My first response to Tanya Deman and the conflict between urban landscapes and the natural land. I wanted to show a direct juxtaposition between natural land and urban landscapes by combining them together to show the effects that humans are having on our natural environment. With an edit time of around 2 hours I decided only doing this one edit however i will follow it up with more.

Original Photos

Editing Process, Layers and Steps 

I think this edit has been successful in showing a clear impact that humans are having to our natural environment. Clearly the city scape built up on the beach is unrealistic however this use of over exaggerations helps the viewer understand that these buildings are destroying nature. With how the development of urban areas is increasing, i think it is a huge concern for our rural areas staying rural. Through images like this one, i believe it will help people understand this problem and in turn help to reduce the densely vastly growing urban landscapes.

Tanja Deman’s art is inspired by her interest in the perception of space and her relationship to nature. Tanja’s works, incorporating photography, collage, video and public art, are evocative meditations on urban space and landscape. Observing recently built legacy or natural sites her work investigates the sociology of space and reflects dynamics hidden under the surface of both the built and natural environment. Tanya Deman’s recent photo compositions have taken the relationship between the built environment and natural landscape to its illogical extremes. The dreamy (uh, nightmarish perhaps) images depict familiar urban forms like skyscrapers and highways, dropped into precarious mountain terrains.

What most interested me about Tanya’s work is how she points a surreal spotlight on the relationship between nature and humans. Her work acts as a voice to humans about the problems we are having to nature and the environmental problems we are enhancing/creating. This is really intriguing to me as I have a strong interest in preserving our environment and keeping it untouched by humans. As a response to this work i intend to create compositions that clearly highlight a significant comparison between the nature and urban landscapes.

I think the image above conveys a very powerful story about the relationship between urban landscapes and the nature. My interpretation of this manipulated image is that at the rate humans are developing our land with buildings, one day we will have no natural land to see. Therefore going to the theatre is the only way that people can see the natural land due to the destruction of it. There are many other ways this can be interpreted for example, the message that nature needs to be appreciated mimicking the way in which people appreciate theatre performances. However most interpretations will follow the intended message of the photographer about having respect for our natural land and bring a realisation of the harsh man made urban development.

My primary inspiration for this shoot is the themes of romanticism and surrealism found within a landscape, And also using a seascape to continue the use of water throughout the book narrative. I saw an artists and I was inspired by his work and how he focuses on the beauty and mystery within the landscapes of old derelict buildings and also the lighting and composition of nature natural light. I am not only inspired by this artists work but also have the aspiration to capture slow shutter speed and long exposure images for water landscapes. Again I want to do this shoot in order to create beautiful imagery of the environment themselves which I can use in order to separate from the more surreal portraiture imagery. This shoot will be divided into two over- ruiling  sections in order to capture both that of  more eerie natural landscapes that have water, and then seascapes themselves. Both of which should connote different atmospheres of mystery and pain. Which both fit into that of the sublime. Not only this but the mystery aspect of the shoot itself, has successful connotations to that of the ,mystery of the sirens. Once more the almost dampness to the imagery still shows the elements of water without being too repetitive in the way it is shown. The second half of this shoot will be more focused around that of water, and sea scapes. I have spoken about this previously, with wanting to  show further experimentation of shutter speeds, and also the action of water and also achieving the atmosphere I want, What time and what type of attitude and emotion I get depending on what time I go and what beach. Due to the relevancy of water to want that to be evident within the images themselves, to not overpower the images, as I am already using this as a separation  from the portraiture and more developed surreal of the other sets of imagery.

My shoot:analysis : I decided to do the shoot at around 3:30-4:30, this was around sunset, and the highest the tide could be without it being too dark to actually see the water itself. To start off my three objects of my shoots, which were to get slow motion shutter speeds of the sea, and overview of the beach and as a whole the environment and lastly going into more damp areas to record the way to which the environment looks when it is more mysterious and such. For my first objective I started with the more simplistic shoot, of focusing on the area itself at hand. This being the location and atmosphere I wanted to portray. I decided I wanted to get an array of feeling that could all in some way link to romanticism. In order to do this I experimented within the amount of light I let into the images and the exposure.

For my first location of this shoot, which you can see above was a shoot focused more on the basis of capturing light in different manners, in order to evoke different types of romanticised atmospheres. We have the darker ones which connotes more of typical romanticism, and perhaps evoke emotions of pain and pleasure and an elements of nature vs humans. You too have the ability to see water within all fo these photos. This is important as it

The second shoot was much more a concentrated on an interesting feature within the landscape itself, this being rocks, or a natural composition found. I belive these images have a larger concentration of interest within the narrative of my book, and are subjected to a larger chance of correlation within my work. Unlike the previous shoot, this one is a-lot more harsh, it has a stronger structure and and intensity, it has a-lot less influence than that of the previous romanticism shoot. However my main act for this second shoot was the objective to get images which I would be able to further develop into artists work, such as colouring the rocks with rainbow inspired colours.

My book will be split into 3 sections divided by Poems written by my grandpa acting as the inspiration for each part.Throughout the book to tie it all together I want to present archival family photos and scans of poem notes to give the whole thing context and to link it back to my grandpa.

The First titled ” little changes” was set in his garden where he spent a lot of time during his retirement. Nature and the environment were always very important to him and he used his garden as a space to grow his own veg, flowers and create a habitat for wildlife. I want to take photos of the garden which show signs of life and reflect the title of the poem. I am also interested in taking photos of other family members such as my younger cousins who never got to meet their grandpa but still have a great connection to the garden.

The second poem called “steffi’s Castle” It is based on me when I was a child playing with toys at their house. They had a toy castle which was my dads from when he was younger, along with it were boxes of figures that had been collected by the family over the years including medieval knights, Red Indians and football players. On this occasion I had incorporated all the toys in the toy box into a scene. This is one of many fond memories I have of my time spent with my Grandpa. I want to take photos of the figures mentioned in the poem, I am thinking of doing this on a white infinity background so the details really stand out. I have also considered linking the idea of the castle with another memory I have with him, we used to go for family walks to Gronez Castle which was near there house. I was thinking to take photos of the toys near the real castle and play with perspective and lighting.

The final poem and section of the book is called “tunnelling” it is based on my Grandpas childhood and memories he had with his parents on the island. It talks about family walks on the beach near Corbière lighthouse, for my first photoshoot I want to walk along the same beach and take photos of things that remind me of my grandpa and the poem.

Contact Sheet

 Photoshoot Plan:

Concept: The concept for this shoot is to develop and understanding of my Grandpas poems and what went into writing one, I am going to look through the poems and notes he wrote to give me a starting point for my own photographs. I will record any interesting documents that inspire me by scanning them, this will show the details and textures in the clearest way.

Location: I will go to my grandparents house and look in his study which remains almost exactly the same to how it was when he was alive. This room contains files of his work and reflects what his working environment might have looked like.

Lighting: For the scanning I will use the lighting from the scanner which is very bright and even, giving the images a clean and scientific look. I will also take photos of the process and study setting, for these I will use the natural lighting either from the sun or lamps in the room to set the scene.

I started exploring my Grandpas poems in his anthology and the notes he made whilst writing them, I will look for connections between significant points in his life, political events and memories he shared with other people. I am using this as a starting point to inspire me and help me develop an direction for my project.

When looking through the poems I re read a poem he wrote about me when I was younger, I originally wanted to study it because of the connections I have to it and the personal memories that I could relate it to. However I struggled to find a political connection and a way of linking it to the title of the project, but after reading it a few times I thought of a political metaphor of war which could be interpreted from the poem. It was based on a shared memory we had from my youth, on one occasion whist staying at their house, around the age of 6, I was playing with with a variety of toys which they had collected ever since their own kids were young. These included football figures, knights, Tetley tea characters and Disney princesses. I had created a scene involving all of them which centred with a medieval castle. The Poem describes this in a light humoured way.

Interracial marriage is a form of marriage outside a specific social group  involving spouses who belong to different socially-defined races or radicalized ethnicities. In the past it has been illegal the United States of America and in South Africa as miscegenation. It became legal in the entire United States in 1967 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the case Loving v. Virginia that race-based restrictions on marriages violated the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Interracial relationships have never been illegal in England or Europe, but they might have been frowned upon in society .

One of the most important and significance interracial relationships was between seretse Khama and Ruth Williams, In June 1947, at a dance at Nutford House organised by the London Missionary Society, her sister introduced her to  Prince Seretse Khama. He was the son of the paramount chief Sekgoma II of the Bamangwato people.Their plans to marry caused controversy both with the tribal elders in Bechuanaland and the government of South Africa, which had recently instituted the system of racial segregation known as apartheid.The British government intervened in an attempt to stop the marriage. The Bishop of London, William Wand, said he would permit a church wedding only if the government agreed.The couple married at Kensington register office in September 1948. Julius Nyerere, then a student teacher and later President of Tanzania, said it was “one of the great love stories of the world”. A movie of their story was made in 2017 titled’ A United Kingdom’

One of the most high profile interracial marriages of modern day society is the marriage of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, however there has been backlash from different parts of the black community and the marriage in turn has become very political, as many say they we shouldn’t forget the history of what the British Monarchy/Harry’s family, did to many different countries around the world and this should have been in the forefront of Megan’s when decided to marry him.

As I am mixed race have parents of different races, my father is black, who lives in Leeds the city in which he grew up in, his parents come from the island of St Kitts. My mother is white, and lives in Jersey with me, my mum and was born on island and came back to the island to have me. Her Fathers family lived in jersey, but her mother and her family organically came Guernsey. The met each other in Skyros which is a small island in Greece which is why they decided t call me Sky. They separated why I was two, however they have tried hard to keep in contact with each other as friends. Looking back now that decision was the best thing that they could have done, as I have no memories of their ever being arguments or them having any hate towards each other.

Saint Kitts, also known as Saint Christopher Island, after Christopher Columbus is an island in the West Indies/Caribbean. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighboring island of Nevis constitute one country,  the islands are separated by a shallow 3-kilometer channel known as “The Narrows”

Saint Kitts has a population of around 40,000, the majority of people who are native to the island are of African descent. The primary language is English, the people who live there have coined the name Kittitians, such as Jersey people call themselves Jersey Beans.

Saint Kitts became the first  Caribbean island in which the British and French set up  colonies in the mid 1620s. Along with the island nation of Nevis, Saint Kitts was a member of the British West Indies until gaining independence on September 19, 1983.

The island of Saint Kitts is home to the Warner Park Cricket Stadium, which was used to host 2007 Cricket World Cup matches. This made St. Kitts and Nevis the smallest nation to ever host a World Cup event.

Similar to Jersey, the island is divided into nine parishes:

• Christ Church Nichola Town
• Saint Anne Sandy Point
• Saint George Basseterre
• Saint John Capisterre
• Saint Mary Cayon
• Saint Paul Capisterre
• Saint Peter Basseterre
• Saint Thomas Middle Island
• Trinity Palmetto Point

Both of my grandparents on my dads side of the family are native to the island, they both came to England sepretaly as part of the ‘Wind-rush’ generation, but met in England and the decided to settle down and start and family.

The Windrush generation refers to the collection of immigrants who were invited to come to England to start and new life and work. The British crown called on its empire, to come and work in England to help boots the economy and rebuild England after the war. The immigrants that came from the Caribbean/West Indies, are called ‘Windrush’ as the first boat to sail to England was called MV Empire Windrush, which on June 22, 1948, docked in Tilbury, Essex, bringing nearly 500 people from the Caribbean to the UK.

I have only visited the island once, which was when I was around two years old so I have no memories of visiting the island. But I am planning to visit some of the family that we still have there sometime soon.

1.POLITICAL LANDSCAPES: A blog post with a detailed plan for 3 photo-shoots to be completed during Christmas/ New Year period.

PHOTOGRAPH: It is essential that you return to school on Tue 8 Jan 2019 with new images. The Spring Term is only 5 weeks and we will begin to work on your photobook design and layout in the second week of January

2. ESSAY: You must publish your draft introduction including possible essay questions before last lesson Wed 19 Dec.

READ: Begin to do in-depth research and read texts from a variety of academic sources; books, online articles, Youtube etc (you must gain knowledge and understanding from at least 3 different sources), make notes and identify relevant quotes that you can use in your essay.

WRITE: Ideally you should try and complete a draft essay over Xmas holidays. This would allow you time to refine and make minor corrections on your return in January.

https://giphy.com/gifs/4Z1FhQBsfySOSXBgdx/media

See here for more help and guidance on essay writing:

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo19al/2018/12/05/essay-writing/

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Photography magazine and journals
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Blogs and podcasts for writing and talking about contemporary photographic practice:
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