“There is a lot of casual chat about it, just as there is a lot of casual photography”

3 quotes taken from interview with Rut Blees Luxemburg:

“It’ another kind of street photography. Or maybe “street” isn’t even important. “Public” photography is better.”

I agree with this quote because street photography can be done by anybody, therefore it should be called public. It also signifies that people can sometimes judge what can happen in the image if we called it street photography, but if we do it in public, people would be more aware of what is happening.

“It’s a fascination with the possibilities of the large format camera and the long exposure which allows me to let chance enter the work.”

“I edit before I shoot, which means I take a very deliberate number of photographs.”

I believe that this is true because you make sure that you have everything you need before doing the photo shoot, but also as photographers we edit the setting of the camera before we take an image therefore we dont have to do it after.

Image analysis:

Visual:

In the image you can see a set of steps going in to a river – you can also see the water edge. The light is hitting the stairs on the centre but the main light focus is on the right side of the image. In the image there is a few details that you can focus on, you can see the brick outline on the wall,

Technical:

The image has been taken in an abstract form only focusing on the steps and the water, you can notice as well that the light is mainly on the right side of the image

Contextual/Conceptual:

Rut Blees mostly photographed at night and focused on urban surrounding. The image is called In Deeper, and this was taken by the river Thames. The Footprints in the mud on the steps signify the absent of human presence.

Notes taken from his memories of the Occupation:

• At the start of the occupation – Leo Harris and his brother Francis was walking to school, and was stopped by a German officer, who then spoke English to the boys to a show off to the other soldiers. The German asks the boys to put there hands out, which they were very reluctant to do, however they did and the German gave them some sweets, Leo and Francis got told top eat them straight away, they did but walked on and spat them down a drain.
• Opposite the hotel where Leo Harris was staying, on the promenade, the tide was up , load of Germans were sitting on a raised platform, where a Alsatian dog jumped over the promenade walk and went on the platform and sniffed the Germans, and this dog ended up piddling on a German spine.
• There was also street fight between the Germans, they would throw Grenades ‘Potato Mashers’ as the Jersey people referenced them. These Grenades were made up of either a wooden handle and a brass bullet with wooden, tip, these would splinter if they hit a object, this was quite dangerous activity.
• If a German officer wasn’t standing to attention as the Sargent wanted, they would be made to, some sergeant would make the Germans fall flat, and they were made to do it over and over if not done properly.
• As a lot of Germans couldn’t swim, they taught them by having a rod with some rope and they would hold them up on the water, to teach them, some officer would take advantage and try to lower the rope so the Germans would go fully under.
• There was also a Jersey version of a gestapo.
• Leo, Francis, and a couple of there friends stole 3 German rifles and lots of anumition, The gestapo visited the hotel Where the Harris family lived, they had kept the rifles in a window pane, Leos dad also kept his English rifle at this place.
• His dad ordered Francis to hide the rifles in there store in the town, they did this by strapping the rifles to his bike and hiding them with tape and the anumition in a green bag on the handlebars.
• The German Officers ‘Wolf’, ‘Eric’, ‘Carl’, ‘Bernard’ – these officers visited the hotel in order to find the rifles, these also dressed up a civilians, for example Carl dressed up in Austrian clothes, which was Austrian hunting gear, which was the colour green, whereas the others were in waistcoats and medallion to show they were part of the gestapo.
• At this time, Leo was aged 14,
• Francis was then questioned about making crystal radio sets, this was done by Carl.
• However the Germans didn’t realize that underneath the kitchen was a little cellar, where there was stolen German bicycles.
• One of the Germans when searching found a khaki green bag, this was stolen from a German bunker this contained cigarettes, Chocolate, tins of meat.
• In the kitchen on the stove there was one of the tins of meat that was stolen, as the family wasn’t allowed to do anything, this got burnt, the mothered ended up putting on the kitchen taps and pouring it down the sink.
• The Gestapo ended up Taking Leo’s dad and his brother Francis to the German prison, 5 days later they accused his father of being the leader of a French resistance. However with Francis they let him out of prison for a day to go and collect the rifle however on the way back to the prison he stopped at the rifle barrack at green street, he opened and looked at the positioning of guns. then he goes back to prison.
• Hitler ordered that any english born citizen which was born in Jersey to be deported, however this never happened.
• Liberation:
• There was lots of cheering at various squares around the island.
• The public demanded that liberation was actually the 8th of May, instead the government said it was the 9th of May.
• Leo Harris’s family liberation was very different to others, firstly they went to a garage where they had a car, they drove to the Gestapo court, his dad got out and a German called Spurnard, who lived Kings cliff Queens Rd, here he got back his wireless and two automatic pistols. After they went home.
• In the morning after, his father had not got back his son Francis, as the war was over, he went to the prison, where he demanded to have his son, they accepted.

First Edit:

During my personal study I have learnt to do lots of different things to help me develop my study, For example when we were creating our zine layout, I learnt, how to do this effectively, shown below is an example of the zine layout that I found was successful as the message on the side matched the image.

I also learnt about the process of how photographers had to use to create colour images, This had me interested as it showed me the difficulties that the photographers had to go with to create the image, that we can take for granted today. This is an example from Emile Guiton:

We also learnt to take portraits using the flash in the studio, I enjoyed this area of photography as I enjoyed taking images of people. heres an example of an outcome which I edited.

To develop my personal study, I have decided to look further into the memories of the occupation of Jersey of the islanders who stayed in Jersey. By doing this I hope to extend the knowledge and importance of these difficult situations, people were placed in. Therefore meaning that I am going to focus on portraits, and interview people and take images.

I focused on different themes through out my personal study, I decided go choose this is evident in my zine where I decided to go with 2 different themes, which was opposing for example at the start of the zine I decided to go with the start of the war and the views of people, then by the end of the zine I decided to go with, the views at the end of the war, I believe this was effective. We also focused on a Artist called Rafal Milach and his work: The First March of Gentlemen. I did a response to his work which was to create my own montage, I liked this artist as his work captured peoples imagination and thoughts, which then created a different view on what was going on in the image. Heres an example of what my response was:

Also throughout my personal study, I looked at different artists for example the contemporary photographer Martin Parr, I liked the way he took his images as they told a story, but also how they had a big depth of field, I also looked at the historical Photographer Francis Foot, I chose to look at this photographer because he focused on taking images of people, this is my focus of my development of personal study.

Evaluation:

Fore this Zine which I have made, I had to make some difficult decision, For example when I came to add the text to go incise with the images I choose, I found it very difficult as I would have to experiment with different text to see what phrase would fit best. For the layout of the actual zine I decided to

For my zine I decided to experiment with images and text, which I have gone with, I wanted to use text because it would give the images a clear understanding of the message I am trying to get across.

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Zine Layout:

For my zine I want to do a single selection, because I feel that with my selection of images, it would feel stronger and I would be able to portray the message behind the images I have taken.

Heres are the images I am going to montage

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I am also going to use some archive images and use some of them to overlay on the images I have selected to montage

First Edit:

Edit 2:

Edit 3: