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Zine Making Research

What is a Zine?

The definition of a zine/zeen is short for a magazine and is self-published work in a small-circulation which is usually published vie photocopier. Zines can be a product of a single person or a small group which are photocopied into physical prints. The concept of zines came from the amateur press movement of the late 19th century, which crossed over with subculture of science fiction in the 1930s. This was known as a popular graphic-style which associated with zines which was an artistic influence.

Sky-Alling Phillips

From looking into Phillips’s work, i discovered that she was a very colorful artist who used photo manipulation in order to add a different concept to an image. She is known for her war images which have been edited to include brighter prints to bring more colour into an image as the old world war images were black and white which is adding character. This method is used very effectively as its helping hinder people to look at older images from the war, due to the new twist on the images to make them modern. Therefore, her method is helping to educate.

This photographer/ photo manipulator is not on the internet, however i can get a feel to the type of editor she was by looking into her images from a book.

There was a certain topic of hers which intrigued me which was simply called ‘Paper’. During this project she mainly worked with older images from the world war stage. This project included editing flower prints onto images from cut out windows, people etc. The use of the world war images was helping to educate people as they wanted to look at these now modernly modified images.

Example of her work..

Photo analysis

This image was displayed in a zine which was an A4 size and the particular image was landscape just like the whole book. The orientation of this image was originally from WWII , meaning Phillips did not take the original image. However, as seen she has edited a flower print after cutting out a soldier in the image. This is suggesting that even tho these soldiers are in a horrible situation as they are having to kill people to defend their country, they still have a colorful heart and are pure. The flowers are representing growth and the colors are representing happiness and childishness. Although we don’t know why they could be happy, the growth aspect is representing that although they are fighting for their lives they are living and growing, as well as growing from this horrid situation they are in. The colors could represent childishness as some people faked their age in order to get into the war.

Technical analysis- This image would have been taken in natural lighting as it has been taken outside which we can tell from the background. This also would have been originally taken with an old camera due to the black and white effect, meaning that there wouldn’t have been many camera setting to experiment with. However, it looks as if a fast shutter speed have been used due to the fully focused image.

Visual analysis- This is a landscape image which as we can see if a black and white original image with a flower print edit as a solider. This edit is directly in the center of the image making it stand out even more.

Artist References- Fannie Escoulen

Fannie Escoulen is the independent curator of the ‘Elles x Paris Photo’ zine, and has been supported by the French Ministry of Culture. She graduated from the National School of Photography in Aries in 2000, and specializes in contemporary photography. She is known as an independent creator and has recently been the exhibition curator for Antoine D’Agata. Escoulen is also known for regularly collaborating with publishing houses o photographic projects ad carries out advisaory missions for companies.

I have chosen to study Escoulen as a photographer and curator because of the concept of using the alphabet to describe images in the ‘Elles X Paris Photo’. I think this is a great idea and could be very inventive to use during my bunker project. She also uses a lot of photo manipulation which is a concept which i am also debating on using, therefore i would like to look into her work in more detail.

Exhibition she has been involved in..

In her career, one of her main projects has been developing the zine ‘Elles X Paris Photo’. This is shown as an orange book which is an A5 size. This title is simply ‘ELLES X PARIS PHOTO’ in capital letters. The zine also includes a blurb which is written at the back page of the book.

The first page of the book is an introduction to the zine which relates to the ‘Paris’ theme and as been written in French. This translates into.. ‘The women with their cameras go beyond all traditions and place themselves on a par with men in the new art they now practice with so much passion. It is as if for six thousand years, the famine has fed a latent talent. She waited, accumulates her orces. Our greatest painters were men, do not we have the right to wait for our most famous photographs to be women?’

During this book there is an alphabetical order to the book where each page shows the letter, an image to do with the letter, and one word which describes the image, as shown below.

In order to understand her concept of the book more, i have decided to analyse two images from this booklet.

Technical analysis- Although we don’t know much about these images as there is no analysis on the interest, by looking at the images i can see that the images may have been taken in studio lighting because of the plain white background. This has been taken with a standard lense and with no depth of field used as the image is fully focused, this could also mean that a high shutter speed has been used in order to also create a fully focused image.

Visual analysis– As we can see all images have a plain white background and the images are centered in the middle of the page which a letter at the top of the page in the center, as well as a word which starts with that same letter underneath the image, again in the center.

Experiment Three- Photo Montage

What is a photo montage?

Photo montage is when you make a different photograph but cutting, sticking, rearranging and overlapping different photos to create a different feel to the image. I developed my own photo montage which is below.

For this photo montage experiment i first chose a couple of images which i took from my bunker shoot as well as a few famous images which were found on the ‘archive folder’ in the media drive as well as the internet. I printed these images out as i decided to produce my photo montage by hand. These images were printed in both black and white as well as colour.

I experimented with combining my images by eye and by write notes on the type of edits i could do to particular images. This allowed me to plan my ideas before doing them on paper and deciding i don’t like it. When i found the images i wanted to use and the ways i wanted to combine them, i then did so.

First attempt at photo montage

Images i decided to use in photo montage

From the images above i made the photo montage below. This was made from the image on the top right hand corner which i got from the media drive, a well as the second image on the bottom left hand side which i took myself at the bunker. These images i found went well and i chose them because of the writing interesting me and i though it would be a cool concept to layer the image i had taken on top of the other one. The two seperate images share the topic of attacks which we can tell from the JEP’s title ‘The German Counter Attacks Against Invasion Troops’ and the edited image from the quote ‘ keep calm and obey orders’.

The image below isn’t one of my best pieces however i used an image i took which is shown on the bottom right hand side, second in, as well as the image next to it which i did not take. I wanted to in corporate the writing as the writing was speaking about a dead person who was killed. Therefore i found that this had a small link to the main image which is a doll in a plastic bag. I implicitly thought that this doll could have been in the war because of the clothing he was dressed in, which helped a decision to use the evacuation images behind the writing to add the concept of Germany. Because of this i found that these two elements made a weird photo montage.

I again used one image of my own, as well as an image which was found on the archive drive. The image below was adjusted my cutting out the circle in the main image with a cutting knife as it was a black circle. The black circle used to suggest that there were electronics inside this object, and you would have to look into the machine to see them. Because of this i also cut out the man using binoculars to see. These were both used because they are both to the same topic of ‘looking’.

Second attempt at photo montage

Experiment Two- Black and White Adjustments

What does black and white mean in art/ photography?

Colours are known as wavelengths which are reflected by objects to the human eye. White is known to be represented as pure light in art, where as black is the absence of light. These two non-colours could also be know to be associated with life and death situations, as well as creating questions about identity. Editing into black and white also helps to bring out different contrasts in order to help bring out the effects above.

I have decided to experiment with black and white edits in order to change the contrast of images.

When editing my images into black and white i first pressed the ‘develop’ button on the top right hand side which led me onto the editing page shown in the image below. This step was followed by firstly pressing the ‘auto’ button so the images white balance changed.

I then pressed the ‘black and white’ button which changed the image to black and white.

black and white edit

I then edited the contrast/exposure/ highlights/ shadowing etc to ensure the image looked as best as it could.

Image after editing…

This process was then repeated for the images below…

Experiment One- Cropping Images

In my first experiment i will be experimenting with the cropping tool on adobe lightroom in order to crop my images to create a different concept.

In order to do this i firstly chose a image from the bunker shoot which i took part in and edited the image to change the exposure/brightness/ highlights etc..

I then selected the ‘crop tool’ which is shown below. This tool allowed me to crop the image so that i can focus on a certain part of the image. In this case it was the lamp post.

I then selected the crop by pressing the ‘enter’ button on the key board which left me with the final image.

Other edits..

Exploring Adobe Light room (Editing in Light room)

What is Adobe Lightroom? – Adobe Lightroom is a software developed by Adobe Systems for Windows, MacBooks, ISO etc. It is used for photo manipulation and organization, as well as it allowing importing, saving, viewing, tagging, editing and sharing numbers of digital images.

In order to get a larger understanding of Adobe Lightroom i have decided to carry out an experiment where i make small edits to images which is going to help me get used to the software.

When exploring Adobe Light room i decided to use my previous bunker images which have been taken as part of my world war project. The first step included importing the images from the media drive into light room which was successfully done.

To import my images i created a collection set called ‘ Bunker Archaeology’ i then transferred my images from the media drive into this folder which allowed me to be able to access the images. I then pressed the ‘import’ button which is shown below (bottom left hand side).

step one

After this step i then pressed the media button, into the year 12 button, jasmine latimer, year 13, occupation of jersey, bunker archaeology, 10/06/19. After this my images were then imported. (shown below)

step two

I then flagged my images of the best outcomes in order to explore and edit the best images. However, i decided to thin the images more so by singling them by ratings and colour coding them.

step three (flagging images)
step three (flagged images)
step three (rating images)
step three (how to colour rate your images)

step three (how to colour rate your images)
step three ( coloured images chosen and rated yellow and green)

After this step i then started to edit my images using light room. This started with pressing the ‘develop’ button which took me to the editing page. I then set the white balance to ‘auto’ as shown below in order to set a bases to the editing stage. This was then followed with other small edits.

pressing the develop button
where to select the ‘auto’ button
image after using ‘auto’ white balance and doing other small edits

This editing step was then repeated with my other colour coded images. (results shown on next blog post)

Batterie Moltke Visit

About Battery Moltke

Battery Moltke is a costral artillery defense system which is incomplete. It is located in Jersey Channel Islands in the parish of St. Ouens. The site contains a number of bunkers and gun replacements which were designed and used to protect St.Ouens bay, as well as in case of attack as the Island was included in the occupation where the Nazis had occupation over Jersey.

A association called ‘The Channel Island Occupation Society’ is an organisation which is made up of volunteers in order to help preserve/ operate some of the bunkers as museums in Jersey while still keeping the original site open. The volunteers all study the occupation of Jersey and help seek awareness so they can help to educate the public of World War Two.

Our Day at the Bunker Site

On the 10th of June 2019, me and my classmates headed down to the bunkers at ‘Batterie Moktke’ at St. Ouens on a photography trip. We began the trip with an information meeting with a CIOS member who started the tour by giving us an insight as to what the occupation was like. This was done in front of a canon used in the war which is shown below, the tour guide as showed us images from the war and told us his experiences as a little boy after WW2 had finished. After learning about the artillery we went on to view the main bunker which was turned into a museum which the public could go and see. This bunker was of course underground and included many rooms, all of which had real war objects which had been preserved. Most of these elements were kept in glass boxes. Some of the different real object we saw during out visit were elements such as radios and typewriters. My favorite part of this tour was the introduction where we were being educated on all of the information of the site while being in the site itself, so we could see the elements he was describing for itself.

an image shown on the tour

Few facts we learnt from our tour guide

  • Batterie Moltke was located in Jersey Channel Islands and was built by the Germans in 1942 as protection in world war two.
  • The guns which were shown in the images were originally french guns which were reused by the Germans from the bunkers. They were used through the open concrete posts which allowed them to defend St. Ouens Bay, the guns also allowed them to be able to target the rest of the island of Jersey in case of attack.
  • After the war the British dismantled the guns and they were thrown over the cliff which have been collected and restored since. However, a few still remain in the bottom of the cliffs which we are no longer allowed to take.

Contact sheets from the bunkers…

Most successful images

Batterie Lothringen Visit

About Batterie Lothringen

Noirmont is a headland which is based in Saint Brelade and is the site which holds ‘Batterie Lothringen’. It is a substantial part of the headland and is a large part of the Island’s war memorial, this being because Jersey was occupied by the Germans for five years and the bunkers at Noirmont are a showing of what the war conditions were like. Most people visit the headlands is to view these restored bunkers and gun replacements.

Day at Batterie Lothringen

On the 6th of June i took an independent visit to Noirmont site to explore the bunker sites with are known as ‘Batterie Lothringen’. The reasoning carrying out an extra shoot is because my previous shoot to Battery Moltke it was very rainy and cloudy which made the image not very appealing and i did not get many images as i didn’t want to ruin my camera in the rain. However, on this visit particular visit it was great weather and therefore i was comfortable enough to take many images of the bunkers which had the most historical content, best photographic features, as well as having lots of historical features.

This was not a guided tour but there were different maps around the site to inform you on the bunkers which were around, as well as information sheets about each bunker, making it very easy to get around as well as informative. Due to this not being a guided tour there was no access into the bunkers themselves, restricting images, although i do think i got good images of the bunkers themselves from the outside.

map shown

Batterie Lothringen Facts

  • The costal tower at the foot of Noirmont is called ‘Tour de Vinde’ and was built when the French invasion was at its peak in 1810-1814.
  • The Germans started to build defense installations at Noirmont in 1941.
  • The main bunker in the site is 40 feet long, has two floors and has been restored for viewing.
  • The bunker has been restored to very high standards and proves to be a unique insite to the German military engineering.
  • Batterie Lothringen was the only German Naval coastal artillery battery to be established in Jersey during the Occupation.
  • This site cost the States of Jersey £8,800 and was bought so that the history of WWII soldiers could be kept.

Contact sheets

Most successful images

The Occupation of Jersey Key Dates/ Facts

Key dates about ‘The Occupation of Jersey’

-June 30th 1940 was when Jersey was invaded by the Germans and on this day they sent an airforce of bombers over the islands and bombed jersey harbours.

-May 7th 1945 was when the German army surrendered and the end of the war in Europe was announced.

May 8th 1945 was when the units that made up Force 135 received their orders to move to their marshalling camps in Portsmouth. The main body was meant to arrive on the 12th of May.

-June 6th 2019 is the 74th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings and the start of the liberation of Europe from Nazi Occupation.

-May 30th 2020 is the 25th anniversary of Liberation of Jersey from Nazi Occupation.

Key facts about ‘The Occupation of Jersey’

  • The German’s prohibited the use of radios which lead to a lack of communication between the island and the mainland.
  • The island was also moved to Central European time. In the months following D-Day, as the Allies regained control of France, the source of supplies fueling the islands was now no longer available.
  • The Nazi’s put many restrictions on islanders (curfews, rations, not allowed to drive private motor vehicles) they also did not allow anyone enter or leave the island which lead to food shortages.
  •  Food shortages on Jersey were finally relieved by the arrival of the Red Cross ship SS Vega, bringing food parcels to Jersey. Before then, substitutes had been used to replace everyday foods, with seawater replacing salt, for instance, and a mixture of parsnip and sugar beet replacing tea.
  • Hitler ordered the conversion of Jersey into an impregnable fortress. Thousands of slave workers from countries like Russia, Spain, France, Poland, and Algeria built hundreds of bunkers, anti-tank walls, railway systems, as well as many tunnel complexes.
    • The fortresses are mainly located around the coasts of the island in order to prevent unauthorised access in/out of the island.
    • The remains of theses fortresses can still be found on the island, which showcases the historical factors of the island.
  • The religion of Judaism was not accepted by Hitler/Nazis which lead to people within the religion being sent to concentration camps where they were treated poorly and sadly the nazis slowly killed them off.