sublime and water, reservoir shoot 7

Due to my further research and theme narrowed down into the sublime and water, I decided it would be effective if I were to experiment with a whole new scenario that has a strong presence of water, and also an atmosphere that has the ability to convey the sublime itself. After my recent shoots of experimenting with identity, emotions shown under water. I believe being surrounded by it within a reservoir also links to the sublime. Not only does this apply themes of emotion, the sublime itself  and pleasure and pain, it has a natural environment which is interesting because it causes a juxtaposition to that of a Tablo effect. I wanted to further develop the colours of my images in different ways, some over-exaggerating the blue tones, and some with less saturated final effects. I believe this gives me more options and an ability to choose for my final book what looks the most effective all-together. I wanted to show different compositions and angles, some of which to create an illusion as though she is submerged whiten water, without actually having to be. I belive many of the images from this shoot have a more mysterious overall objective, I think this is to do with the strong contrasts of the light and tone, which I was able to achieve with using my own lights on the shoot. This really helped as it enabled myself to have more control over what I was taking from the tonal effects and what emotion I wanted to convey within that certain image. You could divided this shoot into four sections, as seen below. 

 

When editing the colour of these images I thought, due to her being Completely surrounded with water, it would be effective if I made the highlights into a blue tone too to mirror that id the water. Not only does this create a more surreal tone for the image itself, but it also creates a stronger structure for the images too. It would be really interesting if I got a whole image of her laying down of even standing up and was able to edit it to look as if she was lying on top of the water, or even walking on water. This too would be a more surreal shoot, but I belive it would be so successful in order to convey both the sublime, pain and mystery all into one surreal image.

I believe this photo here, conveys themes of Pictorialism, Due to the tones, eerie feel but also the connections of beauty, seen physically within a natural environment. I also discussed previously, about taking images of landscapes, in order to separate the more portrait concentrated imagery, with some powerful landscapes.

The two images above are my favourite from this shoot. This is due to the lighting on the face having such a strong contrast to the darker blue tones within the surrounding landscape, I also think the composition gives many implementations of Her too being submerged within the water. The composition is also divided into a foreground and background, centring the images and allows the proportions to look effortless and well done.

These images I wanted To show an almost empowerment and recreation of pain within the image, it connotes a sense of abandonment, and also denotes the possibility of even walking on water, or the mystery of looking out into water.

Overall I belive this shoot works well with my previous underwater pool shoot. It gives me the capability to lean more into abstract and further surreal images of throwing water and paint on the top people, bath images, sea shoots and more imagery which purposes that of  mystery, emotion, pain and beauty. I want my images to be unique. I could try and do this with further developing every shoot,  in order to show more surreal effects. I don’t think I have experimented enough yet with how I could edit images which are already quite complex, however I do believe if I develop them more I could create, interesting, emotive powerful images to do with the sublime and the effects of water.

Collecting Material

 Photoshoot Plan:

Concept: The concept for this shoot is to develop and understanding of my Grandpas poems and what went into writing one, I am going to look through the poems and notes he wrote to give me a starting point for my own photographs. I will record any interesting documents that inspire me by scanning them, this will show the details and textures in the clearest way.

Location: I will go to my grandparents house and look in his study which remains almost exactly the same to how it was when he was alive. This room contains files of his work and reflects what his working environment might have looked like.

Lighting: For the scanning I will use the lighting from the scanner which is very bright and even, giving the images a clean and scientific look. I will also take photos of the process and study setting, for these I will use the natural lighting either from the sun or lamps in the room to set the scene.

I started exploring my Grandpas poems in his anthology and the notes he made whilst writing them, I will look for connections between significant points in his life, political events and memories he shared with other people. I am using this as a starting point to inspire me and help me develop an direction for my project.

When looking through the poems I re read a poem he wrote about me when I was younger, I originally wanted to study it because of the connections I have to it and the personal memories that I could relate it to. However I struggled to find a political connection and a way of linking it to the title of the project, but after reading it a few times I thought of a political metaphor of war which could be interpreted from the poem. It was based on a shared memory we had from my youth, on one occasion whist staying at their house, around the age of 6, I was playing with with a variety of toys which they had collected ever since their own kids were young. These included football figures, knights, Tetley tea characters and Disney princesses. I had created a scene involving all of them which centred with a medieval castle. The Poem describes this in a light humoured way.

Photoshoot Plan

First Photoshoot

  • I want to go back to La Motte and take landscape photographs whilst looking at the archival images I’ve collected.
  • I could take inspiration from the archival images or take the images in the same place to show the effects of time on the area.
  • This is taking inspiration from Chrystel Lebas in her series ‘Field Studies’ where she goes back to the same areas Edward Salisbury visited and takes photographs in the same way to show how the environment has changed.

Second Photoshoot

  • I will revisit La Motte and collects more objects I find around the area
  • I will then photographs these images in a studio to develop from my previous photoshoot and work on improving the images I take.

Some images from previous studio photoshoot:

  • I will experiment by using different lighting techniques and different arrangement of the objects.
  • As well as experimenting with the editing of the images in the style of Chrystel Lebas like in my previous shoot or in other ways that I haven’t tried.

 

Third Photoshoot

  • I will focus on going to La Motte in different weather conditions so my images vary.
  • This will make the atmospheres in the images different from one another.
  • I will also focus on taking more close up images as well as landscape images of the area to create variety in the way the images are taken in my photobook.
  • This is taking inspiration from Edward Salisbury where he photographed some close up images looking at texture when he visited an area.

Christmas/New Year Break Shoot Plan

Shoot 1 – Google Map

  • For this shoot i’d like to recreate images from google maps.
  • Firstly, I’ll use the Google Maps; street view service to find already existing images around St. Helier aiming to find more interesting settings. I will either recreate exact settings or if that’s not possible, I’ll take images heavily inspired.
  • The purpose of this shoot is to showcase how invading the google street view service can be, and linking it to the whole theme of surveillance and stalking.
  • I’ll edit my photographs to make them look like they were screenshots taken from the Google Street View Service; using the logo, map and arrows from the original site.

Shoot 2 – Camera Surveillance

  • Similarly to the images I have already produced, I plan to take much more photographs that mimic surveillance cameras; ranging from photographs taken in the day, night and over multiple days to collect a collection of ever changing images.
  • Heavily inspired by the work of Hayahisa Tomiyasu and Yevgeniy Kotenko. Link to research/more information.
  • Exploring surveillance camera formats – using disposal cameras.
  • High ISO, black and white filters, date and time stamps and high contrast.

Shoot 3 – Land Surveillance

  • Inspired by the work of Sophie Calle, photographer of bypassers taken at the same land level as them – not from above like camera surveillance.
  • Similar to photographs I have already produced but without the camera effects.
  • Blurred effects – create a sense of rush and secrecy – disturbing the audience.
  • Photos taken from the same angle, same level and same distance from the subject.

interracial relationships

Interracial marriage is a form of marriage outside a specific social group  involving spouses who belong to different socially-defined races or radicalized ethnicities. In the past it has been illegal the United States of America and in South Africa as miscegenation. It became legal in the entire United States in 1967 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the case Loving v. Virginia that race-based restrictions on marriages violated the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Interracial relationships have never been illegal in England or Europe, but they might have been frowned upon in society .Image result for Prince Seretse Khama

One of the most important and significance interracial relationships was between seretse Khama and Ruth Williams, In June 1947, at a dance at Nutford House organised by the London Missionary Society, her sister introduced her to  Prince Seretse Khama. He was the son of the paramount chief Sekgoma II of the Bamangwato people.Their plans to marry caused controversy both with the tribal elders in Bechuanaland and the government of South Africa, which had recently instituted the system of racial segregation known as apartheid.The British government intervened in an attempt to stop the marriage. The Bishop of London, William Wand, said he would permit a church wedding only if the government agreed.The couple married at Kensington register office in September 1948. Julius Nyerere, then a student teacher and later President of Tanzania, said it was “one of the great love stories of the world”. A movie of their story was made in 2017 titled’ A United Kingdom’

One of the most high profile interracial marriages of modern day society is the marriage of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, however there has been backlash from different parts of the black community and the marriage in turn has become very political, as many say they we shouldn’t forget the history of what the British Monarchy/Harry’s family, did to many different countries around the world and this should have been in the forefront of Megan’s when decided to marry him.Image result for meghan markle

As I am mixed race have parents of different races, my father is black, who lives in Leeds the city in which he grew up in, his parents come from the island of St Kitts. My mother is white, and lives in Jersey with me, my mum and was born on island and came back to the island to have me. Her Fathers family lived in jersey, but her mother and her family organically came Guernsey. The met each other in Skyros which is a small island in Greece which is why they decided t call me Sky. They separated why I was two, however they have tried hard to keep in contact with each other as friends. Looking back now that decision was the best thing that they could have done, as I have no memories of their ever being arguments or them having any hate towards each other.

Context – St Kitts

Image result for st kitts maps

Saint Kitts, also known as Saint Christopher Island, after Christopher Columbus is an island in the West Indies/Caribbean. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighboring island of Nevis constitute one country,  the islands are separated by a shallow 3-kilometer channel known as “The Narrows”

Saint Kitts has a population of around 40,000, the majority of people who are native to the island are of African descent. The primary language is English, the people who live there have coined the name Kittitians, such as Jersey people call themselves Jersey Beans.

Saint Kitts became the first  Caribbean island in which the British and French set up  colonies in the mid 1620s. Along with the island nation of Nevis, Saint Kitts was a member of the British West Indies until gaining independence on September 19, 1983.

The island of Saint Kitts is home to the Warner Park Cricket Stadium, which was used to host 2007 Cricket World Cup matches. This made St. Kitts and Nevis the smallest nation to ever host a World Cup event.

Similar to Jersey, the island is divided into nine parishes:

  • Christ Church Nichola Town
  • Saint Anne Sandy Point
  • Saint George Basseterre
  • Saint John Capisterre
  • Saint Mary Cayon
  • Saint Paul Capisterre
  • Saint Peter Basseterre
  • Saint Thomas Middle Island
  • Trinity Palmetto Point

Both of my grandparents on my dads side of the family are native to the island, they both came to England sepretaly as part of the ‘Wind-rush’ generation, but met in England and the decided to settle down and start and family.

Image result for windrush

The Windrush generation refers to the collection of immigrants who were invited to come to England to start and new life and work. The British crown called on its empire, to come and work in England to help boots the economy and rebuild England after the war. The immigrants that came from the Caribbean/West Indies, are called ‘Windrush’ as the first boat to sail to England was called MV Empire Windrush, which on June 22, 1948, docked in Tilbury, Essex, bringing nearly 500 people from the Caribbean to the UK.

I have only visited the island once, which was when I was around two years old so I have no memories of visiting the island. But I am planning to visit some of the family that we still have there sometime soon.

Image result for st kitts

Future Shoot Plan

In order to develop my studies on political landscape further I will be planning a few more shoots to do over the next couple of months.  These shoots will intend to add to my existing work as well as looking further into the subjects that I have been exploring, such as personal memories through my family.

  • The first shoot that I plan to do is of my family on Christmas day – this shoot will consist of environmental portraits in both documentary style and tableux style (mostly documentary) and is intended to develop on the past shoot I have done on my family but will differ from the previous shoot as it will represent memories made within the household as Christmas is considered a time for family and memories.
  • The second shoot that I plan to do will be to create a photograph to insert into my photobook that will be slightly different from the rest.  The intention of this is to almost confuse the viewer and break up the book into sections slightly to keep the viewer intrigued.  I plan on taking this ‘odd’ photograph by making a shoot of a bonfire and editing it in an almost abstract fashion to make the photograph Image result for fire abstractmore interesting.  The idea of the shoot of fire comes from the destruction and waste that has come from the development of my house.

Work to be completed before and during XMAS

1.POLITICAL LANDSCAPES: A blog post with a detailed plan for 3 photo-shoots to be completed during Christmas/ New Year period.

PHOTOGRAPH: It is essential that you return to school on Tue 8 Jan 2019 with new images. The Spring Term is only 5 weeks and we will begin to work on your photobook design and layout in the second week of January

2. ESSAY: You must publish your draft introduction including possible essay questions before last lesson Wed 19 Dec.

READ: Begin to do in-depth research and read texts from a variety of academic sources; books, online articles, Youtube etc (you must gain knowledge and understanding from at least 3 different sources), make notes and identify relevant quotes that you can use in your essay.

WRITE: Ideally you should try and complete a draft essay over Xmas holidays. This would allow you time to refine and make minor corrections on your return in January.

https://giphy.com/gifs/4Z1FhQBsfySOSXBgdx/media

 

See here for more help and guidance on essay writing:

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo19al/2018/12/05/essay-writing/

USEFUL WEBSITES
Lensculture – great source for new contemporary photography from all over the world
Photographic Museum Humanity
Landscape Stories

Photography magazine and journals
Aperture Magazine  – American based publication
British Journal of Photography (BJP) – Journal on Contemporary Photography
Huck Magazine
GUP Magazine
FOAM Magazine

Blogs and podcasts for writing and talking about contemporary photographic practice:
1000 WORDS
MAGIC HOUR
A SMALL VOICE
SAINT LUCY
Conscientious Photography Magazine
COLIN PANTALL BLOG
American Suburb X
The Photobook Review

Photography Agencies and Collectives
World Press Photo – the best news photography and photojournalism
Magnum Photos – photo agency, picture stories from all over the world.
Panos Picture – photo agency
Agency VU – photo agency
INSTITUTE – photo agency
Sputnik Photos – photo collective made of Polish and East European photographers
A Fine Beginning – photo collective in Wales
Document Scotland – photo collective in Scotland
NOOR – a collective uniting a select group of highly accomplished photojournalists and documentary storytellers focusing on contemporary global issues.

Photobook makers and publishers
Aperture
MACK
Steidl
Chose Commune

Self Publish Be Happy
Dewi Lewis Publishing

Akina Books
Skinnerboox
Kehrer
Void
Witty Kiwi
Dalpine
Kodoji Press
Super Labo
Fw: Books
Editions Xavier Barrel
Morel Books

Lesson 5 Mock Essay Plan

Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure.

  • Essay questionIn what way have Mandy Barker and Keith Arnatt explored Anthropocene (environmental issues) in their work?
  • Opening quote
  • Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?

Human’s impact on the environment has been so severe that the earth is in a new age, Anthropocene. Photographers have taken it into their own hands to present the impacts of mankind on the environment in their works, leaving the rest of interpretation and action to the viewer. Mandy Barker often draws an audience in by presenting her work with an aesthetic of beauty which then contradicts and shocks them when they realise the true meaning, whereas Keith Arnatt gets straight to the point demonstrating the disgusting truth behind thrown away plastics, decaying foods and trashed toys. I chose to look at these artists specifically due to their non-conventional approaches, taking a more close perspective of individual aspects such as certain items found in a landfill or the effects of micro plastic pollutes on plankton at the bottom of the food chain, in turn impacting everything that feeds on them and further on. Being able to inspect rubbish items in the same way will allow me to develop insight into where these items come from and the narrative behind them as well as where they may end up (or should be prevented from ending up). Similarly to Mandy Barker, I want to take a scientific approach, figuratively and literally looking at items with the use of a microscope in order to look at the effects of rusting, decay and contamination of waste that I create as well as interesting objects that I find in the natural landscape.

  • Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. 

Reference Anna Atkins first photobook and the cyanotype photographic process – scientific approach

Keith Arnatt uses Staged photography – choosing which pollutes to showcase in order to demonstrate the negative impacts on the environment, e.g. decayed items. The Minimalism style allows for the viewer to determine their own interpretation although it is bias when demonstrating pollution.

  • Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

Mandy Barker’s work analyses micro plastic pollutes and their effects on plankton – which in turn impacts an entire food chain, being as they are the beginning of the chain.

  • Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

Keith Arnatt’s close analysis of waste in his images provides the narrative for the deterioration of objects after they are thrown away.

Keith Arnatt photographs things that “everyone else thinks aren’t worth photographing” – this is clear proof that people don’t see waste as an issue, believing it should be ignored after it is gone. This is what creates the issue.

minimalistic style that allows for the viewer to determine their own interpretation although it is bias when demonstrating pollution.

  • Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced

Similarities: Both provide a micro perspective of the key issue of pollution

Differences: Mandy Barker uses a scientific approach in both the research and presentation of her images

  • Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

Lesson 4 Mock Essay: Possible Questions

Hypothesis: Possible questions to investigate

Tableaux Photography / Cinema / Pictorialism:

Can staged photography really be considered as a form of factual documentary photography?

Documentary / Realism and Straight Photography:

Exploring the relationship between photography and realism with reference to……

Is it possible for photography to capture moments in time objectively and truthfully?

What is the relationship between photography and realism?

How can photography bear witness to the ways of life and events of the world?

Photography and Movement:

How do people control, interact and construct the environment in which they live?

Using these hypothesis examples, I have come up with my own possible example questions to investigate in my essay. These are shown below:

In what way have Mandy Barker and Keith Arnatt explored Anthropocene (environmental issues) in their work?

How can Mandy Barker’s photobook be compared to the first photobook by Anna Atkins?

Can staged photography be used as a method of emphasising environmental issues?

How can photography be used scientifically to…..