Monthly Archives: September 2019

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Bob Le Sueur Interview – Raw Notes

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Bob Le Suere: –

19 When German’s Arrive, 24 when Jersey Liberated.

  • Morning of German’s Arrival (1940):
    • July 1st 1940 – Air Raid on the 28th June, German planes over the island that morning.
    • Lived Victoria avenue, was woken up by German Planes, looked out the window of sloped roof, recognised them as German bombing planes.
    • 2 Parachutes dropping out of plane, not human beings, long cylinders falling. The cylinders contained a message addressed to commander and chief of command forces of Jersey
    • There was no commander, “the island could not possibly be defended”, not worth any military value.
    • 6am – heavy bombing raid in rotegam (Dutch/Belgium/Luxemburg)
    • Population of 2 islands combined – 100,000
    • People in England did not know about the bombing in Jersey,
    • Governor and wife left island when the cylinders arrived, whoever found messages gave them to bailiffs
    • They had 24 hours to surrender, the island would be carpet bombing, would lead to absolute hell.
    • Bailiff, did not want to surrender without authority, London told them they could not help and to stay at the post and do the best you can – only instructions given.
    • Bailiff summoned emergency sitting of the state future laid in hands in deputy of St Saviour, voting is unknown, no one voted to not surrender. 
    • Bob at royal square, apprehensive, propaganda and mew outlets discussed German’s myths (believed everything they rad), area of royal square corned off for workmen, Bob asked a work man what was happening he replied “no idea mate”. 2 woman in front of bob “when this is all over we must hurry back home and barricade doors” – a lot of women would be raped before nightfall (did not actually happen) – negative atmosphere before Germans actually arrived on island (tense)
    • Got everyone to stand in line for Bailiff announcement, screaming orders to get into line and order – takeaway chaos. Everything destroyed when pidgeon popped on man who was giving orders pork pie hat (official piece of clothing) – released into laughter, psychological heaven sent moment in time of extreme apprehension

  • St Helier:
    • Terrace houses very similar, built in the time of Willian the 4th. House number 7, two floors up, apartment shared by two young men. They sheltered Russian prisoners.
    • German’s fortified Jersey strongly, than any part of defensive war Hitler was constructing from Norway to Spain. Wanted to hold onto the island for a naval base at western end of British Channel, would have been renamed to German Channel
    • Not enough labor to do all the work on the island, so Nazi’s bought in forced labor from different countries( ie Spanish Men who took refuge in France) – built fortifications in Jersey, were paid and not physically ill treated. (Holland, Czech Slyvacia, Russia) 
    • Slav Race (Slavine race, Pole etc) they were taken as slaves, not paid, they were considered as subhuman, treated in horrid ways – highly political time (racism).
    • “People in every part of the world are extraordinarily alike, with basic human values” – Bob
    • One Russian, coming home from school (15 years of age), saw German trucks at end of street, men disappeared into buildings. The boys where hurdled into trucks and taken to the train station, and were sent to Jersey, stayed in camp on 5 mile road. No contact with parents. 
    • One Russian sheltered by man in the apartment noted before, shared rassions with the Russian, got an illegal identity card to get Russian rassion book/ identity card. – If card lost had to go with a sob story then given new card. 
      • Older man was Russian student, studying Jersey Cow and get stuck during the occupation, hid the idea that he was Russian, so did not tell many people
    • Young men had frequent parties for Birthdays etc, 
      • September 1944 when they would be a gas supply, end of a way of cooking (only could cook on open fire) a day of despair, but the two men celebrated the fact that they could use the gas stove for today, optimistic views.
      • Make a party go:
        No guess has eaten a square meal for 12 months then serve calvados, distilled cider (110%), straight start to party. The Russian got hold of alcohol before the party started and fell to the floor kicking legs, bellowing at the top of his voice songs, a platoon of German soldiers below. Two people pulled down apartment windows and gagged Russian Man to keep him quiet. 

  • Liberation:
    • Islander’s knew the day was coming, not sure when though.
    • No  Gas supply, middle of January (1945), had a party, bring your own food. Islander’s were very hungry due to the lack of food supply.
    • Crystal set radio, hidden around households, found out Berlin Fell April 30th, May 1st important labour day in solvient union.
    • Understood Hitler was dead, JEP one sheet of paper two sides, England news one side and German on the other side, on this day newspaper announced Hitler’s death.
    • May 7th, week after Berlin Collapse, told to take effect when war finished in Europe officially ended, German’s out of control, all arms had to be laid down one minute after midnight on May 8th (making it technically may 9th.).
    • 7:14am (9th) surrender of whole island signed on deck of Birtish destroyer on St Peter’s shore.
    • Bob’s Story – with two girls from the office. They cycled to noirmont point, his bike tire broke (sound like pistol shot), two people flung themselves to the ground as they thought it was a gun. Two soldiers turned with rifles towards him, did not fire though, thought he was going to be killed as island was being liberated. German soldier laughed.
      • His friends waved at Bob as they cycled to the pier to watch British destroyer.
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Jersey War Tunnels

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Shoot

As a class, we were given the opportunity to explore and photograph the War Tunnels. Because the lighting is very poor in the War Tunnels, my image quality was a lot poorer as the shutter speed and aperture had to be very low and slow to enable as much light possible to the lens. I wanted to photograph objects, architecture and other quirks of the War Tunnels.

Edits

To manipulate my images, I used Adobe Lightroom Classic cc. Most of my images needed their lighting adjusting, so I manipulates the light, darks, whites and blacks. I also adjusted the white balance slightly as a few of them turned out orangey due to the poor lighting situation. I then made other manipulations to my images depending whether I thought they needed to be cropped, have the contrast played around or adjust the clarity. Overall I'm quite happy with my images as having to adjust my camera to the poor lighting and finding the right settings for the right locations were a challenge.

My Favourite Images

These are my favourite images because I feel it features many key componants of WW2, three of which would be used through day to day life. I like the close up shots of the type writers and the switchboard. I like the contemporariness of the images and you don't need to see the whole object to realise what it is. I also like how the newspaper is behind. The newspapers were censored by the German command, and the bars can signify how the island were prisoners as even their access to knowledge was banned.
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EDITING – War Tunnels

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For the majority of the shoot I adjusted the white balance using the color temperature due to the warm lighting within the tunnels. Due to the low lighting I had to increase the exposure on the a lot of the images, this took some creativity to avoid excessive grain such as emphasizing the highlights while keeping the shadows similar to their original values in order to better show shape of the objects while keeping grain to a minimum, the exception to this being any rooms that were well lit in which I brought down the highlights while increasing contrast and lowering the color temperature in order to keep a consistent feel across the shoot.

In this image i made use of the reflections in order to create an almost kaleidoscopic looking image. This is an example where the shadows were kept to a similar value as a grain reduction measure.

Here i experimented with different color options for the image such as leaving the original white balance, turning the image to black and white (due to the greater tonal control using the black and white settings) or lowering the color temperature and lightly adjusting the tint. While I like the original color balance of the images and how the deep reds of the desk interact with the lighting, I have decided that I prefer the final edit in which I adjusted color temp while keeping the image in color.

This was an image which I had originally discarded due to glare caused by the glass however i decided to use it due to the color and composition of the images. in my first edit i enhanced the greens while increasing the saturation of some of the smaller details such as the red on the gauges. I like the composition of the image due to its strong geometry and high amount of detail. I also decided that the glare enhances the image and so I made it look less like a camera defect.

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Bob Le Sueur

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PERSONAL STORIES FROM BOB:

” The morning of the day the Germans arrived, 19 when the germans arrived, 24 when it all ended. The morning of July the 1st, 1940, German planes came over jersey and a lot of damage was cause, lived west of St.Helier, woken up by the German plies, rushing out to the second floor, two planes in the sky recognised them as German bombers. Over coronation par, two parachutes landed, instead of human, two long cylinders were hanging off them, intended for commanders of Jersey. Against the senior advisers, jersey could not be defended, therefore demilitarising the island. At the time the war, the combined population of the two islands was only about 100,000 therefore leaving them defenceless by demilitarising the area. People that found the cylinders, one to the bailiff, if they didn’t surrender there would be carpet bombing. The bailiff wouldn’t surrender without some type of authority. There was no guidance on what to do when there was an attack. The future of jersey was in in the hands of a couple of members of the state who made the decisions on wether to surrender on not surrender. There was great propaganda stories of German brutality. The propaganda made people very scared, saying to women to hurry home before night fall as they would be raped yet this was not the case and the German soldiers were very well mannered and disciplined.”

LIFE OF BOB:

As well as being an English teacher, Mr Le Sueur is a proficient French-speaker and a founding member of Les Amitiés Franco-Britanniques de Jersey. The organisation was created to foster good relationships between France and Jersey and to encourage the use of French in Jersey. He did this by delivering numerous talks and hosting many visitors over the years. 

He also taught French, and has also used his French skills as an occasional translator for Durrell, working on scientific papers dealing with animals threatened with extinction.

Mr Le Sueur is also well-known in local circles for his wartime bravery helping to hide escaped Russian slave workers during the Occupation, for which he received an MBE in 2013.

source: https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/news/islander-honoured-and-surprised-being-made-chevalier/#.XYDL0i2ZOu4]

EVALUATION:

Having Bob come in and tells us about his experiences in war time was very enlightening, hearing about his life and interesting stories also allowed us to know about what life was like when was was prevalent and influenced people’s lives in a profound way.

Although his stories were long winded they were very detailed and for his age he had a particularly good memory and was able to deliver his stories coherently. He was also very compliant when working in the studio, being able to get into various poses and deliver different facial expressions. The overall experience in the studio was very informative as we could recap on essential studio skills such as lighting and how to communicate with the model.

MOST SUCCESFUL IMAGES:

LIGHTING SETUP:

In order to capture the images of Bob, we used a two point lighting setup.

By adopting two separate positions, the photographer can illuminate the key subject (such as a person) however desired, while also controlling (or eliminating entirely) the shading and shadows produced by direct lighting.

The key light, as the name suggests, targets the key subject of the video and serve as the primary illuminator source. The photographer can experiment with the strength of the video lighting, colour and angle.  The key light will determine the shot’s overall lighting design.

We also in this photo shoot utilised a flash trigger. A flash trigger is a device that allows you to trigger an external strobe using its own source of light rather than utilising a camera flash or an electrical signal.  Some flash triggers use traditional flash tubes, but many are now utilizing very energy efficient LEDs.  Flash triggers may also be fully manual or incorporate a TTL Converter circuit.  The flash trigger uses a small pulse of light to fire a compatible strobe in sync with the camera shutter.

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Kernwerk Bunker

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Kernwerk bunker

Kern is the German word for “The heart, or the core or something”.

Kernwerk is the battle headquarters, located in the centre of the island, meaning that it was far away from the coast, and is spread over 21 acres of farm land which includes 3 staff commandants posts.

These bunkers were disguised as houses with a fake painted windows and shutters they also had dummy chimneys.

The kernwerk was constructed by the organisation “toat”, which employed various foreign volunteers which included force and slave workers.

Information Plaque
This is the front of the Bunker. I have edited the exposure and contrast to make the sky less brighter and to decrease the shadows.
Final Image 1 Front of Kernwerk

Edit 3:

have edited the contrast and the exposure of the image to

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Environmental Photography – Home Sweet Home – Photographs

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Within the photoshoot I took my subjects into the environments which they can be found in the most, as well as placing them in locations to which they are comfortable and found the most. In this photoshoot I tried to keep the atmosphere relaxed, doing this allowed a more naturalistic representation of my subjects in their natural environment, giving an accurate representation of their personality. In addition, I also used artificial lighting found around the house, which would naturally be on when the subject is in that room, however I did set up some lighting to ensure the face of the subject was fully lit, and created a home and welcoming atmosphere.

Edits:

First Edit – Flagged
Second Edit – Star Rated
Third Edit – Colour Rated

Colour Edits:

For my colour edits I chose photographs, in which the artificial lighting was manipulated for effect. To start off I began by adjusting the photographs by correcting the white balance, adjusting the white, blacks, contrast and structure. Then using the radial filter, which allowed my subjects face to be the main focal point of the image. It allowed me to adjust the background of the composition, allowing my subject to be illuminated and centre of attention

Black and White Edits:

For my black and white edits I chose photographs, in which the artificial lighting was naturally darker and was the natural lighting within that environment in the house. To start off I began by adjusting the photographs by correcting the white balance, adjusting the white, blacks, contrast and structure. Then using the radial filter, which allowed my subjects face to be the main focal point of the image. It allowed me to adjust the background of the composition, allowing my subject to be illuminated and centre of attention

Above, I believe is my top outcome from the photoshoot, due to the technical and visual elements the photograph holds. Conceptually, I was showcasing my brother in his room, where he spends a lot of time alone. To me it was important to not only capture him but also the background behind him (taking inspiration from Michelle Sank) as it helps to develop our understanding of his personality. Visually, the composition of the frame is kept simplistic. I wanted to create a sense a space, through the position of my subject within the frame, clear use of the technique rule of thirds. In addition to the formal element of space, I also wanted to showcase form, and shape, which is clearly presented to the layout of the frame and the background. In this photograph, the subject is located in the foreground, and the background is the layout of his room, which allows a slight narrow depth of field to present within the work, suggesting a slightly raised aperture. Technically, the shutter speed is kept quick due to no intended blur and the subject being still. For this photograph I slightly raised the ISO, for an artistic purpose, in order to create a slight bit of noise, helping to emphases a homely atmosphere. Having this ISO works in cohesion with the warm, soft artificial lighting which was used, as well as the sunlight ISO which helped to emphasise the warmth, which creates the homely and welcoming environment.

Evaluation:

To evaluate I believe I have been able to successfully explore environmental portraits within my home environment. I researched and gained a connection with my subjects allowing an accurate representation of my subject’s personality and how their natural environment describes them. I produced some successful photographs, which showcase my ability to use different camera settings (ie adjusting the ISO to gain noise for effect), as well as further experimenting and using the different tools within Lightroom, to develop my photograph for effect. To conclude, I am happy with the general aesthetic of my work and the final outcomes produced. It also shows further exploration into this form of documentary photography, from my previous work where I looked at gender stereotypes in the early 20th century.

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Environmental Photography – Home Sweet Home – Planning

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Environmental Photography:

Environmental photography is a form of portraiture, which illuminates the environment and settings of the subject and presents their identity. It is common for a photograph to spend time with the subject in order to form a connection with the subject, in order for an accurate portrayal of the person. Within the time spent, the photographer will ask about hobbies and interests as well as getting a clear understanding of their home life, and favourite aspects and elements of their course. Within this style of portrait photography the aim is to tell the story of the subject within that one photograph, which is achieved by having the subject have rapport with the camera lens

In previous work I explored environmental portrait photography, in the style of Arnold Newman, were I looked at gender norms in the in the early 20th century. I explored this using my grandparents as my subjects and used different elements of their home life to showcase these gender norms. The photoshoot and edits were successful, thus making it an area to reflect back on and use as inspiration for another photoshoot.

Environmental Portrait – Arnold Newman

Planning:

This time around I will be conduction another photo shoot, using the methodology of environmental portrait, but exploring my personal home life. I have taken inspiration from Alex Soth to produce my imagery. My artistic aim is to capture my home life in the most naturalistic way, showcasing the natural environment of my family, as well as the day to day tasks they complete. To do this I will be using my DSLR camera alongside a tripod, to get stable landscape photographs. My camera settings will differ based on the lighting and task conducted by my family.

Mood Board Showcasing Soth’s Photography:

Understanding My Subjects:

  • Philippa Healey – Mother
    • 49 Years old, Female, wedded to Martin Healey
    • Philippa works full time at JCG Prep as the manager of Little Leopards, the after school day care/holiday club. She has worked with children for a long period of time, and works from 9am-5:30pm.
    • At home Philippa enjoys reading, playing games on her phone, as well as spending time with her children, husband and two cats. Not only this her and her husband, do house chores within an evening to ensure the house is always at a good clean standard.
    • Philippa’s favourite room in the house is the conservatory, which overlooks her garden. The room attracts a lot of light, and you can often see her spending her weekend on the sofa in the room, absorbing the nature and her book. Philippa is a calm, active and kind hearted person.
  • Martin Healey – Father
    • 52 Years old, Male, wedded to Philippa Healey
    • Martin works full time as a pension manager, and has been within the finance industry for most of his life. He works 9-5 Monday to Friday, but can often be seen doing a lot of over time, due to his position within the company.
    • At home, Martin enjoys spending an evening on the computer, reading the news, on facebook, playing games and watching youtube. He also enjoys spending time with his children in the lounge in the evening, were they watch different programs.
    • Martin enjoys cleanliness within his home and makes his home appealing to all sense, importantly smell. He enjoys buying new smellies and placing them round the house, to give the building a set smell and atmosphere. Martin is an intellectual, funny and strong minded person.
  • Sam Healey – Brother
    • 22 Years old, Male, In a Relationship
    • Sam has recently completed his degree in social sciences were he obtained 2:1 giving him a BA(Hons) qualification. He has now successfully managed to obtain employment, which he has been in for the past 2 years.
    • At home Sam enjoys, singing, flying planes and causing chaos in the household. Sam’s favourite room would be the study or kitchen, as he can be found spending the most time within these rooms. Sam is a bubbly, lively human being who is fun and adventurous to be around.

Having lived with my subjects for the past 17 years of my life, I can say that I fully understand their personality and the love towards certain environments within their home. All three family members love to be around one another and embrace all aspects of family life, as well as having some independence in their life.

Action Plan:

After exploring the traits of my family and understanding their personality, on top of observing their favourite environments within the house. I am going to conduct a photoshoot were I capture family life within the Healey household, in the documentary style of photography, environmental photography. I will capture each person’s individual personality in their natural environment, as well as capturing the three personalities at once, showcasing a change in the individual self to meet the needs of the people they are with.