I will be shooting frontal shots of the sea wall as well as some close up photography of interesting sections of the wall. I will also be taking establishing shots of the beach itself and the ocean. Any fortifications encountered will also be photographs such as Gun-site.
This will be done throughout various times of day in order to give different types of lighting. As such this will be done across 2 shoots.
Shoot 3 –
Take shots of various fortifications across jersey. Focus on abstraction and minimal use of 3D forms.
This will be done at noon to give flat lighting, preferably with overcast weather to soften the lighting.
Shoot 4 –
I will photograph some concrete sculptures using studio lighting similarly to the works of Darren Harvey-Regan besides the clean cut edges of the chalk.
Daniel Meadows, born in 1952, is a British photographer. He is from Gloucestershire. In this post I will be researching his photographic project, “June street”.
June street is essentially a series of family portraits Meadows has taken of British families in a documentary style. The aim of all these images was to capture the essence of every day, ordinary people. It’s clear from all these images that these are everyday working class families, as there’s nothing very extravagant or luxurious in the pictures. All these images were taken in the 1970s.
What attracted Meadows to photographing these people were the fact that all the houses on this street were awaiting demolition, and also the fact that it had been the street used to film the British soap, Coronation street.
“As a photographer, my principal subject was – and remains – the British people” – Source
I decided to use Meadows as one of my chosen case studies as I like how his portraits portray the family unit in their environment, as I feel it can give the viewer a sense of knowledge surrounding the people in the images, as their environment can reveal a lot about them. I will use his work as inspiration when taking my own environmental portraits of my family to show both my mum’s and dad’s new families, which will represent their new relationships and lives since splitting up. I think this will be a successful way to depict this chapter of their lives as it will show viewers new relationships, and other things of significance in their life.
“I’m not interested in celebrities, just ordinary folk.”– Source
In the video below, Meadows analyses his own work and also explains additional context regarding a selection of the image he took.
Technically, the composition of this image is very pleasing to the eye as the photographer has used the rule of thirds by placing the subjects on the right side of the frame. I think this balances the environment and the family perfectly in the image.
Visually, We can see what appears to be a mother, her 2 children and a cat in their home environment. Behind her we can see what appears to be a painting or image, likely of someone of importance, as it is hanging centrally on the wall. We can also see objects hanging on the wall which adds more personality to the image.
We know contextually, that Meadows photographed different families, all working class, and their individual structures on “June street” in Salford, where 20 houses were awaiting demolition.
I think that conceptually, this image may show the bond of a single parent family as we see the mother in very close proximity to her children, and her expression shows she is very happy. Although, contextually I know at this time being single and working class would come with very difficult struggles and hardships, the strong sense of community on this street would have probably made life a little bit easier.
Invisible Hands is an art exhibition which is a collaborative project between artist Alicja Rogalska and The Morning Boat in order to showcase life as a migrant worker. The exhibition is located at Jersey Art Centre in the Berni Gallery, and aims to inform viewers of the poor conditions these migrant workers are put through and how little they gain back, in terms of pay, housing and food. This topic is highly relevant as it has been a massive part of the Island’s agriculture for over 150 years, but still is an area which has not been explored or documented.
The Agri-Care Prize was created while interviewing the migrant about their working conditions and lives. The interviews were informal as they created clay potatoes to act as a symbolic representation for all migrant workers, whilst creating this they talked about what made a star worker and made a list of criteria as to how to decide who gets the prize of the potato. This is a highly important aspect of this exhibition as it reinforces how the migrant workers are forgotten about and not talked about much, reinforcing the theme of neglect. This set of rules and background is shown below, alongside the prize potato.
As mentioned before the migrant workers were interviewed, and this was put into a video, and was projected onto the wall. Within this video we watch these migrant workers told and create their potato out of clay with the audio of the migrant workers explaining the working conditions being played on top of this. One key element of the video is that no faces are shown, allowing the migrant workers to remain anonymous allowing them to express the issues and their personal opinion, reinforcing the title of ‘Invisible Hands’
The imagery of the exhibition was all captured by the migrant workers themselves in order to accurately represent their lifestyle and working conditions. This is showcased as many images are poor quality and show poor framing techniques which makes the images authentic and allows us to truly understand the conditions that they are in. All images were enlarged and framed and displayed on the wall. After looking at some imagery one key thing that stood out was that all imagery with the subject being people, the people all seemed happy and got on with their job and life as they don’t know any better emphasising this pejorative issue within the Channel Islands.
Personally, I believe this exhibition really illustrates how bad these migrant workers get it, allowing me as a viewer truly understand their working and living conditions. The work hold strong conceptual and contextual representations which makes the imagery and overall exhibition powerful in illustrating political and social issues, suggesting our government is corrupt. The authentic and naturalistic/documentary photographs produced really emphasised how real this issue is, exposing me to the issue and feeling a sense of sympathy and makes me want to help these migrant workers. The use of imagery and media has allowed me to gain further understanding of the concept and context, which has allowed me to consider using these techniques to showcase my concept and context within my personal study.
Family: Looking at the theme occupation in terms of my family, exploring the history of my family as well as exploring the way we are now and how the past has influenced us. My main focus will be on my grandparents as they will have the most stories to tell, allowing a clear narrative to be created.
Lifestyle: Still on the ideology of capturing my grandparents, I want to see how the time period they grew up in 1940, has influenced the lifestyle they live through key themes of religion, family structure and gender stereotypes.
Liberation of Family History: The main focus will be trying to showcase my grandparents lives. I intend to capture their stories about their past, telling the narratives of their lives. This can be done through tableaux and staged imagery as well as capturing landscape and showcasing the incorporation of image and text.
Possible Questions:
How does Walker Evans and Alicja Rogalska showcase the lifestyle of their subjects within their imagery?
Explore the relationship between documentary and photography with reference to Walker Evans.
Explore how the photographers Sam Harris and Walker Evans capture the theme of lifestyle within their work.
To what extent does family photographer Sam Harris present the theme of lifestyle?
To what extent is the theme of lifestyle presented through documentary portraits, with reference too Sam Harris and Walker Evans?
To what extent does straight photography accurately portray events in time?
How is the theme of lifestyle presented within documentary photography, with reference too Sam Harris and Walker Evans?
After analyzing various artists, I have drawn a lot of inspiration from Jeff wall. I personally really like his approach to tableaux photography and his ability to capture a moment by reconstructing it in a live setting, as well as his attention to detail. I am particularly inspired by his image “Milk” due to the display of emotion that Wall has been able to capture. The idea of the erupting milk carton has inspired me to reproduce images in this style, utilizing various objects to use as a representation of a metaphor of inner emotion. The explosion of the milk carton can be seen as an explosion of inner anger and frustration. I want to portray inner emotion through the use of inanimate objects to show feelings of Occupation Vs Liberation within a person in terms of how they feel mentally.
I would like to photograph my subjects in environments where they may be experiencing these emotions, such as out partying, feeling a sense of freedom and liberty, or behind closed doors, feeling occupied by their own minds. I would plan out every element of my shoots, such as time of day, outfit of my subject and their exact body positioning and facial expression, reflective of Walls highly meticulous tableaux shoots. I therefore intend to create work inspired by Walls tableaux approach to portraiture and I would like to incorporate the themes seen in “Milk” as I find them very intriguing and a great way of portraying a story.
For my personal investigation I plan to investigated the way that myths and legends can not only be just stories but found and incorporated into our lives and surroundings of where they are suggested to be true or really just a myth and legend. I want to look into ones that specifically surround where I live on the island or where I used to travel along, having come from a fairly superstitious family I have been told the stories before and have a lot of reference made in telling and incorporating them into stories as a child. I feel that sometimes these myths and legends or stories can be a huge part of peoples lives or the identity of a place, these stories occupy peoples lives and these places which is something I would want to explore. I plan to take the photographs and explore my ideas in a tableaux way as well as incorporating photographs showing the landscapes and places of these myths and legends, I want to incorporate these stories as if they are merging in with real life. The folklore of Jersey’s legends has become common knowledge to a lot of locals and has been built into the island (eg. statues of the devil at devils hole). I want to explore this by looking into a few of the legends in detail and exploring how I can portray this with tableaux and landscape photography.
Action Plans:
Devils Hole – Greve de Lecq
Blinding fairies – Lavoir des dames
Women in Black – Smugglers Inn
For my first photoshoots I plan to go out into the landscapes and see how the areas and surroundings of where these myths are suggested to be are looking and how it may effect them, I want to try and speak to some people who live around the areas for example at the Smugglers Inn pub and how they believe it or to what extent they do. I feel photographing the landscape will give me a stronger idea of a starting point for the tableaux photography and an idea of the spaces I can work with and for some outcomes will give me a sense of place and show the island in it’s natural state and compare and contrast it with the tableaux creations of maybe what the island would look like if these legends that occupy the island were real.
For my Tableaux photoshoots I plan to have people in costumes with props and other things embedded and acting in these mythical characters. I want to try and create a sense of these stories actually being true and showing them in the island. My aim is to show these myths physically occupying the island not just as they do now mentally with stories, but instead incorporating the idea and narrative of what if these stories that are told and believed to some extent true or how would they look in our everyday life now compared to when they were spread as rumours or stories that have stuck for generations being known in the island to locals and used as tools sometimes for tourism.
As another photoshoot possibility I also have a plan to take some disposable candid photographs, creating the effect of these myths being seen in real life, I would then plan to move into the studio and take object photographs of these images, suggesting a reality to the myths and stories, seeing to what extent I can push these myths to be real and believed as they occupy the island and peoples beliefs, as a sense of security or identity. To what extent do these myths and legends create an identity, culture and past of the island and its locals, creating an occupation of stories and rumours.
Liberationand Occupation: My personal study is based around the theme of “occupation and liberation”. I have personally interpreted this theme in a historical context, whereby I will be investigating the way gender stereotypes have evolved and developed over the years (from the mid 20th century to now), and therefore will be identifying the differences between the past (where gender roles and stereotypes were more pronounced and conservative – occupation) and now (where gender roles and stereotypes are becoming more fluid and liberal, with focus being drawn towards an individuals personal goals and expression, rather than their gender – liberation)
Gender: My personal study will be focusing on gender roles, and the stereotypes that society labels both men and women with. My work will focus on giving examples of where gender roles are abided to, and where they are challenged, and the difference in the viewers opinions towards these 2 ends of the spectrum.
Stereotypes: I will focus on identifying and presenting well known gender stereotypes in an overt, obvious way, as to allow the viewers of my work to clearly identify these stereotypes, and possibly relate to witnessing/experiencing these stereotypes, therefore allowing them to relate more to the work.
Phoebe Jane Barrett: Barrett’s work focuses on the concept of breaking the stereotype of men having no emotions, with their masculinity being the main focus of their personalities. I will be taking inspiration from Barrett’s presentation of men as just as emotional and human as women, in order to reflect the harmful gender stereotypes that men face (that are perhaps less spoken about), in my own work.
Cindy Sherman: Cindy’s work focuses on creating bold an loud images, that represent the absurdity of how women are portrayed in the media. I feel that her work is extremely identifiable, and I have taken inspiration from her bold style.
“Compare how Phoebe Jane Barrett and Cindy Sherman challenge gender stereotypes in their work“
How do photographers such as Phoebe Jane Barrett and Cindy Shermanchallenge stereotypical gender roles in their work?”
“How is masculinity and femininity portrayed in the work of Cindy Sherman and Phoebe Jane Barrett?”
“Compare how Cindy Sherman presents women in her photography with how Helmut Newton presents women in his photography”
For my personal study, I am going to be working mainly with people and objects as I want to tell a story of the evolution of my family and I. After taking these images, I will compare them to images I have found on the upbringing and history of living in other country who are in poverty or less fortunate than myself. This is so I can see the different of life now for me and for someone the similar age as me, with different upbringings. I will also compare this too how different countries that are facing war currently in the 21st century and compare that to my life and even the life people lived during the German Occupation in Jersey. I will then experiment with different aspects of my shoots and I hope to create montages from the images gathered by myself.
Adam Ethan Berner
Burner has many different projects, one main of the projects I am going to focus on is; Making A Family; The History and Theory BehindFamily Photos. I feel that this project links in well with occupation and liberation, as Burner is documenting his family history by creating a personal archive. Below are some of his images from this project;
Using the following link, I was able to access information from Burner that he had wrote up himself, along with his original images. Burner’s work from this project is mainly analysing and documenting old family photos and showing how people have grown up. Burner states that ‘family photos adorn the walls of homes. They are the last things before and after we sleep, and living rooms for guests to see. They remind us of our kin and loved ones. The photos reinforce what the idea of the family is as the images create an idea of what normal family life is like.’ Burner also states that ‘Underneath the image of a smiling face, the text of a missing persons sign reads, “Have you seen me?” The most important part of a government-issued identification document is the photograph of the person to whom it belongs. When one sees an unflattering photo of oneself, one doesn’t say, “The pixels that create a facsimile of my likeness are unflattering.” You say, “Delete that photo, I look terrible.’https://museemagazine.com/features/2018/11/20/making-a-family-the-history-and-theory-behind-family-photos?rq=adam%20ethan%20berner
A Photo From Burner’s Project
Technical; the lighting from this image would’ve come from the lighting around the room along with the flash on the camera, I can tell this because the faces of the subjects are slightly over exposed. The shadow present behind them could’ve been caused my the flash or the way the home lighting was angled. The tonal range within the image is little, this is due to the face of the black and white worn by the subjects being very normal and bold colors, yet neutral . The color temperature of the image is slightly on the orange side, this may be due to the fact the image was taken as cameras were just developed.
Visual; The texture of the image looks rough, due to the discoloration of it and the wrinkles within the image, from this texture you can tell that the image is old. The image its self is 2D, but due to the shadows behind the objects and the angle they are standing you can see a 3D affect. The composition of the image has a layout of four individuals stood side by side next to each other, two males and two females who are dressed in smart attire. Immediately, I am drawn to the women in the white dress, this is because white stands out over the black and orange background.
Conceptual/Contextual; Burner used this image due to the fact to show his family history, the meaning behind it is documenting family photos, however, as suggested by Burner ‘photos aren’t always taken’ so when they are it is a memorable moment, so in the future that moment can be remembered.
Laurie Simmons
Simmons is an american photographer who tends to delve deep into the portray of gender rolls, one of her main projects interesting me being Big Camera, Little Camera, where she associated things she has grown up with, mainly dolls with things from the present day such her house or her work, but her work is also a symbol of gender roles.
Through a review done my Adam Burner he said; ‘Throughout the collection of photos, one can see the ways in which Simmons’ career developed as she plays with scale, staging, and the borders between reality and fiction.’ here he is saying that his lady he has researched about is showing her evolution and how she grew up will dolls, and Burner’s photography is now portraying them as reminders from her past along with associating them with things of the present, such as her home/job. I researched more in detail about this project using the following link; https://museemagazine.com/culture/2019/1/8/book-review-laurie-simmons-big-camera-little-camera?rq=adam%20ethan%20berner
