For my zine, I want to explore the different types of zines to create a unique one. My last zine that I made was a single section zine which is known as a booklet. Although this is a good way to display my photographs, I feel it isn't as creative as it should be. After some research and experimentation with paper I have decided to make a zine within a zine. This is basically a single section zine however, it combines a variety of paper sizes which can be distributed is numerous ways. For my zine I will have three different paper sizes.
On the outside I will have a length is 21cm and width 7.5cm. I will print this out on a piece of coloured paper/card and it will have the title of my zine with my name at the bottom to display that it is made by me. I will only have one of this paper size on my zine as it is used for a title page.
The second paper size I will use in my zine has a height of 12cm and a width of 14.8cm. This size will feature throughout my zine, however, there will be a pice in the middle of my zine. This will be my montage that I sewed into. However, instead of having the photo of it being sewed in. I will re-sew into the piece making the zine have multi-media. The sewing patterns will be different from the first sewed montage I made but I don't mind that as it ties in with the message of the montage, everyone's experiences of the war is individual.
The third paper size I will use for my zine will be A5. This is the typical paper size of a zine and will be throughout the zine. Here I can use both vertical and horizontal images, but vertical images will be a lot more suited to the A5 paper than the 12cm by 14.8cm paper.
I experimented with montage inspired by Rafal Milach by using photoshop. I used a combination of archival images, my images taken in the studio of occupation objects and images I took in the Jersey War Tunnels.
Making The Montage
I added a very childish 'candy' coloured backround which I took inspiration from Milach, and then I just cut and moved the images into places I like. I like the combination of black and white images with the coloured images. At first I added all the people and the plasters and ration tin, however I didn't like all of the negative space up at the top so I searched through my war tunnels and thought adding a light would create more of an aptmosphere.
Extension
I like how my montage turned out however, I want to further extend my photomontage and make it multi-media. I like how Milach's book had a string to wrap around the book, so I want to incorperate string within my piece. I also want to produce another copy but add paint into the montage. I feel like painting over the faces to make the people anomynous could make the image more interesting. It can also represent the many people who were involved in the war, even if it was day-to-day, but aren't recognised because of how it affected everyone, there were only a few specific individuals that were recogniseable because of the war.
The Painted Montage
I chose to paint the picture in photoshop. I chose a brush stroke that resembled a mor rough looking paint brush stroke to make it look more realistic. I also chose the paint colour to be green as it is a complimentary colour to the pink on the colour wheel. I chose to only paint on the female faces as the males are both obviously soldiers. The mother may have been involved with the soldiers but I wasn't sure so I decided to hide her face benteath the paint. I do like how the image turned out, however I feel that something is missing between the soldier on the left and the woman. I don't like how much negative space there is between so next time I could either extend how far the paint goes or I could make the background two-tones to make it more dynamic.
The Sewed Montage
For this montage, I wanted to sew around the individuals to fill out some of the negative space. I decided that I wanted to sew what looked like cages around the figures to connote the almost invisible cages of war. I also decided that each figure should have a certain colour for their cage as the war affected everyones lives in a unique way, however the 'leading officer' on the left also features the colours of the individuals as he has more reign and control over the other people, meaning that he has influence on their cages. The officer has his own colour though, blue, as the war also has a cage on him. On the way to school it was raining and my piece got very wet. This affected some of the image especially the corners, however I don't mind how it frayed the corners, it gives the image a slightly more aged and used feel. I also like how I didnt sew traditional cage shapes, this reflects how the individuals cages are all unique and affected them all in different ways. Next time I would purchase some different coloured string such as green as it goes along well with the background's colour wheel.
Montage Food Stamp
I liked the coloured background of the previous montages I had created, however I feel like it can get repetitive and I wanted to created a background that had a bit more meaning to the war. In the studio, I had taken a photograph of four food stamps that the Jersey Archives had lended to us. I still wanted to feature people in my montage as the war was about the beliefs of individuals and nations. The war was people based and I wanted to keep my montages people based. I therefore chose to cut around an image I took of two war survivers: Hedley and Joyce. I also chose to cut around two archival images: a doctor and a woman from a wealthy class. I wanted to feature people both from the past of the war and people from the present from the war to display how although the war is over, it still lives on. With the food stamps, I cut out all of them individually, duplicated the layers multiple times and layered them around the background until I thought it looked aesthetically pleasing. Overall I like how the montage turned out, however, next time I will enlarfe the image of all of the individuals, especially the doctor and the 'posh' woman to fill in some of the space at the top.
The First March of Gentlemen, a 72-page photobook composed of collages that mingle elements illustrating the 1902 Children’s Strike in the city Września. The children striked against the Germanisation of their education. Ther Germanisation would mean that physical violence would be enforced and Polish, their mother tongue would be eradicated from the classroom. It has become synomynous with Września.
The First March of Gentlemen is a fictitious narrative that can be read as a metaphor, commenting on the social and political tensions of the present day.
Rafal Milach explained that “The most important thing was to create a story that would be accessible to everyone because this is, in the first place, my vision of a society, in which individuals can protest in the public space, regardless of consequence,” he explains. “The initial idea of working with the archive was sustained, but the topic changed as I began looking for material that could occupy two spheres – discipline and pacification, and the sphere of freedom – and to bring these elements together in a series of collages.”
Milach found and used the work of ametuer photographer Ryszard Szczepaniak. His archive consisted of images shot in Września during the 1950's and 1960's. He photographed his and his brother’s friends in formal street poses, many of them while on leave from the military, some of whom came from the Armia Ludowa, a communist partisan force set up by the Polish Workers’ Party while under German occupation during World War II.
Milach detaches them physically, cutting out the figures and pasting them onto brightly coloured backgrounds, hinting at ideas of contrast and displacement. The book was designed by his wife Ania Nałęcka-Milach, and it references a children’s exercise book in its choice of size and coloured papers, bound by a long red thread to contain its assembly.
The design is “like a toy, like a candy – something nice to look at and to touch,” Milach says. “But it’s only a camouflage; a beautiful skin to disguise these spheres, to somehow smuggle them into your daily life” – just like the jubilant propaganda posters of the 1950s, or the cheery chat shows on the newly nationalised television stations of today.
We set up the studio with two stations, one where you take photos from a eye-level angle, and one where you take images from a birds-eye view.
For these photos, I selected objects that were lended to us from the Jersey Archives that are actual objects from WW2. I chose to photographs both images of just one singular object, but I also selected multiple objects to create a narrative.
Selection
In Adobe Lightroom Classic cc, I used the color rating system to select the images that I thought were the best and I wanted to edit them. First I made them all yellow, meaning a maybe and then after manipulating my images I rated the best photographs as a green.
The Yellow Rated Photos
I rated these images as yellow as I believe they are of a better standard of the majority of the photographs, however, there are some technical difficulties that can't be completely fixed in Lightroom such as lighting differences or some focusing problems. I decided to show these photos to display my selection process and to acknowledge my mistakes in order to learn from them. What I would change next time is where the lights are situated and make sure they hit both the object and background in order to ensure that there aren't patches in the background that are darker than others.
The Green Rated Photos
These are what I think are my best images. The focus is crisp and the objects are interesting. I particularly enjoyed photographing multiple objects together to create a scenario. For example, placing the bandage pots and soap bar in front of the First Aid box creates the concept that those items might've been included in the box. I also liked filling up the bag with multiple items that the islanders or soldiers may want to have on them all the time. I also liked taking the birds-eye-view image of the German Occupation of Jersey book. Although I overall preferred taking the images from eye-level, I enjoyed the learning process behind taking the images from the birds-eye-view. I also like the mirror-like effect that the objects reflect onto the surface. It adds more depth into the images and overall make the images more eye-catching. To improve next time, again, I would focus on rearranging the lighting more. I want the images to be a bit brighter and I don't like the blueish/grey effect the background has. I tried to adjust this on Lightroom, but there is only so much adjusting I was able to do.
Composition
On thing I really learnt from this shoot is the composition of the objects can make or break the image. Here is an example:
The image on the left is unedited. I wanted to photograph this radio and headphone set but I wasn't happy with how it was turning out. I kept trying to move the wire and headphones into different placed and angles but I just knew something was missing. After trying to make the image work, I decided to see if introducing another object would make the scenario look better. I then found the mini crystal radio set that islanders made and used to find out the news. By linking these already similar objects together added a lot more depth to the image and made it overall more interesting. The similarities between the top of the crystal radio and the headphones are eye catching and the different shapes of the crystal radio adds depth to the photo.
When Letinsky first started out in photography, she was a portrait photographer, however as she matured through her photography, she moved onto working with still life, which is what made her famous. Laura Letinsky's still life photographs are describes as "elegant, subdued and gently but relentlessly off-putting, her large-format photographs have an arresting presence that seems out of step with time. At the same time, though, art history suffuses her meticulously constructed scenes as fully as the softened daylight does the sparse interiors she photographs."
Letinsky's photos are reminiscent to the famous Dutch still life's, however they include "freshness, ripeness and decay." However what makes Letinsky's still lifes different to the Dutch still lifes are that Letinsky's is modernised by featuring modern brands such as styrophone cups and coca cola cans. They also contrast the Dutch still lifes and the Dutch focused on wealth and status, as Letinsky's are a more raw and down-to-earth version of still lifes that every social class has/understands.
Quotes from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B40pOw0Hw2JMcWFSQV9wclZNTkU/view
Laura Letinsky's photos are for the audience to presume human activity, without the presence of any poeple in her work. Her imperfections that she creates in her photographs such as chewed food, crumpled napkins/tablecloths and spilt glasses create an image that the audience is able to percieve as a personal situation such as someone leaving in a rush. By adding a personal touch to her work, Letinsky is able to make her viewers emotionally attatched.
Thomas Young (1842) theorised that physiological perception of light was trichromatic, that all perceived colour was produced optically, by the eye's sensitivity to just three wavelengths of light: red, green, and violet. Thomas Young's theories provided the theoretical foundations for the autochrome, which was the first commercially viable method of colour photography.
Autochrome was invented in France by brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière.Autochrome works by autochrome plates being covered in microscopic red, green and blue coloured potato starch grains (about four million per square inch). When the photograph is taken, light passes through these colour filters to the photographic emulsion. The plate is processed to produce a positive transparency. Light, passing through the coloured starch grains, combines to recreate a full colour image of the original subject.
The first autochrome photograph taken in Jersey was called Lumière Autochrome. The photograph contained a vase filled with garden flowers. This presumed to be to enable the camera to explore the variety of colours of the flowers.
Emile Guitons autochrome photos can be viewed as being part of the earlier colour collection. They also fall into two caterogies: still life (flowers, fruit, a colour chart etc) and domestic (country scenes, people, a gerden etc). The still lifes provide an insight into Guiton's experimentation into the autochrome process which would enable him to work and fix his quality and technical skills. The photograph of Mrs Guiton can be viewed as fitting into the pictorialist aesthetic.
Potato starch grains were used for the colour screen of autochrome. The grains were extremely fine, measuring to around 12-15 microns and were dyed green, blueviolet and orange-red. This was to give the plates a more naturalistic look.
As a result of this trade with far-flung places and the introduction of exotica, Dutch artists of the 17th Century became renowned for being greatly concerned with what Kahr refers to as a: ‘close scrutiny of the natural world.’[1] This, combined with their preoccupation with perspective and the study of light, provided the basic elements of Still Life painting. The term had come into general usage in mid-century, Still Life being the carefully composed portrayal of inanimate objects. Living creatures were in fact allowable as long as they were incidental to the main theme. Specialisation was a notable feature of Dutch 17th century art; consequently, Still Life - itself a particular aspect of art - further diversified into different categories.
‘Breakfast with Crab’ by Willem Claeszoon Heda (1594-1680)
This scene would be described as a small breakfast or ‘ontbijtje’ which is a particular genre in the Dutch 17th century still life painting scene. This could also be described as a vanitas painting as it features dead animals. Holland is by the sea, which makes seafood a lot more accessable. Seafish such as shanker crabs and lobsters connote that a person is wealthy, as they were a highly desireable food. Although, the death within the paintings have an indexical meaning that wealth is transient and won't last forever. In the 17th century, some people did have fish for breakfast, however a vast majority mainly had bread and cheese, which carries on into the 21st century.
The bread in the painting is also a signifier for wealth, as white bread was associated with the wealthy. The less fortunate (the poor) ate either rye bread or porridge.
The peeled lemon is actually a symbol that represents deceptive appearence. It is to show that although a lemon is beautiful on the outside, it is sour and malicious on the inside. It is a warning to its viewers that although some men and women can be beautiful and seem innocent on the outside, there can be corruption and harm from within.
Within hearing the word home, people associate a home with a family. However, no family is perfect, and families don't just consist of blood. Although I do love my family, I also consider my close friends as family. With my friends I feel completely happy and free and my true self. I decided to photograph my friends at 'pres' for a party to truly capture their wild and exciting spirit. I tried to capture my friends when they were least expecting it, such as when they were getting ready or playing beer pong.
The Shoot
This is every photo I took, a lot of them are out of focus as I was having to capture moments very quickly as the photos aren't planned. However I did capture some good shots which I chose out in selection in Lightroom and then manipulated them.
As my time to take photos of Joyce and Hedley were limited, I only managed to capture a few images. Here is a screenshot of the non-manipulated images I took. WE took the images in the studio and used key lights in a light box which were connected to the flash commander on the camera. I took this on a canon DSLR and I used a 50m portrait lens.
My Manipulated Images
For this image, I mainly focused on Hedley's face as the light wasn't hitting it. I therefore brightened up some of his face and fixed some of the over exposure on the left side of his face. I then adjusted the white balance of his face to make it more similar to Joyce's face. I also used to spot healing tool to remove a lot of white fluff from his sweater. I also added a bit more brightness into Joyce's eyes so that they're more noticeable.
Experimentation
I added this frame in Photoshop which makes the image looks like a distressed photograph. Nowadays, images are mainly stored on phones, computers and social media. However, the older generation still mainly store all their photographs in physical form. I applied this filter to reflect how Hedley and Joyce are still more likely to keep their photographs in physical form.I photo shopped this frame to make the image look like a slide from a film camera. I like this effect because during the war the cameras were all use by film so it reflects the time Hedley and Joyce were children.
Other Manipulated Image
For this image I decided to manipulate this photo to become black and white. This is to reflect that as Hedley and Joyce are old, many of their childhood photos / photos of their parents or grandparents would've been in black and white. I then adjusted the contrast and on particular parts of the face such as around the eyes, I made them brighter to draw more attention to them. Hedley's face was particularly dark in the photo, so i worked on brightening Hedley's face a lot more so his features are a lot easier to see. I also used the spot healing tool on Hedley's jumper to remove fluff balls that were stuck on his jumper.
Experimentation
For this image, I added a frame that had burnt corners. I feel like the burnt corners can represent two things: the age of Joyce and Hedley / their experiences and how some of their experiences of the war can damage them. For this image I applied a different film frame. During the war, there were no digital cameras. Only film cameras were around at the time so the film frame can represent the moment of day to day life of the war and how the older generation who survived the war can also be mentally stuck in it.
We had a visit from Hedley Hinault and Joyce De La Haye who had survived the occupation of Jersey. Hedley is nearly 93 years old and he talked about how he will never forget living under the enemy rule for 5 years.
He then told us about the one thing that sticks out to him: getting a German soldier drunk. Hedley had left school at the age of fourteen (most children finished school at the age of fourteen), and the German's had came to occupy in July. Hedley was the son of a farmer; when he had finished school, his parents decided him to work on their farm as the herdsman for the cattle. The herd was around 20-25 cattle which in those days was a large herd.
During the occupation, every farmer had to grow vergees (acres) of wheat for bread. This was controlled by the states and the Germans. The farmers then cut their wheat and make one large stack on Hedley's fathers farm. Heldey was only fourteen at the time so he was too young and too weak to lift the stacks of wheat. Instead, Hedley was sent to the cider press to fill up a joole which would fill up to two gallons, which he would then take back to the fields to give to all of the farmers.
The Germans used to send a soldier to watch over the farmers whilst they did the threshing to ensure that they didn't steal any of the wheat for themselves. On one particular day, there was a young soldier in his young twenties who Hedley described as a nice man who kept smiling at him. Hedley described how the soldier had stared at the cider and how he clocked on that the soldier wanted cider. Hedley then gestured with his hands if the soldier would want a glass and he nodded. The soldier had drank the glass quickly, so Hedley offered another glass but told the soldier to drink it quickly, as Hedleys mission was to now get the soldier drunk.
Hedley then carried on with his round to the farmers, cut across the vans, went back to the soldier, gave him another two glasses and completed his round. Hedley then went back to the soldier to find him very red faced and happy so Hedley gave the soldier another two glasses of cider. Hedley chatted to the farmers for fifteen minutes and then checked on the soldier to find him passed out on the floor.
Hedley then told his father and the farmers about the soldier, which they then proceeded to steal a few bags of hay and covered them in straw. The Germans came to collect the soldier at five o'clock and the officers became very angry at the soldier.
Hedley and his parents spoke Jersey French, as did many of the farmers.
Joyce went to school at the age of six and walked a mile and a quarter to school. Joyce lived at Greve de Lecq, and explained how the Pavillion Hotel, water mill and the beach were all fenced off. Also fisherman had to have a German soldier accompany them on the boats. Joyce also faintly recalled that a seaplane landed at Greve de Lecq, but didn't know what happened to it after it landed. The island was completely fortified and people were not allowed, nor dared to go on the beaches as they were all mined.
On liberation day, Joyce wasn't able to go to St Helier to join in on the celebrations as it was just too far away. However, Hedley was informed about Liberation Day the day before as he had to ring the bells for his church. However, after 1 o'clock after his shift at the church, he wasn't able to properly celebrate in the Weighbridge as it was so busy they only made it to West Park. The main celebration was at the Pomme Dor hotel as that was where the German headquarters were, and Hedley remembers the Germans being shipped away.
