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A2 Personal Investigation, AO4 Present Ideas, Final Outcome

Final Prints

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I chose to lay my images out in a grid, taking inspiration from Typologies that showcase variations of the same thing; in this case, rubbish. The layout is also inspired by methods of classification, commonly used in scientific processes. This is why I chose to use only images with a black background to serve as a standardised feature amongst all images.

  • All images are A5 to fit on one board.
  • I placed both images of balls in the centre row on either side as a way of balancing out the visual aesthetic.

A2 Personal Investigation, Analysis, AO4 Present Ideas, Evaluation, Final Outcome

analysis, sequencing and development of final book display

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The sequencing and development of final photo-book, started off with thinking and discussing the final theme and narrative story which I want to show throughout my book. I believed I wanted it to still have strong connotations to the sublime, but also relations to emotions given off by the images. This then led me to ask myself, which of my shoots were the most successful, yet also work together through a sub- chronological story. To my mind, I believe my most powerful, emotional and successful shoots I have so far, are the sublime water ones. This leads me to choose the primary imagery from 4 shoots, and the other 10 shoots to be used to separate and create a more interesting narrative, yet without removing the theme that I want. I then wanted to choose a handful of 50 images from the primary shoots, and an additional 20 additional edits and images from the shoots less linked to the sublime, in order to create a variation and to keep interest throughout the photo book. These images where then categorise to what sizes would be most complimentary for their simply. So I ended up with a variation of images able to be on a double page spread e.t.c. I was very careful that when I started my composition for the book itself, not to allow two similar images, or similar layouts of images next to each-other and this repetition does not look correct and does not feel natural when going through the book. I wanted the structure to flow easily, yet still have a clear peak interest in each and every one of the images I used landscapes, and underwater images in order to operate many of The portrait’s throughout my work. Although all of the images have a clear conviction and interest of a certain point or another, It was still clearly apparent I needed an interesting set of images to divide up my photo-book. Because of This I decided to add images which have a mystical influence of rocks covered in different developments of rainbow patterns.

The development of my photo-book:

Other options, I decided on my final layout however as there was a good natural flow of colour synergy and the amount fo images within he dynamics of portraiture and landscapes.

My final photo book presentation:

 

Front cover and back cover:

I chose this image in particular for many reasons, The first being the dark tones and deepness of the water creates a sense fo mystery and reinforces he fact of the book being about pleasure and pain. Secondly the use of water in itself is important as this is a key essence continuously repeated throughout my photo-book. So I believe it is a necessity to demonstrate clearly what will also be seen within my book. The front cover is also quite interesting in that side is quite abstract, it is divided into two half,  giving away any information about the rest of the image itself. This plain front allows a clear and informative title, which can easily be shown. However due to the amount of portraits within the book itself, To have a face visible as part of the front cover is important. However due to it only being visible on the back is interesting as it almost creates a narrative experience, and puts the aspect of human vs nature all into one narrative image. This is why I feel as though this image is definitely the most successful.

what my book title is and why:

I chose ‘The Evolution Of Essentialism’ Due to it being a pivotal part of my photography essay, additionally, essentialism has a clear link to water as it is a primary part of living, so also creates a clear indication of my subject from right at the beginning. The evolution part links in well throughout how water can be linked back to romanticism, Pictorialism and surrealism yet still be used to make an array of different sublime imagery seen through portraiture and landscape, as seen within the book.

The stories I used within my final photo-book are the following:

1:“Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime,
attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt”

2:’A meditation rose on me that night
Upon the lonely mountain when the scene
Had passed away, and it appeared to me
The perfect image of a mighty mind,
Of one that feeds upon infinity,
That is exalted by an under-presence,
The sense of God, or whatso’er is dim
Or vast in its own being’

3:“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”

4:’The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,The mountain, and
the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite;
a feeling and a love’

 

A2 Personal Investigation, AO4 Present Ideas

Link to Final Photobook

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Link to my Photobook,Waste

In the final version, I changed the cover images to what was originally the first pages in the book. I felt that these images were more powerful in portraying my ideas as well as captivating the essence of my project.

I summed the topic of my project in one word being ‘Waste’ as it reflects the three concepts behind my work:

  1. The ‘Waste’ featured in the images

2. The action behind humans throwing away the things they do not consider important

3. The consequences of disposing items to ‘Waste’ away.

The title is written sideways to give a ‘scientific document’ feel.

A2 Personal Investigation, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Evaluation of Political Landscape

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Going into exploring ‘political landscape’ initially I knew that I wanted to explore the development of my house over time and my experience of living within a house that is constantly changing and never truly finished.  I had my vision of what I wanted to do but I had to do some research to find inspiration on how to approach my project.  The first set of photographers that I studied were Bression and Ayesta and Fernando Maselli.  Bression and Ayesta focused on human memories and how the Fukushima exclusion zone has changed over time without human inhabitants having an influence over it whereas Maselli looked more at nature and land that had been untouched by humans.  I started to lean more towards Bression and Ayesta’s style as I felt that their project ‘Retracing Our Steps’ had a strong narrative throughout it whilst including a human element, which inspired me to include some archival and new family portraits.  I then started to explore the work of Lewis Bush – specifically his work ‘Metropole’ in which he photographed buildings with a double exposure effect in order to create a sense of confusion.  After creating a response to this I decided that this would not be an appropriate way to show the story of the development of my house.  I then found Huang Qingjun who had a strong body of work titled ‘Jiading’ which explored the modernisation of China and how the rural population had been affected – I felt that this was an appropriate project to take inspiration from as it brought a real human element to the table as well as exploring building and social trends in an area (which is seen in my project as the fashion of houses and clothing changes over time).  From here I took inspiration from the idea that Qingjun was looking at the belongings of the residents, and so I photographed the belongings of my dad, who is a carpenter with his own workshop, because he developed the house in his own vision and design with only help in specialist areas.  For this reason I felt that it was important to show an aspect of what goes into developing a house.  I took a lot of inspiration for my project from the straight photography movement as I aimed to create the photographs in this project in a documentary style in order to show things for what they are.   This interest in a documentary style approach led to the inclusion of lots of archival photographs of the house that were taken by my parents throughout the renovation as well as photographs dating back to the 1800’s.

Overall, I had a vision for what I wanted to do from the start and throughout the project the idea of how I would approach the project changed as I researched more and more.  I believe that the changing approaches helped me to achieve an outcome that was thoroughly researched and well put together as well as including a lot of the many aspects that come under the title ‘political landscape’.  Through this project, I have learnt that doing plenty of research is a priority when trying to find your approach – it can bring lots of inspiration to you and force you to think in ways that you had not previously thought about leading to more original and interesting ideas.  This project has taught me a lot about how much editing and experimenting goes into creating a photobook – halfway through the project I thought that I was nearly finished and so put together a selection of photographs only to find that the selection was missing something in a few areas and so I went out and increased the portfolio of photographs which ended up adding more complexity and sub-narratives to the book.  It is clear that experimenting with different ideas is essential for a successful project rather than being narrow-minded and sticking to one idea and allowing that to guide your decisions.

 

A2 Personal Investigation, Analysis, AO4 Present Ideas

Final Photobook and Evaluation

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71 pages

Evaluation of Project and Photo Book:

In conclusion, I think i approached the project Political Landscapes successfully and developed my concept of the changing environment thoroughly. I started my project with the intention of exploring issues of pollution and plastic specifically, taking inspiration from the photographer Mandy Barker and experimented in my first shoot by taking images with string infront of the lens looking at rules of manipulation. I then found the photobook ‘The Meadow’ by photographers Barbara Bosworth and Margot Anne Kelley which is what first interested me in photographing and exploring specific areas, as well as gathering objects and photographing them. I also discovered the photographer Chrystel Lebas and her photobook ‘Field Studies: Walking through Landscapes and Archives’ which is where I read about the changing environment. She compared her modern images to the photography of Edward James Salisbury in the early 20th century and walked in his footsteps, going to the same areas he did to explore how the environment had changed over 100 years. This is where I decided that the concept for my project would be looking at how the natural environment had changed over 90 years at the location La Motte. I found archival images from this area and thought i would build my photobook around them, comparing and contrasting them to my own images. I noticed Lebas’ influences from sublime ideologies by Edmund Burkina his book ‘Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful’,with her images being vast and other-worldly, which is an aspect I wanted to reflect in my own work.  From then on, I did an additional five shoots where i went and took landscape images of La Motte and at the same time gathered natural objects that i found on the island and the beach i.e. rocks, seaweed, flowers. I did multiple shoots where I photographed these objects formally with plain background and edited them to reflect the work of early botanists where they used light sensitive paper to create photograms. I did this as i thought it would give my project and photobook a scientific appearance and reflect that of an investigation into a specific area. Towards my final shoots, I walked around La Motte and tried to find man made objects that I could photograph to perhaps represent how the natural landscape had changed.

The front and back cover of my photobook is the same continuous archival image taken at La Motte showing the eastern end of the grave with E T Nicolle, J Sinel and J Sinel junior within the photo. I choose this as my front and back cover as I think it intrigues the reader and I also specifically liked the composition. The earth of green island fills up 3/4 of the image with the man on the bottom level looking up towards the two men at the top. Also I think because it is in black and white it creates a more authentic and historical appearance for the book. I didn’t include the title of the book on the front cover, and just had it along the spine off the book so there was more mystery when opening the book. The first page contains the title of the book ‘La Motte’ and the sub title ‘Walking through Landscapes and Archives’ which is inspired by Chrystel Lebas’s book title ‘Field Studies: Walking through Landscapes and Archives’ as her photo book is something I take a lot of inspiration from in my project, so including the same sub title immediately connects my work to hers. The second page contains an full page photo of one of the images from my photogram section in my book. I thought that I would include this as my first image as I think that it interests the reader about my project without giving too much away. On the other page I included the text: “La Motte is a tidal island, and listed archaeological site, also known as Green Island, located in the Vingtaine de Samarès in the parish of St Clement on the south-east coast of Jersey, Channel Islands.” I did this so the reader had some background information about the area they will be looking at and by informing them about the history makes the project more understandable. On the forth and fifth page i included an archivel image across the two pages of of the naturalist and archaeologist Joseph Sinel at the excavation. I used this as a double page as i liked the diagonal shape of the earth, making an interesting composition, as well as the position Sinel is sitting in.  I then contrasted this image with the sixth and seventh page showing one of my own images. I used the same layout, but mirrored, creating variety in the sequence of the book. I chose this image to contrast with the archival one as i liked the bright blue sky and detailed rocks in the foreground in comparison to the black and white image of the earth. Also because of the similar composition of the diagonal line and shape in the center of the image. This creates a more modern interpretation of the archival one. For the next two double pages I contrasted one of my images to an archival one using a full page and a smaller photo as the layout on the first double page, and the mirrored on the second. This creates the repetition of mirroring the layout to the previous one, producing a more interesting sequence of images. I included more text in these two double pages about the excavation and what was found there as that is what is happening in the archival images displayed and by explaining more about it makes the book easier to understand. The 12th and 13th page is the fist double page image inside my photo book. I chose this image as the liked how it has different sections all showing different aspects of the beach ie. blue sky, rocks, sand, creating an interesting composition for a double page spread. In the 14th and 16th double pages I chose to display the images 3/4 of the way onto the oppsite page as if these image were displayed as full pages I think hat important detail would be cut off due to how the book would be printed. By diplaying the images like this it shows more of the details in the images, with less being cut off. Especially on the 16th double page where the main subject of the image in the incinerator which is centered, meaning that this would be cut off in printing. Across these two double pages I mirrored the layout again to keep variety in the sequence.

For the rest of the landscape images in my photo book, 8 double pages display one of my modern images contrasted alongside an archival one. When chosing these combinations I tried to find similarities between the two images so that they would complement each other but also contrast each other. For example the 21st page displays one of my images of the earth of green island at a close up angle which i contrasted with a similar archival image of the earth from the early 20th century on the opposite page. In my image i tried to emphasise the warm colours, as well as the light and shadows. This then contrasts to the black and white of the archival image, complementing each other. Another example is the 25th page where I used the archival image of a skull and contrast it to one of my modern image, the main subject being a rock.  I think this this combination of images works well as the shape of the bright rock in my image resembles the shape of a skull and is a similar colour. This creates a link between the two images which I think makes a good layout, linking the past to the present. When editing I brightened the rock so it was more noticeable, which i think also makes the link more noticeable. I also like the contrast in the background of the two images. The archival image has a lack background as it’s a formally taken photo, this then contrast to the background of my image which is brown rocks, adding more detail to the image. I also used various full double page images where I specifically edited them so they have emphasised blue tones to increase the vastness to reflect sublime. I used the graduated filter in light room to make the skies more dramatic and to contrast more the bottom halves of the images.The one layout which was completely different to any other landscape imagery was on the 41st page where i only displayed one image across the double page spread, one of the page being blank. I chose this layout for this image as I think that it’s a powerful image and by putting emphasise on it will make the reader pay more attention to it. I specifically like this image for many reasons, the main one being the cross in the center of the image that I think links to the previous archival imagery of the excavations where they found bodies. I also like the composition in this image as it is split into three sections , with the cross in the centre of them. The bottom part is darker part of the image, the dark brown tones contrasting to the light blue ones in the sea. The tones in the  bottom part of the image link to that on the horizon which creates a more aesthetically pleasing image. This is also because the blue tones in the sea complement the colour of the sky.

Towards the end of my photo book I included a series of images completely different to the landscape images in the first part of my book. I was inspired by the work of Chrystel Lebas in her photo book ‘Field Studies’ where she included a section towards the end called ‘Plant Portraits or Weeds & Aliens Species’ taking inspiration from the way Edward Salisbury documented species by uprooting them and photographing them by using  photogenic paper- she produce her own interpretations of his work. I tried to create the appearance of a photo gram by inverted the images and adjusting the hues to create variations of the same image. I then displayed these together in my photo book. I also think these edits reflect the photograms that early botanists made with light. One example is Anna Atkins’ photograms of algae in 1843 which is a botanist i took inspiration from in my 5th photoshoot.  I then ended my photobook with a single full page image of the rope i found at La Motte as I think it represents how the landscape has changed from a fully natural one, to one that’s now has man made objects affecting the natural environment.

Overall, I think my photo book sums up my political landscapes project well, the images showing the final outcomes of my developed ideas. I think that the contrast between the archival images of La Motte and my own images is effective in representing how the natural environment is changing. Also the edited variations of the objects I gathered shows the final outcomes of the colour experimentation i developed throughout my project. Photographing natural landscape is an aspect to photography I wasn’t as used to as I normally focus on buildings and industrial structures and by moving away from this, I think i produced a range of images that are unlike any I’ve photographed before with a different appearance and atmosphere.

Here is an online link to my photobook: La Motte: Walking through Landscapes and Archives

A2 Personal Investigation, AO4 Present Ideas

Final Prints

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Final Print Layout Experimentation:

For my printed images I chose the ones that represented all aspects of my photo book. The landscape images I have chosen show when i went out at different times of the day and in different weathers. The biggest A3 image is from a  shoot where I went out and photographed the landscape at dusk to produce work that had blue and cool tones within the scene to create a mysterious, other-worldly appearance. I chose this image as my only A3 image as i wanted to emphasise it as i think it gives an insight into the landscape images I produced in this projects. I then chose four A4 images to be printed where i have three of my own photos that have more detail within them and also an archival image. I included more detailed images to contrast with the A3 landscape images as i wanted to show how my photos vary in the angles they were taken and what is portrayed.

I included a archival images into my final prints as my project was based around how the landscape had changed over the period of 100 years so I thought that including them would also give an insight into what my project was about and the history of the area. The A4 archival image shows the layers within Green Island when they were doing an excavation and also shows three men in it which i think contrasts well with my images. The A5 archival image is of a skull which was found at La Motte which i included as I think it goes well with the a$ images where it shows light rock, the shape resembling a skull as well. For the rest of my A5 image I included 3 of my formal images where i photographed objects I found at La Motte in a studio and edited them so that they mimic that of a photogram. I did this to interpret the work of Chrystel Labas and included them in my final prints as they were a different aspect to my project.

I experimented by arranging the image in photo shop to see which layout was the best to arrange the printed ones in and  found I liked the last layout. This is because I think that the images are balanced on each side so that one section doesn’t have too many of the same sized photo. I also like it because the images are displayed spaced out and not in a grid format, but it still looks structured and deliberate as some of the images are lined up at there edges. I tried the place images around colours that complement the ones in the picture. For example, I placed The two yellow and red edit of flowers and rocks next to each other as they are from the same series and the warm colours yellow and red complement each other. I then placed the landscape image of the rock with the yellow surface above these two images as this also complements the yellow and red colours. This creates a section of my layout that contains warm colours, which can then be contrasted to other sections of my board.

I then placed the archival image of the skull diagonal to my image looking down at the white rock as I displayed these together in my photo book. This is because I think that the shape of the skull resembles that of the rock so displaying them together creates a link between the two. I then placed the other archival image to the left which is the only image on my board that contains people. I specially chose this image to use as I liked the compostion of where the figures are standing at different levels on the earth of green island. I also think that it links to my image t of a close up angle of the earth on green island on the top right of my board showing the plants and grass growing. I think that the other layouts i experimented with are still effective, but are not as aesthetically pleasing and balanced as the first.

 

A2 Personal Investigation, Analysis, AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

text to put inside my photobook

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I belive after much research it would probably be too much text if I were to research stories, because of this I belive I will focus on quotes and short stories about the sublime. I wanted to start off by looking at poems which attempt to describe the sublime, which is a great relation to the subjectivity it has. With this I believe it would be possible to connect these explanation of what someone sees and connect them to my own imagery. The poems are divided into more abstract and contemporary feeling describing what the sublime is, combined with a more of a defiant research by a philosopher or writer describing what he thinks the sublime is, and what it means to people.

A meditation rose on me that night
Upon the lonely mountain when the scene
Had passed away, and it appeared to me
The perfect image of a mighty mind,
Of one that feeds upon infinity,
That is exalted by an under-presence,
The sense of God, or whatso’er is dim
Or vast in its own being (1805 Prelude, lines 66-73)

I chose this short part of a poem written by William Wordsworth as it reflects on his experience. The means by which ‘Nature’ transforms the mist into an ocean. It’s quite comprehensive and subjective as a text in its relation to each person, but this is why it is successful, as it mimics the feeling to that of the sublime.

Is with infinitude, and only there;
With hope it is, hope that can never die,
Effort, and expectation, and desire,
And something evermore about to be. (1805 Prelude, lines 538-42)

The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,The mountain, and
the deep and gloomy wood 
,Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite
; a feeling and a love (our emphasis 76-81
“Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt”
― Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
“And I find a happiness in the fact of accepting —
In the sublimely scientific and difficult fact of accepting the inevitable natural.”
― Alberto Caeiro, The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro

“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”

 

analysis:
After speaking to one of my photography teachers, I know the importance of the size and where the text lies on the page, and to make sure it is not too crowded. Because this I have above experimented with three different forms which I could lay out my book. The first being a short poem, which is quite large over the page. I believe the poem, first off, being next to this image is successful. The image itself is quite ambiguous yet does inflict connotations of loneliness abandonment and mystery. Because of this the poem discuses a lonely girl mimicking a lovely landscape which she believes to be sublime. To my mind this is a perfect example of a text and image helping each other in order to further evoke an emotion and a narrative story for discussion. However an important aspect which I need to change, is the sizing of the text. This on screen does not look large but when it is printed, this will overwhelm the page and make the layout look too messy with the large gapping. Overall I belive this double page spread with this text is successful and I will further develop this to my final cut of the book.
The second composition I experimented with I am less keen on. I  wanted to experiment with this image because it is a mimicked expression as what the sublime stands for. Her being underwater and face divided shows a beauty and inevitability of death yet peacefulness. Because of this the image should be displayed on a much a larger level. However due to the poem I chose being quite long to the extent of the space the text overwhelms and creates the page lookout to be too busy and then takes away from the poem , instead of enhancing the image itself. I believe the poem I have used already is successful on its own but the overall composition with this a layout, even with a smaller text is not very successful, and should not be used for the final edit of the book.
The last layout is a long extended poem discussing the limitlessness of beauty. These go hand in hand with the young girl in a deep tonal colours with a light shining on her, this symbolises her beauty, and  due to its darker tones also creates an aspect of Pictorialism within the photo. The boarder use also frees up space making the text look less crammed for space The smallness of the text itself also works and due to its shortness this once again enhances the image and I should develop this further, and possibly keep this as a final composition.