After finalizing the editing for all of the photographs I took over the course of the project, and reducing my selection of images to the ones that I wanted to use as final images, I was left with the below images:

These would be the images I would use in my zine, and I felt like these images could all be linked together using a narrative. My first thought was that the contrast between the portraits (clearly taken in modern time) and the images of the archival, old objects would work to add to a narrative that represented the reflection between the present individuals who still deal with the trauma of the occupation, and the reality that the occupation is still a very important and present part of the history of Jersey (as clearly the objects have been looked after and archived to preserve them and their importance). I decided to develop a narrative that would help to link between the past and present, and show the differences and similarities that could still be found within past and present representations of war and occupation if they are actively sought out.

The first 2 images I decided on to place side by side were a portrait and a photo-montage. I feel that placing these 2 images together shows a contrast between the bold colours on the right, and the dulled, somber colours of the left. I specifically placed these images together due to their contrasting colours which would draw attention of the viewer, but also the fact that the subjects of both images are looking in the same direction, showing a connection between the two images, and drawing attention to the fact that the subjects of both images, although presented very differently, still hold experiences of war and trauma that they deal with in their own way. I made these the first images to immediately draw attention to the similarities between old and new.

I then began sequencing the next images, to show a subtle decent into a set of images that focused more on the historical aspect of the war, drawing attention to archival images and photo-montage representations of how war influenced those involved in it. I did this by placing an image of a single subject that has been edited to look slightly ripped. I did this to show a decent, as if tearing away the present to reveal the past reality of the war and occupation. I then placed a series of objects and photo-montages, progressively becoming darker and bolder in colour as well as theme, in order to represent the growing despair and hopelessness of the occupation.

As seen in the gallery of images above, the sequence moves from lighter, studio photography of objects, towards more raw, darker tones images of objects in the environment in which they would have been found during the occupation. I did this to emphasize the reality, in which archival objects themselves struggle to tell the full story, unless the reality and truth of the occupation itself is considered, and the objects are seen in their real, frightening and more disturbing setting.

I decided to use this image as my final image. I feel like the tones of this image encapsulate the sorrow of the war, as the contrasting black and whites present a stark and harsh contrast, with the subjects presenting neutral faces (rather than happy). I used this as my final image to bring attention back to the present, where individuals present during the Occupation still deal with the negative memories of the Occupation, and I feel that this image reflects the dark struggles that the subjects still deal with every day.

In The First March of Gentlemen, Rafal Milach creates a narrative composed of real stories. He retells the historical childrens strike in Wrzenia in Poland from the early 20th Century, through collaged archive photographs from the 1950s and 1960. He has created a narrative to be read as a playful metaphor for the social and political tensions of the present.

When western Poland was under German occupation, over 100 students of the Catholic People’s School took part in a strike against the German influence on their education. The Germans aim was to remove the Polish language from their teachings.

Milach detached the figures from Szczepaniak’s photographs, both literally and figuratively, from their original context and placed them onto bright, candy coloured backgrounds. The design is “like a toy, like a candy – something nice to look at and to touch.” The figures are caged in geometric shapes, which as the book progresses, increasingly constrict and restrain them. The figures remain oblivious to their imprisonment. Ania Nałęcka-Milach, the designer of the book, created the physical object to reference the size and colour scheme of children’s school exercise books, as a camouflage for the serious subject matter.

https://en.artbooksonline.eu/art-20507

https://www.bjp-online.com/2018/06/milach-gentlemen/

MY RESPONSE:

In order to create these photomontages, I edited my still life Occupation objects on photoshop. These 4 outcomes are inspired by Rafal Milach, a photographer who created montages with figures caged in geometric shapes to retell the historical children strike in Wrzenia in Poland. His vivid colour scheme and “toy and candy” design has inspired me to further explore my editing skills on photoshop.

To create these several designs, I used archival images of German soldier from société jersiaise. The quick selection tool on photoshop allowed me to cut out the soldiers from their original photo and place it onto the still life photographs. Before using the line tool, I adjusted the figures using the transformation tool to change the size and placement. What I enjoyed the most about editing these photomontages was adding geometrical shapes onto the images to have the same contextual meaning as Milach’s book. The figures are restrained and caged by these lines to convey the restrictions the German’s introduced into Jersey when it was Occupied.

Editing Process:

Once I was confident with my understanding of the lights and layout of the studio, I could begin taking photographs of the archival objects that were loaned from the Jersey Archives. I made use of the cameras already attached to the tripods but used my own SD card. After taking a series of images, I came out with the below series (unedited):

As some of the images were either overexposed, underexposed, or had the wrong composition, I uploaded the images into Light-room, and used the colour option to highlight which images I wanted to use, and which images I would reject. The following screenshot is the collection of all of my images after they had been colour coded:

Out of the images I uploaded to Light-room, I only decided to edit 14 of my best (those highlighted green). The final 14 images can be seen below:

As a further method of rating each image, I decided to rate each of the green images /5 in order to record which images I felt would work best, and which ones I felt needed the most editing during the development stage:

I then began the development process, in which I would edit the images that I had labelled green. I used the Light-room editing software, as I find it more detailed and specific than the Photo-shop software. I found that editing the colour gradients and contrasts of my images would be the most important part of this process, along with altering the orientation of some of the images so that the objects lay parallel to the bottom of the image frame.

For many of the images, I increased the contrast of the colours in order to produce bolder outlines and harsher colours. I felt that this helped to make the images appear more sharp and clinical, and gave harsher outlines and contrast in the colours and shadows. I decided to do this as I feel this harsh, sharp appearance reflects the atmosphere of the occupation, as the occupation of Jersey can be seen as a harsh and cruel event that made the lives of the occupants of the island much harder.

Furthermore, I decided to increase the clarity of some of my images. I found that by raising the clarity, the clarity of every small damaged area/detail was emphasized, making the objects of each image look more worn and used. I decided to use this on a range of occasions to emphasize the time difference between now and the occupation, and to emphasize that, although these objects represent a time man years ago, the implications of this event is no less relevant.

I also adjusted the orientation of some of my images, as the way the tripod was set out meant that the camera took some of the images at a slight angle, meaning the lines of the objects were not parallel to the bottom lie of the image frame. I found this to be a small issue which could have reduced the viewers focus on the subject itself, as their attention may instead have been drawn to the conflicting angles at the bottom of the image. I altered this using the crop option found on the tool bar at the side of the screen, and simply rotated the image until the lines were parallel:

After the editing process, I was able to save the below images as my final images:

Planning:

For this photoshoot I intended to photograph objects from the war, which was given to me by the Jersey Archives. There is a mixture of objects such as Red Cross packages, Tins, Helmets, Newspaper’s, Letters and many more which symbolically represented the war. Having this many items, I used two set ups, the first for more flat objects (Birds Eye View) and one for 3-Dimensional objects (Straight on Angle). These two set ups required different lighting rigs, which is explained below. With my camera settings I put the mode to Manual, the ISO to 100 and the aperture to F16, allowing a wide depth of field to be utilised. The shutter speed for the Birds Eye View was between 1/250 – 1/200 and the straight on angle’s shutter speed was 0.5 – 0.8. The white balance for both was set onto daylight, with manual focus being used.

Birds Eye View Lighting Setup:

For the Birds eye view set up, I used two flash head lights, set on a 2.0 power output. The lights where paced either side of the table, slightly facing downwards towards the object. On my camera I used a transmitter which triggered the flash heads to operate as I captured my imagery. In addition, I also used a pilot light in order to position a and frame my composition, this was located at the back of the table (on right) and did not affect the colouring or the outcomes of my image. The camera itself was placed on a tripod looking down at the table.

Straight On Angle Lighting Set Up:

For the straight on angle set up I used a continuous light set up. I used a fill light illuminating the object, with a secondary (tungsten light) light source to reduce the shadows and clearly showcase the object. I also experimented with back lights, but felt that it was not successful and did not justify the objects, thus I stopped using the back light. The camera was on a tripod with a 50mm lens.

Edits:

Straight On Angle Edits:

For my straight on angle edits, I began by cropping the photographs, to ensure that the object is in the centre of the composition. I then focused on adjusting the whites, blacks, shadows, contrast and structure in order to accurately portray the objects. This also ensured a complete white background, allowing the objects to be the main focal point within the photograph. Within each photograph, there is a sense of warmth through the artificial lighting, which presents a positive view point towards the contextual meaning of the objects.

The image above is my top photograph from this exploration of still life photography. Visually, we are presented with a light used in the mines during the occupation of Jersey in 1940-45. This object is the main focal point due to the positioning of it in the frame, and it being the only item within the frame of the photograph. The use of artificial lighting allows reflection on the metal object creating tonal contrast of the rust and decay of the object to clearly be presented. When analysing the main formal elements within the frame, we are clearly presented with a sense of space, and emptiness (showcasing the lack of purpose the item now has within today’s society) form, colour and texture. The photograph captures the object at a straight on angle which works in harmony with the plain background, allowing emphasis on the conceptual and contextual factors.

Contextually, the photograph brings viewers back to the second world war and the impact it had on Jersey. It showcases the torch and how slaves, who were taken (from places such as Russia etc) and forced to work digging out tunnels, such as the underground hospital. This conceptually remind us of the importance of this object in Jersey’s history and enriches our understanding of what life was like for the slaves who were forced to work.

Technically, the photograph uses a slow shutter speed, allowing enough light to be presented within the photograph to emphasis the object, which did not create any blur due to a tripod being utilised when capturing the photograph. The ISO was kept at 100 to ensure that no noise is presented within the frame and the aperture was set to F16 which has let a wide depth of field to be used on top of allowing enough light into the exposure of the photograph. The white balance was sunlight, allowing a clear white balance correction which complemented the warm artificial light source used (a two point lighting set up, with a tungsten light).

Birds Eye View Angle Edits:

With my birds eye view photographs, I began by cropping the photographs, to ensure that the object is in the centre of the composition. I then focused on adjusting the whites, blacks, shadows, contrast and structure in order to accurately portray the objects. After ‘correcting’ the photograph I then decided to try and make the object stand out for it’s background, almost as if it has been raised and is separated from the background. To do this I looked at further increasing the shadows and blacks, although I achieved this effect, it has meant that the background now has grey tones, which slightly distracts viewers from the focal point of the photograph

Evaluation:

To evaluate my attempt at still life photography, I believe I have been able to produce clear example of my exploration with this style of photography. From taking the photographs at different angles with different lighting set ups, to applying my artist inspiration within my work, I have successfully been able to conceptually and contextually showcase the importance of these items to Jersey’s history. The simplistic editing used within these outcomes have worked well, as it does not distract viewers from the true values of the outcomes, which showcases my aesthetic for the photo shoot. To conclude, I am happy with the outcomes I have produced due to the high quality images created, through correct camera settings, and good edits. If I was to improve this I would look at producing another photo shoot capturing more objects, singularly, at a straight on angle, allowing me then to explore with typologies as a format for displaying the objects.