Photo Archives

Jersey Archive

    “With collections recognised by UNESCO, the Jersey Archive is the Island’s national repository holding records on all aspects of Jersey’s history” – Source

The Jersey Archive is a huge collection of photographs and records that document every aspect of the island life, some date pieces date all the way back to 1378. Over these years, the Jersey Archive has amounted over 300,000 photographic records that are open to the public. The archive includes things such as documentation of laws, documentary photography of buildings and areas, public records of houses, churches and other services and films and footage of the wars.

The Jersey Archive works digitally too, users can search the online archive to find the pictures they’re looking for:

Societe Jersiaise website

Jersey Archive website

We attended multiple sessions at the Société Jersiaise (a place founded in 1873 for the study of Jersey archaeology, history, the ancient language and the conservation of the environment) that works closely with the Jersey Archives. During those sessions, we were taught about the importance and impact of Photo Archives and given access to use archival photographs in our personal projects.

Photo Archives and the future

“Photo archives—collections of photographs held by libraries or museums—have long been essential tools for research in the humanities. As digital technology evolves, will these archives become obsolete, evolve, or take new forms altogether?” – Source

“That is our heritage, whether it be digital or analog. However, both formats have their own issues that need to be addressed if we want future generations to see what we have seen and visually documented.“ –Source

Photo archiving has become very important in the last years, preserving our past and documenting it in a way that future generations can understand and learn from is the driving force behind countless archival projects all over the globe. Since technology is developing at such a fast pace, many present day photo Archives function digitally; photographs are stored as digital copies on huge servers that can be viewed by the public while the actual photographs are locked away and preserved.

St Helier Photoshoot 1

For this photo shoot my main focus was on the construction of the allocated area I was in. This is because it helps to demonstrate the future of St Helier because these building sites will become buildings and businesses that will stand in the future. I found that photographing building sites was less centered around community but more around making life better for the future. The development is important because it  creates jobs for people and living space for the future. Clearly, my photos focus on the job aspect of construction with a clear intent to focus in on the migrants that are taking up these kind of jobs.

Experimenting With Cropping

Photograph 1

This cropping involves perspective cropping in order to create straight lines within the photograph for aesthetic effects. This cropping shows both of the bears in the photograph along with the two natural framings which are the windows. It also shows some context in the way that you can see the house is falling apart/being taken apart.

 

This cropping makes the white bear the focus of the photograph as it crops out everything else. I prefer the first cropping as it provided for context and interesting subjects for the photograph.

 

This cropping removes the skeleton of the house to allow the photograph to focus more on the two bears in the windows. I like the idea of focusing on the bears but I feel that the skeleton of the house is a vital part of the photograph in order to provide contrast between structures

 

This cropping is similar to the third cropping as it focuses on a similar bear. I feel that it does not have as much affect as the third cropping as this bear does not provide contrast through brighter tones.

 

The first cropping is the cropping that I will use for this photograph as I feel that it shows everything needed in the photograph including contrast, tonal ranges and interesting subjects – to the extent that cropping it anymore would mean taking away from the photograph.

 

Photograph 2

This cropping shows more context leading on from the first photograph – it shows where the bear is and what is going to happen to it. The contrast between the hard digger and the soft teddy bear creates an interesting photograph as it makes the viewer wonder about the bear’s story.

 

This cropping takes away the focus from the bear as it focuses on the digger on the mound of rubble. This creates a harsher image and it only shows destruction. I prefer the first cropping over this one as it provides a bit more context.

 

This cropping is the opposite of crop two – it focuses on the bear rather than the digger. This makes the viewer think a bit more about who the bear belonged to and why it has been left behind. I feel that this composition does not show enough of the harsh reality that is the digger.

 

This cropping focuses on the main body of the digger and the man controlling it. This helps to convey the message that it is the machine that does the destroying but it is only acting as a disguise for man.

 

I will be using the first cropping as I feel that it shows all the context within the photograph in order to make the viewer think about what has happened here and what is going to happen in the near future. It provides plenty of contrast and tonal ranges compared to the other compositions.

 

Photograph 3

This cropping shows the digger from a different angle on top of the rubble, at an angle that makes the digger seem to have even more power. The trees and buildings in the background help to contrast with the destruction.

 

This crop takes away some of the rubble from composition one. This creates a composition more focused on the digger but I feel that it takes away from the superior feel given to the digger by the angle.

 

This cropping is similar to crop two but takes more height off of the image whilst keeping width. This keeps all of the context within the photograph as well as the wide photograph emphasising the length of the digger.

 

This cropping focuses on the main body of the digger and the man controlling it. This helps to convey the message that it is the machine that does the destroying but it is only acting as a disguise for man. I think that this crop takes out too much of the context and interesting subjects.

 

I will be using the third cropping as I feel that the wide composition emphasising the length of the digger is very effective and helps to convey the extent to which the digger can destroy.

 

Photograph 4

This cropping shows a building destroyed by the digger with a fully constructed building in the background. This creates contrast between the view of the destroyed and the view of the built.

 

This photograph focuses on the digger but takes away from the context and scale of the building, creating a less satisfying photograph.

 

This cropping is the opposite of crop two – if focuses on the destroyed building rather than what did it, meaning context has been taken away.

 

This cropping is similar to crop two in the sense that it takes away from the scale of the building, although it keeps some context by including the digger.

 

I will be using the first crop as I feel that it has well-placed subjects to create an aesthetically pleasing photograph whilst conveying the idea of destruction and rebuilding.

 

Photograph 5

This cropping of the photograph sets the main subject in the centre in order to lead the eye to it straight away. This is effective as the people, machinery and building in the background are not instantly noticeable.

 

This crop focuses even more on the builders, it takes out any of the unnecessary subjects in the background to create a more effective composition.

 

This crop is similar to crop two but I think that too much of the background has been cropped out, which takes some of the interest out of the photograph

 

This crop is similar to crop two as it removes some of the background but I feel that this composition is not as strong as the background in this composition is slightly distracting.

 

I will be using the second composition as it shows all the context needed whilst keeping the photograph simple and effective to convey the message of rebuilding.

 

Photograph 6

This cropping shows a house shell with just the scaffolding on it – it is effective as it shows the subject for what it is but could possibly be cropped more dramatically to create a more aesthetically pleasing photograph.

 

This crop takes all of the unnecessary parts of composition 1 out to create a more focuses and slightly abstract composition. It focuses more on the shapes within the photograph and the contrast between light and dark.

 

This photograph focuses on the top half of the house – to me there is too much unnecessary parts in this composition so is not as effective as crop two.

 

This composition crops out a lot of the photograph to create a focus on the linear scaffolding. I think that too much context has been taken out of the photograph in this composition.

 

I will use the second composition as it has an effective focus on shapes and contrast whilst removing any unneeded context.

 

Photograph 7

This composition shows contrast between the destruction on the building site and the clean architecture of the building in the background.

 

I feel that this composition takes away too much context by removing the view of the building in the background along with the scaffolding.

 

This composition focuses purely on the scaffolding of the building. I like the idea of focusing entirely on one area of the photograph but it doesn’t show enough to make the photograph interesting.

 

This crop focuses on the skip whilst keeping the context of the buildings in the background. It contains a lot of context but I feel that the scaffolding is a vital part of the photograph.

 

I will be using the first composition as I feel that there is plenty going on in the photograph, making it a very interesting photograph to look at.

Photoshoot Plan

As displayed in my last post, the area of focus for my photo shoot is the top end of town which contains the modern millennium park and some very interesting back alleys which are fairly run down. I plan to show the contrast of the modern vs the old as it will help to show the potential for development and the future of St Helier. I will do this by capturing the dereliction of buildings as well as the construction/modernised buildings. I plan to do three shoots which will all focus on different themes.

My first shoot will focus on the actual development of St Helier and I plan to photograph builders at work. Often the builders in Jersey are migrants that have come over with intent to work so it will be interesting to document this and show these kinds of people helping the future of Jersey. Also a sense of community will be demonstrated through this as often the migrants in Jersey have a close community with strong relationships and so I will try to portray this through my photographs of them at work.

My second photo shoot will involve capturing the destruction of the area i am allocated. I will do this by shooting derelict buildings which have a sense of usage and are clearly left abandoned. I want to bring an awareness to the community of St Helier that there are buildings that are wasting space and could be used for something that would benefit our island.  I also intend on bringing a strong contrast between the old vs new of St Helier which would truly show how wasteful the abandoned buildings are.

For my third photo shoot, I want to capture the modernization of St Helier and show the development which is occurring and has occurred to improve the area and trying to build a stronger community.

First drafted 20 images from first Four shoots

Overall theme:

conceptual idea of development and re-development throughout history and the need for modernisation within architecture. I want to capture the development of remodelling billings and the stages through knocking them down and re-building. Addtionally this highlights the them of old vs new which I want to express through the narrative of people within the area and additionally the buildings that represents them. The concept of time can be seen through theses narratives.I will further develop this seen through the old deteriorating buildings to infer the new need for development or portray modern or iconic buildings in a futuristic light. This development of urban gentrification and dereliction shows the different types of poeple in different urban areas. My current portraits and old urban buildings have a connection of old St Helier and narrative need for development and the contrasting juxtaposition of the modern developmental shoots of St Helier and my next shoot of people surrounding the finance modern buildings.

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Narrative Structures With My Photographs

Narrative structure is about story and plot: the content of a story and the form used to tell the story.  Narrative structures within photography contain a set of photographs which tell a story or explore a theme through either similar photographs or ones that lead onto each other. Below are three narrative structures that I have produced with my own photographs.

This narrative structure explores the theme of destruction and reconstruction. In the first picture it shows the memories, that are the bears, inside a shell of the house they once inhabited. In the second photograph more context is provided – it is on a building site ready to be demolished. In the fourth photograph you get to look at a past project behind a current project and it foreshadows the outcome for the project. In the fifth photograph it shows the reconstruction beginning to make something new. The sixth photograph then shows the building in progress.

I believe that this is my best sequence as it shows development throughout the sequence and looks at many different subjects to provide a variety of photographs whilst remaining in context.

This sequence looks at the theme of nature taking over man. The large van with the ironic phrase ‘isle move it’ upon the side has been left to rot and has slowly been taken over by nature. Throughout the sequence you can see in more and more detail how destroyed and run down the van has become over time.

This sequence explores the theme of the people of St. Helier.  It looks at the different occupations and environments that the people of St. Helier thrive in. It shows the current state of St. Helier and the people that we will one day all be successors to.

 

4th shoot,Building shoot

For this shoot I returned back into town by myself and wanted to capture more architectural themes of developments. I again want to focus on old and new and the themes of modification of St. Helier,although I think I will further expand this to people and the older generation vs the younger reflected in portraits and the areas and buildings they surrounded themselves within.

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Developing and Experimenting

After WORKSHOP #3 with Lewis Bush on Narrative and Sequencing it is important that you develop your set of images and experiment with different photographic techniques, approaches and styles to create more visual material that you can edit from in your final sequence of images.

Essentially we want you to develop your own visual language and create a unique set of sequenced images that reflects on how you see the Future of St Helier.

Make following blogposts with good use of visuals/images, reference to hyperlinks and analysis/ evaluations

TASKS

EVALUATE AND REFLECT
Produce a blog post where you evaluate your first sequence of images, reflect on what story you are trying to communicate and what you discussed with Lewis in terms of how you can improve and develop your project from here.

Follow Lewis’ instructions here:

  • Edit 6-10 images down to an ordered series of 6-10 images
  • Thinks about start, middle and end images
  • Think about your theme or subject
  • What happens or changes over the series of images?
  • Are you using your best images?

Next:

Share your series of images with someone else.

  • Can they figure out what the images are about and what is happening over the course of the series?
  • Do they have any suggestions to make things clearer?
  • Do a further edit based on their comments

Here is Lewis Bush’ PPT on Hautlieu Editing_reduced

DEVELOP AND EXPERIMENT
On Thursday (28 June)  and Friday (29 June) you are working in the class room independently. Produce one blog post for each experiment below

Export your sequence of 6-10 images from Lightroom in high-res tiff files (4000 pixles) and save in your EDIT folder

Experiment 1: CROPPING – complete by Fri 29 June
Using cropping tool only begin to make some radical changes by selecting areas of your images for a different visual impact. Produce at least 3 different crops for 6 images.

One of the founding fathers of Documentary Photography Walker Evans used cropping as part of his work.  Another pioneer of the photo-essay, W. Eugene Smith also experimented with cropping is his picture-stories

Read more here on Walker Evans and his magazine work and  his series Labour Anonymous here on W. Eugene Smith.

Walkers Evans and Labour Anonymous

 

W. Eugene Smith and Jazz Loft Project

Experiment 2:  COLOUR > B&W ADJUSTMENTS  complete by Fri 29 June
Using your tools such as White Balance / Exposure / Levels / Curves / Brightness /Contrasts / Colour Balance / Hue / Saturation / Colour overlay and make radical changes to the overall aesthetic of the images.  Try and adjust images according to your visceral quality – relating to your deep inward feelings rather than how something looks! Produce 3 different adjustments with  images

Look at the publication Global Market by students are ECAL for inspiration. Go to this folder for high-res images of the page-spreads.

Spreads from Global Market

Experiment 3: MONTAGE > COMPOSITE IMAGES  complete by Wed 4 July
Using your skills in Photoshop that you learned at AS begin to work with different montage / collage / cut n past/ composite / Layers / Masks / Opacity / Blending modes / Brush techniques

1. Use your selected images and produce at least 3 different collages combining two or more images / people / landscapes / text / typography / colour / shapes / textures/

2. Combine your images with images from the Photo-Archive that relate to your area in town. Go to the folder below and choose at least 3 high-res images from selected  photographers, Percival Dunham, Ernest Baudoux, Albert Smith and Francis Foot

M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Future of St Helier\SJ Photo-Archive

3. Print out 1 of your own  images and 1 archive images on the Laserjet and manipulate the prints by destroying it in 5 different ways and re-configure  using scissors / tape / cut-n-paste / glue. Try and manipulate the printed images using your body / hand/ face etc .

cof

Look at Jonny Briggs for visual inspiration
Read more here

RE-VISIT AND RE-SHOOT – complete by Mon 2 July

Here are few things to consider for your second shoot

  1. Revisit location and make another shoot. Reflect on your current sequence of images and think about what is missing, or what you need to photograph to add value to the story you are trying to communicate.
  2. Collect ephemera / found objects and photograph them in-situ – how and where you found them and also re-photograph the objects as a still-life at home setting up up your own mini-studio or use Photo-studio in school.
    Lorenzo Vitturi Dalston Anatomy

  3. Record sounds or video as another visual layer / audio ambience that you could incorporate into your project e.g select individual frames from video and edit as a sequence in a time line. Use audio to record conversation with people you meet or use it as dictaphone to record your own feelings in a diary form.
    Duane Michaels

    Wind through the Pines 1985, 1991 Hamish Fulton

Here is a few pointers – but not exclusive – please add your own thoughts/ ideas/ concepts/ brainstorm etc.

  • Diverse communities / social groups
  • Architecture / Housing
  • Psycho-geography / dérive(urban drifting)
  • Abstract visions…alternative, “wrong” photographs
  • Formalism…line, shape, pattern, tone, colour etc
  • Romanticism in the city…atmospherics
  • People / 3 x types of portrait (observatinal , formal, environmental)
  • Streets and capturing a momemt
  • Objects | Ephemera (litter and debris)
  • Make use of your senses : see , hear ,taste, smell, touch
  • Old vs New vs Development
  • Good vs bad…subjective approach
  • Form vs function
  • Gentrification vs dereliction
  • Juxtaposition | contrasts | diversity
  • Unconventional beauty
  • Signage and facades
  • Typography and graphics
  • Movement / clutter
  • Aerial Imagery / Satellite / Surveillance
  • Angles | Viewpoints
  • Environment / pollution
  • Poetic / personal point of view
  • roads / paths/ walkways
  • Open space / Public realm
  • Objects / Ephemera

However, it is important to allow for spontaneity and let you be inspired by the area you are photographing, or be inspired by people you meet in the community.

A sense of risk and an opportunity to go beyond the norm or unexpected is encouraged.

Cropping

Within this edit I will be cropping various images to a better composition, by doing this I hope to create a more interesting approach to how my pictures are viewed. The software I will be using is Lightroom due to it providing the best tools needed to manipulate the images in the way I want.  Here are some examples of the cropping I applied to a few of my photographs:

Example 1: I chose this crop because of the contrast which is created between the light and dark areas of the image, I found that this framed the piece whilst stopped it becoming to eye sore for the viewer from the amount of colours and objects. By transferring it to an A4 portrait size, I realized that a smoother transition formed from the bottom right to the top left very gradually, making it look more aesthetically pleasing as a result.

Example 2: What made me crop this image was because of the symmetry which is available in the picture. To do this I straightened the image settings from the camera, which as a result but an equal distance from the border and building. It also trapped the grey sky above which contrasted the building well in my opinion and also stopped it being too overpowering.

Example 3:Finally for this image I made sure to crop the image to capture the tip of the building contrasted against the detail of the looming clouds above. I think this emphasized the buildings found in Jersey by how the dull colours matched that of the occasionally dull environment around it.

Experimenting With Colour

Here I have created colour edits of the photographs in my final shortlist in order to experiment and see different possible outcomes for my photographs. When using colour in these photographs it takes away from the old-fashioned documentary photography feeling that the photographs in black and white convey. For this reason I think that I will leave my photographs in their original edits.