For this the project of Occupation VS Liberation, I have learnt a lot of new skills such as learning how to properly use InDesign, how to get the best lighting for photos, how to tell a story and produce a narrative in my zines, learnt more about archives and the history of Jersey occupation in WW2 and how to use light room. The part I enjoyed the most was making and designing my zine as I liked making it visually aesthetic and making a story. To develop my personal study I will research different photographers and take inspiration from past students work to spark an idea that I can work with.
The themes that have inspired me the most were portraits as I would like to explore intimacy with a person and the camera. Also self portraits are something that I would like to experiment with as I am really interested in this method of photography. Jude Luce (a past student from Hautlieu) has inspired me to experiment with love and vulnerability which is something I also experience everyday. I would also like to experiment with gifs and photo montage as these methods are something I like to use in my own work. Another idea I want to explore is abstract portrait photography. Some key photographers that I would like to do research on are Nan Goldin, Larry Sultan, Yael Malka, David Kirscher, Lin Zhipeng and Dorothée Smith.
Photographing WW2 Objects:
When photographing objects from WW2 I learnt more about still life and the techniques used for this art style. I also learnt how to use the flash light with a camera and how to use a coloured backdrop.
Here is how I did my layout for my newspaper spread:
For my first page I wanted to use a picture I took in the war tunnels of a hallway as I want to show one aspect of occupation vs liberation.
For my second and third pages, I used pictures from two different photo shoots. I wanted to show how the German soldiers were working and fighting. I used photos of a WW2 helmet, a bunker and bunker stairs.
For my fourth page, I used an image from my bunker photo shoot to show again how German soldiers worked and fought, which portrays the occupation side.
For my fifth page, I used images from my bunker and WW2 photo shoots to show again how German soldiers worked and fought and what objects they used. This again portrays the occupation side.
For my zine layout, I want to incorporate text into my photos to give it a simple and minimalist aesthetic.
Final Idea
For my front page I wanted to place this image of a door to symbolise opening up to the zine and stepping and entering into the zine.
My narrative for my zine is age and decay, so throughout my zine, it will show images of fortifications that are aging and decaying. I also wanted to touch upon the hard work and torture for the workers who worked on these bunkers.
I decided to use German in my title because it ties in with the German occupation and it stands out. The title means “Stages of Decay”, as my zine is filled with photos of decayed fortifications.
Additionally, I put the words decay and forced to show the conditions and abuse of the workers and also the decay of the fortifications. I also wanted to put an image of the workers next to a fortification to show what they have made.
Moreover, I put the names of the counties where the slave workers were from in order to show the severity and how may different countries and people that suffered.
Lastly, I wanted to put an image of the war tunnels at the end of my zine to symbolise the end of there journey and almost showing a way to get out of the abuse the workers suffered.
Here is step by step on how I did my layout for my zine:
Firstly, I decided to match the coloured background of the objects with the front page to make it look pleasing to the eye. I then decided to translate the word ‘isolation’ into to German to relate to the German occupation. I used photos from the Société Jersiaise of the German soldiers and a large crowd of people on the front page to make a bold statement of how controlling the German soldiers were.
Next, I put a photo from the Société Jersiaise of German soldiers listening to the radio next to a photo I took of a WW2 radio. I wanted to do this so I could show what radios looked like back then and how the German’s could only use them and not the people of Jersey. I lined them up next to each other so that the viewers looking at my zine could see both photos at the same time.
Furthermore, I put a photo from the Société Jersiaise of a teenage boy next to a photo I took at the war tunnels of gas masks. I wanted to show that even those the soldiers look young and innocent, they can cause harm to a lot of people. I put them next to each other so that they correlate with one another.
Next, I put a photo from the Société Jersiaise of a lot of soldiers on the beach next to a photo I took of a WW2 hat. I wanted to show what equipment the soldiers used andI wanted to show that the German had all the protection but the people didn’t.
Additionally, I used a photo from Société Jersiaise on a full page to show German Soldiers marching away as to symbolise them leaving and Jersey becoming liberated. I wanted this picture to be large so that you could see the whole image, which gives it impact on the viewer.
Furthermore, I used a photo I took of some WW2 objects such as a light and a occupation book. I wanted to show the present days of how these objects have aged and how they can easily be forgotten. I wanted to remind people of the limited sources people had in the occupation and show what they made to substitute things.
Next, I used photos that I took of WW2 objects and went the with the same idea as the last image before. I do this with the rest of the images until the last page.
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For this last page, I decided to match the coloured background of the objects with the front page to make it look pleasing to the eye. I used images from the war tunnels to show Jersey liberated and I used text to portray that as well. I wanted to show the contrast between the first page and the last, pejorative then ameliorative.
For this photo shoot, I took photos of objects from the second world war in the studio with white backgrounds and coloured backgrounds. I used studio lighting with three main lights and a trigger flash on the coloured background photos.
I edited these images in light room by using the automatic editing and just adjusting some of the setting such as exposure, shadows and brightness/contrast. I then got rid of imperfections on photo shop as there were bits of dust on the lens of the camera.
For these images I also edited them on light room. Again I used the automatic editing setting and just adjusted some of the settings such as exposure, shadows and brightness/contrast. I also edited one photo in black and white to enhance the aesthetic of the image and portray the photo as if it was old. There were also imperfections on the images so I edited them out with photo shop.
Step by Step of How I Edited the Photos:
Firstly I used the black and white option in the develop section in light room classic cc.
Next, I then used the auto option to get a overall edit of the photo.
I then adjusted some of the settings such as contrast, brightness, highlights and shadows.
I then used the lens corrections tool, then ticked the enable profile corrections then set the make to a canon camera.
Additionally, I then went onto the transform tool and pressed the auto tool to straighten the image.
For the next image I used the same editing method but didn’t use the black and white option but used the colour option. I had to edit the image on photo shop as there were some imperfections on the images.
Here I used the spot healing tool to get rid of the imperfections in the image.
“Francis Foot was born in 1885, the son of Francois Foot (1847-1918) and Louisa Hunt (1843-1934). Francois was a china and Glass dealer in Dumaresq Street, at a time when the area was one of the more affluent in St Helier. His son started his working life as a gas fitter. However, he soon became fascinated by photography and the early phonographs and gramophone records and realised that he could earn a living from them.
So the family took on a second shop in Pitt Street, where Francis worked as a photographer, while his father and mother sold gramophones, records and other wares in Dumaresq Street. After his father’s death, Francis concentrated the business in Pitt Street.
Francis married Margaret Vernon shortly before the First World War and the couple had four children, George (1914- ), Stanley (1915- ), Dora (1917- ) and Reg (1920- ).” https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Francis_Foot
This images was taken with natural lighting as this photo was taken a long time ago. It is difficult to establish the aperture and shutter speed as this photo was taken a very long time ago and a different camera was used.
Conceptual:
This photo was taken at the beach, with Francis’ two kids George and Stanley playing in the sand. The idea behind this photo is to show the kids whilst they are having fun and enjoying their time.
Contextual:
Additionally, this photo was taken in a environmental photo style. It could also be taken to document the two boys lives and to keep memories.
Visual:
This image is in black and white which gives a vintage feel to the photo. The under exposure and sharpness of this photo shows that it is an old photo and that it was taken a long time go.
“A still life (also known by its French title, nature morte) painting is a piece that features an arrangement of inanimate objects as its subject. Usually, these items are set on a table and often include organic objects like fruits and flowers and household items like glassware and textiles.
The term “still life” is derived from the Dutch word stilleven, which gained prominence during the 16th century. While it was during this time that the still life gained recognition as a genre, its roots date back to ancient times.
The earliest known still life paintings were created by the Egyptians in the 15th century BCE. Funerary paintings of food—including crops, fish, and meat—have been discovered in ancient burial sites. The most famous ancient Egyptian still-life was discovered in the Tomb of Menna, a site whose walls were adorned with exceptionally detailed scenes of everyday life.
Ancient Greeks and Romans also created similar depictions of inanimate objects. While they mostly reserved still life subject matter for mosaics, they also employed it for frescoes, like Still Life with Glass Bowl of Fruit and Vases, a 1st-century wall painting from Pompeii.
Northern Renaissance artists popularized still life iconography with their flower paintings. These pieces typically showcase colorful flora “from different countries and even different continents in one vase and at one moment of blooming” (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and often do not feature other subject matter. These paintings rose to prominence in the early 17th century, when Northern Renaissance artists grew increasingly interested in creating realistic studies of everyday items.
Dutch Golden Age artists took this interest in detailed floral art a step further with their vanitas paintings. Vanitas paintings are inspired by memento mori, a genre of painting whose Latin name translates to “remember that you have to die.” Like memento mori depictions, these pieces often pair cut flowers with objects like human skulls, waning candles, and overturned hourglasses to comment on the fleeting nature of life.
Unlike memento mori art, however, vanitas paintings “also include other symbols such as musical instruments, wine and books to remind us explicitly of the vanity of worldly pleasures and goods” (Tate).” https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-still-life-painting-definition/
Analysis of Key Image:
Still Life with a Turkey Pie – Pieter Claesz
In this painting, you can see luxurious products and Asian objects spread across a table. The theme of Asian items are implicit, as many now would not be a able to tell they were originated from Asia. Some examples of Asian items are the ingredients in savoury pies, which contain cinnamon, mace, cloves and ginger.
The Asian items suggest that there is a sense of wealth as they have been imported over and usually imported things back then were very expensive and hard to get. Also the amount of food can suggest wealth as lower class could not afford this much food.
There is a melancholy feel to this photo becasue of the use of dark and neatural tones and colours. This could imply a sense of sadness and loneliness. Also, the turkey could suggest that they are feeding a large family.
Emile F. Guiton – Autochromes:
The Autochromne process was invented by two brothers on the 10th of June 1907 by Louis and August Lumière. To an invited audience of 600 the brothers demonstrated their newest invention, the first combined system additive colour screen process.
Additionally, autocrhome was made by passing transparent starch grains through a series of sieves to isolate grains between ten and fifteen microns thick. Next, microscopic starch grains were then separated into batches, then dyed red, green and violet, mixed together and spread over a glass plate coated with a sticky varnish. Next, charcoal powder was spread over the plate to fill in any gaps between the coloured starch grains. A roller with over five tons per square centimeter of pressure was applied in order to spread the grains and flatten them out and then the plate was coated with a panchromatic photographic emulsion.
Examples of Emile’s work:
Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton
Lorenzo Vitturi:
“Lorenzo Vitturi (b. 1980, Italy) is a photographer and sculptor based in London. Formerly a cinema set painter, Vitturi has brought this experience into his photographic practice, which revolves around site-specific interventions at the intersection of photography, sculpture and performance. In Vitturi’s process, photography in conceived as a space of transformation, where different disciplines merge together to represent the complexities of changing urban environments.
Vitturi’s latest solo exhibitions have taken place at FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, The Photographers’ Gallery in London, at Contact Photography Festival in Toronto, and at the CNA in Luxembourg. Vitturi also participated to group exhibitions at MaXXI in Rome, at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, at La Triennale in Milan, at the Shanghai Art Museum and at K11 Art Space in Shanghai, and at BOZAR in Brussels.
Following the presentation of Dalston Anatomy in 2013 as a book, multi-layered installations and performance, Vitturi’s latest photo-book ‘Money Must Be Made’ was published by SPBH Editions in September 2017.” https://www.flowersgallery.com/artists/view/lorenzo-vitturi
“Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity.” http://www.michellesank.com/about
“Working outside of particular demographic scenarios Sank’s Jersey imagery continues to develop a lyrical vision within which the defining influences are place and cultural geography. As a stranger, present for a limited period only, Sank’s ‘residency photographs’ are of course procured under certain psychological precepts. In April 2013 when she arrived at the Archisle Project to undertake a six month residency, geographic and historical influences also loomed large. There were late twentieth century blanks in the archive to compensate, Jersey’s peculiar British-Norman cultural identity to contemplate, economy, politics, community, work, leisure, environment; these concerns together set against a twenty-first century backdrop. As Insula, the Latinate title of Sank’s resulting exhibition suggests, an enduring islandness is a defining influence in this body of work. It also seems fitting that the insula or Island of Reil in the human brain plays a part in regulating self-awareness and emotion.
Insula eschews a specific brief though the work responds to the wealth of nineteenth century portrait photographs within the Jersey Photographic Archive that it now joins as a powerful point of interpretation. The beguiling qualities of these new photographs call to mind the position that Lewis Baltz found for photographic series, ‘somewhere between the novel and film.’ As such, Sank’s photographs offer a visual poem to the island.” http://www.michellesank.com/portfolios/insula
Technical:
This photo as taken with natural lighting coming from the left with a small aperture, probably around F20. The shutter speed is around 1/8 and the ISO is set around 400-1600.
Conceptual:
This photo is described by Michelle Sank as “responds to the wealth of nineteenth century portrait photographs within the Jersey Photographic Archive”. This conveys the meaning of money and power in Jersey and shows how richer people live and what they have.
Contextual:
This images portrays a deeper meaning of social class in Jersey. This woman appears to be quite wealthy, so it contrasts with Sank’s other images in this series, as there is a mixture of different classes in this project.
Visual:
The colours all match cohesively and this photo has maroon red colour palette. This photo is in colour which shows the vibrancy of the image. The tone of the picture is quite light. The main focus is on the lady as she is in the center and the focus is mainly on her.
“Jersey Archive was established as part of Jersey Heritage in 1993. The Archive is the Island’s national repository holding archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses and individuals. Jersey Archive’s purpose is to preserve the unique written cultural heritage of the Island thus ensuring that future generations can access archival material to learn more about Jersey’s past.
Since 1993 Jersey Archive has collected over 300,000 archival records from the States of Jersey, States Committees and Departments, the Royal Court, H.E. Lieutenant-Governor, Parishes, Churches, Businesses, Societies and individuals relating to the Island. These records are now stored in our environmentally monitored strongrooms at the Jersey Archive.” https://www.jerseyheritage.org/collections/archive
A photo zine is a self-published, often handmade collection of photographs laid out in a magazine style. It can include written text and illustrations as well as photos. They are designed to display and share photo stories. A photo zine can be a single, one-off publication.
These are some layout ideas I have for my own zine:
Zine’s have many different layouts such as landscape or portrait, different sizes like A5 to A3. This is also similar with the photos that are in the zine. Images can range in size, some may take up two pages and some are spread out through the pages. Some zines have rhythm/sequence, such as text that relates to the image or colours relating to certain images. The visual concept of the zines varies depending on what the artist’s work is about. Not all zines just have images only in, some zines also had text printed along side the image, which compliments or tells you about the photo beside it.
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