A photo album is a book/ series in which an individual has collected images for through years in order to create a memory. They are usually displayed in a book form and images A5 size i usually displayed.
For my independent study, i will be looking into my own family photo albums as a type of archive. I will share my experiences of looking through the albums to see if they work the same way as a private archive works. As an extra, i will also look through my personal photo album of my friends to see if they give the same effect.
Image of my family photo album…
While looking through the family album, it was clear that the images were kept in case type pages in order to prevent fingerprints on the images, this gave a feel of importance as it made the images seem precious. It was also seen that all images were printed out as visual copies. Each page contained one image on each size which was a A5 shape. This allows us to be able to see the photo without being distracted by other ones, and again adding to the feel of importance. Looking at images from when i will little didn’t bring back any memories as i was too little to remember my image being taken. However, when looking at images of my little brother when he was a toddler brought back memories for me which i forgot existed, showing that images do in fact bring back memories.
To extend looking into photo albums i also analysed my mother while she was looking through the same photo album as i was and her reaction was a lot more personal as she is the one who had made the photo album while me and my brother were growing up. The images allowed her to look back on the past and remind her of all the memories which she made for me, herself and other family members.
Example images..
Due to my mum getting a lot more feelings while looking back on the album she made herself, i also decided to do the same thing a look through the photo album i made for myself which includes both family and friends.
I found that my photo album more of a casual feel to it because of the A4 sized images which allowed for 5 images to be displayed per page. The images were also in clear cases to prevent finger prints. Looking back at the memories allowed me to be visually reminded of elements in my teenage life as well as giving me memories which i can share with my friends due to the images rejigging my memory.
Pages from my album
In conclusion, i found that the way personal albums work compared to archives are very different and a lot more casual. As archived images are kept in cold rooms where you have to wear gloves to touch the images, it showed that the clear cases and personal images which we have at home are a lot more family friendly as they are allowed to be touched without gloves and don’t need a daily temperature check. However, this experiment also allowed me to realize that archives are all around us and they will always be a way of keeping images and it doesn’t matter how much technology is introduced. It has also been proved that they are both the same type of archive.
Archives are used as a source to help preserve things which people want for later in life and they are partly the product of this human desire not to forget the past. Archival organisations collect and preserve materials for the use of the public. They keep records of many forms including correspondence, diaries , financial and legal documents, photographs and film. Most state governments, schools, businesses, libraries, and historical societies maintain archives for different reasons. Individuals and organisations are constantly storing information about their personal and business activities and archives identify and preserve these documents so that they last many years. Photographs are very valuable for providing a vision to past lives and events and they are representing the truth. Therefore photographic archives are also helping to build knowledge and not just decide the truth on past events.
The local Societe Jersaise was formed in 1887 and is a photo archive which contains over 100,000 images dating from the mid 1840s to the present day. It is the principal Jersey collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century photography. This particular Archive explores the archaeology of jersey, history, ancient language and the conservation of the environment and is one of the only in jersey which holds images which go as far back as the 1840s, making this a very important part of Jersey’s history. The collection offers a detailed visual record of developments in Jersey landscape and social history throughout the photographic era leading up to the present day.
Archival photographs help to provide history, knowledge and power as well as being resources for news, documentary, advertising and anthropology. They are also very valuable for contemporary photographers as they can use photographic archives as the main subject of their work and then can work and re-examine and interpret the histories which they convey, overall making archives becoming the foundation to rethink what happened.
The Societe Jersaise provide information presentations about collections helping to broaden knowledge of the public and show how images are preserved. The archive images are shown to be kept in boxes, sealed in a carefully watched temperature room which they keep very cold of avoid fingerprinting on the photographs. When being shown images the presenters wore cotton gloves for extra protection and the images were kept in plastic seals showing how precious and how well handled they have to be.
David Bates text explains how museums use archives in order to display a particular cultural or historical moment in time.
A photographer who i took interest to was Ernest Baudoux, originally from France, Baudoux worked in Jersey from 1869. He and his son had a business in Jersey which he sold to a young photographer John Stroad from London. Some of the business he sold ( many of his glass-plate negatives) were attributed incorrectly to the youngster and the Photographic Archive ‘ Societe Jersiase’ now have a plan to identify the 3000 images in their collection. The Societe Jersiase Photographic Archive contains a collections of 1385 negatives by Baudoux and 12 of these negatives are exhibited here. His first trace of photographic practice in Jersey was in 1869, the trade directory in Jersey Almanacs. Not much is known about his photographic career in France before Jersey, however we know that he took many landscapes, studio portraiture and architecture while in Jersey. His first project in Jersey which he produced was a panorama of St. Helier which seemed to indicate a desire to survey the town. The photos he produced do not join up precisely but the image he produced was the quality of the full plate size (20.3 x 25.3 cm). The panorama shows the architecture of St. Helier in lots of detail.
His panorama
This landscape image is a representation of the type of work Baudoux produced while in Jersey. The image represents Jersey as being a very small society due to everything being very close together, there is no destruction in this image, representing Jersey as being a safe place with wealthy houses. This panorama allows us to compare in this day in age what St.Helier looked like then and what it looks like now. This is an image which is stored in the Societe Jersaise Photographic Archive.
When photographs were first coming out they were stored in archives, however this has changed due to new technology. In this day the internet and availability of a camera is a lot easier and has encouraged the speed and quality of images to rise. Now people store images on their phones and laptops instead of in a photo archive and they publish their images on social media platforms. Although new technology has improved photography, it has also caused problems along the line. Due to storing images on phones, they are easily lost due to people not properly backing up their phones, hard drives and laptops. Not many people tend to print their images in this day and age. However, photo albums are still kept by a percentage of the population to ensure they do not loose important family images which is similar to the role of a photographic archive.
Jacques Derrida is a French Phiosopher who described ‘archive fever’ as a contradiction at the heart of the idea of conservation. Conservation is a possibility of forgetting. Because the human memory is limited, photographs have become a different idea of remembering with the desire to return to something beyond the capacity of conscious memory. Human memory is a complex matter which is not easily reducible to simple binary opposites like past , present and future. Documents, texts, images ad objects are reliving the human brain of forgetting and remembering things accurately.
Overall, Archives have proven to have different purposes and they help to value contemporary artists that can be used for public reasons. It is said that the memories can still belong to the photographer/ author in a way due to it being their work and it reflecting a personal side of their lives. Using archives has helped to develop my personal study due to me having an interest in comparing the past to the present, which archives allow us to do. This discovery is going to push me to look more into archives.
The Societe Jersiaise is an archive in Jersey Channel Islands which preserves Jersey’s important history. The Societe Jersiaise was founded in Jersey Channel Islands in 1873 and it explores the archaeology of jersey, history, the acident language and the conservation of the environment. The group of Jersey individuals who founded this archive were interested in Jersey history and make these actions in order to follow their passion of wanting to keep Jersey history so it can be shared with generations. Once this Societe grew, it was made into a museum and now includes archaeological sites in order to preserve them.
Our Day
In order to gain more of an insight to the chosen subject we were given two presentations by representatives of the Jersiase Archive where they told us background information on the archive such as that it opened in 44, and includes over 100,000 images from the mid 40s. Jersey is known for its development of Photography and that it has a large history in photography. The first images which were collected in Jersey were from photographers such as William Collie and Thomas Sutton and they were brought over in 1840.
We were also given a brief explanation of what the German Occupation was. This being that the Germans occupied Europe from the times of 1939- 1945 which was when WWII started. We were also told that the occupation was carried out by the government of Nazi- Germany and the military forces. The occupation is well-know for the terrifying outcome of starvation which ended up with occupied and occupiers dying during the winter of 45. The presentations also included information as to where all the first edition photos of the Occupation are kept which were explained to be kept in boxes, sealed in a carefully watched temperature room which they keep very cold of avoid fingerprinting on the photographs.
We then went through collections from the archive and personal collectors work. They were kept in plastic covers at all time for protection.
Images which stood out to me
While looking at the different images we were told to try to make a story out of the different images we saw, to try and put yourself in this situation and to help expand you’re thinking of how people lived and the surrounding they were in. This helped to broaden our knowledge of what the kind of atmosphere would be like in the crowds and when you were by yourself at home.
Our story…
After our second activity, we then ventured into the town center to take images of objects in jersey which linked up to the German occupation in st. Helier. Carrying out this activity helped open my eyes to how much historical objects we have in jersey which i had never noticed before.
My images..
In conclusion i think that attending the archive center was a good way to start our photography project as there was lots of information given to expand knowledge and evidence to study so that there is a clear understanding of the style the images in those days were taken, the type of images that were taken, and the location of the images.
For my first final piece I will be displaying my best image from the studio lighting experiment. I have decided that this image will be printed out in A4 and will be mounted on a black foam board. The image will be in the middle of the foam board.
Final piece 2:
how my image will be displayed
For my second piece i will be displaying my best image from the street photography experiment. I have decided to print this image out in A4, and it will be presented in a white cut out card hole.
Final 3:
how my image will be displayed
For my third final piece I will be displaying my best photo montage. I have decided that this image will be printed out in A4 and will be mounted on a black cardboard cut out.
Final 4:
For my forth final piece. I will be displaying my three best images from the identity and place photo shoot. I have decided that these images will be printed out in A4 and will be placed next to each other on a mounted on a black foam board.
Final piece 5:
For my 5th image i will display it in front of a black background through a peep hole. I have decided that this image will be printed out in A4.
Final piece 6:
For my 6th image, i have chosen to use an image from my environmental photography experiment. This image will be displayed as shown.
In this environmental shoot i used a Canon EOS 1300 D on manual focus. The image was taken under natural lighting and therefore i had my white balance on the ‘cloudy’ setting, as well as having a shutter speed of 1/250.
The image shows a butcher in his working environment.
My response to natural lighting
When taking this portrait image I used the manual focus setting on my camera so that I could adjust the ISO setting to 400 and the shutter speed to 1/250 to ensure that the images weren’t too under or over exposed. I also used the ‘daylight’ white balance setting so that the color balance was correct. The image was also taken inside however directly in front of a very large window which let in a lot of daylight, i also used a reflector so that the models face was evenly lit up.
My response to street photography
In this street photography experiment, i used a Canon EOS 1300 D and the image was taken in Manual Focus. Using Manual focus allowed me to change the white balance to cloudy as this image was taken in natural light, as well as being able to change the shutter speed to 1/250 and experiment with the zoom lens.
We don’t know what the man was originally doing before this photo as i took the image in a moving car.
My response to photo montage
This image was edited using Adobe Photoshop.
My response to studio lighting
In this studio photography experiment i used a Canon EOS 1300 D with a manual focus setting. The use of this setting allowed for me to change the white balance of this image to auto as well as being able to change the shutter speed to 1/250.
My response to identity and place
These images were taken on a Canon EOS 1300 D on manual focus. My camera being on manual allowed me to be also to zoom in on the models to create a disorientated effect, as well as being able to change the white balance to fluorescent. No flash was used when taking these pictures.
In the images we can see that there is a loss of identity due to the movement of the models. The positioning they create gives a sense of confusion, loss and craziness. The black and white edit adds a darker feel to the image, as well as the darkness on the left hand side of the picture.
For my second photo shoot, i am going to do an inspired Francesca Woodman photo shoot.
Image i was inspired by..
I have taken large inspiration from this image by Woodman. I really like the concept of this image, From my point of view, the model is showing to not know her self which is why she is purposely making her self blurred. She doesn’t want to be seen. The position she is in looks as if she is aiming for the floor implying that she is very relaxed.
This image shows factors of ‘loss of identity’ which is the subject i have decided to follow.
Plan
My overall plan for my shoot is to have one model, dressed in simple clothing ( black leggings and a black top) and for the model to experiment with hiding her identity while moving. Her face will act as her ‘identity’ and she will be playing with her hair/ using it to cover her face, jumping/moving, as well as covering different parts of her ‘identity’. I will allow the model to have freedom in what they are doing so that it adds a personal touch to the image and what she classes as ‘identity’. These images will be taken in a studio with a black white background to show simplicity and so that the model is the main focus of the image. After taking the images i will edit them with a black and white edit so that there is a contrast between the model and background. I will use a manual camera setting for these pictures so that i can experiment with different white balances, depth of fields and shutter speeds.
The overall purpose of this shoot is to show the personal ‘ loss of identity’ in the model.
Aspects to include..
Studio lighting ( one point lighting)
Plain white background
Dressed simply ( all in black)
Model to have hair down
No props to be used
Manual setting
Experiment with slow and fast shutter speed
Edit to black and white
Contact sheets
Possible final outcomes
Editing final images
All photos below have been edited using Adobe Photoshop. I took inspiration of Woodman for my editing, i firstly edited all the images in black and white as well as editing the contrast, brightness and the levels of the image. Images below have been chosen due to them meeting the criteria of ‘ loss of identity’.
For my first photo shoot i am going to be doing a tableaux vivants inspired shoot.
Image in recreating..
Technical analysis
This image has been taken in natural lighting with a daylight white balance. It seems as if the ISO setting is very low in this image, however the shutter speed would be very high.
Visual analysis
When looking at this image i can bee the model is in the middle of the image. It has been edited in black and white to show contrasting shadows and light, adding tone to the picture. The image is in 2D and doesn’t have much texture in the image. We can see that there has been a a slight use of photo shop when editing the water coming out of the mouth.
Conceptual analysis
In this image i think that the edited water coming out of the models mouth is representing her as drowning. Her mouth being open when looking directly into the camera also gives a sense of vulnerability.
Contextual analysis
Her images were published after her death and therfore are only known by date and location. There is no back story
This image is one of Francesca Woodman’s. In order to do this tableaux vivants image successfully i will use a similar location to Woodman’s and will therefore use my cracked garden wall. For the shoot, i plan to only use natural light as the original image was taken in natural light. Therefore i will take the image mid day so that their is a fair bit of natural light. I will use a daylight/ cloudy White Balance in order to ensure that the photo is very similar and i will find which ISO and shutter speed to use when im in the conditions. To make the image identical i will also hand a flower printed top on the left hand side of the image as this is included.
There will be one model involved in the shoot which will be dressed in the appropriate clothing ( a white t-shirt, black string necklace and have hair tied back).
Aspects to include
Natural lighting- daylight/ cloudy WB, high shutter speed.
Image to be taken outside for the cracked wall
Wide depth of field- Make image look 2D
High ISO
Facial expressions- Showing with eyes
Props- Flower shirt hanging
Model to wear a white t-shirt, black string necklace and have her hair in a loose low pony
Lightly lit image
Contact sheets
Possible final outcomes
Editing my final images
All photos below have been edited using Adobe Photoshop. These are the first edits for these images and more editing will be added further into this project. All images below are my own and are being used to create a tableaux vivants.
The image i have chosen to use out of the two possible chosen is picture one. This being because it has more of the details that the original image has.. ie the small cracking/ dirty wall and my models face is at a more similar angle than the other image.
Next stage of editing
In my next stage of editing i will need to edit the water coming out of the models mouth in a ripple effect. In order to get the first image of the water i have chosen on off the internet…
– image taken from internet. NOT MY IMAGE-
Editing the water
When looking at the water included in the original image, i saw that it was very light and had a ripple/ swirly effect. It was edited into black and white and had contrast included.
Taking all these analysations in mind a created the water which i would cut out and use.
Adding both images together
In order to ensure that the stuff coming out of the mouth looks like water i used the image below and layered in on top of the other water image.
Final image
Technical analysis
This image was taken on a Canon Camera with a standard lens. It was also taken in natural day light and i therefore used the ‘cloudy’ white balance. When taking this i had my ISO setting on 6400 and my shutter speed on 1/24. However, i mistake i made was forgetting that the original image used a fast shutter speed instead of a low one like i did. This made my images not fully focused.
Visual analysis
When looking at this image i can see that the model is in the middle of the image. The image has been edited in black and white, showing contrast and tone in the picture. The image is in 2D and doesn’t have much texture in the image. We can see that there has been a a slight use of photo shop when editing the water coming out of the mouth.
Conceptual analysis
This image has been edited as same as the original image and water has been edited coming out of the models mouth is representing her as drowning. Her mouth being open when looking directly into the camera also gives a sense of vulnerability.
Francesca Woodman was an American photographer who was born in Denver, Colorado. Her mother was Jewish and her father from a Protestant background. She took her first self-portrait at age thirteen and continued with photographed until her death. She went to a public school and then a private school from 1972 where she developed her photographic skills and became fully interested in the art form. She moved to New York City in 1979 ” to make a career in photography”. She sent out many portfolios of her work to fashion photographers but they did not lead her anywhere. Due to her failure, she became depressed and attempted suicide in 1980.
During the time of 1972- 1980 was when she made most of her photos most of which were black and white images including either naked women or clothes merging with their surroundings. She took all her images with medium format. She created over 10,000 failure images which her parents keep, otherwise the 120 images which have been produced are found by location and date.
After producing all these images and most of them being a failure, she ended up dying from another suicide attempt age twenty two by jumping out of a loft window in New York City. After her suicide, her father suggested that her suicide was related to an unsuccessful application for funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In a exhibition in 1998, many people were very interested in her work and they had “strong reactions” to her ” interesting” photographs. Many people found her pictures inspirational.
Her work
When looking into her work i noticed that a lot of her work was very blurred to hide the identity of people in the pictures. Otherwise, the models were placed in very peculiar positions, acting as if they weren’t in their normal bodies, almost acting as an escape. The fact that most of the models weren’t clothed also suggests that Woodman was trying to show the real them and not who they pretend to be behind their clothes and makeup.
Her creations…
Analysation image..
Technical analysis
In this image we can tell the image has been taken with a wide depth of field as the image is fully focused in a natural light. We can tell that this is in a natural light due to the one source of light on the right hand side of the image from a high angle. Due to the natural lighting, i assume that the white balance was set to a daylight mode or shade mode. We can also tell the this picture has been taken with a quick shutter speed to allow the image to be fully focused.
Visual analysis
This black and white edited image can be seen as helping to bring out different tones in the picture. The edit also provides more of a dark concept. We can see by the floor tiles that the image has a great deal of texture due to the dirty floor. We can also see that this image is in 2D, that there is no pattern in the image and can overall tell that it is very unique.
Conceptual analysis
When looking at this image i have drawn to the crouched lady at the back left of the image. Her choice of wearing all black adds a dark feel to the already darkly lit image. In the image she is covering her face with a white circle, this could have multiple meanings but to me it suggests that she doesn’t know her identity, who she is. The white circle is acting like a blank canvas and she is suggesting that someone comes and draws the ideal look on her face. This image has shown to be heavily related to ‘loss of identity’.
Contextual analysis
Woodman didn’t release any of the images which are online today and therefore all the audience know is the location the picture was taken and the date it was taken. There is no back story to this image.
The definition of identity is being who or what a person is. Identity can be influenced by many factors all of which effect peoples identity differently. One of the main factors effecting identity is the place at which people live in, for example. A person brought up in a religious environment means they could have been taught to believe in certain things. This means that their identity has been influenced by someone else and they therefore never had the opportunity to find their own beliefs and become there own person.
Types of identity
Social Identity – the portion of an individual’s self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.
Cultural Identity – the feeling of belonging to a group, and culture is all the aspects that make up the way a person lives.
Geographical Identity – an individual’s sense of attachment to the region in which they live or the key characteristics in which a particular region/country associates with.
Lack/Loss of Identity – personal psychological conflict that involves confusion about one’s role in society or the sense of loss in a community.
Gender Identity – a person’s perception of their own or other people’s roles based on their gender.
Identity and place mood board
Exploring different types of identity
Gender identity– A photographer called Simpson explored gender identity in photographs.
Cultural and national identity/ gender identity- A photographer named Paul Sepuya explored these identity in his photography.
Geographical, political and social identity- Rineke Dijksra explored these identities through her photography.
Gender identity- Sarah Maple was well known for her gender identity images.
Identity and belonging- This was shown through Francesca Woodman’s work.
Personal identity- Larry Sultan
Social/ community identity- Was explored in John Bulmer’s work
Social and class identity– Was shown in Robert Frank’s work
My thoughts on identity and place are very mixed. I am very drawn to the topic of ‘loss of identity’ due to it being a very relatable topic for many people. I am going to therefore be using this topic to express clear points about loss which will be done through the adobe Photoshop app.
