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Political Landscape – Lewis Bush

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Lewis Bush (born 1988 in London) is a British photographer, writer, curator and educator.  Bush studied history at the University of Warwick and gained a master’s degree in documentary photography from London College of Communication, where he lectures on photojournalism and documentary photography.  In his work bush seeks to draw attention to forms of invisible power that operate in the world – such as finance.  Bush has the standpoint that ‘power is always problematic because it’s natural resting state is arbitrary and untransparent’.  Bush’s projects tend to incorporate writing and he has written about photography for a range of national and international print and web titles.

In Bush’s ‘The Memory of History‘ from 2012, he travelling through a range of European countries to document the way in which the past was being politically manipulated in the context of the economic crisis and recession.  This project links to the theme ‘political landscapes’ as it shows how the invisible power of politics is used and abused in different places over time.

Bush is a photographer in residence at the Societe Jersiaise in Jersey where he is working on his project ‘Trading Zones‘ in  which he looks at the international finance industry.  It looks at the global economic crisis that began ten years ago and the resulting financial sector. Finance has been very unrepresented in documentaries due to its complexity and stature meaning that there is plenty of potential for investigation for documentary photographers such as Bush.  The project ‘Trading Zones’ is a result of six months spent as the 2018 Archisle photographer in residence at the Societe Jersiaise in Jersey, which is currently undergoing huge renovations in the financial sector.  Bush says he has used this time to “establish the foundations of what I anticipate will be a long term photographic inquiry into the financial services industry” as the project comes under documentary photography so this project will be ongoing over a long period of time.  Bush says in an interview with ASX “Finance here is the accidental product of events going back almost a thousand years, but is it also the result of very intentional choices made over the last half century” which links back to political landscape in the sense that trends and features change over time but often loop back around.  There are multiple methods of approach taken to this project by Bush – ‘Trading zones’ has inspiration stemming from different areas such as:

  • Portraits using a technique called ‘composite portraiture‘ developed by cousin of Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, who was an anthropologist.
    • Bush merged hundreds of corporate portraits from a variety of countries specialising in different aspects of finance, resulting it what the average finance worker may look like.
  • Cards asking what the public thought of finance which drew inspiration from a project by EJ Major, who sent out cards asking ‘what love is’, expecting people to respond in whichever way they felt appropriate.

Bush’s residency finishes with an exhibition of ‘Trading Zones’ in the St. Helier Old Police Station where financial investigations unit of Jersey Police was based. This project is currently a work in progress and is continuously looking for future financial collaborators in order to develop this project further.

Analysis

In this photograph it appears that lighting from within the inside of the building was used in what is possible night photograph. The use of this light is used to Bush’s advantage advantage as he uses double exposures to layer building over building creating a disorientating viewing along with contrast between the over-exposed lights and the dark shadows within the building. There is a wide tonal range within the photograph thanks to the range of shadows and lights within the photograph – this wide tonal range makes the photograph interesting in whichever segment the viewer looks as it creates intricate shapes and shadows throughout.  The lights and shapes are very intense as the viewer has to try piece the photograph together in order to understand it. It is unclear whether a short or deep depth of field will have been used in this photograph due to the disorientating nature of it – this adds to the mysterious elements of the photograph. A fairly slow shutter speed will have been used along with a low ISO in order for enough of the light to enter the lens from the dark environment whilst keeping the quality of the photograph as high as possible.

There is no colour in this photograph – only black and white along with the shades in between. This black and white approach to the photograph is very effective as it allows you to focus on the structure of the photograph and the buildings rather than being distracted by colours. The black and white effect also adds to the disorientating effect of the double exposure technique. Another addition that the black and white effect brings to the photograph is more contrast between the tones – especially between the bright white lights and the black shadows. The bright lights may be representative of a light at the end of the tunnel due to their glow in comparison to their environment. The photograph seems to have the texture of a graphite drawing which creates a really interesting viewing as what the viewer is seeing seems almost surreal. There is quite a 3D effect to the photograph due to the blending of photographs in order to create platforms coming out towards the viewer from the building. This 3D effect is complimented by the wide range of tones within the photograph. There are two points in the photograph to which the eye is initially drawn – these are the bright heaven-like lights and the platforms extending from the buildings – this is due to the lights contrasting in tone to the rest of the photograph and the platforms providing different shapes to the rest of the image. The platforms are also placed along the higher horizontal line of the rule of thirds meaning they add aesthetic to the photograph.

This photograph was taken from Bush’s project titled ‘Metropole‘.  This project looked at the collapse of the British Empire and how in its place globalised capitalism grew. London has been rebranded from “an investment opportunity” to “a city of demolition, cranes, and glittering new high rises”.  ‘Metropole’ aims to record the effect of this on London through the form of documentary photography. The project is titled ‘Metropole’ as London was once known as the Metropole meaning it was the mother city at the centre of a vast empire. These photographs were produced “during numerous winter night walks through the city”.

On Bush’s website he says that he used double exposure to create “increasingly disorientating and threatening as the series progresses” in order to create the “sense of loss that many Londoners feel” in the big city. This theme of a feeling of loss within the city links to the genre of ‘political landscape’ as it looks at the past of London and how it has changed – possibly for the worse. Bush continues this theme in his work on ‘Trading Zones’ in which he studies the Jersey financial sector. I think that through this exploration of disorientation and change Bush is trying to show that people often feel that the world is moving too fast for its own good as people get lost in temporary trends and patterns of life.

AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Coursework, Develop, Developing, Final Outcomes

My Edits Of My Response To Political Landscapes

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I have chosen to use the technique of pasting and cropping photographs over a base photographs and placing them in different places in order to align with the base photographs in order to create an interesting and contrasting composition. This allows me to be creative with the selection and placement of the photographs in order to emphasise as much as possible the differences and similarities between the past and present uses of the land. I will also be incorporating technique 3 into this by using natural frames such as mirrors and windows around the house in order to provide a more personal and interesting touch by showing how the fashion and style of property design has changed through time.

In order to provide myself with more photographs/frames to work with I have conducted an additional mini photoshoot within my household in which I photographed more frames and decorations within the house. I can use these photographs to broaden the variety of edits in my final outcome and to further show the current fashion and style within households.

In the edits I have used photoshop to alter/crop the montage photographs or archival photographs to fit within the natural framings that I photographed around my household and then placed the montages within the frame. I have done this to create a sense of personalisation within the edits as well as delving deeper into the theme of political landscape by showing how the inner decoration of the land changes over time, as well as the buildings themselves. The mixture of new and old photographs along with the modern decorations allows for the changes and developments over time to be shown as clearly as possible.

The majority of the photographs show the different sections of the houses and their developments through the use of montages but I have devoted one of the photograph edits to only the archival images within the frame in order for these photographs to be appreciated as they are without the contrast with the new photographs distracting the viewer from it. I have also included an edit which shows an archival photograph of me and my dad on the property in order to show that political landscape includes how the people involved in the change of land develop.

Analysis

In this photograph natural lighting was used in all aspects from the photograph of the frame to the photograph of the house from 1873. This use of natural lighting has allowed for the natural shadows of the structure to be shown which helps to create contrast between the different shapes and angles in the structure of the house. There is a very wide tonal range in this photograph due to its montage nature – the bright white paint of the newly refurbished house contrasts against the black hole that is the window being renovated, this helps to create multiple viewpoints and areas of interest of which all contrast with eachother. A deep depth of field is used for all of the photographs involved in this montage as the whole of the photograph is in focus which allows for all the small details of the contrasts between the old and new to be seen. A shutter speed of 1/50 was used to capture the mirror frame along with an ISO of 200 as I wanted the frame to be of as high a quality as possible in order for it to compliment the photographs within it. For the photographs within the frame a slightly quicker shutter speed along with a lower ISO will have been used as the photograph was taken outside so the shutter did not need as much time to allow the light to enter the lens. The photographs are all correctly exposed but the exposures between the different photographs in  the montage contrast with eachother to show the differences between them.

The colours in this photograph vary greatly due to the nature of the montage – the frame shows a dark gold and brown to contrast with the predominantly black and white montage. In the predominantly black and white montage there are splashes of colour through the inclusion of the photographs showing the current state of the house. These splashes of colour create a more interesting viewing and reminds the viewer how much technology has changed overtime to go from black and white to colour photography as well as the landscapes. There is a slight 3D effect to the montage as the closer corner of the house enters the background with the far corner being pushed towards the background – this 3D effect is further added to by the frame surrounding the montage, which creates a much more interesting and intriguing photograph. The frame is positioned directly around the centre of the photograph to allow the viewer clear viewing into what the frame is showing. This centralisation of the frame looks very orderly and neat which contrasts with the chaotic structure of the montage that it contains. The montage is placed within the frame in a way that shows as much of it as possible in order to convey my ideas within political landscape further. There are lots of viewpoints within the photograph as there is so much going on – which is possibly a bad thing – but I feel that there is a lot being said through this photograph so that fits the busyness of it.

This photograph is made from a collection of archival photographs and new photographs of my house. This collection of photographs represent the history of the house and the changes that it has gone through. I have incorporated both archival and new photographs to demonstrate how the genre of political landscape links to these photographs. The house has many similarities to cod houses through the shape and style – these cod houses were built in the 18th and 19th century from people who made their wealth through the North Atlantic cod trade which can be seen as one of the initial sources of wealth within Jersey. After research on the house I could not find any evidence that this is a cod house but the similarities and shapes are very close. This photograph has strong links to political landscapes and Guillame Bression and Carlos Ayesta’s work due to exploring what humans can do to a landscape and how drastically landscapes can change over a time period.

The idea behind this photograph is to show how even though fashion and trends come and go, they always come back around. This photograph shows sections of the house through photographs that are taken nearly 150 years apart – even though they are taken so many years apart the structure and shape of the building has remained. In the 1870 period only the people who could afford to would plaster their houses, but then later on it came into fashion for houses to have granite showing (as seen in the photograph) so the house was stripped of its plaster to reveal the granite structure. In the current state the house has been re-plastered in order to meet fashion trends and in order to show some inspiration from the original style of the property. This loop of fashion and trend shows how political landscapes often take inspiration from the past whilst putting a modern spin on them.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, Developing, Experimentation, Experimenting

Experimenting With My Response To Political Landscape

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I have collected an variety of archival photographs on my house and its history and well as creating a response to these photographs by taking inspiration from these archival images. I will be experimenting with different ways to demonstrate the changes and development within the house as well as how political landscape links to the set of photographs.

Technique 1

For this technique I will be placing the new photographs over the archival photographs and vice versa in order to create a contrast between the photographs as well as drawing similarities between them. I am going through with this by using photoshop. I start off by placing both photographs in the same photoshop tab.

I then choose an area of one of the photographs to crop in order to place over the other photograph. This area can be any detail of the property that shows similarity/contrasts between the now and then.

Once a section is cropped I will then focus on aligning this cropped part of the photograph with the other photograph in order to create a collage type photograph. I will do this with multiple photographs that match/line-up with the archival photograph to show as much contrast as possible. If I go through with this technique I will edit features such as the brightness of the photographs before hand to ensure that the photographs fit together well. I will also spend more time aligning the photographs to create the most accurate collage possible. I will also look at cropping and inserting smaller parts of photographs in order to provide more detail.

I think that this technique allows me to creatively place the different photographs in different combinations to create different photographs and interesting perspectives. One worry that I have with this technique is that the archive photographs may not fit in with the new photographs but I will overcome this problem by readjusting properties of the photographs when it comes to final editing.

Technique 2

For this technique I will look at splitting the two photographs half and half or into thirds or quarters if there is more photographs to compare.

I will do this by first choosing a photograph to be the base photograph that the other photographs will be pasted over. I will then crop the other photographs to be roughly a half/third of the whole compostion. I will then paste the photographs onto the base photograph and look at altering them slightly to realign them in order to create a more accurate composition. As with technique 1, if I go through with this technique I will edit features such as the brightness of the photographs before hand to ensure that the photographs fit together well as well as spending more time aligning the photographs to create the most accurate collage possible.

I like this technique as it allows me to create clearly set out the contrasts and similarities over time but I feel as though this technique has a similar approach to technique 1 except that it slightly restricts what I can do with the compositions and where I can place the photographs.

Technique 3

For this technique I will look at incorporating a more personal factor to the composition through the inclusion of how the property is being used meaning the way in which it is decorated. This gives a further insight into how the use and appearance of the property has changed throughout time. I will be taking natural frames, such as a mirror for example, and placing both archival and new photographs within the frame to give another element of how the land use has changed.

I will do this by first choosing the base photograph containing the natural framing. I will then paste the photographs chosen over the top of the base photograph and crop/alter the photographs so that they sit well in the natural frame. This will create further contrast between the old and new by showing a personal aspect of the decorations within the property.

I like this technique as it allows me to delve deeper into the use of the property and how the fashion and style of property design has changed over time. This technique can also be mixed with technique 1 as I can place the results from technique 1 into the natural frames to again add another sense of personalisation and to further show the similarities and differences that occur over time. This technique allows me to be as creative as I like with my compositions, as does technique 1, as I can place the photographs in any sequence that I choose but still create a feeling of organisation through the natural framing.

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas

My Response To Political Landscapes

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Original/Archive Photographs

The below contact sheets contain photographs taken during the development of my house. The development within the photographs looks at how the land has changed over time through human intervention. The photographs show the houses at different stages including before development and the style that they were decorated in in the late 1800’s. This has strong links to political landscapes and Guillame Bression and Carlos Ayesta’s work due to exploring what man can do to a landscape and how drastically it can be changed over a period of time.

I plan on merging these photographs with my response photographs in different ways through experimentation in order to find the best way to show the contrast between the different stages in the development of the property and how it changes over time. A couple ways of which I am thinking of trying to do this is:

  • Layering the photographs on top of eachother
  • Cutting and pasting different parts of different stages into one montage
  • Splitting the images half and half

My Response Photographs

In these photographs I have tried to recreate some of the original archival photographs in order to be able to create contrasting photographs to show the development and changes over time. I have also looked at how the use of the land has changed by including photographs of furniture and decorations around the house. I have chosen a sunny day to take this shoot as I believe the blue skies and lighting creates a positive atmosphere due to the project being used for a good cause being a family home rather than a project such as the finance buildings.

Comparison of Photographs

Below are some comparison images of the different stages of development that the land has gone through over time. These images are only examples of how the land has developed and changed. I will be editing photographs by layering new photographs over archival photographs and vice versa in order to show the contrast and changes.

These changes date back to 1873 and show a variety of trends in the sense of property, for example in the below photographs the top right image is the oldest even those the style of house is almost exactly the same as the new modern development. This is because in the 1870 period only the people who could afford to would plaster their houses, but then later on it came into fashion for houses to have granite showing (top left) so the house was stripped of its plaster to reveal the granite structure. In the current state the house has been re-plastered in order to meet fashion trends and in order to show some inspiration from the original style of the property.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas

My Approach to Political Landscape

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For my approach to political landscape I will be focusing on how land changes and develops over time through the intervention of humans. I will be looking at how my house and the land it is on has been destroyed and rebuilt upon by taking pictures of the current state and comparing these photographs with old personal archival photographs including some dating back to 1870.

I plan on taking photographs of the house and its surroundings in its near-completed state and then trying to recreate some of the archival images to create a contrast. I will also be looking at photo manipulation in order to combine two different photographs (one old and one new) to create a visual contrast between the current style of houses and the old fashioned style of houses. This will help me to show how land changes and how it is treated over time through simply the presentation of my photographs.

The  photographs in this post are examples of the different archival photographs I have on the redevelopment of the house – the archive of photographs contains images showing the state of the house before work started on it, images during the tearing down of the old fashion and images of rebuilding.

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, Case Study

Political Landscape – Fernando Maselli

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Fernando Maselli was born in Buenos Aires in 1978. He studied Fine Arts and moved to Madrid where he worked for major advertising agencies, shooting professional assignments for brands such as Coca Cola. This work won Maselli numerous awares at festivals such as Cannes.

In his current project ‘Artificial Infinite‘, Maselli appropriates the concept of the sublime through natures effects on the mind to develop his own investigation using elements like the vastness, the darkness and the hugeness of nature, but especially an attribute called artificial infinite: an element that is repeated many times in a constant and uninterrupted configuration generates in the viewer a sense of infinity. I think that the way that Maselli presents his work is very interesting due to the ways he cuts pictures up and puts them back together to create a collage style photograph but due to the gentle subject that is the nature he photographs I think that it could be more aesthetically pleasing without the photo manipulation.

Maselli spends several days in the mountains, taking pictures and later, in his studio, he rebuilds different parts of the landscape into a new landscape,trying to get, through the repetition of these images, the artificial infinite effect.

Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta and Fernando Maselli have a common link in their approaches throughout their photographs as they intend to capture and document what the world is like in places that ordinary people wouldn’t visit without a strong purpose. Both of their photographs contain elements of staging in them as Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta may place subjects to make photographs more intriguing and Fernando Maselli rearranges photographs in his studio to create the setting that he wants.

A contrasting feature in the works of Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta and Fernando Maselli is that Maselli focuses on settings untouched by humans in order to show the aesthetically pleasing sublime of nature, wheres Bression and Ayesta look at the destruction of a man-made city.

I think that the purpose of this project is to show how aesthetically pleasing nature is when it is left alone – and still can be aesthetically pleasing if humans treat it with care, as Maselli has done through carefully creating a collage of photographs.

Maselli has a statement on his website explaining further his interest in photography and the style in which he enjoys working.

Analysis

The below photograph uses the natural lighting of the mountainous landscape along with a deep depth of field to create a photograph that shows the different layers within the natural landscape. Maselli creates a photograph that demonstrates high contrast in the lower half and low contrast in the upper half due to the fog and weathering of the setting. There is quite a large tonal range within the photograph ranging from the dark shadows within the mountain faces to the white blankets of snow on top of the mountains. A shutter speed of 1/60-1/150 will have been used in this photograph along with a low ISO in order to keep the photograph as high quality as possible whilst allowing plenty of light to enter the camera lens.

There is no colour in this photograph – only black and white. Whilst this black and white helps to create contrast and shadows within this photograph I feel that it makes the photograph slightly bleak with no area of the photograph standing out as a main viewpoint. The difference between the light tone in the upper half and the dark tone in the lower half creates an feeling of how extreme the weather is in the mountains. There is not much of a 3D effect in the photograph due to their not being any subject in the foreground – which it feels like there should be. The eye is led to the bottom of the mountains where it looks like there should be a viewpoint but there is only more snow.

Maselli took this photograph as part of spending several days in the mountains, taking pictures and later, in his studio, rebuilding different parts of the landscape into a new landscape,trying to get, through the repetition of these images, the artificial infinite effect.  The natural sublime has been a part of the arts through literature such as in Frankenstein for a long time and it representative of peace and tranquility.

I think that through these photographs Maselli is trying to convey the fact that there is so much of the world that most humans’ will hardly see or experience and that these hidden parts of the world are better off because of the absence of human intervention. This links to political landscape as Maselli is showing and contrasting how different landscapes really are without humans building on them and altering on them to meet some of their selfish wants.

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, Case Study

Political Landscape – Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta

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Since the tsunami and the nuclear catastrophe of March 2011, Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression have made regular visits to the region of Fukushima, Japan, and especially to the “no man’s land” around the stricken power station. Their visits mix posed situations along with a documentary approach. The title of this project is ‘Retracing Our Steps‘. I think that the street photography/documentary photography style that has been introduced in these photographs make the photographs more interesting as they appear to come from the view of an average person. An interesting point of view would be to see more dramatic photography approaches as this area is unseen by many so to explore it in multiple ways could be successful.

Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta and Fernando Maselli have a common link in their approaches throughout their photographs as they intend to capture and document what the world is like in places that ordinary people wouldn’t visit without a strong purpose. Both of their photographs contain elements of staging in them as Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta may place subjects to make photographs more intriguing and Fernando Maselli rearranges photographs in his studio to create the setting that he wants.

A contrasting feature in the works of Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta and Fernando Maselli is that Maselli focuses on settings untouched by humans in order to show the aesthetically pleasing sublime of nature, wheres Bression and Ayesta look at the destruction of a man-made city.

I think that the purpose of this project is to document the damage that can be done to a once over-populated city and how environments change without the presence of humans.

Analysis

The below photograph by Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta uses the natural light of the evacuated ‘no-mans land’ to create shadows and contrast within the photograph. The shadows created by the frame of the windows replicate the Japanese text onto the walls creating a feeling of a natural average environment – which contrasts with the fact that this area has been abandoned. There is not a massive tonal range within the photograph but there are enough tones developing throughout the photograph such as the contrast between the light sky and the dark cafe. A short-medium depth of field appears to have been used in the photograph as the subject in the foreground is in focus but the forest in the distance is slightly out of focus. A fairly low shutter speed of 1/40-1/80 will have been used in this photograph along with a low-medium ISO as the cafe gives a dark environment with not much light so the lens needs to be open for more time in order to allow more light to enter.

This photograph is not overly colourful but the touches of colour that it uses is very effective, such as the red flag against the blue sky contrasting with the dark grey/brown of the cafe. The darkness of the cafe creates a contrast against the light outside which further pushes the image of a deserted cafe. There is quite a 3D effect of the photograph as the seats and the subject in the foreground create an immediate viewpoint for the eye as opposed to the deserted area in the background. The cropping of the photograph allows for the subject to be placed on the left vertical line in the rule of thirds which create a more aesthetically pleasing photograph from the viewer and tears the photograph slightly away from the documentary photography genre and more towards contemporary photography.

Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression composed this photograph after making regular visits to the region of Fukushima, Japan, and especially to the “no man’s land” around the ruined power station. Their visits mix posed situations along with a documentary approach, which is clearly seen in this photograph as they document how quiet and deserted the area is whilst setting up as a posed photograph. This links to political landscape as it shows the artefacts that humans have left behind but it also shows how the land has become a quiet place left to nature. It looks at the impact of humans on landscapes and how they change it.

I think that the purpose of this photography is to show how quickly and dramatically urbanised areas around the world can develop in either a negative or positive way and how much land is left to be used/discovered. It primarily looks at how the humans that once populated this area have left everything exactly as they were with no signs of chaos shown.

 

AO1 Develop Ideas

What is Political Landscape?

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The definition of the word ‘political’ is “relating to the government or public affairs of a country”. This shows that politics is focused around what is currently happening in a country and the consequences that these happenings will have. Politics also relates heavily to the government, the people who decide what happens in a country through debate, who have the answers to questions such as why are these events happening in our country? The word ‘politic’ comes from late Middle English which comes from  the Old French word ‘politique‘, via Latin from  the Greek word ‘politikos‘, from ‘ ‘politēs‘ meaning ‘citizen’, from the word ‘polis‘ meaning ‘city’ – this shows that politics revolve around the city/country and its current affairs.

The definition of the word ‘landscape’ is “all the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.” This includes the way that land changes and the different imprints left behind by changing land as these features are often visible in newer areas of land, such as the foundations of original buildings. Landscape includes all of the visible features of an area of land as well as the parts that are not seen or the parts that happen behind closed doors, such as the businesses or families that occupy land. The word ‘landscape’ comes from the late 16th century from the Middle Dutch word ‘lantscap’, which comes from the equivalent of ‘land’ and ‘ship’.

There is no clear definition for political landscape as every individual seems to have their own interpretation of the concept. To me, political landscape is a genre of photography that incorporates documentary photography to show how land is being used/abused, how land changes over time, how it is protected, what it means to people and why it changes in the way it does. Throughout this project I will be looking at how land changes and develops through the intervention of humans.

An example of political landscape in Jersey is the current situation with the hospital as in where the new hospital will be built. This has been under debate for quite some time and a lot of money has been spent on research and planning with nothing being built yet. Currently, it seems as if the new hospital will be built on the current site.

Image result for northern ireland riots

An example of political landscape on an international level is the struggles in Ireland as ninety years ago Ireland was split in two after people living there went to war against their British rulers. The south became a separate state, now called the Republic of Ireland. But the break-up led to decades of unrest and violence in Northern Ireland, which remained part of the UK. This caused lots of riots and damage to the landscape in Northern Ireland as the atmosphere of the area and in places the buildings were damaged.

To further explore the topic of political landscape I am going to be focusing on how land changes and develops over time through the intervention of humans. One way that I will possibly look at exploring this is through how my house and the land it is on has been destroyed and rebuilt upon by taking pictures of the current state and comparing these photographs with old personal archival photographs including some dating back to 1870. Another route that I could possibly take to explore political landscape is by adopting the same approach but looking at public areas of land and how the government has changed it for better or worse. I think that a perfect site that I could use for this if I pursue it is Portlet where the Butlin’s holiday camp used to be.

Image result for butlins holiday camp portlet

Analysis, AO4 Present Ideas, Final Outcomes

Evaluation of My Final Outcome

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I think that throughout the Future of St. Helier newspaper project I have thoroughly explored the different aspects of St. Helier and the people within it. I have photographed environmental portraits and portraits of unaware subjects to catch the different sides of the population of St. Helier as well as photographing completely different styles of buildings within the capital. If I was to explore the Future of St. Helier again I would focus on more set-up photo-shoots with interesting people within the parish in order to get an insight into what they think the future of St. Helier is and how they feel about the changes that it is going through.

At the beginning of the project I planned on photographing lots of people in their natural work environments in order to create a collection of photographs that show the different jobs and dress codes that come with them in St. Helier. My intentions changed when we visited the construction site at Ann Street car park as I saw the difference between the newly built buildings and the buildings being demolished and thought that this difference had to be recognised as it is the Future of St. Helier in the present.

I learnt throughout this photographs that there are many aspects to St. Helier which differ depending on which area of the parish you are in. Every subject that you photograph or speak to are completely their own person and have a different story. I learnt a lot about the future plans of St. Helier and how vital the finance industry is to Jersey and how quickly it is advancing.

Analysis, AO4 Present Ideas, Experimenting

My Zine Designs

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Design One

This is my first zine design. Within this design I chose to focus on the construction within St. Helier as this construction moulds the future of St. Helier. This zine focuses on the deteriation and destruction of buildings in St. Helier and then the planning of rebuilding. Once I have printed this off I will look at rearranging the pages to create a stronger narrative. I have used full bleed double page spreads in order to create a bold magazine that allows the viewer to feel completely involved in it.

I have decided that I will be using this zine as my final design as I feel that it covers more topical issues within St. Helier regarding the constant renovation of the parish.

Design Two

Within this zine design I have focused on who controls the demolition and construction of St. Helier – the people. I included environmental portraits within this collection to show what the people of St. Helier do on a daily basis and to capture the satisfaction within their lives. I chose a different format to the first zine in the sense that I left blank space to represent that the photographs are only a snapshot of their lives and there is much more to it.