Essay question: How have artists such as Toroptsov shown memory and remembrance through their use of photography.

Opening quote: UNDECIDED – “I have no personal memories”

Introduction (250-500 words):  What is your area study? Landscapes/Historical landmarks.
Which artists will you be analysing and why?
Yury Toroptsov as he links to both landscape work and memory/remembrance.
How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Through using landscape photography to capture the idea of memory and remembrance of the war like he has with his father by photographing his home town.

Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian.
Going to try and begin with a modernist approach within my photography but may change it up as I go along.
May use archival images to show historical/theoretical context within my work.

Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Yury Toroptsov, focus on his “deleted scenes” project – about his father – links best to memory/remembrance, uses lots of landscape photography.

Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Chris Dorley-Brown and his book The Long Way Round – also about his parents, love during the war and after the war.

Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced.
Refer back to each artists work, then compare it to how I have made mine and whether it truly represents the idea of memory and remembrance like theirs have.

Bibliography: List all relevant sources used:
Academic sources blogpost, will add them within the photobook essay.

Planning

When researching occupation stories and information on bunkers on the island, one of the stories that stood out was Operation Hardtack 28, a commando raid to gain intelligence on defenses and to capture a German soldier to take back to England for interrogation. To successfully land on Jersey, the six commandos had to land at Petit Port as it was rarely defended. For my photoshoot I am going to record the path the commandos took from the landing site to get further inland. I will also take photographs of the Wolfs Lair shack, the storage shack was significant to the operation as it was used by the commandos to hide from any German patrols.

Photoshoot

Selection & Edits

Evaluation

I believe the photoshoot was successful as the majority of images were sharp and had good lighting. I also believe that my final selection of images from the shoot will make a solid start for my photobook narrative.

“it is not just photography that is complicated, but the concepts of realism and reality too.” (Bright. S. and Van Erp. H. 2019; 18)

“we choose a portrait or landscape format. What often follows is the addition of non-realistic filters, editing, altering or cropping.” (Bright. S. and Van Erp. H. 2019; 18)

“photography has undergone a transformation, not only technologically but conceptually. Initially described as a means of capturing or freezing ‘real life’,” (Bright. S. and Van Erp. H. 2019; 18)

“if manipulation is the first thing someone thinks of in connection to photography, what does that say about the value of the photograph as a reflection of reality?” (Bright. S. and Van Erp. H. 2019; 17)

“what does a ‘real photograph’ even look like: Is it something you can hold? Is it something you can see on a screen and alter?” (Bright. S. and Van Erp. H. 2019; 17)

• Essay question: How does Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange portray the importance of family ?

• Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question.

I will be looking at Walker Evans and Latoya Ruby Frazier as they both include images of family while a change in their daily lives were happening. Walker Evans based his images when the great depression was happening and took many images of large families during this time.

Although he doesn’t look at immigration and the effect of being apart from a family member, he does look at how having a family helps when one is going through a hard time. In his images many of the family members smile even though the great depression was happening at that time.

Latoya Ruby is a photographer who photographed her family while an economical downfall and a rise of racism was happening within their hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania.

I chose her as one of my photographers because her images look at her own family.

To respond to their work I will be taking images of my own family, the family I have in London which includes my parents and younger brothers, and the family I live with in Jersey.

• Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. Link to power points about isms and movements M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Personal Study

• My work connects to Realism

• Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

• Walker Evans
• Influences : August Sander
• Photographer during the Great Depression
• Series Cotton Tenants
• Looks at three families in Hale County, Alabama

• Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

• Latoya Ruby Frazier
• Influences : Carrie Mae Weems and Dawoud Bey
• Photographed her own family
• Her home town of Braddock, Pennsylvania had an economic downfall because of the steel industry collapsing, and had a problem with racism which affected her family.

• Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced

• They both look at families during a crisis
• they both use black and white images
• They both both a documentary style
• They give different viewpoints because of their differences – Frazier gives a woman’s and a person of colour’s viewpoint, Evans gives a man’s viewpoint
• They look at families in different contexts – Frazier looks at her own family in a small town affected by a local economic downfall, Evans looks at three different families during the Great Depression which would have affected the whole of America.
• Frazier is looking at her own family so she has those personal connections while Evans is looking at families who he has never met before.

• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/walker-evans-documentarian-of-the-great-depression-2106462/

Jesse Rhodes

November 4 2010

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Over all Context/Concept:

Like Francesca Woodman, I took all my images as self-portraits. This was partly out of convenience, but also to give my images a more personal feel to them. Mental illness is a very individual thing in the sense that everyone experiences it slightly differently. I felt that self- portraits would be a good way to show this. I wanted my images to show a certain ‘madness,’ while also showing the severity of a mental illness such as depression. I want people to see how unpredictable mental illness can make you, which is why the images show a clear darkness, but some also show me having ‘fun.’

Similarly to Woodman, I wanted to show the lack of identity that is often felt by those who suffer from depression, myself included. I remember feeling like I just blended in with everyone else and while people heard me they never really listened. This led to my decision to imitate Woodman by using long exposure times to blur any movements I made whilst in front of the camera. This often gave me a ghostly look that frequently blurred my features, such as my face, resulting in the somewhat removal of my true identity.

Technical:

To capture the images I used a long exposure time of 2 seconds. I set my camera to capture 9 images with 2 seconds between each one.

During editing, I wanted to give my images a ghost-like look. To do this I adjusted to exposure to as high as I could and adjusted the blacks and shadows to make them stand out more and look more harsh. Finally, I made the images black and white. This was again to mimic Woodman’s work, but to also add to the darker tone of the images.

Image One:

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Context/Concept:

This image represents the ‘madness’ and lack of control often felt during a depressive episode. This image shows that mental illness can make you want to do things that in the right mind you would never give a second thought to, including self harming.

Visual:

This image shows me staring at a flame produced by a lighter. The lack of emotion on my face shows the seriousness behind my near decision to use the lighter.

Image Two:

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Context/Concept:

The idea I had behind this image was to demonstrate the flip side of depression. While mental illness is an ongoing condition, it is possible to have good days or even a few hours in which everything seems alright again. This is what I wanted this image to represent. It was common for me to find a sense of freedom in music. I listened to it when I was sad, angry or happy. It was a way to block out everything else and when I was alone, I would blast my favourite songs through the house and dance in the living room. The joy music brought never lasted very long, but I knew I needed it to make it to the end of the day.

Visual:

In this image I can been seen letting loose. I took this image while listening to The Vaccines and doing the air guitar and I can been seen wearing headphones whilst going so. I choose to wear headphones for the image as it best represents how I usually listen to music. I spent a lot of time in my room, on my own and I was afraid that if anyone else heard the music, they would realise what was wrong with me.

Like most of my images inspired by Francesca Woodman, my face is blurred. This mimics the lack of identity in Woodman’s images, but it also represents the persistent nature of depression. This image shows me having a bit of fun, however the burred nature of my features shows that I’m still ill; that my mental illness will rear it’s feared head at any moment. This is something that I sometimes still feel today. It’s gone for now.

Image Three:

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Context/Concept:

This image was supposed to be a recreation of one of Francesca Woodman’s images. Woodman’s image gives the impression that she is trying to almost defy gravity. Perhaps, she feels tied down and is looking for an escape. At the time of the shoot, Woodman was staying in Rome. This could suggest that the images represents a new freedom from her family and the freedom of becoming an adult. However, while I like Woodman’s possible idea behind the image, I wasn’t sure that it was right for what I wanted to show. Instead I wanted my image to give the impression that I’m not really here.

Visual:

In my image you can see almost three of me holding up my hair as if pinned to the wall. I used long exposure to create the ghostly break from reality seen by the two other outlines of myself.

Final Outcomes:

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