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.
The first theme that we explored at the start of year 12 was abstract. We showed this theme through a variety of different forms, such as still life photography, landscape photography, and documentary photography. One of the key artists we studied was Albert Ranger-Patzsch, and his project ‘The World is Beautiful’. We produced a response to this project by photographing normal, mundane objects and turned them into images which were aesthetically pleasing and appealing to the eye. We did this by using a range of techniques on Photoshop, including adjusting the white balance and the contrast on the images. Another artist we studied was Alfred Stieglitz, whose photographs differed from Ranger-Patzsch’s in that they were a lot more organic and soft in form, whereas Ranger-Patzsch often had straight, geometric shapes throughout his images.
The next theme we looked at was portrait photography. During this topic we began to use the photography studio with a professional setup and proper lighting. I enjoyed this theme the most because I felt that I had more freedom to make the images that I wanted, and I enjoyed using the studio and the lighting. I was able to manipulate the set up of my photographs in order to achieve the look that I was aiming for, and so I liked having more control over the whole process instead of coming across the idea for my image due to chance. One artist that we studied was William Klein and his collection of candid and street photography. We compared Klein to various other photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson and Arnold Newman.
The next theme we looked at was landscape photography. This involved going out to different locations around the island and taking observational photographs. One key artist we studied was Ansel Adams. We analysed his images in depth in order to understand the best techniques for taking photographs in an outdoor environment, such as the camera settings and the correct lighting. In our response to this theme, we carried out several different photoshoots of various landscapes and compared our images to the artists that we had studied, trying to find any similarities and differences between them.
Our next theme was identity & community. We have carried out several photoshoots throughout this theme; for example, when we took photographs of the old buildings around St Helier and in the French, Portuguese, and Merchant’s Quarters as a group. Additionally, we had to conduct independent photoshoots in small groups as a part of our NFT project, and also produce a 30 second film, complete with sound. We used different skills that we learnt through various workshops about animation and embroidery to produce our final NFT project.