Monthly Archives: July 2018

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A2 Personal Investigation, AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas

Artist who inspired display outcomes

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Walker Evans 

Is a photographer who mastered his work throughout magazines and the composition to which he displayed his images. He had a risk taking persona and is best known for photoessays on everything from Chicago street life.He would foucous on ‘American heritage’ and the displaying of beautiful historically important images and buildings either about to be demolished and the new urban regeneration across his state. 

Much like my own themes of modernisation and urban architecture he wanted to project the faceless construction without it being complete yet. He wanted to make a mark withn his photos and so ended up being wihtin nation Wide magazines.He started to work more alongside tech and graphic design further inspiring his interesting and dynamic presentations of his images. He is now a towering figure of photography. His unique artistic authority created a ‘small avant grade publications and mainstream titles’ his innovative and independent journalism is due to the editing and careful design layout of his images which has inspired me to experiment heavily with how I should display my own images. Evans enjoyed to caption his images which I think I could do with quotes from th epoeple surrounding the area and so creating a sense fo community for st helier itself. Evans chose magazine stories that often has elegiac qualities; the American warehouse, and these vast buildings that were prolific to the native area. 

I chose this for inspirations as the muted tones of colour ass to the sense fo transience and feelings of lost and demolished in order to rebuild the colour and life to the image. The simple composition allows the viewer to create a personalised story of what the image means to them. The images echo each other and create a modernist and poetic type feel to the overall composition. His work has an understanding of the world and the people who live among it. His tenacity and visions create an artist control and show his commitment to and intelligent reflect on the modern progressive world and pop culture which is what he was fighting to demonstrate. 

A2 Personal Investigation, AO4 Present Ideas

Final chosen images, edited and final display ideas

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when experimenting with displays I used an array of images in order to find what images are the most complimentary to each other, through colour and composition. I wanted to use many different compositions of overlaying images with more saturated colours or perhaps a more simple display of two large images alongside each other as the images itself is enough to carry out the display.I believe I have narrowed down my images to five possible final displays,my favoured images being those with a white boarder and colour but not over saturated, I think these successful show a story of St. Helier in the more desolate areas and also the development of architecture and modernisation of St Helier overtime.

AO1 Develop Ideas

Future Of St. Helier – History Research

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History Of My Area

Working closely in collaboration with Societe Jersaise, I will produce a detailed shoot in my assigned area of St. Helier.

The area I was assigned to was Grey. It included areas such as Weighbridge Place, Royal Square and Fort Regent.

An early map of St Helier before the land on which the Weighbridge stood had been reclaimed The Weighbridge is one of the most important locations in St Helier. The name has been taken by the whole area to the north of the Old Harbour and New North Quay, where the original public weighbridge formerly stood

Weighbridge Place is all reclaimed land, the shoreline of St Helier was previously over 200 metres to the north on the south wall of the town churchyard. Gradually, from the 18th century onwards, the sea was pushed back, as first warehouses, and then hotels and other properties, were built to the south of the church.

Then construction of St Helier Harbour began in the 19th century, and gradually more and more land was reclaimed – a process which is continuing to this day. The weighbridge itself was ordered to be constructed in 1825, and, as the island’s potato industry developed, for several weeks of every year it was the centre of island life, as farmers brought their crop to St Helier for weighing, packing and then shipping out of the island

The Royal Square has been the center of Jersey life for centuries. Indeed, there are no records of anywhere else having the same level of importance.

 The Royal Square in the early-19th Century, with the Courthouse on the left, the statue of George II, the Corn Market on the right, and the Town Church in the background. The buildings in the centre adjoining the Courthouse had yet to be demolished to make way for the library building. The early 20th century photograph below shows the frontage of the library tower.

Fort Regent was built as the island’s main barracks and fortification from 1806 to 1814, just as the Napoleonic Wars were coming to an end. A decision to develop Fort Regent as a leisure complex was taken in December 1967. In 1970 the cable car facility was opened which gave access to Fort Regent from snow hill, this was closed to public use in 1991. In 1974 the Fort was roofed over.

The swimming pool was built on the Glacis Field and opened in 1971, the Gloucester Hall opened in 1978; this is part of Fort Regent’s multi-use facilities. The Queens Hall opened in 1988

A2 Personal Investigation, AO4 Present Ideas

Final Result Of Zine

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I chose the cover as I felt it represented my theme as a whole. The presence of the domestic cat, home grown plants and furniture enclosed in this small area creates an interesting environment which I carefully composed to feature as much as possible. The use of flash emphasises these details by intensifying the colours of the image. I used a simple font for the title so as to not distract the viewer from the details of the image.

The first two pages show a continuation from the cover of the zine. I placed my images in a reverse order of what I saw in real life as I felt it created a more interesting narrative of looking into someone’s life but not revealing too much about who they are.

In contrast, the next 4 pages showcase daily life in St Helier from an inside perspective. The image of a girl hanging out sheets is composed to make the viewer become part of the situation, aided by the eye contact of the subject in the image. The photo is partnered with a softer toned colour image also featuring a washing line but viewed from an external perspective. I placed the photo of a subject washing dishes alongside an image of a hose as they shared similarities of colour with the use of saturated yellows and greens, as well as the different uses of water in regular life.

The zine continues on to take a different approach through showcasing darker topics as an underlying meaning. Abandonment and Isolation is shown in images of an empty storage  unit as well as a mattress placed by a bin due to no longer being used. Pollution is seen in images of glass bottles, lighters and broken furniture disposed off in an act of fly tipping in what was once a religious building.

I used the same image that I used for the cover as a back page however in a flipped orientation.

A2 Personal Investigation, AO4 Present Ideas

Zine Layout Experimentation

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Using the same techniques as James Moreton, I will experiment more simplistically by using 1 or 2 images on each page that express a narrative together.

Experiment 1

Firstly, I took a balanced approach in my layout by using a proportionate amount of large images to small images. This is a safe option as it is more aesthetically pleasing when looking at as a whole.

I decided that I did not like when one image crossed across both pages but was not full size (e.g. page spread 4) as the large abundance of negative space in one corner did not appeal to me visually.

Experiment 2

I removed the empty pages in this version in favour of using more images to tell my narrative. I resized images on page spreads 3 and 5 as their colour scheme shared similarities with images on the opposing page. I also resized images on page spreads 2 and 6 to demonstrate the different perspectives between the images. For example taking a voyeuristic view in comparison to a personal one, or being up close to a subject in comparison to viewing from afar and seeing the subject as a whole.

Combining features from both of these versions, I created a final third version.

Final Version

It was not until the end that I attempted to create my front and back cover. I chose this image as it lead into the first page spread as they were both taken in the same location. I flipped the image in reverse for the back cover as the image was not landscape and I believed the colours would look weird if I was to use a different image.

Additionally, I placed another image from the same location on the first page spread to become apart of the narrative of things we leave behind.

The final version still uses the same simplicity that James Moreton shows in his zines, however I provided my own inspired style on such page spreads as 1 and 5 in order to place more images that shared similarities with what was already there.

A2 Personal Investigation, AO2 Explore Ideas

Zine Artist Reference

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James Moreton

In the eyes of James Moreton, zines are seen to be the most accessible and favourable medium of photography thanks to their ability to create an impact through the use of pairing, juxtaposing and narrative flow to tell a story or instill an emotion, a method “unsurpassed by any other photographic medium”.

“a very interesting and intriguing modern art form.”

~ 3 page spreads from the zine “Down Town”

Moreton has produced his own solo zines as well as collaborating on collective zines, two processes he says are very different. His techniques are used for both experiences but in a smaller portion for group zines where he is only enabled limited space for his images. This inspires him to make more zines to present his projects in.

Analysis

“Figments” is a project that looks deep into the subconscious of James Moreton. Inspired by the poetry of W.B. Yeats, his work represents his thoughts, dreams and nightmares. The above image depicts a dark figure standing before a bright door of light, possibly hinting at something stopping him from reaching a goal. The figure is faceless as he does not know what this factor is.

An eerie atmosphere is created by the use of a vignette that surrounds this central figure, the focus is maintained due to a harsh overexposed portion of artificial light that falls behind them. The tones of darkness are emphasized by converting the image to black and white. A slower shutter speed is used to cause a soft blur of motion by the figure also adding to the nightmarish effect.

Moreton’s placement of images in his zines is very simplistic as he relies more on narrating a story or emotional sequence through the order of images. This is the reason for his choice of single large images on a page or spread.

Providing a big inspiration, W. B. Yeats’ poetry shows his fascination with the occult, made up of symbolism in a traditional form in many of his poems revolving around dreams.

Her Dream

“I dreamed as in my bed I lay,
All night’s fathomless wisdom come,
That I had shorn my locks away
And laid them on Love’s lettered tomb:
But something bore them out of sight
In a great tumult of the air,
And after nailed upon the night
Berenice’s burning hair.”

W.B. Yeats

A2 Personal Investigation, AO2 Explore Ideas, Experimentation

Layout of Newspaper

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I created various different versions to experiment with the layout of my images. I tried to balance the number of black and white images to the number of coloured images that I used in order to keep a balanced aesthetic.

I did not like the first few versions as I believed I was trying to fit too many images on the page spreads. This was very distracting and prevented the viewer from being able to analyse the important details in the images.

Chosen Edit for the Newspaper spread:

I liked this version the most as the two people in the images are facing away from each other therefore representing the two different directions of the future, religion and construction. The difference in views is also represented by the difference in colour to black and white.

Another of my images was placed on a separate page alongside one of my peers as they both share soft tones of colour.

A2 Personal Investigation, AO3 Record Ideas

Third St Helier Shoot

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For my final shoot, I will completely focus on the theme of “Signs of Life”.

Before completing the shoot, I brainstormed my ideas of things relating to the theme. Some topics I came up with included graffiti and pollution that people create, daily tasks such as washing the dishes and hanging out washing, and objects we use regularly such as gas pumps.

I will explore the area once again looking for these specific themes to capture.

Concept: I will continue to use the flash especially for the images featuring the rubber gloves when washing up as this will really emphasize their colour in a familiar but dramatic way.

Location: Images featuring a person will be taken inside the subject’s house. The subject of the image will be a person who lives within the area I was given.

    

In many of the images, I tried to conceal the face of the subject as I wanted the attention to be on the action rather than the person. I did this in different ways such as cropping the face out entirely with the camera or by using other materials in the photo like the clothes pegs.

A2 Personal Investigation, AO2 Explore Ideas

Design and Layout

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Layout is important as it is what catches the viewers eye. The placement of images can be based on colour, shape, or on a narrative to present a dynamic meaning.

For the layout of my images in the newspaper, I want my images to narrate the contrast between the two people and their lifestyles in the two images as religion and construction were two important factors in the previous development of St Helier. I also want to use colour as a way to show this contrast for example by using a black and white image on one page and a coloured image on the other.

I may choose to alter the size of the images based on the importance of one image over the other.

A similar theme that I will think about when selecting and laying out my images in my actual zine is “signs of living” as St Helier is the most populated parish on the Island. I will match images by colour in order to show difference or similarity.