers that limited women’s rights, including family responsibilities, a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and the absence of a voice in political debates. During the 1880s, the two wings of the women’s rights movement struggled to maintain momentum. The AWSA was better funded and the larger of the two groups, but it had only a regional reach. The NWSA, which was based in New York, relied on its statewide network, but also drew recruits from around the nation largely on the basis of the extensive speaking circuits of Stanton and Anthony. Neither group attracted broad support from women or persuaded male politicians or voters to adopt its cause. The turning point came in the late 1880s and early 1890s, when the nation experienced a surge of volunteerism among middle-class women—activists in progressive causes, members of women’s clubs and professional societies, temperance advocates, and participants in local civic and charity organizations. The determination of these women to expand their sphere of activities further outside the home helped legitimize the suffrage movement and provided new momentum for the NWSA and the AWSA. state legislature granted women the right to vote in 1913. This marked the first such victory for women in a state east of the Mississippi River. Women in the NWSA continued to fight for rights in political terms. After this period the Suffragists movement began to be more reguarly photographed with worldwide photographers beginning to photograph their local areas, but not on the protests which the suffragettes carried out but also the evergrowing role of the woman aswell and capturing the feminimity of women became more widely excepted as photographers where pushing the boundaries of photography.

Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst campaigning for women’s suffrage

Women’s Suffrage

Women’s suffrage was the right for women to vote in election as limited voting rights were gained by women in Finland, Iceland, Sweden and some Australian colonies and western U.S. states in the late 19th century. Some of the more independent countries such as Canada and Britain interacted in the interwar era. The women’s contribution to the war effort challenged the notion of women’s physical and mental inferiority and made it more difficult to maintain that women were, both by constitution and temperament, unfit to vote. If women could work in munitions factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. Nonetheless the right to vote was to the women a lot more than because of them contributing in war efforts

Womens Suffrage in the UK – Through protests for the right to vote by mass participation of women in great britain, women secured the right to vote through 2 laws which were in 1918 and 1928. The Suffragette campaigns erose when WW1 broke out and political tensions were ever growing.  Along with these suffragist movements and protests came the Feminist movement where women and men thought to establish political, social, and economic equality for women. For my project i want to more narrowly focus on the feminist movement and the rights that were gained for women due to this movement as well as explore the works of artists and photographers throughout the time period and how they portrayed women and the feminist movement through their art. Feminism has been a huge part of every females history and through this project i want to enhance my knowledge and understanding of my history and i thought there was no better time to do it than on the 100th anniversary of women receiving the right to vote.

Experimenting

experiment video // seeing

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpr0PAa2W0E 

This video is an experiment that I did to create a starting point for my project. I want to create a cinematic film using scenes similar to  Rinko Kawauchi’s images. By fragmenting a particular object you capture an abstract version of the real thing. Its this concept that I want to draw in on. As well as taking still images, I also want to eventually create a film using short clips of different scenarios, still based on an abstract vision.  Here are some screen shots of different aspects within the film.

The video focuses on the movement within nature. Its a short video because its just an experiment. I tried to include different angles, shapes and close ups compared to long shots. I’ve never made film before so I wanted to start on a simple theme. 

Research

rinko kawauchi // sheets

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http://rinkokawauchi.com/en/publications/450/

SHEETS

2013

Sheets attempts to retrace Rinko Kawauchi’s steps in this world through a reassembly and re-editing of her filmstrips as a reinvented whole. Cinematographic at heart, the sequences of randomly selected contact sheets offer a real-life time lapse, a resurrection of moments in the personal history of the artist and immortalised in some of her more significant publications. The book’s gatefolds mark intervals in this rhythmic crescendo. They contribute, as if under a magnifying glass, to new spontaneous pairings of images. It is all here, fragment by fragment, the elements and patterns of a primal cosmogony of varied affective nuances with their connotations of transcendental immanence—a palimpsest of the everyday that Kawauchi brings together with such astounding ease as if the flow of juxtaposing images were as natural to her as her own biological path in life.
This book contains a selection of contact sheets that spans more than a decade of works.

Within the book Sheets, Kawauchi has a section were she closely looks at the body and particular features such as the eyes and mouth. I really like how she strips back the original ways of looking at the human form and decides to create her own representation by embracing her own viewpoint and style. Her work is very raw and pure which I really like. I want to also embrace this idea of capturing things in a way that they’ve never been capture before.

Experimenting, Recording

Breaking The Rules

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http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/eight-photography-rules-worth-breaking/

#1 The Rules of Objectivity 

#2 The Rule of Audience

#3 The Rule of Manipulation

#4 The Rule of Reality

#5 The Rule of Technicality

#6 The Rule of Ownership

#7 The Rule of the Camera

#8 The Rule of Rule Breaking

The Rule of the Camera – Part 1

For this image, I interpreted the Rule of the Camera as being a collection of images that were created by having slightly odd camera techniques in terms of settings but also camera movement.  This image below was in reality taken as a mistake however all my images were essentially mistakes in this particular shoot as it was about exploring the boundaries of the camera.  The image below is an image of a bay that was taken at night with very long shutter speed of 30 secs with an ISO that was slightly lower than I would normally take.  As I took the image i ever so slightly gave a little wobble o the camera which created this red light shooting through the sky which is of a lighthouse, however I like the image of the bay is still well in focus.  This links to my current project as in a later date, I feel I would  be interested in exploring light as this has a direct relationship with nature.

The Rule of the Camera – Part 2

For these last 3 images I wanted to explore a relationship with the present and the past by taking images of structures that have survived time since before cameras existed.  This represents the rule of the camera as it captures the spirit of time of when ideally cameras couldn’t capture at the time they were built.  The first is an image of an old harbour, the second is a sea fortress and the third is a chapel, all surviving and existing for centuries.  This relationship of shared history among each structure where for centuries people have lived and survived off these locations reflects the rule of the camera because I believe it captures not the process of survival, but the legacy of how these places have been used to survive which links, particularly the first two images.

Analysis, Research

The Theory of Creationism

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The definition for creationism is: “the religious belief that the Universe and life originated from “specific acts of divine intervention” as opposed to the scientific conclusion that they come through  about natural processes”.

https://www.google.je/search?q=alexander+mourant&safe=active&rlz=1C1GGRV_en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz7_Kb09fZAhVqI8AKHWImDs4Q_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=949&surl=1#imgrc=RYBChTDwUEpmvM:

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The main points of creationism are these:

Creationism takes the belief that all life was created by the actions of God.  Some Creationists say God did this in a single creative event whereas  other Creationists don’t limit creation to one event, but a constantly changing and adapting event.  Therefore organisms created by God can’t produce new forms of organism – only God can do this.  This links to survival because it shows that animals dont survive through chance, but they they have a specific purpose in life that they were created for to achieve.  Christian belief is that everything was created by God for his pleasure and glory.  “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11).  This theory therefore is composed of the idea that as the elderly passes away in nature and is replaced with the new, it is not so much because they don’t have the survival traits but the change found in nature is living evidence of God working in the world and re-enforces that creation is always happening and didn’t just happen once.   This explores the freedom of what life is as opposed to death because where evolution argues essentially life among beings is an accident, creationism sees life as having a particuler purpose in that we are meant to explore the limits of freedom in our lives which ultimatley passes down onto the generation below.

Big bang vs 7 day creation.  Baby, cells – microscopic cells

On the opposite hand, the Intelligent Design theory claims that some sort of supernatural designer was involved in the creation of life on Earth. It differs from Creationism because it divorces Creationist ideas from their roots in Scripture that a specific God had a purpose for everything he created.  Life on Earth – and also the universe- shows so much order, purpose and design that there must have been a designer.  Some living things contain certain types of complexity that are best explained as the result of an intelligent cause.  Some aspects of the universe show positive evidence of having been designed by some form of intelligence.   “We do not know how God created, what processes He used, for God used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe. This is why we refer to divine creation as Special Creation. We cannot discover by scientific investigation anything about the creative processes used by God.” (1)

All this is argumentative of a common point that counters evolution in that animals were created by God or someone rather than animals being a product of a common ancestor.  Interestingly where Creationsim argues where we came from, Evolution argues how we got here.  Therefore each argument is contrary to the other in that Creationism explains the reasons why life has existed and survived whereas  Evolution explains how life has survived.  This difference is significant to my project of exploring the freedoms and limitations of life and death, old and new because from a creationist viewpoint of change found in nature is part of God’s ongoing creation.

Young Earth Creationists believe that God created the Earth within the last 10,000 years literally as according to the way the Bible described this process.  Most Young Earth Creationists believe the Universe is around as old as the Earth is.

Old Earth Creationists believe that the physical Universe was created by God, but the event of creationism described in the Book Of Genesis is to be taken metaphorially and figuratively.

Gap Creationism argues that life was created on a pre-existing Earth, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Original act of creation.)”And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  Therefore Gap Creationists can agree with the theory of evolution and with the ago of the Earth to an extent while holding a belief of Biblical Creationism as well.  However

Day Age Creationism believes that because the Bible doesn’t specify how long a day is, but in the Bible it could be millions or billions of years.  This view could also agree with scientific view regarding the

 

The Creation of the World – Genesis 

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse[a] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made[b] the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven.[c] And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth,[d] and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants[e] yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,[f] and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds[g] fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

(1) Gish, Evolution? The Fossils Say No!, 1979

Experimenting, Planning, Recording

Breaking the rules///The Rule of Audience

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Planning

The rule of audience suggest that an artists work should appeal to someone or a group of people. This is the rule I am going to break. I will try to take photos that won’t appeal or impress anyone. I won’t make photos that directly relate to a person or group of people. I want to make photos that have no meaning, nothing for someone to relate to, completely random photos that have no artistic value.

Recording

I decided to first take photos that were out of focus and blurred. Initially this wasn’t meant to look good however, due to it being to abstract and having bright colors, these photos were liked by many people. In some cases you could say I broke the rule of Technicality but this wasn’t the rule I was breaking so even though I made photos people liked they have to be consider a failed attempt as people liked them. The photos below was creating below with the same mind set however this was my most popular photo. For the same reasons as before these photos did not reasons before it did not hit the brief I set for myself.

These photos below did succeed in my goal of breaking the rule of Audience. Nobody I have shown these photos liked them as they showed no skill, nothing interesting and all round boring. I have created photos nobody liked or appreciated. Although I have completed the objective I set myself I personally even I do not like these photos and wish not to continue with this any further. However the photos above is something I would like to continue to explore. Abstraction is something I have lightly touched on in my previous projects however I’d like to explore this further fulling immersing myself in color, distortion and composition. This task has made me realize that the rule I want to continue to break is Technicality.

Research

The Theory of Evolution

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To start exploring the change in nature I want to explore both the Theory of Evolution and the Theory of Creationism.  This is because by looking at the constant change in nature, I want to trace back not only the starting point from where change in nature originated from but also looking at the arguments for why change occurs, leading us to question is there a destination we are heading towards as change is continuous before change in nature stops.  What is the point of survival? Only to die again?  As I explore the Theories of evolution and creationism and the role they play in the change found in nature, I want to consider these questions as animals try so hard to survive but to be replaced soon with the new.  Therefore I believe in my images I take I want to capture the spirit and essence of why people animals believe life is so worth of living.

Image result for charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was a British Biologist who proposed the Theory of evolution through natural selection.  This theory composes of the idea that species change over time and give rise to new species whilst both sharing in one common ancestor.  Natural selection allows for evolution to be possible because it bases its thesis on that resources in nature are limited and so competition for these resources will only be favorable to whichever species has the traits to survive.  Reproduction will occur among these species and so the traits of past generations are adopted into the newer younger generations and increase in frequency.  “…Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps.” (1).  This idea fascinates me greatly because I am interested in exploring the ways in which the passing of the old into the new but how the new adopts the foundations from the previous generation.  This links to the idea of freedom in nature because the limits in one generations death is the freedom for the next generation in terms of its ability to survive.  This idea of a common ancestor between inter species includes all forms of nature from birds, bananas, fishes and flowers for example and so I want to capture the variety of methods of survival traits between the species, plants, the land and sea and other natural beings.  “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” (2)

The statement “survival of the fittest” is arguably misrepresentative of natural selection and what it composes of.  Individuals don’t survive, it is the traits of an animal that is found in the genes of the population and is passed through the generations is what survives.  The keys to survival are the traits that essentially survive.  Natural selection focuses more on the genes that code for desirable traits or characteristics that enable and ensure survival rather than the actions of survival in itself.  Molecular biologist Michael Denton wrote, “Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small… each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery… far more complicated than any machinery built by man .” [3]  Darwin confessed, “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” [4]

Image result for charles darwin

  1. Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 162.
  2. Ibid. p. 158.
  3. Michael Denton, “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,” 1986, p. 250.
  4. Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 155.

Links

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/her/evolution-and-natural-selection/a/darwin-evolution-natural-selection

http://theconversation.com/explainer-theory-of-evolution-2276

https://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/