For this assignment, I decided to collect old images of my house. I thought I would take a different approach to this assignment instead of using family images, as my house projects the same idea as comparing photographs of my relatives. This is because I lived in this house ever since I was I born. Another important reason as to why my house is important to my family and I, is because my dad and grandad built and designed it themselves. For this reason there is many pictures of the process of building my house in my family photo albums, and I think creating a comparison of the changes of my house over the years is a more unique way of representing my identity and family.
Family Archives Photoshoot
I decided to take photographs of my house compared to the building process of my house, as well as individual photographs of sections of my house and re-photographed the images from my family album. I did this to experiment in photoshop with layering and making collages to compare the changes of my house over the years.
The images I highlighted in red are the photographs I believe are my least successful photographs as I don’t think the images line up that well and I didn’t like the composition of the photographs. The images I highlighted in green are what I believe to be my most successful photographs because the photos line up better or I like the idea of layering them in that way.
I’m going to use photoshop to experiment with layering and cropping to create a collage-like affect.
Photoshop Development
Original Image
Original Image
Edited Image
Original Image
Original Image
Edited Image
To edit these images, I cropped the original image of the physical photographs from my family albums, I then layered them over the new photographs and lowered the opacity in order to achieve a “ghost-like” effect. I also erased areas of the old images to keep the contrast between the old and new. I feel like this photoshoot was successful because it’s a more unique approach to the project, yet it still projects a strong contrast between old and modern times.
If I was to do this photoshoot again, I would take a wider range of photographs at different angles. This way, I could have lined up the older images better and had more images to work with.
I decided to name my photobook ‘Culture of the Rock’, as it displays the different lifestyles, jobs, and surroundings of St Helier. I used a mixture of full bleed, half bleed and smaller images as well as vibrant and monochrome images in order to create a juxtaposition of photographs.
Firstly, I converted the original colour image into black and white to add a uniformed monochromatic theme to the images.
I then adjusted exposure, brightness etc in order to achieve a higher contrast between the black and white tones, and to also give the images a similar tone overall, and making sure none were too dark or too bright.
I decided to make these images black and white as I believe this uniformed theme adds a sense of unity between the communities of Jersey, but also adds a sense of ambiguity to the identities of the people in the images.
STORY: What is your migrant community story? Describe in:
3 words – A migrant community.
A sentence – How migration to Jersey in the past affected current times.
A paragraph – My migrant community story is about how immigration to Jersey from hundreds of years ago has affected current Jersey life and architecture in ethic areas. It focuses on the difference of buildings and genuine life within these areas, depending on which ethnic group resides there.
NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?
Using my own images from walking round St Helier and comparing my images to images from the Jersey Archives of the same areas from the past and how these areas have changed.
AUDIENCE: Who is it for?
My story will be aimed at the older generation of immigrants to Jersey as I feel like it will resonate well with that age group and create a sense of nostalgia, as well as proving how Jersey has changed throughout the years.
Sequencing
In terms of sequencing, I want to keep a pattern of juxtaposition. To do this, I will use contrasting images of both vibrant colour as well as monochromatic images. I was also alternate between sizing and orientation, and also using double page spreads. This will create my theme of Jersey life, which will feature street photography portraits as to represent the citizens of Jersey in their day-to-day life.
Here is an example of how I would sequence my images to create juxtaposition.
In this photoshoot, we walked around certain areas of town in order to capture elements of community and identity. I tried to focus my work on identity of communities reflected in the architecture of the area, such as English-style buildings and more colourful, unique building designs. I also managed to capture candid portraits that reflect a particular part of that person’s identity, such as their job or hobbies.
I think my photos highlighted in green are my most successful images as the distinctively capture the identity of a singular person or a group of people. The way the images capture both the person’s clothing as well as the surroundings around them, such as a building site or an area where a a particular community inhabit provides an easier outlook onto that person’s life through their career or hobbies.
I believe the images with a red cross through them are my least successful as the theme of identity and community can only be applied very vaguely, as majority of these images are close-ups of random buildings or have distractions in the image, such as other people on the trip taking images at the same time.
To edit these images, I will add a black and white filter and make the contrast slightly more exaggerated. This is to give them a similar appearance to the images in the archives, and provide a vintage atmosphere to the images.
To make the ‘Zine’, we used InDesign to create a 16 page booklet to display our images based on the theme of identity and community. My images will be set out in landscape, with different sized images to create interest and contrast in both colour and size. The inside pages won’t have any text as I want the zine to focus purely on my images. I am still deciding on a title for my Zine.
Once the basic zine is created, and the design and layout has been decided. Photos are then added. To do this, I used the rectangle frame tool and worked out the size of my image.
Once the frame for the photo has been correctly sized, I clicked import photo to add my image into the frame. For my zine I am alternating between the sizes and colours of the images, which is why I have paired black and white images with colour images. Also, each page contains different sized images, for example some pages have an image to the edge of the bleed, whilst others shave a page with another photo.
Once the image has been imported, the image must be resized to fit the frame. To do this, I pressed fitting, and fit content to frame. The fitting of the image depends on the size of the frame, therefore a bigger frame will display a larger image. Repeat this process until all 16 pages in the zine are filled.
Will Lakeman is a Jersey-born photographer who focuses on landscape photography. Lakeman attended the University of East Anglia, the University of California Los Angeles, and the University of Sussex. He achieved degrees in American Studies and literature, but his main focus was on digital media, ethnomusicology and online culture. Lakeman has had his work displayed at the Private and Public Gallery, CCA Galleries International, Arthouse Jersey and was awarded the Summer Prize 2021 in the CCA Galleries International Summer Exhibition. Will Lakeman is heavily inspired by cinema and science fiction, which is why his work often contains vibrant colours and almost alien-like symbolism. Lakeman also recently began to experiment with artificial intelligence in his work to produce new imagery.
Will Lakeman’s interests lie in exploring a different side to everyday life, whilst incorporating his passions of science fiction and artificial intelligence to alter his work. This image from his ‘Social Housing’ collection represents this idea well, as the moving light creates a sense of a sort of utopian future from a science-fiction scene. This collection in particular depicts Jersey’s social housing buildings and apartments.
The lighting in this photograph is predominantly artificial, and consists of multiple colours and multiple levels of brightness. The brightest section of the image can be seen in the bottom and middle right of the image. This light has been created through the use of a slow shutter speed, in order to capture the movement and direction of the light. With the image being taken at night, the artificial light creates a harsh contrast against the natural darkness. Shadows cannot be seen due to the time of day, however the middle-ground towards the left of the image is substantially darker. Despite the lac of strength of the moonlight, it falls on the front of some buildings, making them slightly more visible to the viewer.
There is apparent leading lines in the bottom right of the, which are thin and curved. They direct the eyes of the viewer towards the artificially highlighted area of the image. They convey the direction and movement of the light, which influences the direction and movement of the viewers eyes. These lines also juxtapose the darker sections either side of them.
Although there is no sense of repetition within this photograph, there is a sense of echo and reflection in the light in the image. For example, the light in the leading lines create an echoing and almost ghostly affect. Also, the sense of reflection can be seen in the light being reflected into the sky.
There is a mixture of geometric and organic shapes in this image. The geometric shapes of the photograph are seen primarily in the midground and foreground of the image, these consist of the artificially constructed, straight-lined buildings. These shapes contrast the organic shapes that are featured in the top third of the photograph, with that being the natural clouds in the sky.
There is a strong sense of depth in this photograph, as the buildings closer to the background start to become out of focus, which contrast against the buildings towards the foreground that are in focus. The space within the image is mostly positive, which the chaotic lighting and closely-spaced buildings. However there is negative space in the sky and in between the buildings and where the image is darkest.
There is no sense of texture within the photograph as the focus of the image is to display the juxtaposition of light and dark rather than surfaces and textures.
Overall, the tones of the images are dark, how light tones are represented with the use of artificial lighting of cars, housing, and street lighting. The darkest tones of the image are seen in the middle and bottom third of the image, and towards the left. The lighter tones in the image can be found predominantly towards the right, middle and bottom thirds of the photograph. The image leans more towards darkness, which reflects a gloomy and enigmatic atmosphere.
The dominant colours in this photograph are black and deep, navy blue. However, there is miniature segments of colour that can be seen through the windows of the apartments, as well as the yellow-toned artificial light from the cars and street lights. The colours of the image allow the viewer to understand the contrast between dark and light, as well as allowing the light created by the slow shutter speed to be accentuated. I feel as thought the image would not have the same level of contrast if the image were to be in black and white, and the contrast would simply rely of contrast between shadow and light rather than the juxtaposition of colour and artificial light over natural light.
The composition of the image follows the rules of thirds, in the sense that the positive space is largely featured in the bottom and middle third, and the negative space filling the top third. Due to the positive space being concentrated into the middle and bottom third, the image can be considered as unbalanced. The focal point of the image is the movement of the light in the bottom right of the image, which creates the leading lines for the viewer.
Archives are a collection of historical documents in any media, such as letters or photographs that keep information and meaning for future generations to learn about the history of a specific place or subject. The Société Jersiaise is a Jersey-based archive and was formed in 1873. They published their annual report named ‘Bulletin Annuel’ in 1875, and finally opened their museum in 1877 due to their sudden growth of interest in 1886. The main aim for the The Société Jersiaise was ‘Recording in permanent photography local prehistoric monuments, buildings and ruins.’. The group focused on collecting already-existing images of Jersey life and landscapes, however this expanded to the group then developing their own photographic documents as a method of research after photography arrived In Jersey in 1840, which still remain in the archives presently, 140 years later. Currently, the archive contains over 100,000 documents and photographs from the mid nineteenth century up until current times, these documented images allow current generations and generations to come about Jersey life and architecture, aswell as the practice and process of photography in the past and how that process has changed over the years. In terms of archives in a broader context, we keep archives ourselves in the form of photo albums on our phones, and physical albums such as family albums that have accumulated over the years. Our personal archives allow people to understand us as individuals with representations of our personalities, friends, families, hobbies and our lives in general. The Société Jersiaise does this on a much larger scale with an archive of what it was like for generations living in Jersey.
Albert Smith is one of Jersey’s earliest and well-known photographers to have his work contained in the archives. After leaving his previous photography career in Waterloo, Smith moved to Jersey and opened his new business on New Street in 1892, where he stayed for almost 40 years. He opened and closed multiple businesses in St Helier and his last studio on Broad Street, which he operated until 1931. Thousands of Albert Smith’s photographs are contained at The Société Jersiaise in the form of glass plate negatives which display his work that focused on portraits and Jersey wildlife. Out of nearly 3,300 photographs contained at the archive, almost 2,000 of these were taken by employees hired by Albert Smith, and a small amount taken by Smith himself. The last images taken by Smith’s business that are contained in the archive are dated from the mid to late 1930’s, with photographs of The Battle of Flowers and the opening of Jersey Airport. These images by Smith and his company allow for an understanding into life in that time, and historic milestones celebrated within Jersey during this time. The method used to take images by photographers in the 1800’s included using a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light, however the method of salt paper plates started being used, meaning presumably this was the method used by Albert Smith and his company. Smith and his company contributed greatly to The Société Jersiaise archive as the majority of kept images have been provided through the research of his company, meaning photographic context from this time period is made easily accessible and understandable.
This image by Albert Smith depicts his family in the year of 1893, Smith used the method of “glass plate negatives” in his work around this time, so presumably this is the method used in this image. The method of “glass plate negatives” involves spreading a flammable liquid, collodion, onto a glass plate. It was then placed into a bath of silver nitrate which turned into a photosensitive silver iodide. The process of exposure and processing had to happen immediately before the plate dried to receive the best results. Images produced like this allow us to understand how photographic processes have developed overtime with the developing of technology and knowledge. Earlier images like this focused more on process rather than composition, which is why this image has a simple composition. There is an extreme contrast in the photograph due to the black and white method of film photography, which is seen especially between the black clothing and the pale complexion of the faces.
Linking back to the question, archives can be seen as repository of knowledge in multiple ways. Firstly, photographic archives give us visual evidence of life in Jersey in the past few hundred years, with architecture, fashion and the overall style of photography. Furthermore, these archives also allow us to gain knowledge of early photographic methods, such as wet plates, salt-paper prints and the earliest methods of the camera obscura. On the other hand, photography was only made accessible for high-class citizens as the process of photography was expensive and the knowledge of the science behind the processes was needed in order for the images to be developed properly. Because of this, we have mainly have access to only the insights of the life of the high-class and there was little representation of the lives of lower-class citizens.
The Jersey Museum produced an exhibit which they had named ‘People Make Jersey‘. This exhibit allowed for both locals and tourists to learn about the history of Jersey communities within history, providing knowledge on the immigration of families to Jersey. This exhibition presented the extent of rich culture that Jersey contains due to the large range of nationalities that inhabit the island. The exhibition states ‘Every Jersey resident has an immigration story – whether their family came here 500 years or five years ago. This exhibition explores some of these stories and the ways in which immigration has shaped and influenced the Island we know today.’. I think this statement proves the influence immigration has had over Jersey life currently, and how Jersey was affected by immigration hundreds of years ago.
A particular section of the exhibition that sparked my interest was the display of where traditional Jersey names had originated from. This specific area of the exhibition caught my interest as my surname was featured on this board, and I had discovered that my surname (Le Breton) means “from Brittany”. This means that my family name and ancestors had originated from France. I was already aware of this as my family still has a lot of connections to France, such as family still leaving there and the older generations of my family are still fluent in French. Despite this, it was still interesting to learn about my family origins in more detail. My ancestors made the majority of their money through farming, as my whole family has always lived in the countryside.
When we walked through St Helier, the difference in Jersey culture could be seen more clearly within the architecture of particular areas of St Helier. For example, we learnt how English architecture influenced a lot of buildings in St Helier, as well as learning about traditional Jersey architecture using granite.
Identity + Zines
Zines (short for magazines) are usually a self-published piece of work created either by a single person or a very small group. The term was created in 1940 by Russ Chauvenet as a science fiction fanzine, and became especially popularized within the science fiction fandom. It became an official term in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.
Zines are a suitable way to display images of identity, as typically they are created within a circulation of fewer that 100 at a time. They are created and published especially as a form of displaying identity and interests as well as sharing personal skills or art, or even developing a story. They are used for this reason as opposed to being created to make a profit.
Zines have been used over time as a form of expression and communication between subcultures, which embrace the idea of a ‘do-it-yourself’ project, and disregards the traditional conventions of professional design and publishing houses. They provide an alternative contribution. Handwritten or carbon zines are artificially made, which emphasises the personal connection between the creator and the reader.
We are using zines to display our images as it creates a simulated, physical photobook by which we can display our images. The personal connection of zines adds to the personal project based on our own identity.
