The work of Huang Qingjun’s “Family Stuff” photographed families and their possessions outside their homes in poor regions of china to give an insight into their lives, and tell a story about their lives from their belongings. Qingjun’s work explores families lives in detail by showing all they have, which can build a story in the viewers eye. Qingjun uses colour in his photos which helps to create an interesting image by giving colour to the subjects possessions, which helps to easily identify them. This projects fit into the theme of ‘Variance and Similarities’ because It looks at how each individual with the same level of poverty looks different, and has different belongs even though all the subjects are below the poverty line.
To respond to Huang Qingjun I visited Millbrook car boot and took images of the different stalls, people and the things they were selling. The intended effect was to tell a story about the people from their belongings which I believe I have achieved successfully in my images. The outcome of my images is visually similar to that of Qingjun’s as the images showed a subject and their belongings.
Contact Sheet
Edits/Typologies
As these images are all similar, and yet different I feel it suits the photos to be displayed in a typologies grid. This allows the images to be compared to each other closely, whilst also seeing the differences that are clearly between them.
I decided to make a short video, in order to introduce my project. It is just some film footage that I have developed to be the same tonal range as my prints and book, and also added the title. I wanted to create this as something extra to allow the explanation of the key narrative. This small introduction is sped up shots of the sky edited together in order to create a simulation of the title itself. Below is a youtube link in order to show the video itself. It is a mixture of three short clips of the sky cut together, all edited to be inverted into black and white. you are able to here the sounds surrounding myself, and the pathetic engrossing darkness following of the skyline with the tittle forming. This is meant to be an introduction of the creation story, forming the godly power and making the project seem worthy to watch or look into. Overall I think this video is just an intro to my project as a whole, I too edited some of the clips to be backwards and one of which to have engraved small circle, this done in order to form an ideological representation of the presence of god. Overall I think this video is an interesting interpretation of a scenario that was beautiful, and yet too is very in keeping within images and project as a whole.
Overall I believe my book was developed successfully. I managed to get a complete narrative concept and also an editing construct throughout the book as a whole. Below is the final link and pdf to view the finality of my book. Ascension as a concept links well within each and every aspect being finished within this project. I believe the Power that the words had is a command, yet still has the ability to almost show a sense of connection within the power itself. The objectivity and narrative throughout has been consistent and has a clear relation to that of variation and similarity. The progression throughout this project has is been my most successful, it has allowed my ideas to grow and become more specific, yet still creating a personalised project I have ever achieved and I belive this is very fitting within the brief and forming together everything needed to be accomplished.
3.how successfully you fulfilled the EXAM brief and realised your intentions: I believe through the progression of my project, I have been able to fulfil the title of this project more and more. when I thought of variation and similarity I thought of fine art and media, and how they are represented in the everyday. However, throughout the selection process, Variation and similarity is not only expressed throughout the same consistent editing process, but also the different connects of the narrative of life which everyone experiences, but the effect of religion and how this causes and individuality to the project and has the connotations for variation. I did not want to create a project which was so directly supported to the words and so enabled no conceptual construct and undertone of meaning. So allowing this detrimental physicality of life physically and emotionally to flow throughout, showing the first aspect of birth and leading to death has such a connection of repeating differences within everyones daily lives and importance.
links and inspiration between your final images and exam theme including artists references: I belive my links throughout each of my final evaluations have been fulfilled. My inspiration was evident throughout this project, there has a clear influence from the artists I chose, especially getting towards the latter half of my project. This is the use of narrative and similar editing through the black and white tones throughout. My artists book was Their photographs capture the commonplace such as water stains on asphalt, dust clouds and rays of light, and transform these into mesmerising frames – elusive fragments that evoke an imaginary creature, a milky way, a phosphorescent silhouette…Presented together, their combined voices lead us on a journey into unexplored territory, somewhere between the everyday and paranormal, between night and day. Amongst enveloping darkness, lightness is revealed, dazzling and miraculously caught by discerning eyes. I thought these unique magical and spiritual elements could really express life death and spirituality not in a way to cause destruction and concern but fragments of our shared identity.
analysis of final prints/presentation in terms of composition, lighting, meaning, concept, symbolism etc: My final print which are seen in this blog post all have a clear connections throughout, focusing on the same theme see examples. The progression of my shoot I believe has been monumental, I belive the additionally narrative of religion has really allowed me to expand on conceptual thought of life and death and how you can focus on darker subjects matters yet still perpetuate a meaning of beauty and purpose. The sheer size of my points and due to their tonal quality I believe this is what makes theme the most successful. I believe much like my prints I will print out my book in a large size, once more to get this huge iconicity and impact and visual overload when seen. Linking my project prints with the book is the introduction video, and something which I believe really links in conceptually the title and a brief endeavour as to what this project has to offer.
Here is my final print presentation. I decided not to do the additional 18 window mount as I thought already with the 8 a1 presentations and also the short video and clear visual overload form the book, it would come together and be too much and loose the specifically of the narrative that I already have. I think this final outline of this presentation is successful. here it is below:
As spoken about previously, I wanted this presentation to have strength, and almost create a stimulation of the amount of strength god has. This power recognised within the sheer size and then imitated by the impact of the dark tonal colours is effective. Conceptually my favourite piece is the piece of the eyes, this is due to the division of both the black and the white seen throughout, also this combining division of tonal essences is mimicked through the two surrounding outsides of the trees within the foregrounding The echoes of different compositions throughout differing from more square lines to circular water motion. Much like my video the image of the waves is almost a a reversal of movement in order to create denotations to the sky. I chose this paradigm purposely to links every single one of my final presentations and to successful finish
Overall I believe my images alongside my narrative have used such a dramatic growth in order to enable a more personalised emotional connection and also to capture wanderings create a hauntingly beautiful dialogue. I took more and more shoots used to capture their everyday in an impulsive and almost obsessional way, documenting life from their doorsteps to far afield. The physiological factors present death as a common and less feared but an act of something much more spiritual, I belive my own personal connections allow a snese of bonding within this project and the reader, and how the sheer beauty within the inverted colours allow a successful finished project.
These are three of my first draft page spreads for my book design. I have decided to pick a landscape book for this project as I feel that it is what best fits my images and will help my get the best result as all my images are landscape. I then started my book design by picking one initial image on the first page and then started pairing photos together by keeping in mind things such as shapes, colours and objects. I also plan to incorporate some double page spreads where the left page is blank and only the right page has a photo to create a break within the structure of the book which will insure that the design does not become cluttered and not too much of a continuous pattern.
When compared to the work of Saul Leiter, there can be signs of influence in my response. The subject matter of both images is similar just mine is modern and his is from the 50s. This image does a great job at showing development throughout time. Leiters image is slightly darker than mine With much less noise within the image. Mine shows two rows of a variety of yellow coloured taxis. Whereas, Leiters image shows a gentleman and a yellow and green Taxi behind. The main reason i liked this image is because of they way they all have the same exact taxi sign on the roof Yet they are on different variations of cars, This makes them similar yet varied. Lieters image has a high contrast with a slightly lowered brightness, Where as my image is overall fairly light due to the different times they were shit at.
Huang Qingjun, a Japanese photographer born in 1971 in Daqing, convinced families in china with very little to move all of their belongings outside and be photographed with them. The project called “Family Stuff”, which spanned over 10 years, shows Chinese families with all their belonging. I like this project because I feel it tells a story about each family just from their belongings and how much they have, and I feel I can incorporate this into my work.
The “family stuff” project spanned over many years. and the main dates of the project follow. December 2007, “Family Stuff” works exhibition in 798 Photo Gallery, Beijing, China. 2009 and 2010, “Family Stuff” works exhibition in PHOTO Exhibition, Paris March 2012, “Family Stuff” works exhibition in AIPAD New York, USA. November 2012, “Family Stuff” works exhibition in Conceptual Renewal-A Brief History of Chinese Contemporary Photographic Art, Beijing, China September 2013，“Family Stuff” works exhibition in Photoquai Photography Biennial, Paris September 2013, “Family Stuff” works 10 years anniversary exhibition in 798 Photo Gallery, Beijing China
The reason I want to use Huang Qingjun as my inspiration is because I find his images interesting. This is because I feel that they tell a story within the photo. I wish to recreate a similarly styled set of images, showing a person and their belongings to try and tell a story in a still image.
To do this I will visit car boots. I feel that car boots are the best place to try and recreate this story as I can Photography people with their belongings. Normally in car boots people are selling their unwanted belongings and can tell a past story rather than their current story which Huang Qingjun’s project showed.
This image shows a family outside with their belongings with the house in the back ground. The image has been taken with a wide depth of field as all of the image is in focus. The photo appears to have been taken on a dim day outside so the photo would have had to be taken with an ISO of about 800. It creates a sense of loneliness as the image is taken in a desert with very little possessions in the photo. This creates a minimalist image and shows this families wealth, whilst also telling a story and creating questions such as why they’re in this rural and deserted area.
This post covers my second final outcome of the ‘Variation and Similarity’ exam project.
As I intended to do I have produced my A3 print display display which overall I am very satisfied with, I am happy with the fact that following my plan for this display, I have managed to produce exactly what I was planning to. The layout which I planned to use worked really nicely once put upon the foam board, and allowing for a slight overhang of 2 prints which is a nice visual touch. As I said when selecting which photo-montages to use for these prints, it would be a good idea to choose those which contain intricate details since when they are enlarged they will become more visible; something which has effectively worked and went to plan. In my original project specification I stated that I would produce photographs surrounding the theme of chaotic imagery. I planned to do this by creating photo-montages, collages and edits in response to the artists and photographers and movements that I have researched. I said I would relate the work to the issues of overpopulation and capitalism which have and still continue to play a big part in the overpowered development of the world. And that I would photograph all kinds of things relating to this theme as rather than limiting myself to one specific subject matter this will not allow me to produce pieces with chaos as the main part. I also went on to state that these issues of overpopulation and capitalism are something which closely links Jersey with the rest of the world, through trade, immigration, politics and culture, planning to explore this link and how it has developed over time, looking at the past and how it has become the present. And then how the future may look in terms of these issues. This would be executed by the use of archival and found imagery mixed with my own purposed photographs through means of collage and montage. And overall in terms of how I believe this final display has come out I would say that I am confident in the fact that I’ve closely followed my specification and plans in order to produce something which reflects this to a full extent, along with my postcard display.
The final prints that I chose are an array of different shoots focusing on body texture, nature and the objectivity of religion.
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.
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.
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.
