Contact Sheets

These are my contact sheets that I have organised from 3 separate photo shoots. My aim was to explore like Markosian, geographical identity taking photos of my best mate who was Jersey born and bred. I aimed to show his lifestyle on the small island of Jersey, his hobbies and thoughts of living on such a small island through my photos, and raise questions such as… “is Jersey a claustrophobic’s nightmare” or “how does Jersey’s youth make the most of what little space there is?” and so on.

The Process/Final Outcomes

During the shoots I decided to take on a similar mindset such as Markosian which is to “get as far away from the photo herd as possible. Go your own way.” By embracing this mentality and after extensively looking at their work, their images all have a similarity, which is the focus on environmental portrait photography. These are my final chosen images that i am going to display for my identity project. I think they are all the most effective at showing all the little details of each shoot and look most similar to Markosian’s work.

I like this photo as it highlights a young mind’s desire to be free, spread their wings and discover more. This is a common topic among teenagers, especially so in Jersey, a small and arguably overpopulated island with arguably too little to do. The photo pictures Dylan, a “Jersey Boy”, where he is about to ride his motorcycle in an attempt to spread his wings and escape the day-to-day boredom that many claim the island brings.

Like Markosian, I have told a brief story that relates to the geography of the area I have photographed and how it affects the people living there, with the theme of realism in mind. I’ve tried as best I could to imitate her style of work, noticing how she likes to use lots of contrast in her photos, which i have replicated here by increasing contrast and simultaneously lowering the exposure. Furthermore, too add detail in the foreground, I altered the levels/tones and tweaked about with the ‘curves’ feature on Photoshop. I additionally used the blur tool to blur the background as I have seen in some of Marksoian’s work, but also to help emphasize the foreground and give the photo some depth, as the mirror didn’t pop, but rather blended in with the cluttered background in the original photo. Lastly, I sharpened the photo as well as using the lighten tool to help lighten the centre with the mirror and the subject in order to highlight the main aim of the photo. I especially like the composition of this photo as it is centred well, and symmetrical, thus appealing to the viewer as well as the photo generally being good quality/resolution and in focus.

Here, unlike Markosian, I decided to experiment by adding noise in order to add a distinct vintage vibe to the photo as an attempt of experimentation out of pure curiosity. I thought the photo looked really good, thus decided to post it on here as an edit.

In this photo, I positioned myself behind Dylan as he departed the garage about to embark on his ride. Yet again, I tried imitate her previous work, using high contrasts and low exposures to best bring out the theme of realism. I changed the levels and curves slightly to emphasize the shadows more, and help distinguish a clear subject in the middle. To finish it off, I increased the colours and slightly altered the saturation in the image using Photoshop’s “vibrance” tool in order to separate the background from the dark tones in the foreground and add a bit of colour to spice up the image. The image is similar to some of Markosian’s work in respect to the fact that the subject isn’t facing the camera and is minding his own business, an example of candid photography with the theme of realism in mind, often explored by photographers such as Markosian.

All the techniques as mentioned in the previous images were also used in my third final outcome as seen above. This photo incorporates similar meanings as with the others, still including the theme of realism and exploring the inquisitive and adventurous minds of young people, and how they source the knowledge and life experience on this small island.