After our shoot we began editing on premiere. This was pretty easy as each third was one continuous shoot so we just had to select the best and then piece them all together.
After piecing our work together we created a montage of photos depicting women’s rights protests throughout the past century. This felt really meaningful as it shows the real life stories of the women who helped us get to where we are politically today.
After this we began to select a backing track as without sound the film would be really boring. The music had to be royalty free because otherwise we would be unable to sell it because of copy right issues. We needed up deciding to use the song Luminance by Scott Buckley. The was just so beautiful and spoke to our group on an emotional level as being perfect for out film To add meaning to the film we used recordings of 3 different feminist speeches that we felt related to each of our shots and the issues they portray. The recordings are also taken from similar times considering the timeline of the waves of feminism in regards to our film. The sound put together with the film makes it really dramatic and exactly the vibe we were trying to achieve. The first audio recording we used was taken from Christabel Pankhurst 1908speach protesting the right for votes for women. The second was a 1970 NBC news report on the Women’s rights movement and the4 last was of Britta Badour’s poem entitled “Dear Young Woman2 recorded in 2019.
My editing process for this photo was inspired by the 2016 film “The Love Witch” which uses a strict colour palette to create a 1960s technicolour effect. I think this image connotes old Hollywood and the luxury and decadence that lifestyle allows. There is an ironic spin considering our project is based on female empowerment when the golden age of Hollywood was a notoriously hard time for female staff for dealt with rampant sexual harassment and were filmed almost entirely through the male gaze.
I decided to use adobe Lightroom to edit in lieu of photoshop as Lightroom gives much more space to mess around with colours which is what I was most interested in for this particular photo.
The idea behind our NFT project was to show the different fashion changes throughout different decades- we included the ’60s, ’70s , ’80s and ’90s. We wanted to show how fashion has a huge impact on the internet , especially how so many people buy outfits and fashion related items online as it’s a huge part of our everyday life. We wanted to show the way clothes evolve through centuries and we achieved this by creating a short 30 second clip of our model walking in a straight line while her outfits change throughout different decades. We effectively combined all of our clips together and crated what we planned to do. We made sure our project relates to the NFT as the images we took show outfits that people could easily buy online as now fashion and clothes can be digitally bought through NFTs. We wanted to do our own interpretation of this and create a small short clip to present the outfits digitally.
The A-level coursework consist of two modules, Personal Investigation (worth 72 marks) and Personal Study (essay worth 18 marks) which are interlinked and informed by each other. All the work that you produced (both coursework and exam) in Yr 12 also contributes towards A-Level coursework and overall equates to 100% of the total marks as there will be no External Set Assignment (Exam) in 2022. The Personal Study essay account for 25% of the total marks. The last week before H-Term 7-11 Feb is a Mock Exam and will count as final DEADLINE
The aim of this unit is to critically investigate, question and challenge a particular style, area or work by artists/ photographer(s) which will inform and develop your own emerging practice as a student of photography. The unit is designed to be an extension of your practical work in your Personal Investigation module where the practical informs and develops the theoretical elements and vice versa of your ongoing project.
Your Personal Study is a written and illustrated dissertation, including a written essay (2000 words) and a lens-based body of work (either stills photography or moving image) with a number of final outcomes produced from your Personal Investigation unit.
This year you have a choice to make either a film (3-5mins) or a photo book, either online using Blurb or by hand using traditional book binding techniques, which you design to include both your essay and a final selection and sequence of your photographs produced as a response to your chosen theme(s) of IDENTITY & COMMUNITY.
Explore Shannon’s blog posts to learn more about her Personal Study into patriarchy and women’s traditional role
In addition, you are expecting to produce an appropriate amount of blogposts that demonstrates your ability to research, analysis, plan, record, experiment, present and evaluate.
What it says in the syllabus (Edexcel)
Essential that students build on their prior knowledge and experience developed during the course.
Select artists work, methods and art movements appropriate to your previous coursework work as a suitable basis for your study.
Investigate a wide range of work and sources.
Develop your written dissertation in the light of your chosen focus from the practical part of previous coursework and projects.
Establish coherent and sustainable links between your own practical work with that of historical and contemporary reference.
Be aware of some of the methods employed by critics and historians within the history of art and photography.
Demonstrate a sound understanding of your chosen area of study with appropriate use of critical vocabulary.
Show evidence for an ongoing critical and analytical review of your investigation – both your written essay and own practical work in response to research and analysis.
Develop a personal and critical enquiry.
Culminate in an illustrated written presentation.
How to get started: Link your chosen area of study to your previous work, knowledge and understanding based upon your chosen theme(s) of IDENTITY & COMMUNITY
Up until now you have explored the theme of COMMUNITY in class and produced two different outcomes; a photo-zine and a short film. Both outcomes are exploring narrative in different ways and it’s up to you to decide which theme and medium you enjoy most and feel will give you the best chance at producing a quality final outcome. This project will be the final chance you have to improve your marks and grades!
You can decide to continue to respond to/ investigate the theme of COMMUNITY in a similar or different way, or take a fresh look at the theme of IDENTITY, either as way to explore who you are as an individual or examine aspects of Jersey’s history, culture and heritage that gives the island its unique identity.
The choice is between making a photobook; exploring a subject and theme in depth using photography as a tool for visual storytelling, either through observation (documentary) or staging (tableaux) a series of photoshoots. Making a film might be more in line with your creative skills set and offer other elements to storytelling, such as moving image and sound. Either option offers its own unique set of challenges and opportunities for you to express yourself creatively as A-Level Photography student.
The work that you produce will also be presented collectively to a large audience in April/ May next year as a newspaper; printed and distributed island-wide by the Jersey Evening Post.
In this module we will examine how different narrative structures can be used to tell stories in pictures from looking at photobooks as well as cinema. We will consider narrative within a documentary approach where observation is central in representing reality, albeit we will look at both visual styles within traditional photojournalism as well as contemporary photography which employs a more poetic visual language that straddles the borders between objectivity and subjectivity, fact and fiction.
Some of the subjects you wish to explore within the themes may relate to issues already represented and interpreted in your work, for example RACE, GENDER, FAMILY, EQUALITY and ENVIRONMENT. It may be useful for you to revisit some of the parts we have already covered so far in our coursework.
PRACTICAL WORK: You have 8 weeks in lesson time and over 2 weeks at Christmas to complete principal shoots and make new images. This include all relevant blog posts demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of: RESEARCH > ANALYSIS > PLANNING > RECORDING, EXPERIMENTATION > PRESENTATION > EVALUATION.
PHOTOBOOK: Returning after Christmas we will be spending the whole month of January developing, designing and printing the photobook which will include your essay and somewhere between 40-60 images sequenced to tell a story.
FILM: If you are making a film, then you will be spending January editing your footage, including both visual (moving image/ still-images) and sound (voice-over, sound effects, ambient sound, music scores). Your essay will be published as a separate blog post.
DEADLINE: MUST complete 3-4 new photo-shoots/ moving image recordings this AUTUMN TERM that must be published on the blog by Tue 5 Jan 2022.
ESSAY: We will be spending minimum 1 lesson a week on CONTEXTUAL STUDIES where you will be learning about art/photo history, critical theory and contemporary practice as well as developing academic study skills to help you writing your essay. However, it is essential that you are organising your time effectively and setting aside time outside of lessons to read, study and write.
DEADLINE: Final Essay MUST be handed in Fri 28 Jan 2022
MOCK EXAM: 7 – 11 Feb 2022. 3 days controlled test (15 hours) Groups: 13B: MON 7 – WED 9 FEB 13C: WED 7 – FRI 11 FEB
DEADLINE: Completion of photobook or film LAST DAY OF YOUR MOCK EXAM.
NEWSPAPER: From the work that you produce as part of this unit we will be making a collective newspaper based on the two themes of IDENTITY & COMMUNITY. DEADLINE: 8 APRIL 2022
Week 10: 15 – 21 Nov Introduction to Personal Study Island Identity
ISLAND IDENTITY
What makes Jersey special and why does that matter? These two simple-sounding questions underpin the creation of a new ISLAND IDENTITY project led by Deputy Carolyn Labey, Deputy of Grouville, Assistant Chief Minister and Minister for International Development. The newspaper we will be producing together as a class will be sponsored by the Minister who will also provide a foreword.
RATIONALE: Our national Identity – how we see ourselves and how others see us – matters a great deal. In Jersey, our ability to work together, care for each other, grow our economy and look after our environment depends on us being bound to each other by more than a shared geography and set of rules. Whatever our backgrounds or occupations, we can benefit from a shared sense of belonging and a shared understanding of what it means to be Jersey.
The ISLAND IDENTITY project has produced a website and a report that has identified distinctive qualities of island life in Jersey. You may wish to explore one of those key themes more in-depth as a concept for your project. They are:
Constitution & Citizenship Communities International Economy Education & Sport Heritage, Culture & the Arts Environment
Lessons MON-FRI:ISLAND IDENTITY PROJECT TASK: In groups of two produce a poster that reflects on one of the key areas listed above.
1. What makes Jersey special and why does it matter to you? 2. What does it mean to be ‘Jersey’, now and in the future? 3. What can we all do to solidify a cohesive and positive Island identity? 4. Are there barriers to a positive and inclusive Island identity? (What requires a greater focus and what is being missed?)
Consider ways you could explore the topic through photography and/or film.
Develop a concept and provide a number of creative starting points for a project.
Poster must be visually stimulating using a combination of images, graphics and text.
Present your poster and ideas in class by Fri 19 Nov.
Publish poster on the blog and write an evaluation by Mon 22 Nov.
CONSIDER ISLAND IDENTITY: Jersey’s natural landscape, Medieval architecture and castles, Neolithic structures and archaeology, German fortifications, influence of Norman culture and language; ie. cultural festivals/ social rituals/ Jérriais speakers/ place names, agricultural heritage; Jersey cow, Royal potato, cider making, knitting, maritime history; privateering, North Atlantic cod-fisheries, worldwide merchant trade, ship building, International Finance Centre; tax heaven, Tourism; a Victorian seaside retreat, 1960s, 70s and 80s heyday of mass tourism
Week 11: 22 – 28 Nov Developing Personal Study Review and Reflect
Lesson task MON:Personal Investigation Choose one final project from past students.
For photobooks, look through sequence of images carefully and study their supporting blog posts. For films, watch film saved in shared folder here and study their supporting blog posts.
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\LOVE & REBELLION\FILM\Personal Study
Present their project in class and comment on the book, or film’s quality, with reference to: Concept Editing Sequencing Design Narrative Aesthetic
Make an assessment using the mark sheet below and calculate a grade.
Lesson task TUE:Personal Study Read the essay and comment on its overall written and interpretative quality as well as its use of critical, contextual and historical references, eg.
Does the essay address its hypothesis?
Does it provide new knowledge and understanding?
Is the essay well structured with a sense of an introduction, paragraphs and a conclusion?
Use and flow of language, prose, punctuation, spelling.
Use of specialist vocabulary relating to art and photography.
Analysis of artist’s oeuvre (body of work) and key work(s).
Evidence of wider reading with reference to art history/ theory, political discourse and/or socio-economical context.
Use of direct quotes, summary or commentary from others to make an informed and critical argument.
Use of referencing system (eg. Harvard) and a bibliography.
Use of illustrations with captions listing name of artist, title of work and year of production.
Make an assessment using the mark sheet and calculate a grade.
Lesson Task WED-FRI: Reviewing and reflecting
Objective:Criteria from the Syllabus
Essential that students build on their prior knowledge and experience developed during the course.
Develop your written dissertation in the light of your chosen focus from the practical part of previous coursework and projects.
From your Personal Investigation based on IDENTITY & COMMUNITY write an overview of what you learned so far (both as Yr 12 and Yr 13 student) and how you intend to develop your Personal Study.
1. Describe which themes, medium (photography, film), approaches (documentary, tableaux, conceptual), artists (incl contextual references to art history, movements and isms) and photographic skills, processes, techniques and methods (incl learning new software) inspired you the most and why.
2. Include examples of both previous and current experiments and imagery to illustrate your thinking.
3. Produce a new mind-map and mood-board based around how you interpret one/ or both theme(s) of IDENTITY & COMMUNITY using new artists inspirations and visual references etc. Reflect on the Island Identity project and also consider themes more broadly (see below)
4. Write a Statement of Intent that clearly contextualise; What you want to explore? Why it matters to you? How you wish to develop your project? When and where you intend to begin your study? Make sure you describe your chosen theme (IDENTITY & COMMUNITY), subject-matter (topic, issue), artists (inspirations, references) and final outcome (photobook, film).
5. Plan your first photo-shoot as a response to initial ideas. Must be published on the blog by Wed 2 Dec.
the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.”he knows the identity of the bombers”
the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is.”he wanted to develop a more distinctive Scottish Tory identity”
(of an object) serving to establish who the holder, owner, or wearer is by bearing their name and often other details such as a signature or photograph.
close similarity or affinity. “an identity between the company’s own interests and those of the local community”
What makes a person’s identity? Identity is simply defined as the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is. Elements or characteristics of identity would include race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical attributes, personality, political affiliations, religious beliefs, professional identities, and so on.
What does the word “identity” mean to you? Identity is about positive traits; it also can be negative traits. It’s a combination of things that you do; it’s your talents, it’s your strengths, it’s your passions, it’s what you love, it’s what you care about.
It may be useful for you to revisit your IDENTITY & PLACE project you did earlier in your photography studies.
IDENTITY POLITICS: Identity politics is the term used to describe an anti-authoritarian political and cultural movement that gained prominence in the USA and Europe in the mid-1980s, asking questions about identity, repression, inequality and injustice and often focusing on the experience of marginalised groups
Here are some blog posts from last year where we explored a number of universal and local issues in relation to the themes of LOVE & REBELLION, such as RACISM, COLONIALISM, CAPITALISM, IDENTITY POLITICS, GENDER, AUTHORITY, PROPAGANDA and CLIMATE CHANGE. Some of these issues may resonate with you when developing your focus for your Personal Study.
What Lies Below the Surface: See new work by London students exploring how photography can be used to represent the depth and diversity of our identities.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Autograph’s learning and participation programme has always focused on supporting young people to think differently about the urgent social issues that affect their lives. We have a history of working with teachers and schools to share the ways in which visual representation intersects with issues of race, identity and human rights, and how students can make profound commentary on these questions using the camera and their creative minds.
In today’s uncertain climate this feels more necessary than ever. With heated debates on racial justice and the continuing impacts of the pandemic on our lives, we think it’s crucial for young people to have the space for creativity and self-expression, and to be supported in asking critical questions about the world around them.
Julian Germain: GENERATIONS celebrates families, individuals, diversity and the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands in large-scale photographic portraiture. Based on the aesthetic of the family portrait Germain will use a large format camera to work collaboratively with families of four and five generations from across the region. The photographs will capture details and provoke questions about our life and times.
The group portraits present people at different stages of life; new-borns, infants, children, teens and their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great great-grandparents. Fundamental questions are raised that relate to us all; life, death, time and the effects of time, where do we come from and where will we go?
Zanele Muholi is one of the most acclaimed photographers working today, and their work has been exhibited all over the world. With over 260 photographs, this exhibition presents the full breadth of their career to date. Muholi describes themself as a visual activist. From the early 2000s, they have documented and celebrated the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex communities.
“I picked up the camera because there were no images of us that spoke to me at the time when I needed them the most. I had to produce a positive visual narrative of my community and create a new dialogue with images”
Read a recent interview with Muholi here in British Journal of Photography and watch short film.
Bona, Charlottesville 2015 Zanele Muholi born 1972
In the early series Only Half the Picture, Muholi captures moments of love and intimacy as well as intense images alluding to traumatic events – despite the equality promised by South Africa’s 1996 constitution, its LGBTQIA+ community remains a target for violence and prejudice.
Faces and Phases
In Faces and Phases each participant looks directly at the camera, challenging the viewer to hold their gaze. These images and the accompanying testimonies form a growing archive of a community of people who are risking their lives by living authentically in the face of oppression and discrimination.
Other key series of works, include Brave Beauties, which celebrates empowered non-binary people and trans women, many of whom have won Miss Gay Beauty pageants, and Being, a series of tender images of couples which challenge stereotypes and taboos.
Zanele Muholi: series Somnyama Ngonyama
Muholi turns the camera on themself in the ongoing series Somnyama Ngonyama – translated as ‘Hail the Dark Lioness’. These powerful and reflective images explore themes including labour, racism, Eurocentrism and sexual politics.
Nigerian multi-disciplinary artist Ken Nwadiogbu is a full time visual artist who creates innovative conceptual drawings on various surfaces as he engages in multidisciplinary modes of storytelling. Gender equality, African culture, and Black power are a few aspects of his current research and artistic practice.
PACKAGES IN BROWN SKIN
CURATOR’S INTERPRETATION
“Ken Nwadiogbu believes that the advancement of reasoning which by extension is change, is mostly dependent on the ability to grasp consciousness. As such, one underlining factor of his artistry is to stimulate the viewer into being in his shoes whilst they interact with his work. He employs familiar motifs and imageries to ease them into this space.
An ideal Nwadiogbu piece constitutes a silhouette of a form, mostly human, which he embeds an eye or parts/whole of a face into— his ultimate pronouncement on the theme of creating consciousness to what represents our collective reality through art.” – Kennii Ekundayo, Art Curator Grid, 2020
ARTIST STATEMENT
We are all heroes in our movies.
My artist lens is one of a focused bystander experiencing my reality while observing the world around me. That world could be my local community, my country of Nigeria, my studio in England, or any of the living workspaces I have adopted globally. Wherever I am, I always feel the need to analyse, investigate, and perceive the news around me. As an artist, I accept the significant roles of ethnographer and strategic visionary that we artists have played in society throughout history.
My artistry reflects my own human experience and acts as a social commentary on the experience of others, so for me, that role comes with a need to be empathetic when understanding and representing the characters captured throughout various contexts in my art. My art-making process allows me to discover and reveal who we truly are at our core, whether in a moment or in a movement. One may find a reflection in the contemporary realism of my drawn faces, or in the painted expressions of fashion, or home décor – ultimately, my goal reaches beyond realism and lies in a space between authenticity and possibility.
Sammy Baloji’s artistic concern is rooted in the daily life of Congolese people, and he uses photography to explore his country’s present and to retell its history from the perspective of its people. “Ethnography, architecture, and urbanism [are] among my current focuses,” he has written. “My reading of the Congolese past is a way of analyzing African identity today, through all the political systems that the society has experienced.” He often combines archival photographs with his own shots of the people and places bearing the marks of colonialism. In his “Mémoire” series (2006), for example, he focuses on the former mining town of Lubumbashi. By superimposing photographs of the people who worked and ran the mines over his own images of these now disused structures, he reveals the ongoing ramifications of the past.
Sammy Baloji, Mémoire
Curated by writer Ekow Eshun, and showcasing photography, prints, textile, installation and video, We Are History presents works which are moving, lyrical and thought-provoking, capturing nature as a place of both beauty and fragility. Featuring artists Alberta Whittle, Allora & Calzadilla, Carolina Caycedo, Louis Henderson, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Mazenett Quiroga, Otobong Nkanga, Zineb Sedira and a newly commissioned work by multidisciplinary artist Shiraz Bayjoo, the exhibition interrogates the environmental issues facing the southern hemisphere by looking to the past and drawing important insight from the cultural practices and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples.
Collectively, the exhibition’s contributors are looking to expand the common narrative around climate change, a subject which is often linked to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the West. We Are History invites visitors to look further back in time, exploring significant periods of change such as the 18th century colonial era, which saw plantation agriculture and the forced mass migration of people through slavery reshaping lives and landscapes on a global scale.
Diane Burko, “Unprecedented” (2021), mixed media, 8 x 15 feet (all images courtesy the artist)
Diane Burko’s images of melting glaciers and dying coral reefs are not just pictorially impressive; they have strong emotional impact. (Carter Ratcliffe)
Diane Burko, “Postscript” (2019), mixed media: bleached coral mounted on wood, 50 x 25 inches
As a photographer how would you respond to climate change? Can a study of the environment and landscape of Jersey be an inspiration for a Personal Study?
Study latest issue: Photography+ Environment #14 from Photoworks that looks at the role of the photographer in documenting and confronting climate catastrophe. To explore this question, each writer and artist invites us to think about the relationship between photography and climate change, and between the photographer and their environment
Also go back and explore some of the ideas, artists and creative starting points from earlier in the year.
The period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
Open Cast Mining – Quarries: Ronez, St Peters Valley, Sand Quarry St. Ouens
Power Stations – La Collette, Bellozane Sewage Treatment
Urbanisation – St Helier: Grands Vaux, Le Marais Flats, Le Squez etc.
Mass Wastage – La Collette recycling centre
Disposable Society – La Collette recycling centre – refrigerator mountains etc
Land Erosion – farming industry: poly tunnels, packing sheds, plastic covered fields etc. Old Glass Houses
Over Population – poverty/social divides: Social Housing sites. Car Parks, traffic etc.
Industrialisation – La Collette area, Bellozane, industrial estates. Desalination Plant, German Fortification (WW2)
Study latest issue: Photography+ Environment #14 from Photoworks that looks at the role of the photographer in documenting and confronting climate catastrophe. To explore this question, each writer and artist invites us to think about the relationship between photography and climate change, and between the photographer and their environment
COMMUNITY plural noun: communities
a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.”Montreal’s Italian community”
a group of people living together and practising common ownership.noun: community; plural noun: communities“a community of nuns”
a particular area or place considered together with its inhabitants.”a rural community”
a body of nations or states unified by common interests.”the European Community”
the people of a district or country considered collectively, especially in the context of social values and responsibilities; society.noun: community; noun: the community“preparing prisoners for life back in the community”
denoting a worker or resource designed to serve the people of a particular area.modifier noun: community“community health services”
the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.”the sense of community that organized religion can provide”
a similarity or identity.”the law presupposes a community of interest between an employer and employees”
joint ownership or liability.”the community of goods”
ECOLOGY a group of interdependent plants or animals growing or living together in natural conditions or occupying a specified habitat. “communities of insectivorous birds”
What is difference between society and community? The main difference between society and community is that the society is built upon interactions with varied people whereas the community is the collection of people with similar interests, essentially residing in one geographic place
Jersey Climate Conversation: Jersey’s Climate Conversation is your chance to influence change. By joining together, Jersey has the chance to do something different, to show the world what can be achieved with people power, and to create an ambitious low-carbon vision for our island.
Many other places have called citizens’ assemblies, to ask a randomly selected group of individuals to share their thoughts. But nowhere else has done this while also opening the door to the whole community to share their thoughts and ideas. We want you to share your thoughts, your visions, your ideas however big or small they are. We want you to be ambitious, bold and brave because if you are we all will be.
The ideas shared will help the Government develop the Carbon Neutral Roadmap, our long-term climate action plan for becoming carbon neutral.
Government of Jersey:Climate Emergency In response to the climate emergency the States Assembly voted to approve the Carbon Neutral Strategy. The Council of Ministers has published its Preferred Strategy for tackling the climate emergency. The detailed plans will be released for consultation in the Carbon Neutral Roadmap in December 2021.
Sustainable Finance: Jersey Finance has launched a long-term strategic plan to support Jersey’s finance industry in its transition to a more sustainable future. Watch a series of video here from industry insiders.
Jersey Overseas Aid: Jersey Overseas Aid’s annual budget is currently 0.25% of Jersey’s GVA, totalling £12.43 million in 2020. The budget is granted by the States of Jersey from tax payer monies, for the purpose of supporting international development and providing assistance during humanitarian crises. Jersey Overseas Aid exists within the responsibilities of the Chief Minister, making it the official international development donor organisation of the States of Jersey.
Jersey Overseas Aid is governed by three States Commissioners and three non-States Commissioners, all of whom are appointed by the States of Jersey. Its day-to-day operations are managed by professional staff experienced in running development and emergency projects around the world.
Sustainable Development Goals:The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
EXHIBITION: Research and explore IN PROGRESS: Laia Abril – Hoda Afshar – Widline Cadet – Adama Jalloh – Alba Zari at the RPS Gallery (20 May – 31 October 2021) commissioned by the RPS as part of Bristol Photo Festival. Click on link image below.
CONSIDER COMMUNITY: Imagine you were the official photographer of your street, neighbourhood, town or city. You have been commissioned to create a sequence of photographs celebrating the spirit of this place and its people. These images will be published in various forms – in a free newspaper, on posters in bus shelters, on postcards , on advertising hoardings etc. You are limited to 10 pictures in total. Make a larger body of images, then edit these down to just 10. Arrange in a sequence or collage. What story do they tell? What are the challenges of an activity such as this and how might you set out to overcome these?
There are different approaches to how photographers work with a community. Either as a outsider looking in or as an insider who is part of that community. The best work often emerges from photographers who work with a social group that they are familiar with or have a personal connection to. A community can be defined as a group of people who share the same values, cultural codes and perform certain social rituals. This group could be family and friends or an estate or a neighbourhood. It could be a recreational activity or a sport.
Week 13: 29 Nov – 5 Dec Theory & Practice: Artists References Contextual Studies: Conversations on Photography
STATEMENT OF INTENT
Write a Statement of Intent that clearly contextualise; What you want to explore? Why it matters to you? How you wish to develop your project? When and where you intend to begin your study? Make sure you describe your chosen theme (IDENTITY & COMMUNITY), subject-matter (topic, issue), artists (inspirations, references) and final outcome (photobook, film).
Plan your first photo-shoot as a response to initial ideas. Must be published on the blog by Wed 8 Dec.
THEORY > ANALYSIS
Objective:Criteria from the Syllabus
Select artists work, methods, theories and art movements appropriate to your previous coursework work as a suitable basis for your Personal Study.
Investigate a wide range of work and sources
ARTISTS REFERENCES: Select 2-3 artists/photographers that have inspired your work already and that you would like to research in depth as a basis for your Personal Study. Compare and contrast their practice and work following these steps:
Produce a mood board with a selection of images and write an overview of their work, methods, style, approach and subject matter.
Select at least one image from each photographer and analyse in depth using methodology of TECHNICAL > VISUAL > CONTEXTUAL > CONCEPTUAL.
MEANING & METHODS: Identify meaning and methods behind selected artists/photographers work and research at least 3 different literary sources (online articles, books, Youtube clips) that will provide you with different critical perspective and views other than your own.
The literary sources will also provide you with something to read for further contextual understanding and critical thinking in preparation for writing your essay. Make sure you save hyperlinks photocopies etc in a new folder: Academic References.
Incorporate quotes and comments from artist themselves or others (art critics, art historians, curators, writers, journalists etc) using a variety of sources such as Youtube, online articles, reviews, books
Make sure you reference sources and embed links to the above sources in your blog post.
WED 1 Dec: CONTEXTUAL STUDIES1 Conversations on Photography: As a case study read one interview, identity 3 quotes and apply theory to a analysis of one image.
PLANNING: Plan a shoot in response to researching and interpreting artists work above. Make sure it relates to your ideas on how you intend to develop your project. Follow these instructions: what, why, how, when, where?
RECORDING: Complete planned photo-shoot and bring images in to class. Begin to edit and show experimentation with images using Lightroom / Photoshops/ Premiere as appropriate to your intentions. Make sure you annotate processes and techniques used.
EVALUATION: Upon completion of photoshoot and experimentation, make sure you evaluate and reflect on your next step of development. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
PHOTOGRAPHERS / ARTISTS
You can find other alternative inspirations and artists references here:
Raymond Meeks (Halfstory, Halflife), Theo Gosselin (Sans Limites), Jen Davis (Eleven Years), Diana Markosian (Inventing my Father, Santa Barbara), Doug Dubois (My Last Day at Seventeen), Alessandra Sanguinetti (The Illusion of an everlasting Summer), Justine Kurland (Girl Picture), Jim Goldberg (Raised by Wolves) Sophie Calle (Suite Vénitienne), Nick Waplington (Living Room), Nan Goldin (The Ballad of Sexual Dependency), Corinne Day, (Dairy), Martin Parr (Signs of the Time, Common Sense, The Cost of Living), Chris Killip (Isle of Man: A book about the Manx), Lauren Greenfield (Fast Forward, Girl Culture), Nicholas Nixon (the Brown Sisters), Robert Clayton (Estate), Valerio Spada (Gomorrah Girl), Martin Gregg (Midlands), Alain Laboile, (At the Edge of the World, Sian Davey (Looking for Alice, Martha), Laia Abril (The Epilogue), Rita Puig-Serra Costa (Where Mimosa Bloom), Carole Benitah, (Photo Souvenirs), Richard Billingham (Ray’s a Laugh), Larry Sultan (Pictures from Home), Matt Eich: I Love You, I’m leaving, Yoshikatsu Fujii: Red Strings, Junpei Ueda: Pictures of My life, Sam Harris (The Middle of Somewhere), Dana Lixenberg (Imperial Courts), Philip Toledano (Days with my Father, When I was Six), Mariela Sancari (Moises is not Dead), Yury Toroptsov (Deleted Scene, The House of Baba Yaga), Amak Mahmoodian (Shenasnameh), Colin Pantall, (All Quite on the Homefront), Mitch Epstein (Family Business), Jason Wilde (Vear & John, Silly Arse Broke It), LaToya Ruby Frazier (The Notion of Family),
Doug DuBois: My Last Days of Seventeen The title, “My last day at Seventeen,” was first uttered by Eirn while I was taking her photograph in her parents’ back garden on the eve of her 18th birthday. Although Eirn argues her remark was more properly phrased, “ it’s my last day as seventeen” the sentiment is the same: there is a time in everyone’s life where the freedom and promise of childhood are lost to the coming of age and experience. The process can be gradual or abrupt; it can begin at age 18, 12 or 40.
The photographs were made over a five year period in the town of Cobh, County Cork in Ireland. I came to Cobh at the invitation of the Sirius Arts Centre in the summer of 2009. Ireland had just begun its sharp decline from the boom years of the Celtic Tiger. I spent my days trying to ingratiate myself with contractors to gain access to building sites that lay abandoned throughout the Irish countryside. I got nowhere.
Raymond Meeks: Every summer, since as long as anyone in the area can remember, groups of teenage boys and girls have been congregating by a single-lane bridge that spans the tributaries of Bowery and Catskill Creeks in the Catskill Mountain region of New York. Just below it, in the wilderness, a waterfall drops sixty feet above a pond. Those daring enough to take the leap usually take a small run-up before flinging themselves off the precipice. Within the act of the jump and its timeless ritual lingers the last fleeting moments of youth, of endless summer days and reckless abandon. Beyond that, the unknown.
Known for his slow-burning chronicles of rural America, Raymond Meeks turns his attention to Furlong and its intrepid summer dwellers in his most recent book Halfstory Halflife. Sketching out his local area with a sensitive lyricism, Meeks observed its energy and atmosphere over the course of three years; the spectacle of the wait, the anticipation of the climb and the final leap into darkness, where time comes to a standstill as bodies are frozen in motion. These everyday experiences and rituals, simple and carefree in their nature, gain a weight and significance through the lens, as the bodies fall somewhere beyond the threshold of youth and into adulthood.
Theo Gosselin ( Sans Limites): The much anticipated follow up to his highly successful debut book Avec Le Coeur, Sans Limites by Théo Gosselin presents a glimpse of a life beyond boundaries – unrestricted by limitations of geography and social conventions. The result of the photographer´s most recent road trips across the US, Spain, Scotland and native France,
At times, Gosselin´s work approaches something akin to poésie bucolique; his photographs representing modern day pastoral landscapes that resemble 21st century equivalents of Poussin’s Et in Arcadia ego, Manet’s Déjeuner sur L’herbe or Cézanne’s Les Grandes Baigneuses. At other times, his images capture moments more resonant of Bacchanalian scenes. Deliberately cinematic, Gosselin’s photography reveals friends in the act of escaping from their regular lives into newly enticing and perilous modes of existence, ever in search of the persistent though elusive idea of freedom.
Jim Goldberg: Raised By Wolves. The personal story behind the making and the legacy of Goldberg’s seminal work about marginalized youth, which occupies the liminal space between documentary and narrative fiction
Jen Davis has spent eleven years working on a series of self-portrait ’s dealing with issues regarding beauty, identity, and body image. Her poignant and beautifully articulated photographs have recently been published Kehrer Verlag in a monograph titled, Eleven Years.For over a decade Jen has bravely turned the camera on herself revealing a journey of self analysis and self awareness that while very personal, it incredibly universal. Her work reflected a mastery of light and color.
Haley Morris-Cafiero: Wait Watchers For my series, Wait Watchers, I set up a camera in a public area and photograph the scene as I perform mundane tasks while strangers pass by me. I then examine the images to see if any of the passersby had a critical or questioning element in their face or body language. I consider my photographs a social experiment and I reverse the gaze back on to the stranger and place the viewer in the position of being a witness to a moment in time. The project is a performative form of street photography.
I place the camera on a tripod and take hundreds of photographs. The resulting images capture the gazer in a microsecond moment where the shutter, the scene, my actions and their body language align and are frozen on the frame. I do not know what the people in my photographs are looking at or reacting to. I present the images to the world to start a conversation about the gaze and how we use it communicate our thoughts of others.
For most of my life, my father was nothing more than a cut out in our family album.
An empty hole.
A reminder of what wasn’t there.
I have few childhood memories of him.
In one, we are dancing together in our tiny apartment in Moscow. In another, he is leaving.
My father would disappear for months at a time. Then, unexpectedly, he would come home.
Until, one day, it was our turn to leave.
The year was 1996.
My mother woke me up and told me to pack my belongings. She said we were going on a trip, and the next morning we arrived in our new home, in California.
We never said goodbye to my father.
For my mom, the solution to forget him was simple. She cut his image out of every photograph. But those holes made it harder for me to forget him.
I often wondered what it would have been like to have a father.
When I was seven years old, living with my family in Moscow, my mother woke me up in the middle of the night and said we were going on a trip. The year was 1996. The Soviet Union had long collapsed, and by then, so had my family. We left without saying goodbye to my father, and the next day landed in a new world: America.
Inspired by the 1980s American soap opera Santa Barbara, my mother enrolled with an agency in Russia that posted listings in American newspapers and catalogs for so-called mail-order brides. She was 35. We arrived to the coastal town of Santa Barbara, and were met by an older man who would soon become her husband, and take the place of my own father. And this is where the story begins. The idea of touching something that felt untouchable.
I returned to Russia to visit the scattered remnants of my father’s memory. In fact, I hardly know anything about him. He died before I turned two. I have no personal memories of him. Almost nothing that could have recalled its existence has survived. There was just his camera. When I was nine, I found it in the closet where my mother had kept it safe for years. I took it apart to the last screw as if I was looking for something hidden inside. With my own unconscious hands, I destroyed the last object that bound us to my father.
There are still his photos, which he had taken and drawn himself. My father was an amateur photographer. In one of these photos, I am a five month old baby lying face down on my parents’ bed. My eyes are fixed on him, the photographer. My father, who has only thirteen months to live.
His untimely death made him an abstract character, a shadow at the gates of nothingness. He was almost forgotten. No one spoke of him anymore. His grave has been abandoned. All I knew about him was from a few stories that people who knew him told me. Despite everything, these stories told and repeated with more or less precision depending on the witness maintained a semblance of memory. Just as folklore is passed on, repeated and revised from generation to generation.
LaToya Ruby Frazier (The Notion of Family); In this, her first book, LaToya Ruby Frazier (born 1982) offers an incisive exploration of the legacy of racism and economic decline in America’s small towns, as embodied by Braddock, Pennsylvania, Frazier’s hometown. The work also considers the impact of that decline on the community and on her family, creating a statement both personal and truly political
Sophie Calle’s practice is characterised by performances using rule-based scenarios, which she then documents. Venetian Suite consists of black and white photographs, texts and maps that document a journey the artist made to Venice in order to follow a man, referred to only as Henri B., whom she had previously briefly met in Paris. Although Calle undertook the journey in 1979, the texts describe the actions as taking place in 1980. Venetian Suite records Calle’s attempts to track her subject over the course of his thirteen-day stay in Venice. She investigates and stalks him, enlisting the help of friends and acquaintances she makes in the city. Eventually Henri B. recognises Calle, and they share a silent walk. Even after this encounter Calle continues her project, shadowing Henri B. from a distance until his arrival back in Paris. The work was initially produced in book form in 1983; the same year Calle also presented the work as a sound installation in a confessional booth. In 1996 she configured Venetian Suite as a gallery-based work, the appearance of which deliberately recalls a detective casebook, with texts written in a style that mimics and deconstructs the narrative tension typical of detective novels or film noir. The text begins as follows:
For months I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following them, not because they particularly interested me. I photographed them without their knowledge, took note of their movements, then finally lost sight of them and forgot them. At the end of January 1980, on the streets of Paris, I followed a man whom I lost sight of a few minutes later in the crowd. That very evening, quite by chance, he was introduced to me at an opening. During the course of our conversation, he told me he was planning an imminent trip to Venice. I decided to follow him. (Calle and Baudrillard 1988, p.2.)
Matt Eich:I Love You, I’m leaving Love You, I’m Leaving is my meditation on familial bonds, longing, and memory. The series borrows from personal experience and the visual language of the everyday in order to create a fictional account that mirrors my reality. Made during a time of personal domestic unease, I photographed as my parents separated, and my family moved to a new city.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/102344549
Yoshikatsu Fujii:Red Strings I received a text message. “Today, our divorce was finalized.” The message from my mother was written simply, even though she usually sends me messages with many pictures and symbols.
I remember that I didn’t feel any particular emotion, except that the time had come. Because my parents continued to live apart in the same house for a long time, their relationship gently came to an end over the years. It was no wonder that a draft blowing between the two could completely break the family at any time.
In Japan, legend has it that a man and woman who are predestined to meet have been tied at the little finger by an invisible red string since the time they were born. Unfortunately, the red string tying my parents undone, broke, or perhaps was never even tied to begin with. But if the two had never met, I would never have been born into this world. If anything, you might say that there is an unbreakable red string of fate between parent and child.
If you are interested in exploring the themes of LOVE & REBELLION within the notion of family have a look at different approaches within documentary and tableaux photography here
Family can be interpreted in different ways, one is to consider it in relation to the concept of HOME – which can be interpreted as both family or community. Home is also more than just the four walls of your house where you live with your family. Jersey, the island where you perhaps are born or where you grew up can be considered a home too. Home can be interpreted as a community. If you are away from home you often think about your home with a sense of nostalgia. Home can be associated with memories, feelings, hopes, fears etc.
Or Laura El-Tantawy and her project the uprising and protests in her homeland of Egypt , In The Shadow of Pyramids
GUERNSEY PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL (GPF): The theme for 2021 will be Acts of Love and Rebellion. Below is a list of photographers who will be exhibiting at the next festival with work relating to the two themes of LOVE and REBELLION. If we manage to produce a newspaper it will be exhibited at the festival in Guernsey in Sept 23 – 24 Oct 2021.
Week 14: 6 – 12 Dec Theory & Practice:: The Origins of Photography
The syllabus states clearly that you have to be aware of some of the methods employed by critics and historians within the history of art and photography.
To demonstrate your knowledge and understanding you will have to write a paragraph in your essay providing historical context about your chosen artists/ photographers and how their work and practice is linked to a specific period of photographic history, art movement/ ism or theory.
In preparation of this you are required in the remaining two weeks (before Christmas) to produce two pieces of writing between 500-1000 words each. In addition you are required to plan and produce a photographic response or experiment.
1. HISTORY > The Origins of Photography 500-1000 words
Your first task is to learn about the origins of photography. Click on this link below and follow instructions.
Make a creative response to some of the early photographic processes that you have written about above. Be creative and explore both in camera techniques and digital mastering using Photoshop/ Lightroom. If possible, make it relevant to your own project.
Produce a blog post and publish by – Wed 15 Dec
Week 14 + XMAS: 13 Dec – 5 Jan Theory & Practice: Art Movements & Isms
2. THEORY > Art Movements & Isms 500-1000 words
For this task you need to select an art movement and ism that is relevant to your Personal Study and make a 2-3 minutes presentation in class. You can choose to work alone or pair up with a fellow student:
Pictorialism
Realism / Straight Photography
Modernism
Post-modernism
Follow these instructions:
Start by watching the films below, study PPT presentations and read articles here which will provide you with an overview.
Select two literary sources from above and identify relevant quotes (at least two) that you can incorporate into your paragraph.
Your paragraph must include visual examples of artists making work within that art movement that is relevant to your Personal Study.
Prepare a 2-3 mins presentation at the end of the week Fri 17 Dec
PRACTICAL WORK
PLANNING: Produce a detailed plan of at least 3-4 photoshoots that you intend on doing in the next 3-4 weeks – including Christmas break. Follow these instructions: what, why, how, when, where?
XMAS BREAK
RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic response to your Personal Study and bring images from new photo-shoots to lessons: READING: Key texts (interviews, reviews, articles etc.) about your subject, photo-history and chosen artists in preparation of writing your essay in January.
Week 15: 5 – 10 Jan Practical work: Define Story & Narrative Planning & Storyboarding
Objective: Criteria from the Syllabus
Show evidence for an on-going critical and analytical review of your investigation – both your written essay and own practical work in response to research and analysis.
PHOTOBOOK
PLANNING
STORY: What is your story? Describe in:
3 words
A sentence
A paragraph
NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?
Images > new photographic responses, photo-shoots
Archives > old photos from family albums, iPhone
Texts > letters, documents, poems, text messages
PRACTICAL WORK
PLANNING: Produce a detailed plan of at least 3-4 photoshoots that you intend on doing in the next 3-4 weeks – including Christmas break. Follow these instructions: what, why, how, when, where?
RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic response to your Personal Study and bring images from new photo-shoots to lessons:
• Save shoots in folder on Media Drive: and import into Lightroom • Organisation: Create a new Collection from each new shoot inside Collection Set: IDENTITY & COMMUNITY • Editing: select 8-12 images from each shoot. • Experimenting: Adjust images in Develop, both as Colour and B&W images appropriate to your intentions • Export images as JPGS (1000 pixels) and save in a folder: BLOG • Create a Blogpost with edited images and an evaluation; explaining what you focused on in each shoot and how you intend to develop your next shoot. • Make references to artists references, previous shoots, experiments etc.
EXPERIMENTING:
• Export same set of images from Lightroom as JPEG (4000 pixels) • Experimentation: demonstrate further creativity using Photoshop to make composite/ montage/ typology/ grids/ diptych/triptych, text/ typology etc appropriate to your intentions • Design: Begin to explore different layout options using InDesign and make a new zine/book. Set up new document as A5 page sizes. This is trying out ideas before we begin designing photobook in January. • Make sure you annotate process and techniques used
EVALUATION: Upon completion of photoshoot and experimentation, make sure you evaluate and reflect on your next step of development. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
FILM
PLANNING
STORY: What is your story? Describe in:
3 words
A sentence
A paragraph
NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?
Visuals > new photographic responses, photo-shoots
Sound > ambient, sound fx, voice-over, interview, music
Archives > found imagery, footage, audio
PRACTICAL WORK
STORYBOARDING: Based on your specification and narrative produce a storyboard with details of individual scenes, action, shot sizes, camera angles and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.
PLANNING: Produce a detailed plan of at least 3-4 video/audio recordings that you intend on doing in the next 3-4 weeks – incl Christmas break
RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic response to your Personal Study and bring footage from video/ audio recordings to lessons:
• Save media in folder on local V:Data Drive • Organisation: Create a new project in Premiere • Editing: begin editing video/ audio clips on the timeline • Adjusting: recordings in Colour / B&W appropriate to your intentions.
EXPERIMENTING: • Video: experimenting with sequencing using relevant transitions and effects • Sound: consider how audio can add depth to your film, such as ambient sound, sound fx, voice-over, interview, musical score etc. • Title and credits: Consider typography/ graphics/ styles etc. For more creative possibilities make title page in Photoshop (format: 1280 x 720 pixels) and import as a Psd file into your project folder on the V-Data drive.
EVALUATING: Write an evaluation on the blog that reflects on your artistic intentions, film-editing process and collaboration. Include screen-prints from Premiere and a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of the shooting/ production for further annotation. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
MON: Academic Sources
Week 16: 10 – 16 Jan Essay writing: Academic study skills Contextual Study: Decoding Photography
Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages
Write down page number, author, year, title, publisher, place of publication so you can list source in a bibliography
Bibliography
List all the sources that you have identified above as literary sources. Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year distinguish them as 1988a, 1988b etc. Arrange literature in alphabetical order by author, or where no author is named, by the name of the museum or other organisation which produced the text. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources in alphabetical order e.g. websites/online sources, Youtube/ DVD/TV.
Quotation and Referencing:
Use quotes to support or disprove your argument
Use quotes to show evidence of reading
Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.
TUE: Essay Question
Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
WED 12 JAN: CONTEXTUAL STUDIES2 Decoding Photography • Select one of the questions listed • Read text in detail, make notes and identify 3 quotes • Select one image from examples mentioned in text and apply your own interpretation of the photograph by applying theory and critical thinking • Incorporate the 3 quotes above into your interpretation of the image and make sure you comment on the quotes.
THUR: Essay Plan Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure
Essay question:
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. Link to powerpoints and resources above about art movements and isms.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
FRI: EssayIntroduction In this lesson you will write a 45 mins draft essay introduction following these steps:
Open a new Word document > SAVE AS: Essay draft
Copy essay question into Essay title: Hypothesis > if you don’t have one yet, make one!
Copy your essay introduction (from Essay Plan) which will give you a framework to build upon and also copy your Statement of Intent.
Identify 2 quotes from sources identified in an earlier task using Harvard System of Referencing.
Use one quote as an opening quote:Choose a quote from either one of your photographers or critics. It has to be something that relates to your investigation.
Begin to write a paragraph (250-500 words) answering the following questions below.
You got 45 mins to write and upload to the blog!
Think about an opening that will draw your reader in e.g. you can use an opening quote that sets the scene. Or think more philosophically about the nature of photography and and feeble relationship with reality.
You should include in your introduction an outline of your intention of your study e.g.
What are you going to investigate.
How does this area/ work interest you?
What are you trying to prove/challenge, argument/ counter-argument?
Whose work (artists/photographers) are you analysing and why?
What historical or theoretical context is the work situated within. Include 1 or 2 quotes for or against.
What links are there with your previous studies?
What have you explored so far in your Coursework or what are you going to photograph?
How did or will your work develop.
What camera skills, techniques or digital processes in Photoshop have or are you going to experiment with?
Week 17: 11 – 10 Jan PRESENTATION – Work-in-Progress
Prepare a 3-5 mins presentation on something that you are working on right now in your project. For example:
An idea An image A photo-shoot An experiment An inspiration New research New development
Use blog posts to present in class. As a class we will give constructive feedback on how each student can develop their work and project.
During week 4 of our Identity and Community project, we had the opportunity of being taught about the basics of animation by former student Liam Nunn. Liam Nunn is a well known local animator, producing work for places such as Jersey Heritage and Jersey Dairy in his unique style. Furthermore, Liam also recently started his own animation studio ‘Milk‘, where you can view all his past projects.
During this workshop we were introduced to the Adobe software After Effects, first getting used to the program by animating the moment of a shape around the screen. Through this we learnt that key frames are used to mark different points of movement in animation, marking where the movement starts and finishes. For each time we wanted the shape to perform a new movement we added a new key frame. Once we had learnt how to move the shape in a certain direction, we then were taught how to alter the shapes speed and mobility within the same key frame. After familiarising ourselves with the program, we were given a few minutes to play around with the software independently and create a sequence of movements. After this, we then moved on to working with a template on After Effects of an animated face, that had already been created for us. With this template we were able to create commands to control the movement of the pupils, eyelids, eyebrows, head and mouth. In addition to this, we were also taught how to add stickers over the template for a set period of time. This allowed us to independently create a piece of animation with this face using the tools provided. For my 5-10 second animation I chose to have the character react to something in an angry and annoyed manner. I did this by first commanding the head and pupils to turn to the side to show they are looking at something, then for the next key frame I caused the eyebrows to move downwards causing an expression of anger, followed by the pupils moving in and upwards circle to create an eyeroll, and finally making the head turn the other way.
Finally I exported my final result at the end of the work shop from an After Effects file into a MP4 file.
For this NFT project we all had different roles. Editing the video was Niamh’s role. She started by importing all the videos onto Adobe premier and then cut each clip at specific times to make it look as though she was walking towards the camera while her outfits changed. We then decided which music to use as a group and uploaded it to the video.
To begin editing our final project, I began by importing all of the individually shot clips from the local drive into Premier Pro, as we had been shown in our workshop with Liam Nunn. I double checked that these were the correct videos by using the small preview tool at the top right corner of the screen, and I also put them in the order I wanted them to be played to make the overall process a lot easier and less time consuming.
I then dragged and dropped the individual clips onto the timeline, making sure that they did not overlap each other by placing them in a pyramid-like structure using the two middle segments of the timeline. I also stretched out the clips so that they were more spaced out and made the overall video longer.
For the background music, we explored lots of different royalty free tracks until we found one we liked on Bensound called ‘Dreams’. To add it to the video, I deleted the background audio which was already there from the individual clips, and imported the track which I had downloaded and saved to the media drive.
we used all of our images that we took to create a digital image by making them turn into a GIF. this is because copying one image after another makes it look like stop motion and creates an illusion that the image is moving
I copied each image over each other and created a new animation layer in order to play them one after another and create a frame. This turned out very well as it still achieved our aim of showing the different changes in fashion through decades by creating a gif and making it look like its one big moving image.
once all my layers were there and I included all the images we wanted to use, I created a timeline to create the final gif , that I have included below;
this allowed us to create a digital image that we will then use at the end of our animation as a way to finish it.
For this experiment, we decided to edit some of the photographs from our NFT shoot in photoshop to make them more interesting and engaging for the viewer. To edit these image, we duplicated the image we wanted to use and then used the FX tool on the duplicated layer to erase the both the blue and green channels on the layer. We then shifted the original layer slightly to the left in order to create the blurring effect.
EDITED OUTCOMES
Evaluation- We made sure we included all of our photos that show all 5 outfits as that was our key focus of this project. This was an interpretation of a digital image, as now in the NFT online market buying outfits or any fashion related item is becoming very popular. We made sure the model was centred in the middle to make her and the outfit the main focus as well as making sure the backdrop is white and there is nothing distracting in the background. We left the images in colour so that the viewer can still see the outfit clearly but we edited over them to create our digital image as NFTs are designed to look very futuristic and modern as its showing the fashion in the future. We then combined them all together to show all of them together and let the viewer compare how peoples style has evolve throughout the decades.
Our initial idea being that the subject would walk through doors, transitioning from one time period to another did not work practically due to the layout of the house in which we were filming. Instead, we had her walking just from one frame to another across the screen which actually created smooth transitions.
To start with, we picked out the three most successful videos which were about ten seconds each and cut them down in order to create the smooth transitions we hoped for. These clips were placed together and we started from there.
The first clip consists of our subject, Caitlin, with a bowl and a whisk. She walks towards the centre, puts the bowl down and picks up a suffragette sash and puts it on, then walks off and into the next scene. We chose to make this clip black and white to reference the time period as much as possible. In the background there is empowering music playing as well as a separate quote for each clip being spoken by a women of the time about women. For this particular scene, a women reads ‘the ministers suffragettes who form the women’s social and political union are engaged to meet him to win the right to vote for women of this century’
We are then led to the second scene, where the colours are dull but not fully black and white. In these scene, Caitlin walks into the scene, puts on a jacket and proceeds to pick up a woman’s rights- she then pauses, takes a breath and marches on into the next scene. The short quote that is played in this scene reads… ‘We now have ten million women backing this particular measure before congress, that’s ten million women who are united through their organisation.’
In the last scene, she is happy and ‘bouncy’. She walks in, looks at herself in the mirror, turns around and smiles at the camera, then exits. The quote playing is, ‘Whatever you’re going through as a woman, you have the choice to make for yourself for how gentle and kind you are with yourself.’
We also gathered images on the internet of womens protests, and played them through at a fast pace at the end of the video to send a powerful message.
The title we chose is ‘WomanKind’, which is a play on words referring to ‘mankind.’
For my groups NFT Film, we decided to use animation as a part of our video. I made all the aminated clips in Blender. I started off by finding low-poly art models of Sketchfab. then imported them into blender. Once in Blender I used simple animations to move the location of the scene, to give off the impression of the character walking.
This screenshot shows the timeline for the character walking. Every dot/diamond is a different movement of the character to make him walk. The character doesn’t actually move, it just walks on the spot. So I would have to animate the background. He walks on the spot as it makes it easier to only move the direction of the arms, legs etc, instead of the movement and lactation of everything. So the character and camera are stationary.
This is the scene, everything highlighted in orange is what is animated and included in the scene. I added 2 keyframes to the timeline. The first keyframe is where the buildings start, and the second is where they will end after the move and slide backwards. It slides backwards to give off the effect that the character is walking forwards. Each 2-3 second scene takes an estimated 8 hours to render.
This is the node setup for the lighting. I used a HDRI which is a spherical photo taken in real life, and the program works out where is sun is and creates the same lighting situation for inside the workspace. The orange box is the HDRI which is connected to the right two default boxes, then I added a remapping node to make the horizon of the world line up with the horizon I made in the workspace, so there aren’t photos of trees floating in the sky.
The Street Scene
Overall, the street scene is quite small. The scene is colourful which adds lots of contrast. All the scenes use depth of field to blur the background more as the character walks forward.
The left side is the object view, without the colour. Where as, the right side is the rendered, with colour.
The Farm Scene
This scene is more complex, as there is more shapes and objects. There is also larger range of colours, ranging from red to green, etc.
The Mansion Scene
This is one of my favourite scenes, as it features our main character walking outside his mansion. It is visually pleasing as uses a lot of dynamic shapes and contour.
The Beach Scene
This is one of the most colourful scenes as it uses mostly topical/beach colours. It contributes to having a diverse location for the 5 scenes.
The Space Scene
This was one of the harder scenes to make as I had to add a space helmet to him, however it is the most extreme scene as the character is in outer space.
The Zoom Out/In Animated House Scene
This animation was made to replace the original shot idea, to use a drone to zoom into a house, but we couldn’t do it due to privacy rules. So we used amination as a replacement as it fits in with the online/offline format and style.
This is what the scene looks in blender. The greyed out screenshots are the view in shader view, where as the coloured view is the rendered view, which is what it looks like when it is finished.
The camera is animated with 3 keyframes, both for location and rotation. It ends still to let the clouds move in, which allows for a clean transition from this clip to another, using a white fade transition. Overall, this clip took 12 hours to fully render 120 frames in blender.
Overall, this scene is good as it ends with a clean transition, of the clouds covering the screen. The camera is mostly smooth which follows the exponential curve, which allows for fluid movement.
