These are the top 10 images which i have come to the decision that would work best to create a sequence and narrative with. Not only are these some of my strongest images but i have selected them due to the fact they will best help me convey the messages about St Helier which i am passionate about. These messages include the dereliction that is clearly present in St Helier, which makes the town unpleasant. I have also selected some images that demonstrate the construction present to show how this should be occurring on the sites that have been left abandoned.
   

RED = UNSUCCESSFUL 

YELLOW = SUCCESSFUL / POSSIBLE USE

GREEN = SUCCESSFUL / USE FOR EDITING PROCESS

Photograph 1

This is the original photograph with no cropping done as of yet. I believe this photo will be effective to focus in on different aspects to change the ideas portrayed.

I believe this edit helps to portray the shape and alignment of the church and almost demonstrates how the church is aligned behind the buildings. This is because the narrow crop reflects how narrow and skinny churches are compared to their height. This photo could possibly represent how religion in St Helier is not respected. This is because the building in front of the church appears to be pretty torn up as if the area is pretty rough which contrasts with the ideas of Christianity which is showing respect towards everything and being peaceful. 

For this crop I have focused in on the church and the dominant factor it has compared to all the buildings below it. It appears to be tall and superior which could imply that religion is a key aspect to St Helier. This demonstrates a strong sense of community within St Helier.

This cropping focuses on the dirty, torn up building which shows a sense of poverty and destruction that is present within the area of St Helier. By cropping out the church, the whole concept of the photograph has been altered.

Photograph 2

This is the original photograph with no cropping.

For this photograph I narrowed down the image to ensure that there are no distractions to the focus of the image which is the mans happiness. I cropped it so that the viewer can too look towards the direction the man is positioned and looking.

The cropping of this image focuses directly on the man and his happiness with the modern park that he is in. The main attraction, thus being the water fountain, is what i photographed through and clearly the man is enjoying it. This shows that St Helier’s recent developments are benefiting our community and they’re enjoying it.

For this photo shoot, I wanted to capture the modernization of St Helier and show the development which is occurring to improve the area and build a stronger community. When wondering around the area i noticed that the development was a lot less centered around community but more around making life better for others with new modern buildings, and what appears to be making St Helier more futuristic.

These few photos above demonstrate a sense of community without actual people being there. This is because of the nature of the place I have photographed and the goals/aspirations of the people that run the building. The building is the freedom church which once was a cinema. Both attractions designed to bring people together and build a sense of community. The freedom church aims to bring youngsters off the streets at night causing trouble and provide a safe place for them to hang out. These photos provide a strong juxtaposition with my second photo shoot that focuses on the destruction of the area which relates to the kids causing trouble on the streets and vandalizing buildings.

RED = UNSUCCESSFUL 

YELLOW = SUCCESSFUL / POSSIBLE USE

GREEN = SUCCESSFUL / USE FOR EDITING PROCESS

For this photo shoot my intentions were to capture the destruction of the area i was allocated. I did this by shooting derelict buildings which had a sense of usage and were clearly left abandoned. I wanted to bring an awareness to the community of St Helier that these buildings are wasting space and could be used for something that would benefit our island.  I also intended on bringing a strong contrast between the old vs new of St Helier which would truly show how wasteful the abandoned buildings are.

This photo displays a clear contrast between new vs old within St Helier. This strong contrasts helps to alarm the viewer and bring a sense of annoyance as the viewer can see what is capable in the destroyed area however it still remains ruined. The textures are interesting in this photo, with the new building having soft calming textures to reflect a bright future however the derelict building in front conveys very tough and ridged textures. The way i decided to compose this image was to have the derelict building in front to show that this is a key issue standing between us and the bright future for St Helier.

I think this photo is very effective in portraying the idea that Jersey needs development to help the future of St Helier. The photo has the idea that we are looking through a portal into the future of St Helier and if we carry on the way we are going, the future of St Helier is as displayed, destroyed. This is effective in raising awareness of this issue and connecting with the audience in bringing a realization to this issue.

I believe that this shoot was successful in portraying the decline of the area i was allocated however showing the hope for it by including some direct contrasts between the dereliction of buildings and the new structures. This helps to show the viewer that there is large room for development within St Helier which would not only improve the aesthetics of the area but also help to build a community. I have edited most of the images with low saturation and high contrast and clarity, dark shadows and increased blacks to give this sinister feeling to represent my views on this destruction.

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.