I have experimented with cropping to make more abstract images of of a few of my favourite photos from my initial shoot.
I was originally planning to display each of the crops separately but had the idea to combined them into a photo montage to create repetition in the patterns. This created a more interesting image rather than the original documentary approach.
Whilst exploring our area on the photoshoot I decided to collect interesting things that I found which either reflected the location or stood out as different and out of place. I found a variety of objects such as a bike brake on the pavement, a Christmas decoration and warning tape outside a church. I wanted to use these items as part of my image making and final outcome. Using photocopier I placed the objects in different arrangements and layers before closing and scanning it into an image. The scanned images turned out different to how I was expecting due to the distorted areas which were further from the glass on the photocopier. Although this was not planned I like how it turned out because it gives the image a more interesting and abstract effect with the contrast between focus and blurred areas. These photos show an alternative way of capturing a photographs and also display elements of the area I also captured in my photographs.
I looked through the photos I took on the shoot and using the flag tool and the p and x keys I quickly selected any images that I wanted to take further, this also gave me the opportunity to hide any images which were technically inaccurate or that I didn’t like. After doing this I was left with around 100/350 images that had been flagged, I then went through these to narrow the selection down by giving each image a star rating. finally I went through the 4 and 5 star photos and highlighted my favourite 20 images in green.
Lewis Bush, a professional photographer helping us with this project, came into our lesson and sat down with each of us helping us to find a theme in our chosen 20 images which we could develop further to help our images look more unique. we discussed how I had taken a lot of photos in and around churches and that a common theme in my images could be religious symbolism. I had photos of the church structures, the people involved with them and interesting scenes I found within them.
After Talking to Lewis I refined my selection further so that I had a series of 6-10 images which had more in common and could lead to further development in my project. I quickly edited these photos in Lightroom by balance colours and highlight and shadows, I also slightly crop and straiten them if they needed it.
From this I am going to plan a second shoot where I focus in more on my theme and try to develop and link and style in my photos. I am also interested in experimenting using flash and channeling light so that only parts of the frame are illuminated, I did this this a few of my photos from the first shoot and really liked how they turned out.
We were split into groups and allocated a sector of town each, my ground was given the pink section on the map which included things such as Springfield sport centre, the mason temple and various churches. We decided to look at the area on google maps before we went out on the shoot to get an idea of what we wanted to photograph.
This tower block is currently under development, it could be an interesting subject and link to our project of the future of St Helier. It is also one of the tallest buildings in Town and sticks high above all the other block buildings which are all at the same level.
Concept: I want to explore the area I have been given and take inspiration form what I find and scenes I witness. I aim to show how the area currently looks and anything which shows how it might develop in the future.
Location: I will take photos in my allocated area of St. Helier, there are different areas that i have looked into on google earth which I defiantly want to take photos of but i will also wonder around the streets to see what captures my attention.
Lighting: I will use natural lighting whilst outside and depending on the environment inside I might use flash to illuminate any dark settings.
Michelle Sank is a social demographic photographer who was born in Cape Town, South Africa and lived there until 1987. She takes photos which reflect human condition and can be seen as a style of documentary photography regarding social issues and cultural diversity. She captures, collects and re-tells her encounters with people in certain communities. She is well known for her work with the youth and has various series of photos on this topic. These photos have a sort of coming of age theme where the subjects are dealing with adolescent struggles and trying to find their own identity and place in the world. She allows her subjects to be completely themselves helping their personality show through n the images rather than adapting them to look ‘Normal’. I like the way the subjects look so comfortable and unaffected by the presence of a photographer yet there is also something unnerving about the photos due to how real they are despite being composed and set up.
In 2013 Michelle Sank visited and stayed in Jersey for 6 months working on the Archisle project and Insula. her collection features mainly staged portraits along with some landscape work to help provide context and setting to the collection. Insula is a response to nineteenth century portrait photographers who captured the wealth in the island. The images show the cultural geography of the island from the perspective of an outsider. The photos play around the topic of emotion, culture, politics, economics and island life. They were taken as part of the Archisle contemporary photography programme at the Societe Jersiase photo archive.
Technical: This photo has been taken using natural lighting, due to the harsh shadows, and bright colours it looks as though it was a sunny day. The shadows give the image high contrast which makes the minimal colours in the image pop. The background is slightly blurred which could means a medium aperture was used to subtly change the depth of field so that the camera focuses more the subject. A low sensitivity shutter speed has been used to capture a sharp and still image. The image has a slight cool tone which cancels out any orange tones from the strong sun light making it more of . colour accurate image.
Visual: The colours in this photograph are very simple, blue, green and various shades of brown. This makes us, the viewer focus in on the detail and texture in the image such as the lettering on the bench and the material of the ladies clothes. The composition of this image is interesting, although it looks a bit like a documentary style image of two old ladies sitting on a park bench we can tell some parts of the image have been set up. Firstly the subjects ere aware that they are being photographed and are looking directly at the camera, this subjects they had a conversation with the photographer. the photo has also been taken from a slightly low angle so we are looking up at the subjects. The women are sitting upright with their hands on their laps which looks slightly staged and unnatural but also helps to create a formal tone to the image. I think an interesting part of the composition which the photographer has considered is the word on the bench reading ‘gaze’. The subjects could be considered to be gazing at the camera, the one closest to us has a frown and the one further away is slightly smiling, this could be a coincidence but it also could have been set up by the photographer to create a contrasting mood to the image.
In 1873 the Société Jersiaise was formed as a museum and library for all types of records, photos, monuments and buildings. A significant amount of their library is photographic, as a form of recording in a documentary style. Over the last 140 years they have accumulated over 100,000 photos of the island, especially in the late 19th early 20th century when photographers such as Percy Dunham.
there is very little information about Percival Dunham was before 1911 when he came to the island, so his birth marriage and baptism are unknown. He is known as Jersey’s first photojournalist and took over 1,000 photos during a very brief period (1913-14). He had a photography business at 57 bath street when he arrived in the island and had already taken photos for events such as the Battle Of Flowers. He worked for different local publishers (illustrated weekly and the morning news) and eventually The Evening Post who in the years leading up to the war had not used photographs in their papers. Before Dunham the only photos published in the local papers were portraits or promotional for advertisers. In 1914 he left the island to serve in the 1st world war as a gunner. He survived the war and returned to Jersey, where he had married Miss M Mourant at St Simon’s Church and lived until 1961.
His work has been desplayed in an exhibition at the jersey art centre which contained 40 images. Over 1,000 of his photographs are stored at the Société Jersiaise some of which can be viewed on their website. His photographs show Jersey life leading up to and after the first world war which was a huge even which shaped and effected the island. His style of photojournalism which captured people in a candid style was very new at the time which made his photos different and recognisable.
Technical: This photograph has been taken using natural lighting with a more wide angle lens. It has a short depth of field which creates a slightly blurred background bringing the focus to the two women in the foreground of the image.
Contextual: This photograph was probably taken in 1913-14 when Percival Dunham took most of his photos in jersey. In the image we can see Two women dressed up with big floral hats standing by their bicycles outside the Town Hall.
Visual: It is a black and white image with a high contrast helping to give the image life and character. The depth in the image helps to give it good 3D form with the details in the background helping to give context. The photo has an interesting composition with the subjects taking up 2/3of the frame which helps it look less stage and adds to the candid style.
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age that was inhabited by Celtic tribes this included jersey. The area which we now call St Helier was first used as a fishing village on the dunes between the marshy land behind and the high-water mark. The parish church was built on the water front in the 12th century where boats were tied to the walls surrounding it, now due to the reclaimed land sits a lot further in land. Elizabeth Castle was built in the early 1600’s due to Mont Orgueil no longer being sufficient for the cannons being used to defend the island and town.
18th Century: The town consisted of mainly houses, shops and warehouses along the coast and surrounding the church and market (Royal square from 1751). £200 was given by George II towards the construction of a new harbour, before this boats beached themselves on a low tide and good were transported over the beaches to hard land. In 1781 the royal square was home to The Battle of Jersey, a scene from this event is captured in the famous painting by John Singleton Copley‘s
Copley, John Singleton; The Battle of Jersey; Victoria College, Jersey; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-battle-of-jersey-137676
19th Century: Roads built for military purposes made it possible for farmers to transport their goods from farms to the fast sailing ships and later steamships in St. Helier and then on to Paris and London, this was the start of Jersey’s success in agriculture. In 1820 there was an increase in english speaking people moving to live in Jersey due to the end of the conflict with France, better communication and transport. During the second half of the 19th century roads were widened to allow trucks filled with produces to access the harbour, many ancient buildings were demolished in the town centre for this. Very few building remain in St. Helier from before the 19th century giving the town a victorian character.
20th Century: A tunnel road was built under Fort Regent in the 1960s allowing traffic to avoid the steep hill from the east side of town around the harbour. at this time fort regent was also in the 1960s, income from the developed into a leisure facility which had a cable car to connect it to the town centre. King Street was made into a pedestrian friendly road in the 1970’s as more high street shops moved to the island. Fort Regent leisure centre was later closed in the 90’s.
A masterplan is a long-term planning document that shows a conceptual layout to guide future growth and development of an area. Master planning is about making the connection between buildings, social settings, and their surrounding environments. A master plan includes analysis, recommendations, and proposals for a site’s population, economy, housing, transportation, community facilities, and land use. It is based on public input, surveys, planning initiatives, existing development, physical characteristics, and social and economic conditions. The changes are normally long-term and can be altered based on changing conditions over time.
Already masterplans have been used the the development of St. Helier in the reservation of the Weighbridge into Liberty Wharf shopping centre and in the current finance centre which is under development. Previous to this a lot of land was reclaimed from the sea and made into the water front, this was a huge project which would of used the process of masterplanning to achieve the best result possible. Master
Describe your own view, feelings and vision for how you see the Future of St. Helier?
I do not live in or near St Helier which means when I do go town it is for a specific reason such as shopping, leisure or as a connection point for transport. Currently I think st helier is a well developed part of the island which provides facilities for all the people who live work and visit there, I also think it is full of tradition and although it has been constantly evolving ever since the war there are still key features which have always been the same. After listening to the plans on the development of the water front including the finance centre I feel that the heart and sole of the island is slowly being taken away. The two new buildings on castle street look very modern and help to bring life to this area of town however I think the buildings look like any other city building and lack personality connecting them to the unique island. Jersey will never have a big city due to it’s size, so I don’t think the architecture should make it out to be something that it is not. On the other hand I also think that if jersey is going to be developed further and be built up in more areas there are ways space can be saved and the landscape can be made more interesting at the same time. There is currently a limit to the height of buildings in town which makes the skyline look very flat and boring, if permission could be granted to build up instead of out on some buildings it could ultimately save space town.
I also think St Helier needs to improve and change its rules on transport, due to the high concentration of people who commute around and through the town area, the traffic is becoming worse and worse. I think for such a small area there could be a much more efficient transport system which could work for everyone. In large cities such as London the traffic is limited when going through the city centre to reduce cramming and pollution in built up areas. This is done through a toll gate where vehicles pay to enter, a similar system could be used to prevent traffic in jersey as well as public transport such busses being made even more accessible from all parts of the island.
High rent for homes and shops is making it hard for independent businesses which give St Helier is Uniqueness to stay open, if these prices cary n going up we are going to see more and more chain companies and shops replacing them making town look like a clone of main land city.
Michelle Sank is a social demographic photographer who was born in Cape Town, South Africa and lived there until 1987. She takes photos which reflect human condition and can be seen as a style of documentary photography regarding social issues and cultural diversity. She captures, collects and re-tells her encounters with people in certain communities. She is well known for her work with the youth and has various series of photos on this topic. These photos have a sort of coming of age theme where the subjects are dealing with adolescent struggles and trying to find their own identity and place in the world. She allows her subjects to be completely themselves helping their personality show through n the images rather than adapting them to look ‘Normal’. I like the way the subjects look so comfortable and unaffected by the presence of a photographer yet there is also something unnerving about the photos due to how real they are despite being composed and set up.
there is very little information about Percival Dunham was before 1911 when he came to the island, so his birth marriage and baptism are unknown. He is known as Jersey’s first photojournalist and took over 1,000 photos during a very brief period (1913-14). He had a photography business at 57 bath street when he arrived in the island and had already taken photos for events such as the Battle Of Flowers. He worked for different local publishers (illustrated weekly and the morning news) and eventually The Evening Post who in the years leading up to the war had not used photographs in their papers. Before Dunham the only photos published in the local papers were portraits or promotional for advertisers. In 1914 he left the island to serve in the 1st world war as a gunner. He survived the war and returned to Jersey, where he had married Miss M Mourant at St Simon’s Church and lived until 1961.
