Yokosuka Story 1977 was Miyako Ishiuchi’s first significant body of work, capturing the small port town where she grew up. Although in Japan the town  was the site of a large US Naval base, and was invaded with American culture. she captured social conventions in a country distorted by memories of the second world war. In this series we can see why her work is often called unsentimental and full of secrets and mystery. A lot of the photos were taken during winter with limited light and printed grainy with a high contrast. In this series she explored many parts of the town including narrow streets and residential housing including shots of people in an informal documentary approach.

“I am interested in the way that time records itself into things and people’”- Miyako Ishiuchi

In the same way I have explored the house and possessions left after their owners death.

I edited each individual photo with the C1 filter on VSCO cam to enhance the colours and give them a vintage effect. I took the idea for the filter from the way I Ishiuchi Miyako edits her work to enhance the existing colours without making it look false. I then transferred the the photos to photoshop where is used the clone tool to disguise imperfections in the background which distracted from the focus of the image. I edited all three of the photos the same before moving them into a new document and arranging them in vertical format. I had intended to put the images in order as if the book was being opened an pages turned over, however it looked a lot better with the symmetrical shapes at the top and bottom.

I chose to take photos of this service book because it was one of the hidden items found in the house. During the occupation in Jersey radios were banned because they were seen as a for of communication, however people kept them hidden in their houses despite the risk. The owner of the house I was  taking photos in had a radio and and regularly listened to french and UK stations. She wrote down questions and answers from a quiz in an old service book because resources were limited. I love how the book and other items in her house have a story behind them which which will remain an untold secret.

I found many diaries in her house from her and relatives before her, this one in the picture bellow was from 1946 which was the year after the island was liberated. She wrote mainly about farming which was a big aspect of her life. I have edited this image by selecting the background and making it black and white, I also increased the contrast and darkened the selected area to help the diary stand out.

I wanted to edit in the style of Miyako Ishiuchi’s Yokosuka story series. The photos are low key with a high contrast and grained texture. I achieved the gain effect by creating a new layer and filling it with black, i then went of filter and added noise. I played around with the percentage and made it monochromatic before inverting the layer and changing the blend mode to multiply.

I edited the next few photos in a similar way but played around with the levels and blend mods to achieve different finishes. I also noticed some of her photos had a slight sepia tone so incorporated this into some of my edits.