ARTISTS WORK:

Rafal Milach is a visual artist, photographer, and author of photo books. His work focuses on topics related to the transformation in the former Eastern Block. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, and the ITF Institute of Creative Photography of the Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic (currently lecturer at ITF).

His award-winning photo books include The Winners, 7 Rooms, and The First March of Gentlemen. Rafal Milach has received scholarships from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Magnum Foundation, and European Cultural Foundation. Finalist of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2018 and winner of the World Press Photo competition. Co-founder of the Sputnik Photos collective.

His works have been widely exhibited in Poland and worldwide, and can be found in the collections of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, the ING Polish Art Foundation, Kiyosato, the Museum of Photographic Arts (Japan), and Brandts in Odense (Denmark).

MY RESPONSE:

FIRST ATTEMPT:

In order to understand how Milach creates his own work, I set out to create my very own photo montages using photo shop instead of the manual means which he uses to create his own work. In order to create the montages I used a combination of still life images which I took in the studio and photos from the societe de Jersiaise, from their WW2 occupation archives.

In terms of the outcome of the first photo montage, I was still getting to grips with the style of Milach therefore it does not completely match the formalities of his original images. I took inspiration from crystals in order to create the polygonal shapes which wrap around the image.

SECOND ATTEMPT:

This montage overall was a much bigger success than the previous as I think the overall colour scheme and layout is much more harmonious and is overall more clean cut. I used the same process as I did last time but this time focusing on a much more simple shape, a 3D cube. This was the most time consuming part of the overall process as it required a lot of time to create the geometry which can be seen in the image.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

VISUAL:

In terms the visual aspects o my second montage, the overall piece works vey harmoniously. The combination of the more rounded and organic shapes of the bike light and the soldiers gear is nicely contrasted with the perfect symmetry of the cubes which more together to become the focal point of the image. The bright lime colour which I used to fill in the cubes is the first thing which the viewer is drawn to. the cubes snake through the soldiers legs and body, disappearing to reveal his face which again very much becomes another focal point of the image as it is very central. One of the most successful things about this image is the colour combination between the bright sky blue, lime green cubes and the monochromatic nature of the bike light and image of the soldier. The high contrast of the image means that the bike light is extremely 3D, having very intense shadows and highlights. There is also a very clear sense of pattern and repetition within this image with the cubes which cover the majority of the image. Even though there’s a distinct lack of depth within this image, the overlapping of the cubes creates dimension, bringing the bike light to the foreground of the image.

TECHNICAL:

In terms of the technical aspects of this image, the preparation and editing process was very lengthy. The images were taken inside the studio, in which we utilised a very professional set up with multiple light sources and even a specially designed table for still life. In order to create the base images, I used various items from the jersey archives to set up on the tables and photograph. I really focused on using the correct lighting set up to illuminate the objects effectively and with the intent of making the images look as professional as possible. The camera setting for the images are as follows: Camera setting: Manual Mode 
ISO: 100
White Balance: Daylight
Aperture: F/16
Shutter: 0.5 sec to 0.8 sec (depending on reflection of each object)
Lights in room switched off to avoid reflections. As we a very bright 3 point lighting system, the ISO of the camera was only set to 100 as anything more than this would mean that the images would have been over exposed. The most challenging part of the creation of this montage was the editing. I started off by firstly using the spot healing tool. Typically used on the face to remove blemishes, I used this tool in order to get rid of the imperfections which could be seen on the background as they were a huge distraction for me.

CONCEPTUAL:

Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. It is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. An example is food photography.This genre gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition compared to other photographic genres, such as landscape or portrait photography. Lighting and framing are important aspects of still life photography composition.Popular still life images include groups of flowers, food, and desk space, but still life photography is not limited to those 3 categories. Typically, still life’s are not close up to the subject nor far away, but at a very medium angle. The art in still life photography is often in the choice of objects that are being arranged and the lighting rather than the skill of the photographer.

CONTEXTUAL:

Even though the exact photographers who captured the occupation images are unknown, there are a variety of images which have been collected and stored in archives all across Jersey. Whether that be personal or public, there is a variety of imagery which captures the Jersey occupation. Another archival facility is the Channel Islands Occupation Society (Jersey branch) was set up in 1971 with the intention of investigating the period of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands and to maintain and preserve sites of special interest such as the German fortifications in the Island. Subsequently the Society has been placed in charge of the maintenance of a number of bunkers and has undertaken substantial research into the Occupation period in the Channel Islands.

EDITING PROCESS:

The editing process of these images were extremely difficult especially for my second piece which involved the use of geometric shapes. In order to draw these shapes, I decided to refer to a drawing I made in real life to serve as a guide. I created 4 hollow rectangle shapes which I assembled and cut away the extra lines within them using the eraser tool. It was a lengthy and time consuming process yet the end results were very impressive as the geometry of them is almost perfect. the editing process goes as follows:

• adjusting the brightness, contrast and saturation of the image
• using spot healing tool to get rid of imperfections on the backdrop
• cropping the image
• using the magic wand tool in order to cut out the soldier fro his backdrop
• in a separate document, using a sketch as a guid, drawing 4 hollow rectangles and assembling these in a 3D formation
• cut away extra lines with eraser tool
• fill the rectangle using paint bucket tool, making the tone gradually darker to emphasise the 3D shape
• copy and paste the soldier and rectangles onto the image
• arrange and turn down the opacity of the rectangles
• using the eraser tool, cut away at the rectangles so as it appears that they are snaking around the soldier and lamp.

Your second zine must be a combination of portraits and objects that either convey a sense of a story, or absence of a narrative. Your sequencing and juxtaposition of images require careful consideration of the relationship between forms, shapes, colour, meaning (symbolic, political, social, cultural.)

For your second zine try out a different design. Below are 10 different zine design. See also Zine Guide by Lewis Bush for more instructions about how to make your zine

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Zine 1: Beak
The beak structure is a super simple zine structure which is made from a single sheet of paper, it forms a small booklet but the neat part is the way the structure can be opened up to reveal a single large image. This one consists of a series of digital manipulations of Donald Trump’s super weird official presidential portrait, but then also opens out to form a large poster.

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Zine 2: Accordion
The accordion structure is also one you can make from a single sheet of paper, and it unfolds in a slightly unpredictable way which makes it a nice structure for zines with narratives about journeys, mazes, and so on. This one uses a series of photographs taken in a gothic Victorian cemetery which unfurls into a narrative about walking surrounded by symbols of death.

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Zine 3: Spring 
Another one that can be made from just a single sheet is the spring structure. It’s a more complex form of accordion structure, but one which also has some interesting internal spaces for images or text which are a little more hidden. You can also paste several together to make longer versions. In this case I used the structure with some photographs taken as part of a documentary project on Canvey Island, a very flat place with enormous skies, it made sense to use a panoramic concertina like this to show them off.

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Zine 4: Single section
The single section zine, pretty widely known as it’s basically the same as a booklet. The structure is widely producible but has a lot of possibilities. In this case I used it for a publication consisting of satellite images of major sites and industries which were once publicly owned but have since been sold off and privatised. Opening to A3 size it really lets the detail in the images shine.

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Zine 5: Fold-out
The fold out zine combines the possibilities of a single section zine with a nice surprise in the middle in the form of a large fold out. In this case I used it to contain a small project made using FSA photographs ‘killed’ by Roy Stryker, the FSA’s director, who went through a phase of hole punching photographs he didn’t like. To match the subject matter better I’ve also done a hand cut out on the front cover.

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Zine 6: Dos a Dos
The dos a dos zine contains two single section zines within one cover, facing them in opposite directions, it’s a neat structure for combining two sets of material which you really want a viewer to experience separately, rather than in a sequence where one follows another. For this one I’ve combined two very different sets of imagery about my native London, one about the city’s history, and the other about it’s possible future.

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Zine 7: Multi-section
The multi-section zine is somewhere between the dos a dos zine and a t blown book. A couple of folds in the cover allow you to bind in three (or potentially even more) clusters of pages, which can function nicely as distinct chapters. In this case I’ve used the three different types of imagery featured in my project Shadows of the State, which documents spy radio stations.

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Zine 8: Zine in a Zine
A zine in a zine is basically a single section zine combining different paper sizes, which can be distributed in a variety of ways, either creating a smaller publication within a bigger one, or creating hidden flaps which is what I’ve done in this case. These are a series of photographs taken during walks in mid-Wales, the wider images contain smaller flaps which open to reveal closer details.

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Zine 9. Flag
The flag book is a creation of book artist Heidi Kyle. It’s one of the most complex in the guide but can lead to some remarkable results. It uses a series of small flaps to create a sort of cascading wall of paper, great for making otherwise perhaps rather dull images more surprising. For this one I’ve used a series of composite portraits created from thousands of corporate portraits. The flag book structure seemed to add something to the already slightly shimmering, edgeless quality of the composite images.

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Zine 10: Fishbone
The fishbone folder is another Heidi Kyle invention, it’s structure looks something like a fish skeleton with a series of pages getting smaller and smaller towards the middle of the zine. For this attempt I’ve used a single large macro image taken of an old lens, the folds break up the image in a way which makes it less immediately obvious what it is, so I’ve added an image of the side of the lens as a sort of cover and clue to the contents.

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Week 8: 21 Oct – 4 Nov (incl H-Term)
Zine-lab: Portraits and Objects

Complete the following blog posts

1. RESEARCH: Zines and newspaper design made by artists and photographer that will provide visual stimulus for your page designs. 

• Produce a mood board 

For inspiration see zines/ books by Lorenzo Vitturi (Dalston Anatomy), Sam Ivin (Lingering Ghosts) Rita Puig-Serra Costa (Where Mimosa Bloom)-, Laurence Aëgerter (Photographic Treatment), Batia Suter (Radical Grammar)

2. DESIGN: Plan how you want your zine to look and feel, in terms of 

• Format, size and orientation
• Design and layout
• Rhythm and sequencing
• Narrative and visual concept 
• Title and cover
• Images and text
• Use of other design elements or inserts: archives, montages, graphics, typography

3. EXPERIMENTING: Show variation of designs

• Create 3 examples of alternative layouts for your zine using Adobe InDesign and complete a visual blog post that clearly shows your decision making and design process using print-screens or save each page-spread as a  JPEG.
• Make sure you annotate!

4. PRESENTING: Print, fold and bind final zine and hand in for assessment.

DEADLINE: FRI 25 Oct
All Blogposts by Mon 4 Nov (first day after H-Term)

During school and lessons I went into the studio and set up some objects ready for a photo shoot. This was fun and interesting as the objects I was handling were old therefore the texture was different to an object from this year.

I photographed a wide variety of photos from old newspapers and magazines to a helmet and a crystal radio set.

I did 3 photo shoots within the studio, one with papers and documents, one with the objects, and a third photo shoot with the objects but with a colored background.

Here are some of the photos from my document photo shoot.

Now here are a couple photos from my object shoot.

Here is my final set of images from my object shoot but with a color background.

For my zine layout, I want to incorporate text into my photos to give it a simple and minimalist aesthetic.

Final Idea

For my front page I wanted to place this image of a door to symbolise opening up to the zine and stepping and entering into the zine.

My narrative for my zine is age and decay, so throughout my zine, it will show images of fortifications that are aging and decaying. I also wanted to touch upon the hard work and torture for the workers who worked on these bunkers.

I decided to use German in my title because it ties in with the German occupation and it stands out. The title means “Stages of Decay”, as my zine is filled with photos of decayed fortifications.

Additionally, I put the words decay and forced to show the conditions and abuse of the workers and also the decay of the fortifications. I also wanted to put an image of the workers next to a fortification to show what they have made.

Moreover, I put the names of the counties where the slave workers were from in order to show the severity and how may different countries and people that suffered.

Lastly, I wanted to put an image of the war tunnels at the end of my zine to symbolise the end of there journey and almost showing a way to get out of the abuse the workers suffered.