I imported all the images i took into light room classic CC. At this point i can see all the images back to back ans see which ones i like and which ones that i am going to discard. Also i can actually see how many i mages i took in the shoot.
Using the X and P keys on the key board I can Flag The images that i want to keep with the P tool and Discard the images I don’t want with a black flag using the X key. This highlighting meaning i can get an initial idea of how my images that i want to take on the edit look all together as a collective.
Then i went on to use the develop settings withing lightroom classic cc changing the sharpness , depths of tones within the images , cropping them so the is less background to get the final result desired.
As a class we had a guest speaker come in to talk to us all about world war two. Our guest speaker was Joan Taply she was an early lady who was alive in the second world war and was able to give us a first had recount of what life was like back then. She spoke in a very calm and gentile way but she encapsulated all of the classes attention from her first word. The way she described everything was like it was yesterday.
These were some of the bullet point notes that I wrote down form her talk. These notes gave me more insight into what life was like and it also give me more context behind the objects and places I have been photographing.
When jersey was occupied Joan was 6 at the time, her family treated her more like an adult that a child because they didn’t try an hide what was going on in the outside world from her.
she went on to say that may jersey people felt like they had been completely sold out by the British soldiers because jersey was given over (surrendered) to the Germans, rather than there being fight over who as it, it just seamed to be thrown away to the Germans with no thought to the people who lived there.
The day before the occupation all family’s and house holds were forced to hang out white flags or bed sheets to show surrender. This meant that there would be so shooting taking place when the Germans arrived because the had white flags to so they came in peace.
June 1940- they got to watch all the planes coming into the airport, the airport had opened 3 years prior. This was the first time she said she had seen white vapor trails from the planes in the sky.
She heard the first people being shot as a set of planes flew over Victoria Avenue and people were shot down there.
At Le Platon Guns began to get installed at the highest points on the island this is when local people started realizing that this war was going to be o a lot longer than they thought it would.
A few month in to the occupation there weren’t allowed up onto the cliffs anymore because barbed wire and mines had been placed up there.
Food shortages were starting to be felt the Germans would triad food with France but most of this food went to the solders and not to the islanders. Then everyone was allocated ration books.
Joan’s mother registered as a farm worker so that she could try get more food for the family and have access to more produce. As a result of this everyone began to try there own food to get around the shortages.
The Germans then introduced a curfew in the military zone (the main area of jersey that wasn’t cordend off for fighting.) It was 10pm in the summer and 9pm in the winter. There was also a morning curfew where you couldn’t leave your house before this time it was 6am in summer and 7am in winter.
No lights were allowed to be shown at nighttime so that enemy planes couldn’t see where to bomb. So black outs were put in place all doors and windows had to be covered and borded up. One positive Joan said of this as a little give she would look up and see millions of starts because there was no light pollution at all.
The food shortages were getting worse and worse as the war went on the little corner shops were almost bare. Tea had completely run out so substitution for food came into place. Parsnips were grated up put in the oven till golden brown then dried out . Then placed into a pot with boiling water pored on top. This was known as a substitute for tea or some families would use exactly the same recipe and call it coffee. No sugar was a really big issue so they would get the sugar beat root vegetable boil it up until it turned into a golden brown syrup that could be used in all types of cooking.
There currency change as a result of the Germans occupying to riche marks and phenix 1 richie mark was around 12p of jeresy money at the time.
Everything that farmers grew they had to let the authorizes know because they were only allowed to grow and sell a certain amount. People in town found it harder to live on there rations because they were unable to grow a lot of crops. Mr Levacont was there farmer who lived next to Joan at the time.
When harvesting the corn there would line down pieces on the corn so that there was spare that wasn’t being monitored by the Germans. Women would come along with sack aprons and go to get the left over corn. They would then take this corn to the mill where the miller would mill the corn without the German solders knowing and give the corn back to the women in sacks. There hapend to be a lot of pregnant women at this time because they would tie the corn sacks around there waists and pretend to be pregnant so they could transport the corn from the mill to there home. Joan’s mum replaced her mattress with a bag of corn because they needed to hide it from the German soldiers.
Cole became almost impossible to get so they had to use Cole dust and tar as an alternative to light fires.
8th of mat the day before liberation day joans dads boss let everyone at work go home early because they had heard on the Chrystal radios that the war was over and jersey was going to be liberated tomorrow.
So the whole family when to town and found that they had managed to get started a hidden lorry that had been put away through the war and there was lots of kids and family riding about on it having fun. She said it was the first time she had heard real laughter in a long time. They road the lorry along the avenue she said it was so funny to see so many cars along the avenue because many people had then hidden and got then started up for the war finishing.
These were my final outcomes from the war tunnels school trip. I chose this set of images because you can tell instantly was the subject of the photos is about because gas masks were such a big part of the occupation. I chose to keep all of the images to the same focus and style. If i was to display these images i would want them to be lined up next to each other in a trip tic style. I would like them to be displayed in the order they are next to each other with the middle image being slightly different to the others because its from a different angle and is slightly lighter than the other two images. I feel this creates contrast between the images so i feel like its not the same images being repeated 3 times. The dark to light to dark almost sandwich effect of the images creating a visual track so the audience stays visually engaged and follows the images with there eyes in the direction that i have intended through my editing.
I imported all my photos into adobe light room classic CC. So i put all my photos into a folder in my documents. Then i selected the folder and selected import. So once they are imported i will go through an editing process. Going through using x and p, p to keep the images giving them a little white flag and x to discard the images by giving them a black flag.
Then once i have gone through with the x and p. I rate the images with stars based on color, if they are in focus, if the image has a readable story behind it. So the stars ranged from 1 start to 5 stars. 5 being the best that i want to take on and edit and 1 being the image docent make the cut.
So then i refine it to all the images i can see that are all the ones i have given 5 stars. I do this so i can look at all my images and decide which ones i want to take on to edit. Comparing them so i can have a variety of different images and can put them together so they look like they are part of the same story.
The images that I have highlighted are the ones that i am going to take over and edit i chose these because they have a direct link to occupation and tell a story in each photo. So i will edit each of these photos over the develop section of lightroom CC adusting things within the image such a contrast, exposure ,white balance.
We visited the jersey archives and got a real insite into what there purpose is and why , where they sore all this information. We were given a talk when we entered for about 45 minutes just going over the role of the archive and showing us some archival pieces of interest for our project. Many of these were old identification cars and red cross letters. Something interesting that i found out is that the red cross letters they were only allowed to write 25 words to there loved ones so it have to be really breef and may of these letters wern’t deviled for months after they had been written so people really didn’t know how there family and loved ones were ok or even alive.
The were letters from a couple who were split apart because the war.
Reading these letters made me feel so sad because you can really get a first hand account of how these people were feeling even through so little words. I shows you how people still had hope and would still keep writing these letters even if there was no reply of the receiving end.
Were were then given a tour of the archive building complex shown how there archives were stored and kept away. In the archives there weren’t just records related to the war there were many other types. They just keep any sort of information they deem valuable to history. Some examples of archival pieces they keep are birth certificates, death records, law agreements, maps.
They are all coded in different cardboard boxes with boxes containing the relevant information. Each section is on a slider and can be moved to open up the next section. When you walk into each archive room there is a huge blast of cold air to blast off any bacteria you are caring on you that could effect any of the documents.
Step laders are used for documents on the top shelves so nothing gets damaged or dropped. Also the archive rooms have no widows so the sunlight cant tarnish any on the documents. Also air con is used in the document holding areas it is very cold so bacteria are unable to multiply and means none of the documents will be damaged as a result of this.
They have many items coming in daily so the sorting and filing away process is non stop for the employees at the archive. A lot of pieces they are given have to be restored meaning that trained professional will spend time fixing and mending documents that ether are broken faded or have something wrong with them.
Each section in closed by a metal real that is turned manually. The sections that are left open are ones that are being used or awaiting arrivals of new documents to go in them.
There were many ID cards from the war many people who lived and died in the war these were kept in the archive. Many people have found out long lost relatives through these archives a lot of people make use of them when retracing there family history or making family trees
When entering the different room in the archives we were given the change to look more up close and personal as some of the archives most valuable pieces and the ones that link the best with our project. We were show some amazing art works and shown that they are actually pieces that the law was written on them.
With school we are going on a visit to the sociitte Jersey archives and then in the after noon we are going to visit the war tunnels. My plan for the morning is to listen to the presentation mate any notes that i feel are relevant to my project from the presentation we were given . Take photos of the overall building and find out why and how they store all the archived information and what information they do and don’t store. Also see if i can photography some historical documents that i can use to inspire my project.
Also to look at the historical documents available and see if i can find can family or personal connections withing the buildings archives which will mean that i can expand from this later on in my project. Seeing if i can discover something about my family history that i haven’t heard about before.
For the war tunnels my plan is to take any many photographs as possible get a real understanding and feel for the place. Also to gather as much information as possible to expand my knowledge of the occupation as much as possible. Talk to historians or anyone with extensive knowledge who works there and cry and capture the whole feel of the underground tunnels and different rooms through my photography.
I wanted to create a narrative through my zine and i felt that having a tital that fitted with that would be accurate and tie the whole composition of the zine together. I wanted the font to haven a element of white and black lines to replicate that theme of structure and lineage.
I liked the look of the images being full bleed across the page rather than having a border because the white border looked to bold. It was almost as if you were looking at that more than the actual image itself it was some what distracting.
Each sheet is printed as a piece of A4 it is put together. The pages are printed double sited and many image cross over onto different pages not being next to each other which was my intention. Each page is folded down the central line of the page and then slotted in in the order i wanted each of the pages. Then laying the zine flat with the central double aged open i stapled along the spine of the zine binding it together. At this point there was execs paper from each page so when folder over the zine wasn’t one clean opening line. I used the guillotine to over come this and trimed the zine so all the pages were identical and the edge of the zine was straight and looked professional.
I chose to have the middle page black but when printed it came out this this striped effect from the printer and i really liked it it looks as if it was meant to be that way on purpose because it fits with the narrative on the caged lines.
Many of my images carry across two pages but appear in different sectors of the zine. I did this because there is this repetitive orurance of lines and images emplying the emotion s of being traped, caged and being unable to escape.
When working on my zine i didn’t start from the front cover i started from the inside out because i feel as you create a narrative with you zine the front cover will build its self and i will understand what will fit with the over all design of the zine and how i will tie it all together with the front cover.
When making my zine i experimented with the idea of lines and the concepts of how this effects the images. I experimented with both horizontal and vertical lines on my images seeing the different effects that spacing and thinness of the lines had.
When importing an image in i would first make a box the size that i wanted the images to be whether than be full bleed to the edge of the page or that be a small box in the middle of the page. Once i have done that i pressed open and opend the image into the document and then the image would appear in the box . I normal have to do a small amount of re sizing just to make sure the image doesn’t become distorted.
At this point i had a idea for the tital it had to be something to do with the lines and how the fitted with the images. I brainstormed through a lot of words Such as trapped , bared, underground, but i felt caged fitted the best. It fitted because with the occupation and the entrapment that all the islanders felt withing WW2 and how they just couldn’t escape it.
I then went on the make the back cover incorporating the black lines and the image with German phrases related to occupation.
A zine is usually a non – commercial, non professional publication, kind of like a magazine but with a twist. The main difference between a magazine and a zine is that zines are not out there to make a profit but, rather, to add other, often unheard voices into the mix. Zines are usually made out of interest and passion and are often self-published by the writer/artist/creator. Typically zines are made using collage techniques and are then photocopied since these are means available to almost everyone.
Zines can be difficult to define. The word “zine” is a shortened form of the term fanzine, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Fanzines emerged as early as the 1930s among fans of science fiction. Zines also have roots in the informal, underground publications that focused on social and political activism in the ’60s. By the ’70s, zines were popular on the punk rock circuit. In the ’90s, the feminist punk scene propelled the medium and included such artists as Kathleen Hanna, who produced riot grrrl out of Olympia, Washington.
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published unique work of minority interest, usually reproduced via photocopier. A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 1,000. Profit is not the primary intent of publication. There are so many types of zines: art and photography zines, literary zines, social and political zines, music zines, perzines (personal zines), travel zines, health zines, food zines. And the list goes on and on.
In class we were presented with lots of zines to look at and gain ideas and inspiration. These zines were typically all A5 many of them varied having lose inserts in the books. Some had pages smaller or larger than others. This showed a huge rage of diversity and ideas that i could use when creating my final zine.
Zine Plan
For my zine I want to create a flowing ascetic that can be seen on each page of the zine tying the narrative together. One idea that i though was really strong was incorporating lines into each one of my images. I thought this because a lot of my images contain vivid bold lines already such as the images with the metal grids and wires. I liked this whole ascetic of caged, almost trapped in which reflects directly back onto what life was like in WW2 because they were curfews they lived under occupation jersey was completely trapped. So i feel this will fit well with my story my images I already have got and create a real flowing story line behind the zine. When i actually get to putting the images next to each other that’s when i will be able to completely plan out how i want the images to look in coordination with each other. I want to have a mix of black and white images also images that are colored but no overly vibrant more just brown warm tones some images that I think i might use are:
The occupation of Jersey represents the injustices and lack of remorse for the Islanders due to leaders in a heirachy. Jersey is a small island, it doesn't have prime ministers, it only has a small governmnet. However, Germany, a large country in a dispute with the rest of the world felt the need to occupy and control under harsh ruling a small island off the coast of France. The occupation of Jersey also represents determination and rebellion due to the stories of the Islanders. Characters such as Claude Cahun who was a Jewish, gender fluid lesbian who was in a relationship with her stepsister produced anti-nazi properganda and slipped them into the pockets of German soldiers. Although Cahun would've been brutally punished, she still took the risk to rebel, displaying the retallience of the Islanders.
Landscape
For the overall project Occuption vs Liberation we visited Noirmoint point to explore the landscapes and bunkers of that area. We met Tony Pike who looks after the bunkers of Noirmont Point and he gave us an insight into the rich history of the area. By learning about the history of Noirmont Point I am able to have a deeper understanding of what it was like for the residents of Jersey and soldiers during the occupation, whilst also comprehending the natural and gradual changes of the landscape throughout time. Here are some of my favourite examples of landscape photography at Noirmont Point:
Portrait
We were also given the amazing opportunity to photograph two individuals; Hedley and Joyce, who were alive for the occupation of Jersey. They gave us a detailed account of what their lives were like and unique experiences, in Hedleys case, where he got a German soldier drunk. We photographed them in the studio and I was able to develop key skills such as management of lighting, angles and dealing with subjects that are constantly changing due to movement. Here are some of my favourite portraits I took:
Objects
Proceeding our visit to the Jersey Archives, we were lent some objects that were from the Occupation, we also visited the Jersey War tunnels where we were also able to photograph objects that were in the war tunnels. In both scenarios I had to learn to cope with different lighting, managing the different lights in the studio and dealing with the low lighting in the War tunnels. Here are some examples of my photoshoots:
Photomontage
I also experimented with photomontage which was brought on by the study of Rafal Milach. I experimented incorporating both images that I had taken myself and archival images from Societe Jersey. I used photoshop to cut the images and place them together and in some instances to also use the colour tool to create bright backgrounds. I also printed out some images and cut them out and stick them together using glue. Here are some examples:
Sewing
Following on from my photomontages, I wanted to further on my artistic abilities and decided to sew into on of my montages. I created cages out of the string. All of the characters had different colours for their cages which represents how although they are all in their cages of war, their individuals experiences are unique to them. However, the guard has his colour and the other colours of the other individuals because he has control over their lives making their cages of war part of his.
