The zine is made up of A4 papers folded into A5. All of the images bleed which means that the printing goes beyond the edge of the sheet. This is an interesting way of presenting images since it makes the viewer focus on that one image. All the images are landscape and take up two pages. Landscape photography demonstrates the photographer’s own connection to nature and their view of the world around them.
Design and layout
The layout is simple yet effective. All images bleed onto two pages which makes the photo clear and allows the viewer to focus on the detail. The large sized images helps to convey the message the photographer is trying to get across to his audience.
Rhythm and sequencing
All pages link to one another since they are all portraying the same idea: man made structures and nature together. All images have the same layout which creates a rhythm because when the viewer turns the page they see the same format of one image across a double page.
Narrative and visual concept
The zine is showing the viewer different locations where man made structures and nature come together. They are either in harmony or in conflict. I believe Dale Konstanz is trying to tell his audience that we as humans are trying to dominate nature. As seen in all the images an artficial barrier is constraining the natural world. In a way nature can be seen as a more powerful force since its seeping through any gaps and overtopping the human barricade.
Title and cover
The name “Concrete Jungle” is unusual yet interesting since we wouldn’t usually see those two words together. Both words contradict each other since concrete is associated with the urban environment while jungle is related to nature. The title explains what we as a viewer will expect to find inside this zine. The zine does just that and shows us several images of locations where manmade structures and nature are visible in the same image. The semi transparent box in the center of the cover is an interesting feature as it includes the title in a simple font as well as the photographers name. Since the box is transparent we can see through it and see the front cover’s image. This box is an interesting feature and is something I might consider when creating my own zine.
A zine is most commonly a small circulation of self published work. It could be about many different topics such as photography, illustration, design etc. Usually zines are the product of a small group or a single person, and the primary intent is exposure rather than profit. A photography zine is a tool that photographers can use to tell a visual story, to inform an audience about a specific topic or issue, to showcase a new idea or simply create a preview of an ongoing project.
Photomontage is a type of collage art. It is mainly composed of photographs or sections of photographs in order to direct the viewer’s mind towards specific connections. Photomontages are often constructed to convey a message, whether that be a commentary of political, social or other issues.
There are many ways that a photomontage can be constructed. It is often photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings glued onto a surface, giving the work a collage feel. It is also very common for images to be created digitally.
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We were given the task of creating our own photo montages that link to Jersey during the Occupation. I have experimented with the photo montage technique by combining my own images (primary source) with archival photographs and newspapers (secondary source). I have used the approach of creating a composite photograph by cutting, gluing and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Photo montage 1 and 2 have been enhanced with paint since I wanted to add my artistic skills into the collages. By doing this I have added colour and vibrance into my photo montages to contrast with the dull colour scheme associated with the black and white photography used during the Occupation. Image 3 has been slightly burnt with fire to create an interesting scorched effect, almost as if the paper is decaying: a metaphor of the past slowly disintegrating and people forgetting the importance of the Occupation. The bold red quote has been taken from my trip to Battery Moltke and has been translated from German to English. The resulting composite images have been scanned by the printer so that the final photo montages appear as a seamless photographic print.
Cropping is an important aspect when it comes to editing photos since it gets rid of unwanted areas within the image, improves the framing and accentuates/isolates the subject. Cropping allows the viewer to focus on the main features within the photo. By using the cropping tool in Lightroom I began to make some radical changes by selecting areas of my images for a different visual impact. Cropping can create drama in an image as well as making the composition more interesting than previously. Cropping can also decontextualise a subject within the frame which creates a great effect or can change the nature of an image radically.
I experimented with lightroom by changing a few images into black and white to link them to the type of photos they would have captured during World War 2. Viewers may have a different perspective on how they see a black and white image and may feel more somber as a result of the dark colour scheme. I used the preset B&W Sepia Tone since it brings a slight vintage feel to the image.
why use black and white?
Colour can be distracting in some images and can take the focus away from the subject.
Textures and contrast within a black and white image are prominent.
Black and white images often have a nostalgic look. Because black and white was invented before colour, we associate monochromatic images with the past, even when they portray a current event. As a result, subjects from the past tend to look best when edited in black and white.
The contrast between the highlights and shadows of a black and white photograph can add a dramatic effect. Turning up the contrast is a powerful way to capture the viewers attention.
colour
For the colour images I added the Matte filter. This filter makes the contrast subtle and the saturation lower than normal. These adjustments make the vibrance of the images less intense. I wanted my outcomes to have a vintage effect so that’s why I chose this specific filter for the colour images. Finally, I added grain to make the images appear like film.
why use colour?
Colour photographs show important aspects of a subject.
Colour can suggest the era in which the photograph was taken. Films manufactured in the past often have a very distinct look.
Lightroom helps you import, organise, manage and find your images. Lightroom is a photo management and photo editing combined into a single tool.
I started experimenting with Lightroom by using my images from the Battery Moltke photo shoot. The steps below show how Lightroom is the best manipulation software for the selecting and editing process of images.
For the first selection, I went through each image and flagged them. The images which are marked with a white flag means that I may edit them for my final outcomes, while the black flagged images are the ones that I am not interesting in using. I black flagged the images that were overexposed, underexposed, out of focus etc.
The second selection involved me rating the white flagged images out of 5 stars. Any images 3 stars and above would be considered for editing
If images were similar to one another, I would use the comparison tool which displayed the images side by side. This allowed me as the editor to select the image that has the best composition, exposure etc.
Lastly, I turned on a filter to show all the images from the photo shoot which have a 3 star rating or more. Then I used a colour coding system to help me with my final selection. Green: final image to edit, Yellow: possible final image, Red: rejected image
Battery Moltke is an uncompleted World War 2 coastal artillery battery in St Ouen in the North West of Jersey. It was constructed by Organisation Todt for the Wehrmacht during the Occupation of the Channel Islands. The site includes bunkers, gun emplacements and the Marine Pelistand 3 tower, which are located on Les Landes. The main purpose of the battery was to defend St Ouen’s Bay in case there was an attack by the Allies.
On permanent display outside is a heavy French First World War field gun, that has been restored and put back in its original emplacement having been recovered from the bottom of the cliffs at Les Landes by the Occupation Society in 1991. All of Jersey’s 29 heavy coastal artillery guns were dumped over the cliffs in a massive clean up operation ordered by the States of Jersey after the liberation whose demand was “We want this island cleansed of the taint of German Occupation”.
The MP3 tower is one of nine planned towers in Jersey, to observe targets at sea. The tower is located at the top of a steep, sloping, west facing cliff. It has seven floors including a windowless underground floor and a walled top deck where a Seetakt radar was located. MP3 can be visited on special guided tours of the Les Landes defenses which the CIOS conducts. The Channel Islands Occupation Society (CIOS) is a voluntary organization that wants to study all aspects of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands and raise awareness and educate the public about the Occupation during the Second World War.
On the 10thof June our class went on a photography trip to see the bunkers located at Battery Moltke. A CIOS member began the tour by giving us insight into what the German Occupation was like in Jersey. The tour guide showed us images from World War 2 and told us his experiences as a young boy after the war had ended. We also explored the principle bunker which had been turned into a museum. There were several underground tunnels connecting to rooms where the public could see objects that were used during the Occupation.
Archives are where memories are stored and history is made. An archive can be a collection of historical records or the place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have been collected over the course of an individual or organization’s lifetime. They are kept to show past events and can help to show whether these were successful or not. Archivists identify and preserve these documents because of their enduring cultural and historical value. Archives can come in a wide range of formats including written, photographic, moving images, sound, digital and analogue. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost always unique. This means that archives are different from libraries with regards to their functions since books have many identical copies. Archives are important because they can take us much deeper into an event rather than reading a book based on a secondary account of what happened.
The photographic archive of the Société Jersiaise contains over 100,000 images from the mid 1840s to the present day. It is the principal Jersey collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century photography. As Jersey is located between Britain and France (two nations who pioneered photography) the Island has a rich history of photographic practice. The collection has a detailed visual record of developments in Jersey’s landscape and history throughout the photographic era.
The text ‘Archives, Networks and Narratives’ explains how museums aim to serve particular interests, whether it be personal or cultural. Museums are repositories of cultural memories of the past and organize historical narratives of culture. Photography performs a double role within museums because photographs can function as both an artefact on display and as a way to collect the museum and its artefacts, since the photograph is a form of archive. The photographer Roger Fenton was employed to document the British Museum’s artefacts. His photographs create an impression of how it was to see these objects in the Victorian era. With time, his photographs have become famous and feature in museum exhibitions as artefacts.
Contemporary artists and photographers bring new types of imagery to the archives of museums. They contribute different types of images, narratives and aspects of culture, which can be seen in Hiller’s work. After historical events, archives can become a resource so people can rethink what happened. While we tend to think of museums as orientated towards collecting the past, they are also focused towards the present and future.
‘Dedicated to the Unknown Artists’ by Susan Hiller is a collection of around 300 postcards of the coast around Britain. Each postcard presents an image of waves crashing over different parts of the coastline. The images are displayed in grids and have become part of an archival display of how culture sees itself. Together the postcards create an image of Britain being repeatedly attacked by the sea which could metaphorically stand for an invasive force or power. It may also represent an emotional threat by a person or idea where one must create defenses. Hiller celebrates the authors of the postcards which raises the question of their status within culture and social memory. Hiller’s work seems to question whether the postcard images tell us anything important about our popular concept of the British Isles.
Tracey Moffatt’s series ‘Something More’ presents a fictionalised biographical story of a young Aboriginal woman’s desire to leave her rural life for the city. The background is clearly painted and has a theatrical scene of a rough cabin inhabited by rugged figures, with others in the background. They all stare at a woman in the foreground, who seems indifferent to them. Her urban elegance and dress sets her apart, and she appears to be pondering her future. The following pictures show that this is a disturbing story which ends in violation and death. Moffatt’s early work often takes the form of fictionalised reenactments of personal memories. The National Gallery of Australia now owns this work and has found its way into a national archive. This Aboriginal story of desire and social violence creates an understanding of the past within the present.
The role of Archives has also changed because of new technology. The speed and quantity of visual recording is better today with the internet and the wide availability of camera phones. Nowadays it is easy to send pictures and have access to archives. Anyone can send pictures and texts to others online relating to their social or personal experience. Photography lets anyone collect anything as part of a personal online collection. The internet has not only given more access to archives but has also changed what we think an archive is. However, technology has caused problems with people losing their images by changing their storage systems, losing pen drives etc.
In 1995 the French philosopher Jacques Derrida described ‘archive fever’ as a conflict with the idea of conservation. Conservation is driven by the possibility of forgetting. Since human memory is limited and not everlasting, photographs are associated with the idea of remembering and the desire to return. William Henry Fox Talbot anticipated the purpose of photography as an archival practice, but now photography is clearly a highly popular way to record moments. The human memory is complex and can fuse or compress separate moments together. Turning memories into documents, texts, images and objects, relieves the human brain of the difficulty of recording or remembering things accurately.
Overall archives have a variety of purposes. An educational purpose would be to admire historical artefacts and to gather information from the past. A personal purpose would include storing memories, such as important family events to be kept as a momento. I have learnt the importance of questioning the archival material such as the accuracy of the information, if it might have been influenced by someone’s personal viewpoint, as well as considering what has been left out. Although we are reliant on technology for our personal and public archives, it is important to view photographic archives and museums as an important source of historical material. During my visit to Société Jersiaise, I learnt about the importance of archival photographs. They open a window into the past and give a glimpse of what people’s lives were like during the occupation, as well as showing temporal changes. I am going to use the Jersey archives to enrich my personal study as I am interested in focusing my investigation upon the coastline of Jersey and how it has changed since the Occupation.
The project Dans le Noir (in the dark) is focused on a diary of a woman called Odette Brefort who lived under German Occupation in Deauville during World War 2. Odette was a young woman who had become a member of the French resistance. Lynda Laird chose to use just one day of her diary, the day of the D Day landings, 6thJune 1994. She used her diary entry and photographed the German surveillance bunkers along the Normandy coast.
She chose to photograph them in infrared film which was a technology created by military in World War 2 to detect camouflage, so it picks up a visual spectrum invisible to the naked eye showing up anything that’s dead as black and anything alive as pinks and reds. Something the German soldiers did was paint trees onto the buildings and bunkers they occupied along the coast to disguise them, but this film exposes it.
Lynda Laird printed the infrared images onto silk and stitched them around the edges, a reference to another technology that was first used in WW2 where silk escape maps were stitched inside the paratrooper’s uniforms. She also found some drawings that Odette had made. They were maps informing on the Germans positioning throughout Deauville and the nearby town Trouville that she sent to the Resistance in Paris. These also formed part of the Installation.
Odette’s map, 1944
Extract from Odette’s diary:
Oh, what a night! My little head is all shell-shocked. Since midnight it’s been impossible to sleep: the humming from planes, the anti-aircraft bombs, the machine gun noise. I went downstairs because I couldn’t sleep and after 15 minutes it went quiet. Thinking it would be better, I went back to bed. What a mistake! All night, the humming from planes, it was non-stop. What a joy when waking this morning, someone announces there was a landing at Dives. At 8.20am a bomb falls on the Printemps store, another one on the Normandy. By rule we don’t have the right to leave Deauville, or to ride our bicycles. The weather remained foggy until midday, the sun shone from 4pm. It must be the English who brought the clouds! The defence volunteers will be able to move freely tonight. Around 6pm, what a tremendous bang! it is the Mont Canisy. The English navy must have blown up a large artillery battery that was shooting at them. It had been deafening us since this morning. I think the shot hit the target, as we can’t hear a thing anymore. What on earth will happen to us when the Navy and Air Force take care of our region? There is no electricity. Deauville is in the dark. —Odette Brefort, 6 June 1944
Jonathan Andrew is originally from Manchester in the UK but now lives and works in the city of Amsterdam for over 20 years. He is an award winning location photographer with many years of experience. In his career he has worked for National Geographic and other Dutch magazines.
Next to his assignments he likes to pursue personal projects and travels to places like the Faroe Islands, Sweden and Scotland to work on his landscape photography. He is currently photographing ruined WW2 defences as part of an on going personal project.
Among the subjects of photographs by Jonathan Andrew there are the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall and the line of fortifications that Adolf Hitler had built along the shores of the Atlantic.
It was the haunting geometry of abandoned military bunkers that interested Jonathan Andrew.
“At first I found attractive the geometry and shape of these structures (…) It was as if they were still on guard, and no one had told him that the war was over” – Jonathan Andrew
Scattered throughout the Dutch landscape, he was fascinated by their shapes born out of functionality. After photographing a few of them he started searching for others during his free time.
These photographs were all taken at dusk, or just after sunset, because according to the photographer, the light of day would have flattened the photos.
“By lighting them with a flash I could really pick out the shape and 3D forms of the structures,”
“After shooting the first four bunkers with this technique, I realised that the lighting seemed to fit the subject matter very well, almost as if they are lit by a large searchlight. It seems to add to the already haunting atmosphere that the structures have.”
