Michelle Sank:

“Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity.”
http://www.michellesank.com/about

Insula:

“Working outside of particular demographic scenarios Sank’s Jersey imagery continues to develop a lyrical vision within which the defining influences are place and cultural geography. As a stranger, present for a limited period only, Sank’s ‘residency photographs’ are of course procured under certain psychological precepts. In April 2013 when she arrived at the Archisle Project to undertake a six month residency, geographic and historical influences also loomed large. There were late twentieth century blanks in the archive to compensate, Jersey’s peculiar British-Norman cultural identity to contemplate, economy, politics, community, work, leisure, environment; these concerns together set against a twenty-first century backdrop. As Insula, the Latinate title of Sank’s resulting exhibition suggests, an enduring islandness is a defining influence in this body of work. It also seems fitting that the insula or Island of Reil in the human brain plays a part in regulating self-awareness and emotion.

Insula eschews a specific brief though the work responds to the wealth of nineteenth century portrait photographs within the Jersey Photographic Archive that it now joins as a powerful point of interpretation. The beguiling qualities of these new photographs call to mind the position that Lewis Baltz found for photographic series, ‘somewhere between the novel and film.’ As such, Sank’s photographs offer a visual poem to the island.”
http://www.michellesank.com/portfolios/insula

Technical:

This photo as taken with natural lighting coming from the left with a small aperture, probably around F20. The shutter speed is around 1/8 and the ISO is set around 400-1600.

Conceptual:

This photo is described by Michelle Sank as “responds to the wealth of nineteenth century portrait photographs within the Jersey Photographic Archive”. This conveys the meaning of money and power in Jersey and shows how richer people live and what they have.

Contextual:

This images portrays a deeper meaning of social class in Jersey. This woman appears to be quite wealthy, so it contrasts with Sank’s other images in this series, as there is a mixture of different classes in this project.

Visual:

The colours all match cohesively and this photo has maroon red colour palette. This photo is in colour which shows the vibrancy of the image. The tone of the picture is quite light. The main focus is on the lady as she is in the center and the focus is mainly on her.