1. Write a book specification and describe in detail what your book will be about in terms of narrative, concept and design. Produce a mood-board of design ideas and consider the following:
Narrative:What is your story?
Describe in:
3 words
Re-visiting changed environment
A sentence
Looking at archival imagery, I re-visited La Motte to document the effect of time on the environment.
A paragraphs
90 years after the archaeological excavations at La Motte of 18 cists dated from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, I re-visited this area comparing the archival imagery with what is there today. I focused on documenting the environment e.g rocks, plants and landscape, as well as gathering objects i found there and photographing them formally. The underlying theme to my photobook is the effect of mankind on the environment over a period of time, taking inspriation from ‘Field Studies’ by Crystel Lebas.
Design: Consider the following
How you want your book to look and feel
Paper and ink
Format, size and orientation
Binding and cover
Title options:
La Motte: Walking through Landscapes and Archives
La Motte: The Changing Environment
The Changing Island
The Island: Walking through Landscapes and Archives
Structure and architecture
Design and layout
Editing and sequencing
Images and text
I want my photo book to have a scientific appearance to it, linking to the formal imagery at the end of the book of objects I gathered taking inspiration from early botanists . I also want to try and emphasise the comparisons between the archival imagery and my photography by having my images in colour which contrasts with the black and white archival images. Similar to Crystel Lebas I want my photobook to have writing in it giving information and history about the area. Some of the landscape imagery will be across two pages, similar to Lebas panoramic photography. The photo book will be portrait and smaller than A4. Inside the photobook I will stick in additional images after it has been printed to emphasise the appearance of a scientific notebook, giving a more authentic, handmade look. The first half of my book will focus on my landscape photography documenting the area. On some of these pages I will juxtapose them with archival imagery from 1911-1914 to show the history of the area and to show how the environment has changed over 90 years due to climate change. Towards the end of the photobook I will display the edits of the objects alongside the original image formally. This is a contrast to the first part of the book, the last part focusing on a more scientific exploration. In ‘Field Studies’ Le bas calls the second half of her photobook ‘Weeds & Aliens Studies’ taking inpiration from Salsibury’s book. I also want to include some of the natural objects and archival imagery at the start of my book as the reader opens it so they have an idea of what the photobook is about and can understand the underlying story more.
One quote i want to use in my photobook is ‘We can in fact only define a weed, mutatis mutandis, in terms of the well-known definition of dirt as matter out of place. What we call a weed is in fact merely a plant growing where we do not want it.’ Edward James Salisbury (1935). This is because I think it links to my imagery of objects i gathered in the area (specifically the plants) as they have been taken out of their natural environment.
A sentence – Showing the Utopian view i have of the world and displaying how this is conflicted by the way in which humans are treating the land.
A paragraph – I want my book to have a hard back cover that will feel professional and secure, keeping my book well kept together. I will include a standardized A4 landscape formatted pages throughout to ensure the pictures are a big enough size to bring out details. I will use a variety of design layouts throughout the photo-book such as full-bleeds and centered photographs that create a white boarder. Varying the styles will help to engage with the audience and keep them interested in the important messages that i am conveying about the environment. My photo-book will consist of mainly images rather than adding text as I believe the text will not add value in connecting with the audience. My narrative will consist of two clear opposing views on the world from an Utopian and Dystopian perspective. The Utopian ideas will be portrayed by beautiful landscape images of the sublime environment that surrounds us here in Jersey. I will then incorporate some manipulated images that really exaggerated how beautiful the natural land is to clearly show these Utopian values. The above will take up the first half of my book followed by the dystopian ideas which will give the viewer a sense of how we are manipulating the environment and creating problems. This will include raw and manipulated images mostly including buildings to show a sense of urbanization that is the main factor contributing the the wreck of the natural land and other environmental issues.
WE GOT THREE WEEKS LEFT IN CLASS TO COMPLETE PERSONAL STUDY and ONE MOCK EXAM DAY
In the next three week focus on beginning to edit and collect all your images, archival material and texts, including your essay needed to complete your photobook.
You want to aim for a draft layout and hand in draft version of your essay before your Mock Exam day, then use that day to fine tune design and complete essay.
DEADLINE: MOCK EXAM!
Mon 11 Feb Class 13A & 13D
Tue 12 Feb Class 13C
Wed 13 Feb: Hand-out Exam paper
1. Write a book specification and describe in detail what your book will be about in terms of narrative, concept and design. Produce a mood-board of design ideas and consider the following:
Narrative:What is your story?
Describe in:
3 words
A sentence
A paragraphs
Design: Consider the following
How you want your book to look and feel
Paper and ink
Format, size and orientation
Binding and cover
Title
Structure and architecture
Design and layout
Editing and sequencing
Images and text
2. Create a BLURB account using your school email address. With Blurb you have different options on how you design your book:
a) Using Lightroom to design your book which is integrated with BLURB. Only for use on school computers, unless you have LR at home on your own laptop.
b) Download Bookwright via Blurb onto your own laptop and work offline at home and you can work indecently of school. Here you have full control of layout/ design features. Once completed, you upload photo book design to Blurb
c) Choose online option if you want to work directly online. Very limited layout/design options (not recommended!)
For those who wish to make their own hand-made photobook using Indesign follow the same steps as below in terms of documenting and annotating your design process. or if you want to customize your Blurb book see me for more details on how to do it.
3. Using Lightroom make a rough selection of your 40-50 best pictures from all shoots. Make sure you have adjusted and standardised all the pictures in terms of exposure, colour balance/ B&W, contrast/brightness etc.
4. Print them out as smaller images (4 to one A4 page) on the Laserjet, cut them up in guillotine and lay them out on the big white table for editing.
5. Decide on format (landscape, portrait) size and style of your photo-book. Begin to design your photo book, considering carefully, narrative, editing, sequencing, page spreads, juxtaposition, image size, text pages, empty pages, use of archival material etc.
6. At the end of your photo book, add your illustrated essay including title, any captions (if needed), bibliography, illustrations of artists work (incl data) and images of your own responses. Think carefully about font type, size and weighting.
7. Produce screen prints of layout ideas as you progress and add to Blog for further annotation, commenting on page layout/ narrative/ sequencing/ juxtaposition of pictures.
Film/ Podcast; produce screen prints as work progress that show your editing skills/ decisions.
8. Select a set of 5-6 photographs as final outcomes and evaluate – explaining in some detail how well you realised your intentions and reflect on what you learned in your Political Landscape project.
9. Save final outcomes in our shared PRINT folder (no later than 15:00 end of your Mock exam day) in a high-resolution (4000 pixels on the long edge.) Save each images in your name i.e. first name_surname_title_1, and 2, 3 and so on.
10. Make sure all blog posts are finished including, research, analysis, experimentation, annotation and an evaluation of final outcomes.
Photoshoot Plan: For my first photoshoot I want to respond to a poem called ‘little changes’ set in my Grandpas garden. I want to capture this space and visualise where he got the inspiration for the poem from. He spent a large amount of time in his garden growing vegetables and caring for wildlife, his environmental interests were strong making his garden a very important place. I want to take photos with bright natural lighting to fit the pale aesthetic i am going for in my book. I want to take photos of signs of life in the garden, from human interaction to animals and plants which inhabit the natural landscape.
I am happy with how this shoot turned out however I would like to do a second one in the same location in better weather and possibly incorporate a red coat and bird mentioned in the poem.
So far in my personal study I have learned that political landscapes can mean many things, when we initially started thinking about this title my ideas were drifting towards environmental issues such as pollution of the sea and coastline. I wanted to collect and photograph plastic and debris which washes up on the shores of the island and photograph it in a still life assembled style. I also had the idea to follow one person through their daily activities and capture any moment where they did something which effected the environment negatively. I looked at the work of Mark Power from the Guernsey Photography Festival and liked the style of his images taken using a ring flash, I found the photos no matter how mundane the subjects all corresponded and created their own meaning.However I felt that these viewpoints of the theme were very obvious and straightforward, leading me to explore a new path and ways of taking the title of political landscapes. I had a look through a range of photo books to help me think of new ideas which could link to the title I have been given. One that stood out to me was ‘Where Mimosa Bloom’ by Rita Puig-Serra Costa in this book she explores her family history through a mixture of archival photos, texts, still life, landscapes and portraits which all work together simultaneously to give us a visual understanding of her story. I thought of developing my own project on one of my family members, my late grandpa came to mind, he was a teacher and poet who often had strong political views on various subjects.
Rita Puig Serra Costa is a documentary photographer who lives and works in Barcelona, in which she combines personal projects based on events in her life, such as her 2014 work ‘Where Mimosa Bloom’ which is a project that focuses on the life of her late mother and how her death effected the people closest to her, this project won her numerous awards and was published in the ‘Ruby Star’ magazine. She studied Humanities at Ba level and after completing a degree in Comparative literature she studied photography at CFD School of Photography.She is now working on a project with Salvi Danés and David Bestué with the support of Terralab.cat.
‘Where Mimosa Blooms‘
Dealing with the grief that the photographer suffered following the death of her mother, Where Mimosa Bloomtakes the form of an extended farewell letter; with photography skillfully used to present a visual layout of her life and the people who played a part in it. Where Mimosa Bloom” is the result of over two years of work that Rita spent collecting, curating materials and taking photographs of places, objects and people that played a significant role in her relationship to her mother. In my opinion Rita skillfully avoided giving the impression of grief’s self-pity, isolationism, world-scorn and vanity.
In this image taken from the book, a tiny baby bird can be seen tucked up in a person’s hand for protection, as baby birds are not able to do much by themselves are are very easily to be attacked. Which may be a representation of how Rita felt in regards to her mother, that Rita was weak and was just learning about the world and the way it works but want ready yet to be left by herself. And that her mother would always be there for her to protect her, take care of her and comfort her. But not that she is gone she is weak. In the image the bird is huddled up in a human had but normally baby birds are left in the mother nest while they wait for the mother to come back from hunting. This might suggest that she is having to relay on mother people and not her mother ‘nest’. The images looks as if was taken inside due to the dark background, but the main source of light is natural light which looks as if is coming from the left hand side of the image. The depth of field looks high as only the bird is in complete focus, this may be due to the fact that Rita wanted to be the main focus of the image, rather than the tattoo on the person wrist.
Responses to her work
I have lived in the house that my grandparents bought when they first got married, so we have a massive amount of family records on my mothers side, my mothers side of the family were never a family that had large amounts to spare but they always made a point of documenting family events or having portraits taking at some points during their life. And they have lived in the channel island for generations more of family records have survived As both of my grandparents on my dads side came over to England as part of the Windrush generation, they left large amounts of their old life behind in the Caribbean to start afresh in the Uk, so the only real family records that I have of that side of my family is from their time in the Uk. The family tree that Rita has created in more of a simplicity and minimalist and only feature one side of her family tree, but this maybe because the focus i of the book is on her mother rather than her.
How do the photographers Chrystel Lebas and Mandy Barker explore issues of the changing environment?
Introduction
Anthropocene: the Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, based on overwhelming global evidence that earth system processes are now altered by humans. In my essay I intend to explore how the photographers Chrystel Lebas and Mandy Barker express their views on the natural environment changing due to human activity in the anthropocene. Looking at the environment is a relevant topic for todays society, but I think the topic of how how natural landscapes have developed needs to be represented creatively more often. The photographers Lebas and Barker both portray their opinions about the environment changing from external factors such as climate change and pollution . Climate change is yet another environmental problem that has surfaced in the last couple of decades. I first became interested in the work of Mandy Barker when i began researching photographers who represented these issues in their photography. I was personally interested in this subject as Barker’s work particularly fascinated me through the intriguing patterns created from her microscopic samples in her series ‘Beyond drifting: Imperfectly known animals’, addressing issues with plastic debris levels in seas and the detrimental effects this has. She takes inspiration from John Vaughan Thompson’s early scientific discoveries of plankton and subtly uses his original writing, descriptions, and figures recorded in his research memoirs from 1830, entitled ‘Imperfectly Known Animals’. I also chose to explore the work of Lebas’ as she portrays her views on environmental change uniquely, revisiting the areas that Edward James Salisbury had to see the effects that time had on the landscape and the species living there. I aim to to compare the reasonings behind both of their works, their inspirations, how their images look visually , and how they present their works to help their underlying message. Researching these two artists has helped me develop my own work by inspiring me to take images in the style of early scientists and botanists. Similar to how they both looked at archival imagery, I also looked at archival imagery from the area La Motte, Jersey to see how the environment has changed over a century. Their exploration into anthropocene has lead me to research this topic and let it influence me in way way i take photographs.
Historical/ theoretical context
The 19th century was the golden age of landscape painting in Europe and America. Three aesthetic concepts emerged during the Romantic era divided the natural world into categories: the Pastoral, the Picturesque, and the Sublime. The first two represent Nature as a comforting source of physical and spiritual existence. The last, as articulated by Edmund Burke in his Philosophical Enquiry into the ‘Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)’, refers to the thrill and danger of confronting untamed Nature and its overwhelming forces. Burke believed that “whatever is fitted to produce such a tension must be productive of a passion familiar to terror, and consequently must be a source of the sublime ” (Edmund Burke, 1757, Philosophical Enquiry into the ‘Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful: pg. 149) where our ability to perceive or comprehend what is presented to us is temporarily overwhelmed. However he also believed there was an inherent pleasure in this emotion. This Romantic conception of the sublime proved influential for several generations of artists. Burke associates qualities of “balance,” “smoothness,”and “color” with the beautiful, while he speaks of the sublime in terms such as “vastness” and “terror” (Burke, 1757).
The theory of the picturesque was developed by writers William Gilpin (Observations on the River Wye 1770) and Uvedale Price, who in 1794 published ‘An Essay on the Picturesque as Compared’ with the Sublime and Beautiful. Picturesque arose as a mediator between these opposed ideals of beauty and the sublime, showing the possibilities that existed in between these two rationally idealised states. The Pastoral and Picturesque reference mankind’s ability to control the natural world, the Sublime is a humbling reminder that humanity is not all-powerful.
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 John Constable 1776-1837
In British art, Romanticism was embraced in new responses to nature in the art of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. In 1814 the English landscape painter John Constable put this in his own words when he said the beauty of nature generates a train of associations that leads “to the contemplation of higher, spiritual values”(Anne Lyles, Sublime Nature: John Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from theMeadows, Tate) and his idea is illustrated in Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831. Constable’s dark, passionate clouds, are in contrast to the sunlight of the foreground, where you see the church scene as gothic, and negative. These aspects of the painting widens towards sublimity: God, nature and man. Burke favoured this aesthetic idea over Beauty because, he said, ‘astonishment, obscurity and vastness cause a more powerful physical reaction in us than Beauty’s orderly calm’ (Tony Schwab, 2016, The Persistence of the Sublime: pg.5) Constable’s painting is balanced between these two aesthetic ideas.
In Victorian England, J.M.W. Turner focused on the energy in Nature itself when he went outside to paint in all kinds of weather. He painted expressions of vastness, terror, and obscurity, portraying nature itself as Sublime.
His painting ‘The Shipwreck’ is one of the artist’s largest and most intensely dramatic pictures, unmatched at the time of its creation in its depiction of the destructive power of the sea. (David Blayney Brown, Sea Pictures: Turner’s Marine Sublime and a Sketchbook of c.1803–10, Tate)
Artist, writer and critic Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe has expressed a current view of the beautiful-sublime relation in his book, Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime, 1999. What is most revolutionary about Gilbert-Rolfe’s perspective is his notion that the sublime cannot exist in nature today. He claims that the sublime can only inhabit, or be expressed by, technology – as technology is limitless and yet to be apprehended. Picturesque Travel author William Gilpin first defined the landscape term as expressing “that particular kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture” (Watson, 1970, 19).
First artist/photographer in relation to your essay question.
Chrystel Lebas
The French photographer Chrystel Leas spent the first 10 years of her life in Sérignan-du-Comtat, a village in the Vaucluse in south-eastern France. To the north the village is bordered by scrubland and pine forest, first with her mother and then on trips with her school, she begun to study the life of the forest. At the end of the 1990s, she began to photograph the natural landscape. She preferred to work at night, or at twilight (what the French call l’heure bleu ) when the world becomes more mysterious. “I was fascinated by night itself, by the absence of light and the impossibility of photographing,” Lebas told Nanda van den Berg, the director of the Huis Marseille in Amsterdam. (Liz Jobey on Chrystel Lebas, 2016, Financial Times)
In 2011 the Natural History Museum London commissioned Chrystel Lebas to make new work inspired by an early 20th century collection of glass negatives depicting the British landscape by photographer Edward James Salisbury. She particularly focused on Scottish and Norfolk landscapes, re-visiting the places that Salisbury did in the 1920s and 1930s to document environmental change that had occurred over nearly ninety years later. “Walking, searching, GPS in hand, I attempted to find the exact locations where Salisbury stood when he took his photographs at the beginning of the 20th century” (Chrystel Lebas, 2011, Re-visiting) . She focused on three subject areas: habitat, locality and specimens and “through photography and film Lebas traces the continual encounters between the forces of the wind and the sea with humans, animals, and plants.” (Bergit Arends on Chrystel Lebas, 2017, Published by Fw:Books, Amsterdam). On her walks, Lebas was often accompanied by a contemporary botanical expert searching out the plants he had isolated and documented on light sensitive paper. “I was interested in challenging how I used the cameras, but also challenging the landscape.”(Liz Jobey, 2016, The Financial Times Weekend Magazine) For this latest project, however, the challenge was set by the landscape and its past.
“My remit was very different from Salisbury’s. He was a scientist disguised as a photographer. Was I becoming a photographer disguised as a scientist?”(Chrystel Lebas, Publications, www.chrystellebas.com/publications)
Rothiemurchus in Scotland
This photograph was taken in Rothiemurchus, Scotland, linking to concepts of sublime photography and focusing on nature as being the main subject.. The Rothiemurchus estate is one of the largest surviving areas of ancient woodlands in Europe where the average age of the Scots pines exceeds 100 years with some more than 300 years old. Le bas’ panoramic landscape photograph expands what is seen by the audience of the scene. The underlying story of this photograph to me is the detrimental effects that mankind have had on the environment over the past years. This photograph was taken in 2012 which I think is Lebas’ way of expressing to people how mankind is effecting the environment today and is still very much a relevant issue. The way this photo was documented makes it seem to me as though she has stumbled across this on her walk which adds to the shocking nature of it. The surrounding trees are perfectly in tack but the tree in the centre of the image is completely snapped in half on it’s side. This makes the audience question why it’s like this and creates mystery behind the scene.
The surrounding trees are all tall and straight, some going out of the frame on the left side of the image which adds to the contrast of the standing trees to the broken one. As well as this, most of the green tones in this image are on the surrounding trees, the broken one being a light brown tone which is different from the rest of the image, further emphasising the contrast of the two elements in the photo. This follows on from Lebas’ environmental series looking at how the environment has changed over 90 years in comparison to Salisbury’s photographs. This image in comparison to Salisbury’s is shocking which I think emphasises the effect of climate change. “My photograph shows more trees than Salisbury’s black and white plate. Mark Spencer explained that these could have been growing thoughout the 90 years surrounding the older tree seen in the center of the image. Thus showing me that in order to understand that habitat one must understand its history.” (Chrystel Lebas, The Photographers Gallery interview, Daniel C. Blight) So Lebas’ true meaning behind this image in particular was to show how landscape changes over time, portraying new trees that have grown over the 90 years, and the older on its side, portraying how trees are growing, dying and re-generating themselves.
The loss of plant and animal species due to human activities have been more rapid in the past 50 years than at any time in human history, increasing the risks of abrupt and irreversible changes to ecosystems. (www.anthropocene.info) When Lebas revisited the areas that Salisbury did she found that species that were there over 90 years ago weren’t there anymore, reflecting her views about species going extinct within her photography. Sean O’Hagan thinks that the book is “an investigation of a landscape that now has such a heavy human footprint as to no longer be “natural” in the way Salisbury would have understood the term. ” stated in his article in The Guardian (Sean O’Hagan, 2017, The Guardian: Field Studies by Chrystel Lebas review). I think this is true as the landscape she visited has changed so much that a whole plant species has gone extinct. This reflects the ideologies of anthropocene where atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic and other earth system processes are now altered by humans, which is a concept I think Lebas is trying to represent.
I also think many of her photographs greatly link to the ideologies by philosopher Edmund Burke in ‘Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)’ where he talks about the thrill and danger of confronting untamed Nature and its overwhelming forces. This image displays nature as untamed through the broken tree in the centre of the image and the towering trees filling most of the photograph, nature overwhelming the senses. “Lebas sees her works as referring to the Romantic tradition, citing Casper David Friedrich and notions of the sublime as key influences. With images of escape, wilderness and the grandeur of nature, her practice relates to some of the main tenets of Romanticism to photography and raises significant questions about how the contemporary (urban) viewer engages with nature.” (Deborah Schultz, Portfolio Catalogue, Chrystel Lebas: The Wait: pg. 35). I can see how Lebas’ work takes inspiration from the 19th-century Romantic landscape painter Casper David Friedrich through the tones she’s emphasises to portray vast nature as well as the bright backgrounds against the darker subject, creating a romanticised aesthetic.
Caspar David Friedrich Cairn in Snow 1807, Midday 1821-22
Sean O’hagan thinks that “Lebas’s images have a kind of heightened elementalism. She uses a panoramic camera and often shoots at dusk when the light quality in these still, quiet places can be almost otherworldly” (Sean O’Hagan, 2017, The Guardian: Field Studies by Chrystel Lebas review). I agree with this statement as I think her use of cool dark tones adds to to an elementric quality. Elementalism refers to ‘worship of the natural elements of earth, air, water, and fire.‘ and i think Lebas’ photography has an awareness of spirituality in living things. In this image the way she’s accentuates the patterns in the dark green trees against the bright sky makes them seem alive and spiritual in comparison to the broken tree. Also the way she shoots at dusk emphasises the mystical atmosphere and shadows that consumes the image adding to the elementalism.
I agree that Lebas “alerts people to the changes wrought by man and the climate on the landscape, than by drawing them in through these photographs to consider how fragile it has become.” (Liz Jobey, 2016, Natural Histories, Weekend magazine: pg. 27) to an extent. Although she does present nature being ‘fragile’ and vulnerable to changes of human activity, she also presents it as vast and powerful through her use of cool tones and boundless landscapes. Overall she presents her underlying message that the changes in natural landscapes are due to humans and climate change and portrays nature as immense and beautiful at the same time.
I tried to photograph the landscape at La Motte taking inspiration from Crystal Lebas’ natural landscapes. In this image I tried to emphasise the cool tones to heighten the elementalism, like in many of Lebas’ images relating to the ideologies of sublime. I think this particular image of mine definitely reflects that of the sublime, through the bold, structured shapes of the rocks with dark tones ranging rom brown to black. This combined with the sky which is a blue tone due to being taken at dusk, creates a mysterious and other-worldly appearance, similar to Lebas’ images. In this image I wanted to show how the environment was changing by how the rocks had been warn down in comparison to archival images from one-hundred years ago. This is similar to how Lebas wanted to express how the environment was changing though how trees are growing, dying and re-generating themselves.
Second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question.
Mandy Barker
In 2012, photographer Mandy Barker was awarded The Royal Photographic Society’s Environmental bursary, which enabled her to join scientists in a research expedition to examine the accumulation of marine plastic debris. She began her investigations in the Pacific Ocean but has subsequently widened her focus to different bodies of water around the world. Her series, “Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals” was presented at the Unseen Photo Fair in 2016. The images were based of scientific fact about an area she had documented for more than nine years where she hoped by producing images would lead to positive actions in tackling this increasing environmental problem, which is currently of global concern.
Barker started focusing on ocean plastic as a both a “message and a medium as she was brought up near the sea and regularly walked the same beaches and locations. This is where she noticed over the last 20 years that the natural objects I used to collect were being replaced by man made ones.” (Mandy Barker, 2016, Faculty Magazine interview). Once struck by seeing the same inkjet cartridge in the stomach of a bird that was used in her own printer, Mandy creates meticulous, contemplative works that connect us back to the choices we make and the things we leave behind.
Plankton form a diverse group of microscopic marine organisms living in the water column, not able to swim against the current; rather, they exist in a drifting state. In this series, unique specimens of this animal species are related to the pioneering discoveries made by John Vaughn Thompson in Cobh a military surgeon and amateur naturalist in the 1800s, about little-understood marine organisms, which he referred to as “imperfectly known animals”. This title relates to today as ” plankton today are ‘imperfect’ because they contain micro plastics” (Mandy Barker Interview, Photo Works) whereas Thompson collected and studied plankton when they were not ingesting plastic.
For example in this photographs she uses a long exposure, like in her other images, to show the movement of the plastic floating like plankton would which is then presented within a circular frame. I think using this shape frame makes the audience feel like they’re looking through the microscope themselves. She captures this on expired film with faulty cameras, making the film grain intentionally visible, which i think gives the image a more authentic look and adds to the historic science book appearance that she designed it to have. The shapes created by the plastic debris are abstract and aesthetically pleasing, the white shape contrasted against the black background. Barker does this to then shock the audience when they find out that what they are looking at is not something beautiful, but instead is being digested by marine life around the world. To me, this image in particular looks natural, like a plant or flower due to the shapes made by movement, this then shocked me when i found out that it was plastic. “The longer you look at these otherworldly images, there is something ineffably delicate, at times, vulnerable, that surfaces and goes beyond Barker’s photographs themselves. (Sabrina Mandanici, 2018, Collector Daily). I agree that her images are otherworldly as the pattern created is not something that a person would see in their everyday life, which is what makes the series so impactful at expressing her views about the changing environment.
I agree with Sabrina Mandanici, when she states that “in the simplest sense, Barker’s photographs are beautiful images of inanimate objects that, through the means of photography, become living organisms” (Sabrina Mandanici, 2018, Collector Daily). I believe that her work links into the ideologies of beauty and romanticism as she states in a podcast interview that it was her intention to create a ‘beautiful images combined with text, the hard hitting, shocking facts. alongside. Without the text it wouldn’t work because it would just be a beautiful image for arts sake.’ (Mandy Barker Interview, 2016, The Documentary Photographer Podcast, Roger Overall) This means that she wants to make the images aesthetically pleasing to draw the audience in, but them shock them with idea that it is not plankton they are looking at, but plastic debris. She makes the audience think that that what they are looking at is plankton by moving plastic in the same way plankton moves. “Contradiction between beauty and information will combine to make people question” (Mandy Barker, 2018, Port Magazine). This expresses her opinions of changing environments as she takes inspiration from Thompson earlier work investigation plankton in the late 1800s and compares this to her work in the 21st century where plankton species are eating plastic, showing how this species has changed over time due to the effects of anthropocene.
I tried to take inspiration from Mandy Barker in some of my own images in experimentation creating the appearance of a looking through a microscope. Similar to Barker’s I displayed the images with circular frames and cropped the images so that they were zoomed in. In Barker’s images she uses a long exposure when photographing objects to create the appearance of movement like plankton floating in the sea. For my work I formally photographed natural objects i found in the area La Motte and edited them by inverting them and adjusting the hues. Photographing the images formally allowed for me to create shadows underneath the objects, which when edited are blurred to create the appearance of movement. I think my images, similar to Barker’s, relate to ideologies of romanticism and beauty. Having natural objects as my subject makes the appearance look more delicate and fragile.
Conclusion/ Comparison
In conclusion both artists express their view on the changing environment effectively. Lebas does this by documenting landscapes and investigating the areas that Salisbury did over 90 years ago to see the changes in the environment,reporting that she found entire species of plant that were not there anymore and comparing her images to archival ones. On the other hand Barker uses beautiful abstract microscopic samples of marine plastic debris to shock the audience when they find out what they are looking at, highlighting the issue of plankton eating plastic which is then passed through the food chain in oceans. I also do this in my work by comparing my landscape images with archival photos from the area La Motte to see how the environment has changed in a century. Both photographers images’ reflect that of otherworldly, Lebas’ images having a heightened elementalism with emphasised dark tones, whereas Barker produces abstract images that have patterns that are not seen an a persons everyday life, highlighting the feel of movement. Both emphasise these aspects to draw the audience in to get their underlying message across. I also think my images reflect that of other worldly as I emphasised the dark blue tones in the landscape taken at dusk creating a mysterious appearance and a heightened elementalism. I think that Leas work reflects that of the sublime where she emphasised the vast landscapes she comes across with dark tones contrasted against bright ones. Similarly, I think my work links to concepts of sublime where i have emphasised dark shapes and cool tones. I tried to draw attention to the bold structures in the landscapes such as rocks and earth to highlight the vastness. On the other hand I think Barker’s work links more to the ideologies of picturesque and beauty through the delicate patterns and blurred photos so that the underlying message comes as more of a shock to the audience. Another aspect that both photographer have in common is that their series’ ‘Field Studies’ and Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly known animals’ both have a antique science book appearance, mimicking the past while reflecting on the current situation regarding organisms. Lebas’ work takes inspiration from that of Edward Salisbury a landscape photographer in the early 1900s where his visited different areas and documented the scenes and specimens he found. Similarly, Barker takes inspiration from John Thompson in her series, an amateur naturalist in the 1800s, who made pioneering discoveries about animal species, which he referred to as “imperfectly known animals”. I also think that my work links to this idea, as i have looked back at archival images, taken over 90 years ago and have compared that environment to what is there now. Both photographers refer back to past discoveries and images by photographers over 90 years and 200 years ago to show how the environment has changed over that period of time and to highlight the effects of anthropocene.
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
Quotes:
Edmund Burke, 1757, Philosophical Enquiry into the ‘Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful: pg. 149 (https://books.google.je/books/about/A_Philosophical_Enquiry_Into_the_Origin.html?id=pdpDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=pleasure&f=false)
Anne Lyles, Sublime Nature: John Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from theMeadows, Tate (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/anne-lyles-sublime-nature-john-constables-salisbury-cathedral-from-the-meadows-r1129550)
Tony Schwab, 2016, The Persistence of the Sublime: pg.5 (https://www.academia.edu/35950994/The_Persistence_of_the_Sublime.docx)
David Blayney Brown, Sea Pictures: Turner’s Marine Sublime and a Sketchbook of c.1803–10 (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/david-blayney-brown-sea-pictures-turners-marine-sublime-and-a-sketchbook-of-c1803-10-r1141418#fn_1_1)
Liz Jobey on Chrystel Lebas, 2016, Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/ce6821a4-b1cd-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1)
Chrystel Lebas, The Photographers Gallery interview, Daniel C. Blight (https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/content/photography-regarding-nature)
Sean O’Hagan, 2017, The Guardian: Field Studies by Chrystel Lebas review (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/24/field-studies-chrystel-lebas-photographic-journey-britain-wild-places-plants)
I want my book to be finished with a hard cover to show a professional finish and ensure quality throughout it. I believe that an standard sized landscape photo-book will be the most appropriate size as the photographs will be large enough to be seen in detail and there will be enough space to mess around with the formatting of the photographs. For the paper I will choose the option of premium lustre paper to offer a hint of gloss as well as greater tonal range and contrast. Throughout the book I will be using a mixture of landscape and portrait orientated photographs including a mixture of family environmental portraits and documentary-style photographs of my house as well as archival photographs as this will create a sense of documentary as well as including a personal touch. I will be using a mixture of design layouts throughout the photo-book such as full-bleeds, off-centre photographs and centered photographs to create a variety of styles and to keep the viewer interested in the narrative. I am planning on creating a narrative that shows the development of the house from beginning to the current state whilst including personal portrait photographs throughout as well as a couple photographs which do not seem to fit the narrative – the result of this will be a couple of narratives running throughout the book creating a more interesting and experimental book. I think that I will be using primarily images in the book with minimal text as I would prefer the photographs to show development rather than explaining through added context. I will be using a mix of black and white and colour photographs – the documentary photographs of the development of my house will be in black and white whereas photographs depicting family memories will be in colour in order to bring some life into the photographs. I will be taking inspiration for the layout of my book from some of the layouts in “Retracing Our Steps” by Bression and Ayesta.
Kajia Saye born in London in 1992 was a British – Gambian artist and photographer, who tragically lost her life in the Grenfell tower Disaster in 2017. At aged 16 she won a full scholarship to the prestigious Rugby school where her passion of photography first began to grow she went on to take a BA in Photography at UCA Farnham, where she first began to experiment with her Gambian identity in relation to photography. In early 2017 Saye, completed nine tintype photographers from she project she entitled ‘Dwelling: in this space we breathe’ these self portraits where on Gambian spiritual practises.This project was set to be exhibited at the Venice Biennale, which is a prestigious international art exhibition held every two years in Italy. Her works was meant to be included in a project entitled ‘ Disopra Pavilion’, in which a group of contemporary artist from racially diverse backgrounds presented work on the theme of migration and displacement. Each image was a self -portrait, in which State performs a different, time- honoured, Gambain spiritual ritual. For the project she drew on her own self interest and explored the emotions, feeling and consequences of her journey and heritage.
These images were created to look a certain way, inspired by the Victorian era of tintype photography, in which the image in created by using a wet metal plate and collodion solution. Tintype photography is affected by the environment that they are developed in such as the constancy of light and the temperature the the area. I personally think that she decided to present her work in this format because there are very few portraits of black woman in the 19th century, when this type of technology was being used. It gives the images a sense of incongruous to them which then makes the viewer think about the the historic documentation of black people throughout photography. When I look at the image the first things that I connect it to is images to slaves from the 19th century as black people where only send document in this type of photography, when then where being documented as a part of their plantations owners property. Making the images became impactful for Saye, ‘whilst exploring the notions of spirituality and rituals, the process of image-making became a ritual in itself’. In the images Saye in wearing a traditional Gambian headwrap, and is holding an incense burner which is an item considered to be sacred in The Gambia. The image looks as if it was taken in a studio, it is unclear if Saye took this image using a clicker so she would have been pressing the shutter, as her hand is out of the frame, or whether there was somebody on set with her. Saye’s eyeliner looks as if she is looking up to the burning inses, this may be a symbolic sign, because the inse is used is spiritual practices, that maybe she is trying to seek approval from a higher power. The fact that she is facing away from the camera in his image, may be representing the fact that she like many other black woman face prejudice, and are see as the stereotypes set around they are seen to be connected to.
Sequencing of images can be based on chronology, geography, family, resemblance, art history, season, colour, form, tone, flora, expression, dress, climate, mood, symbolism, material, and so on.
“In three words, what is your story is about?”
Mandy Barker’s “Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals” narrates environmental issues through showcasing specimens of plastic waste under a microscope. The “plankton” specimens in this work are beautifully photographed objects of marine plastic debris, recovered from the same location as naturalist John Vaughan Thompson’s plankton samples from 200 years ago. Each specimen has a new scientific name reflecting early Latin origins and containing the word ‘plastic’ hidden within its title.
The photo book influences an audience of humans in general, using beautifully aesthetic images to shock the viewer by first capturing their attention with beauty before revealing the dark meaning behind it, this being the impact we have on organisms in the environment.
The book features scans of the damaged pages of Brian Keenan’s “An Evil Cradling”, discovered in the ocean by Barker when searching for polluting items.
The book of the series which was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet Award SPACE 2017 was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum London and is touring 12 international venues over the next 2 years.
Deconstruction of the physical and narrative features of the book:
Book in hand: The book comes wrapped in a cardboard piece, alongside a research notes book and a card featuring two images similar to what is featured inside. The book itself is a hardback with a cover of paper over the front and back. The paper cover is smooth but the hardback underneath is textured reflecting water damage. The title of the book is embossed alongside an illustration of a starfish, also embossed. Section-sewn binding with book ribbon; interior tip-in; dust jacket; hand finishes.
Paper and ink: The images feature on black pages mainly, with the occasional white background that stands out. The pages are matte and slightly textured feeling dried out. All images are coloured. The circle in the center of the images takes up the majority of the page to allow for closer analysis by the viewer.
Format, size and orientation: There are 104 pages and 59 colour photographs with illustrations throughout. Dimensions: 23 x 17.5 cm portrait.
Title: In Mandy Barker’s own words, it is called ‘Beyond Drifting’ “because we are not beyond putting an end to the problem – but we are beyond salvaging what is already out there”. Drifting also refers to the state of floating above water, like many of the plastics Barker discovers in the oceans. The series of work is presented as an old science book from 1800’s, that as well as reflecting the current situation regarding organisms intake of plastic, also subtly includes the original writing, descriptions, and figures recorded by Thompson in his research memoirs of 1830, entitled, ‘Imperfectly Known Animals’. The book uniquely captures our changing times along with both past and present research.
Structure: There is no distinct narrative. Instead, Barker places micro images of pollutes found, next to images of the same objects from afar showing a contrast of the aesthetics of the object in a scientific method. Barker repeats the layout throughout encouraging the viewer to imagine what the object is, based on the fictional scientific names given alongside them as well as location they were found in.
Text: The Photobook opens up with a description on plankton made by Dr Richard Kirby, giving an idea for the importance of their presence in the food chain, and how detrimental the effects of micro plastic particles can have on them. An abstract on John Vaughan Thompson’s search for plankton specimens is also featured.
Quoting Rachel Carson, the first page of writing in the entire book reads “Always, then, in this flotsam and jetsam of the tide lines, we are reminded that a strange and different world lies offshore”.
‘Where Mimosa Bloom’ which is a project that focuses on the life of her late mother and how her death effected the people closest to her, this project won her numerous awards and was published in the ‘Ruby Star’ magazine. She studied Humanities at Ba level and after completing a degree in Comparative literature she studied photography at CFD School of Photography.She is now working on a project with Salvi Danés and David Bestué with the support of Terralab.cat.
Dealing with the grief that the photographer suffered following the death of her mother, Where Mimosa Bloom takes the form of an extended farewell letter; with photography skillfully used to present a visual layout of her life and the people who played a part in it. Where Mimosa Bloom” is the result of over two years of work that Rita spent collecting, curating materials and taking photographs of places, objects and people that played a significant role in her relationship to her mother. In my opinion Rita skillfully avoided giving the impression of grief’s self-pity, isolationism, world-scorn and vanity. 
At aged 16 she won a full scholarship to the prestigious Rugby school where her passion of photography first began to grow she went on to take a BA in Photography at UCA Farnham, where she first began to experiment with her Gambian identity in relation to photography. In early 2017 Saye, completed nine tintype photographers from she project she entitled ‘
Text: The Photobook opens up with a description on plankton made by Dr Richard Kirby, giving an idea for the importance of their presence in the food chain, and how detrimental the effects of micro plastic particles can have on them. An abstract on John Vaughan Thompson’s search for plankton specimens is also featured.