The final prints that I chose are an array of different shoots focusing on body texture, nature and the objectivity of religion.

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Doing this experimentation, has allowed me to visually see which is the best ordering and composition. I wanted to develop three Ways which I could show my images, in rows, columns and also possibly in a straight composition of many different levels and sizes.

I believe in a gallery space this piece would be the most effective, this is because It would enable me to experiment with even more prints, and also would allow strong lights to further emphasis the colour of the deep silver and black images already achieved.

My favourite presentation, and in my mind, the presentation I feel to be the most successful, is the first presentation, with two long rows, with the differing images of tonal qualities juxtaposing each-other. I wanted to show all different angles to see which perspectives best compliment the images and also access this narrative relevancy throughout. The choice of having eight also works better than my previous thought of 9 because it allows a sense of equality and evenness to the different stages throughout life and doesn’t give an abrupt ending to life and the book as a whole.

Development:

I have already printed, sprayed and placed my images onto card, and then cropping and trimming the images. After doing this basic development I need to discuss and develop the rest of my presentations. Due to all of the images being A1 I did not know whether I should Put them on a wall due to their sheer size. I want to use some type of developmental composition in order to see what in reality the huge impact it would be seeing physical side of the shoot.

Final display:

I believe seeing it as a reality is a very important aspect of the presentation itself. I wanted this large impact of black to juxtapose from the white wall and I believe this really is evident of the effectiveness within this presentation. It is not the same as what has been done before and the true largeness and amount of images portrays an ideology of an evolution, relating to that of my whole project, within its finality. I chose this order as I believe the variation is almost chronological with starting at a church scenario, and then exploring more to a naturalistic theme, then coming into the essence of people and lastly showing strong contrasting images of a movement of colour in order to connote the aspect of death. All of the images have such a different independent composition and this is why the presentation as a whole becomes interesting and meaningful, as there is not one image on its own holding up every other image.

Evaluation: Overall I definitely feel that these were the best images to choose, not only do they show a variation of many of my different shoots, but there is a clear connotation of the evolution of life and death throughout, and I think the details throughout each piece allow a clear connection throughout. The contrasting very light tonal prints to the ,much darker tonal colours creating a successful print. I decided in the end the best composition that would physically work and fit was The line of two rows. It allows this extended narrative of a line, but more clarity and visibility as it is narrowed down to one area. The two lines also allow the images above and to have a contrast or similar theme to have further connections within each other. Overall I believe this large scale presentations taking up a whole wall was definitely the best possible outcome for my design and really accentuates the true power this piece contains.

Astres Noirs

Much of this work is clearly focused on the actual entity of light and a presence of something such as otherness. The spirituality within these is so evident and an element which I tried greatly to access. The editing within my work you can see is very focused upon that of inverting to make the light much stronger., synthesising a flow to my images. This allowing the people and elements to be more heavenly and presented as a sacred entity. Within my work I was able to get these all the many specs of light by using refractions of water. I started to think about why I chose this artists’ work, and what specifically made me want to inspire my whole project behind it. And I think there are two main reasons as to why. I believe the use of the colour is definitely the first, it is so unique and they first photography book ever that seemed to almost glow within each and every image. Both the ink being silver heightened by the use of the black is something so unique and allowed both tonal colours to be heightened. The lighting helps accentuate the composition of the piece, also using the occasional black border to give the image a typology of light and darkness. The second part is the conceptual of why the photo was taken, not only is it to capture a sense of beauty but it is also about showing the element of life. Life is a subject which I believe to be such a specialised and yet open topic at the same time. Each element is so individual it is sometimes uncocenceivable. you are able to tell what exactly the image is of and I believe this is where its importance lies. The texture, elements and unique compositions shows an evolution of life, but in such a unique way. It is special and a book which really moved me.

I believe The work is reflected throughout my own. I first started off by developing the same strong tonal juxtapositions throughout, and then developing the narrative construct through the ordering of my images.

My work

I decided to edit this image to just focus on a order of highlights, I did not want to show too much when it came to the complete contrasts of darkness and light. I thought that might remove the almost angelic effect from this image itself. The small white circles of the light bouncing off of the water, and the details within the flowers and branches show more delicacy to the image itself. The thick trees themselves bring a composition to the image and allow a division to the central image, and concentration to the surrounding elements. To my mind, this image is my own twist upon the elements of creation, showing a clear inspiration from the images they have of specs of light within the air. I could do possible further experimentation and editing to this image in order to show just white internal shades, despite the image still being inverted I did not want it to be continuous with the rest of the darker images throughout my book so far.

Within this imagery I wanted to show the deep contrasting colours that are shown above by the artist themselves. I believe that this image is definitely one of my favourites. Not only does it project my own narrative of religion and the evolution of life, but it too constitutes a very open yet complex composition. The use of different foregrounding and backgrounding shows a very interesting element for myself to this image, allowing the viewer to almost walk through the graveyard. I also think the different tonal ranging of the stone shows a bigger interest within the image. The little specs of the black too shows that essence of otherness and something quite beautiful. This foregrounding and backgrounding also builds up the image in order to have a stronger relevance to life itself. The strength and interest within the photo is why it has this power within. It would also look very good as a large print.

I thought it would be beneficial too to look at textures and elements found within real life, this is why this image is similar to the horse image. I like the way which you can see the movement within the hair itself, the different textures of softness combined with the different tonal shades of black and white. I didn’t add in the section of the eye like the artists’ image as I thought it would show a form of identity rather then the concentration of the texture itself.

Overall I think my work does have a clear chronological type of link to the artist, this type of narrative element of light being an ability to construct beauty. Once again the circular motion of the water is so interesting and an element which is beautiful yet seems to have a sense of clarity within it. Overall I belive all the pieces above have a clear inspiration from the book Astres nois. Not only this but my own personal narrative of the structure of the book also upholds these ideologies of the beauty of life, caught in such a beautiful way. I believe this artist, has really helped me to accomplish the best possible outcomes I could, and also to experiment with themes which I have never done previously, allowing myself to come out of my comfort zone when discussing how photography should be taken.

By Jason Fulford & Tamara Shopsin

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As research for inspiration for the design and layout of my own photobook I have looked at and analysed the book “This equals that” by Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin, the book consists of a series of page spreads each with two images next to each-other which relate to each-other through various things such as shapes, colours or composition. The purpose of the book is for people to find conceptual associations between the images and to discover how one image leads to another. Through a simple narrative and rhythmic sequence of photographs, the book raises multiple meanings, making the experience of reading the book interactive. Each spread presents a new relationship that changes and shifts as the book unfolds, with the last picture relating again to the first, forming a circle. This is something that I have taken in mind when considering the layout of my own book, when creating my design I kept in mind the relationship between each photo through shapes colour and composition, whether it be the photo on the other side of the page or on the next set of pages.

After researching different photographers, the photographer who most caught my attention was Mahtab Hussain. This photographer looks at his cultural background and how people live nowadays. I have chosen to follow this photographer for this project because the life that Portuguese people live, really interests me. I decided to do this and plan to take photos of my day to day life, to show how youngsters live in a different country. I thought this would be the ideal project to look into because there are so many immigrants in Jersey which originate from Portuguese speaking countries, mainly Madeira.

In my images I aim to show how gender affects different lifestyles in the Portuguese community. I also believe that these ideas affects the younger generation due to the respect insisted by older family. I find this very interesting as I believe that males tend to live a free life, whereas females tend to stay home with their mothers. Portuguese men traditionally go for heavy duty jobs, mainly in construction and women work more in domestics. I aim to focus on family, relationships, home life and religion/tradition.

Living within a Portuguese family allows me to explore these details with more depth and explore the variations and similarities within different cultures. I will be doing this by shooting specific hours and days in my day to day life that I believe strongly represent other Portuguese families and immigration from Portuguese to English speaking countries. Stereotyping plays a huge role in this project, not all migrant Portuguese families live the same way however, I believe that there is a stronger relationship to this with Madeiran families rather than main land Portugal. I think this is the case as Portugal tends to be more advanced and people tend to be more accepting of the new ways of thinking, on the other hand, Madeiran families can be narrow minded and insist a lot of respect with the older ways of thinking. With this project, I want to show how important religion is to most Portuguese families, along with family traditions and the difference in lifestyles from males and females, both old and young.

When doing my research I decided that my main subject in all photographs was going to be people. I have always had an interest in portraits and exploring different types through my camera. A lot of my personal work also includes facial features, from humans and animals too. Silence says more than a speech and actions speak louder than words and I enjoy the fact that photographs are silent moments, and silent moments are usually used to appreciate situations.

My love for silence has sprung from my experiences in photography where I have been able to understand people from a deeper perspective and after living difficult situations in life I always explore peoples facial expressions, and focus on the eyes. Whilst also exploring the life of an immigrant through portraiture, I also plan to capture images of objects, possibly handmade/traditional. I rarely photograph objects but I think it could be really strong used as a pause between the images.

I have started thinking about and end result for this project and want to develop the idea of making a magazine which opposes the stereotypical conventions of fashion and beauty magazines. Mainstream beauty magazines sold in most shops follow similar conventions, in the sense that they are traditional in their representation of perfect women. Most covers feature one full bleed photo of a model or famous personality such as an actress or internet star. They are generally smothered in cover lines about the contents of the magazine, tips, stories, and statements such as “Miracle product! Don’t take another selfie without it” This particular issue features a famous model who has been styled and posed in a fashion shoot specifically for the cover, this suggests that the image is a constructed reality, a lot of work has gone into making her look effortlessly ‘beautiful’. The colour scheme along with the casual language (#NOFILTER) has been chosen to specifically appeal to a young female audience.

I want to base by magazine on a more modern contemporary style of publication similar to i-D or Dazed which push the boundaries of magazine and beauty conventions whilst still appealing to a youthful audience. I want to incorporate some elements from the clastic magazine style in an ironic way for example advertisements and sponsors. I want to keep a minimal colour pallet and and house style with pastels and neutral colours. I have collected images of magazine covers which have inspired me, I think their minimal styles are modern and clean which I will work well for my magazine which will predominantly include photographs with small amounts of copy. By not having any cover lines it will allow the photos to stand out more. Similarly to these examples I want to play around with different fonts which could be used for the masthead, it should be a style which looks good in any colour so it could be adapted depending on the cover image. Boarders is another feature that some of these magazine covers have, rather than having a full bleed image it is framed with a chosen colour which could be complimentary to the photo.

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Because my magazine will predominantly include photos I want to experiment with different layouts to make the pages more interesting rather than traditional portrait placing. I am looking to incorporate text in a more creative way rather than having articles in columns . These examples I have found show a variety of ways I could frame images and use text within them. I like the way multiple images have been placed on the page in these examples by layering and different arrangements on a white background. Various texts have been used for example the hand written style which give a more personal feel and the more abstract warped texts used to frame the images.

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Title Ideas

Looking at existing magazine titles such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Bazar and Elle they have statement titles which say something about their style. For my magazine I want the title to make a clear statement about the images it will display and the idea of beauty ideals and perfection within the mass media. I have considered having the title as ‘beautiful’ or ‘perfect’ in an ironic way to contrast and question with the stereotypical beliefs. I also thought of naming it ‘Ugly’ as a comment on the labels people are given if they don’t conform or appear to be perfect.

Below are some of John Baldessari’s photographs

I was inspired by John Baldessari to create conceptual art by playing. I experimented with playful objects with my peers.

Taking photos on a fast shutter speed (1/250-500) allowed me to take photographs of the ball coming down after being thrown in the air, without any blurs and maintaining it in focus. I then turned these quick snap into a GIF as an experimentation method.