Preview: Flight of an Imagination
Above is an online display presentation of my final photo-book. ‘A Flight of Imagination’ is my photographic book surrounding the narratives of some of the folklore tales in Jersey, Channel Islands. Some of the tales date back hundreds of years and still showcase themselves in ways to the residents and tourists of this island in todays society. The book includes landscapes of the sights surrounding the stories as well as staged tableaux photographs which I went out and produced in order to tell these tales in a way in which showcased them still inhabiting the areas of the island. I split the photo-book in two, focusing on one tale in the beginning of the book and then moving forward to the next as I feel this made the most sense. I began each story with a starting image, heading off and leading into the story, the use of text in my book helped to elevate the stories most I feel, as the photographs need context to help make the narrative make sense so the best way I felt to do this was tell the story throughout the photo-book. For the first story I mainly focused on the landscape that surrounds the tale of Devil’s Hole, as it is something that brings a lot of locals and tourism to this specific point, now having a pub and cliff walk around the hole itself, I tried to create and include a small amount of tableaux photographs in this section however focused heavily on the landscape area. For the second story in my photo-book I mainly used and focused on the staged photographs, taking myself out and putting models in specific costumes to create these photographs, I wanted to tell a specific narrative with these photographs, the story specifically, although also using text to help add context to the photographs I focused on moving from character to character to create the story and narrative with minimal words. The use of the disposable camera in this section I feel adds a different touch to the photographs, they have a mystical hue around them which I feel works well with the subject of the story in telling it. I chose to have my impactful or important photographs larger and on double page or 3/4 page spreads as this makes them stand apart from the others. I decided to use some of the physical prints into the book to add a different effect to showcase the idea of these tales still being really in the island, to have them captured ‘on camera’ makes them seem more real and there I feel. I have ended my second story on a strip of negatives from the disposable camera to add a human, realistic touch, while displaying a subject which does not seem all that real. The essay, my personal investigation, found at the end of the photo-book, gives some context and insight to the lengths and extent that these images are influenced and derive from stories. I chose to place this at the back of my photo-book as I feel it helps to add some substance to my images more, it gives context into the idea of staged and tableaux photography and the idea of fact and fiction and where the lines are blurring of what separate individual people believe and how this also effects the outcome. This design has gone through many experimentation and trials to find the best way to produce and display the photographs, I believe I have successfully been able to produce what I aimed to of a book which displays the idea of stories and folklore tales occupying the island of Jersey, Channel Islands, I feel it has a clear narrative and I have been able to produce photographs that work well together and flow to clearing show meaning and narrative discussion.
