Once I had all my images edited through using Lightroom to select my favourite images by rating them and comparing them, I then moved onto photoshop and edited them to make them all finalised. Once I had everything ready, i exported th final edits back into Lightroom and this where I worked on my book design.
On Lightroom, there’s an option called ‘Book’, this turned all my images into a book template which was really helpful as it allowed me to see all my images laid out on a virtual representation of a book.
This is how my first layout looked;
This was just how my book was laid out when I selected the feature, all my images were randomly allocated. I then began to sequence my images in the order I felt right and conceptual.
There were many template options to choose from so I had to make sure to select about 3-4 frames/templates to keep my layout consistent throughout the book.
These were the types of templates I had an option of picking, there was lots of choices however as most of my images were portrait , I mostly used the portrait templates and a double bleed which I could use of my few landscape images for.
These were the templates I had as my favourites and wanted to keep it consistent with these templates throughout my book design.
This was very first and basic re arrangement of my images, I just started to pair specific images together that I thought would maybe work well, I didnt select any templated yet and I left the front and back cover blank in order to think about it at the end
I spent some time choosing the templates for each page, I used 4 of the same templates each time to keep it consistent and in a good layout and I also included a few full doubles spread bleeds as I think this creates a bigger impact on some photos and really gets the viewers attention.
I used many different templates such as a full bleed which took up both pages and 3 different templates throughout my book such as a small template , one slightly to the right and one that was filled in from the top to the bottom of the page but the sides had a white border. I decided to not use any outlines around the images as I didnt think it fit in with my concept for this book.
I also made some of my pages have a black background colour as I thought a dark colour around the images would work much better than white pages as it fits much more naturally with the mood of this book and makes the topic come across more sad and darker which is what you consider with mental health. I also repeated some of images to create a sense of a routine and how everyday you wake up and feel differently , its almost like youre re living the same routine.
My book will be about mental health and the narrative will show how mental illnesses can make you feel and affect your everyday life. The narrative of my story shows a lot of repetition to show how everyday feels the same however you just feel different and experience different emotions.
narrative; 3 words; health, wellbeing, feelings
Sentence; Story about how mental health affects someone’s life
Paragraph; My story shows how have a mental illness can make you feel on an everyday basis and how it affects your lifestyle. I did this through editing my images and making them more conceptual exploring different feelings that come along with having a mental illness. I used the studio and a natural home environment to try get both achieve the best outcomes and make my editing better.
Design; I want my book to have a simple look with a hard cover with just one main colour most likely black. Im not going to add any text in my book apart from my essay and I want my book to have a variety of colour and black and white images, which is how I’ve edited my images. I’m going to use the same type of paper throughout my book with no different textures. I want the format of my book to include both portraiture and landscape images to have a variety of different formats that create nice contrasts , all pages being A4 with a maximum of 40 pages. I want my book to be a hard cover and the binding to be an image wrap as a dust jacket usually gets ruined. I want the cover to be a card graphic cover. I want the title of my book to be relevant and intriguing making sure it goes with my topic- mental health. I include many different editing designs throughout my book and repeat a few of the same editing designs as well as some images to create the idea of everyday feeling the same but dealing with different emotions. The image sizes throughout my book are a variety of different sizes, I used small templates, full zooms where one image takes up a whole page and a few double bleeds where one image takes up two full pages. I also include some images that have a small template on one page and one small square image right next to it to create a nice contrast. I have chosen my images to have a specific sequences where the images either link together or have a good juxtaposition and contrast between to ideas. I repeat some of my images to give the idea of everyday feeling the same but with different emotions. My essay is completely linked with my images as my essay is about how photographers use photography to represent mental health and different ways to illustrate it through processes such as editing.
Historically, photography students at Hautlieu School have acquired a reputation for making work beyond the confines of Edexcel syllabus and their work have been recognised both locally and internationally through exhibitions, competitions and publications. For example, in the last couple of years we have produced three separate newspaper supplements, FUTURE OF ST HELIER (2019), LIBERATION & OCCUPATION (2020) and last year LOVE & REBELLION (2021), all published and distributed in the Jersey Evening Post.
NEWSPAPER SPREADS: Design 3-4 versions of a newspaper spreads based on images from both your current and previous projects, including zine project based on historical migrant neighbourhoods in St Helier and work you did in Yr 12 too (Identity, Anthropocene, Landscape). Use your Review and Reflect blog post you did earlier to identity the work that responds best to the themes of IDENTITY & COMMUNITY.
You must design the following spreads:
FULL-BLEED: Select one image as a full-bleed spread.
JUXTAPOSITION: Select 2 images and experiment with different combinations.
SEQUENCE: Select a series of images (between 4 – 12) and produce a sequence either as a grid, story-board, contact-sheet or typology.
MONTAGE: Select an appropriate set of images and create a montage of layered images. You may to choose to work in Photoshop for more creativity and import into InDesign as one image (new document in Photoshop 400mm(h) x 280.5mm(w) in 300 dpi)
Follow these instructions:
Create new document in InDesign with these dimensions: 400mm(h) x 280.5mm(w), 10 pages, Orientation: Portrait, 2 columns, Column gutter 5mm, Margins: 10mm, Bleed: 3mm
Only use in high-res TIFF/JPEG files (4000 pixels)
Use design ideas and layouts from your zine/ newspaper research as well as taking inspiration from artists listed here as a starting points for your spreads.
Incorporate texts and typography where appropriate.
Once you have completed pagespreads, double check:
All images are high-res file
Check links in InDesign (if Red Question mark appears re-point to image in your folder)
Package your layout and save in your name into this shared folder: M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\IDENTITY & COMMUNITY\Newspaper
INSPIRATIONS
FULL-BLEED: Image goes across two pages to the edge
Page-spread from FUTURE OF ST HELIERPage-spread from LIBERATION / OCCUPATION
JUXTAPOSTION
Juxtaposition is placing two things together to show contrast or similarities.Look at the newspapers: LIBERATION / OCCUPATION and FUTURE OF ST HELIER produced by past students and the publication GLOBAL MARKET on the table by ECAL students for inspiration.
Spreads from Global MarketW. Eugene Smith. Jazz Loft ProjectCOLOUR – SHAPESSHAPES – GEOMETRYRepetitionOBJECT – PORTRAIT
SEQUENCE
Shannon O’Donnell:That’s Not The Way The River Flows (2019) is a photographic series that playfully explores masculinity and femininity through self-portraits. The work comes from stills taken from moving image of the photographer performing scenes in front of the camera. This project aims to show the inner conflicts that the photographer has with identity and the gendered experience. It reveals the pressures, stereotypes and difficulties faced with growing up in a heavily, yet subtly, gendered society and how that has impacted the acceptance and exploration of the self.
Duane Michals (b. 1932, USA) is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text. Michals first made significant, creative strides in the field of photography during the 1960s. In an era heavily influenced by photojournalism, Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives. The sequences, for which he is widely known, appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format. Michals has also incorporated text as a key component in his works. Rather than serving a didactic or explanatory function, his handwritten text adds another dimension to the images’ meaning and gives voice to Michals’s singular musings, which are poetic, tragic, and humorous, often all at once.
Things Are Queer, 1973 Nine gelatin silver prints with hand-applied text 3 3/8 x 5 inches The Spirit Leaves the Body, 1968 Seven gelatin silver prints with hand-applied text 3 3/8 x 5 inches (each image)Death Comes to the Old Lady, 1969 Five gelatin silver prints with hand-applied text 3 3/8 x 5 inches (each image)Tracy Moffatt: Something More, 1989
Tracy Moffatt: The nine images in Something More tell an ambiguous tale of a young woman’s longing for ‘something more’, a quest which brings dashed hopes and the loss of innocence. With its staged theatricality and storyboard framing, the series has been described by critic Ingrid Perez as ‘a collection of scenes from a film that was never made’. While the film may never have been made, we recognise its components from a shared cultural memory of B-grade cinema and pulp fiction, from which Moffatt has drawn this melodrama. The ‘scenes’ can be displayed in any order – in pairs, rows or as a grid – and so their storyline is not fixed, although we piece together the arc from naïve country girl to fallen woman abandoned on the roadside in whatever arrangement they take. Moffatt capitalises on the cinematic device of montage, mixing together continuous narrative, flashbacks, cutaways, close-ups and memory or dream sequences, to structure the series, and relies on our knowledge of these devices to make sense and meaning out of the assemblage.
Philip Toledano: Day with my father, 2010
Philip Toledano: DAYS WITH MY FATHER is a son’s photo journal of his aging father’s last years. Following the death of his mother, photographer Phillip Toledano was shocked to learn of the extent of his father’s severe memory loss.
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.)
Walkers Evans and Labour Anonymous
Walker Evans: One of the founding fathers of Documentary Photography Walker Evans used cropping as part of his work. Another pioneer of the photo-essay, W. Eugene Smith also experimented with cropping is his picture-stories
Hans-Peter Feldmann, Sonntagsbilder (Sunday Pictures). 1976 The complete set of 21 offset lithographs, on thin wove paper, with full margins, all I. various sizes
Hans-Peter Feldmann: (b. 1941 Duesseldorf). The photographic work of Hans-Peter Feldmann began with his own publications in small print-runs between 1968 and 1975. Often using reproductions of photographs from magazines or private snapshots, which he mixed with his own photographs, Feldmann, like Ed Ruscha, undermined the aura of the unique, “authentic” work of art. With his laconic imagery he seeks to break down conventional notions of art.
MONTAGE
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image.
Mask XIV 2006
John Stezaker: Is a British artist who is fascinated by the lure of images. Taking classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations, Stezaker makes collages to give old images a new meaning. By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images. Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous sitters with caves, hamlets, or waterfalls, making for images of eerie beauty.
His ‘Dark Star’ series turns publicity portraits into cut-out silhouettes, creating an ambiguous presence in the place of the absent celebrity. Stezaker’s way of giving old images a new context reaches its height in the found images of his Third Person Archive: the artist has removed delicate, haunting figures from the margins of obsolete travel illustrations. Presented as images on their own, they now take the centre stage of our attention
Thomas Sauvin and Kensuke Koike: ‘No More, No Less’ In 2015, French artist Thomas Sauvin acquired an album produced in the early 1980s by an unknown Shanghai University photography student. This volume was given a second life through the expert hands of Kensuke Koike, a Japanese artist based in Venice whose practice combines collage and found photography. The series, “No More, No Less”, born from the encounter between Koike and Sauvin, includes new silver prints made from the album’s original negatives. These prints were then submitted to Koike’s sharp imagination, who, with a simple blade and adhesive tape, deconstructs and reinvents the images. However, these purely manual interventions all respect one single formal rule: nothing is removed, nothing is added, “No More, No Less”. In such a context that blends freedom and constraint, Koike and Sauvin meticulously explore the possibilities of an image only made up of itself.
Veronica GesickaTraces presents a selection of photomontages created by Weronika Gęsicka on the basis of American stock photographs from the 1950s and 1960s. Family scenes, holiday memories, everyday life – all of that suspended somewhere between truth and fiction. The images, modified by Gęsicka in various ways, are wrapped in a new context: our memories of the people and situations are transformed and blur gradually. Humorous as they may seem, Gęsicka’s works are a comment on such fundamental matters as identity, self-consciousness, relationships, imperfection.
My second photoshoot was based around recreating a few images I scanned in. The images I recreated are of my Mum and my Uncle so I recreated them with me and my Cousin. I went to a carpark to show the contrast of time and development since the images were taken.
I firstly got the original image below and flipped it to make it more like the original with my mum on the right and my uncle on the left.
Below is the flipped version of the original image above. As well as flipping the image I also cropped it to make it similar to the original image.
Next, I put in a retro, orange light leak which I added to a duplicated layer of the main layer. I then made the opacity of the light leak layer 36% opacity. This brought the colour out so that it looks transparent and not translucent.
I then added a curves adjustment layer to make the image more dramatic. This brought out the real contrast between the light leak, warm car lights and also bland background.
I then added a gradient map adjustment layer with a retro yellow and black colourway. This completed the retro look and made it look similar to the original. The original image did not have a light leak however, when experimenting with a light leak, it looks much better than it did without.
Finally, I exported and imported the edited image from photoshop into Lightroom and used a grain filter to complete the retro look and create great similarity between the original and the recreation.
I really like the final outcome for the first edit as I believe it has a good feel. The image shows a link to the original but shows that it has its own spin on a recreation.
Above is my second edit which is similar to the first however has different coloured light leak and a colder feel to it. I did the same process as the first edit however added a second duplicated layer which I put a pink light leak so it has a combination of pink and orange light leaks.
Above is my third edit and I took the recreation and put it in black and white with a strong brightness to replicate the original image.
Comparison
I like the way the first edits compare with the original. They reference the original but have a personal touch to them.
I don’t think the outcome of the images show the connection in family so I will recreate these images further in my next photoshoot.
1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.
This photobook is expressing the beauty within nature and the connections between physical human body features and the natural world in a simple, soft and humble way.
2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)
Anna Eligabeth, hautlieu student.
3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering
The book itself feels smooth and clean. The colour of ink is written in a dull peach colour that matches the same colour as the front cover. Paper white if not filled whole with image. The paper feels thick and seems to have a shiny smooth texture. One page seems to be a little bit smaller than an A4 piece of paper. The book is presented portrait. Binding is hard.
The story behind this book is that this girl seems that she wants to express her passion between nature and man kind. She presents the beauty found within nature softly with one main theme of colour for each image and page. Colour is an important aspect in her book.
The bright, shiny sun fills the front page and fades from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. This image covers the whole outside of the book. She has a variety of different sized images, some fill a double page.
The editing process within this photo-book seems to be extreme with colour using high levels of saturation.
As researched earlier, Gustave used a method of combining two negatives of images that allowed Le Gray to achieve tonal balance between sea and sky on a final print. It gives a more truthful sense of how the eye, rather than the camera, perceives nature. I will be taking my own images and pasting them together to reconstruct Gustave’s method. Here is a double page spread from the current topic I am working on making a newspaper.
These images I chose to print out A5 size to reconstruct together with using Gustave’s old method of physically combining different skies and sea horizons together…
Firstly I printed out my 4 chosen images. I chose these images to use as they mostly all have the same levels of whites and darks within the seas and skies. This makes it easier to combined different parts of images together without them looking unnatural.
Next I cut out the skies from the top images and moved them around to fit the right photo. Clearly the two cut outs on the top right would not fit together as they are both two very different exposures.
Using the best two cut outs that went well together, I pasted them together with glue and made the horizon line blend as much as it could to look natural and as if it was an original photo. In my opinion this image relates to Gustave’s method and style the best. The sky has a great moody cloud that softens the brightness from the lower clouds.
With the remaining cut outs I played around until finding another combination that works…
This images would have had a better outcome if photo-shopped on adobe as for the continuous white line around the rocks. Apart from that both exposure levels work well together. The cliffy rocks have been placed in the foreground creating a background being the sea.
a French photographer that lived between 1829-1884. Gustave studied painting in the studio of Paul Delaroche and shortly after in 1847 made his first daguerreotypes. Gustave did similar work to William Henry Fox, a process involving paper negatives to be waxed out prior to sensitization, therefore creating a crisper image. Gustave decided to stick to portraiture in his studio in France for the majority of his early photographer stages. Family and financial issues occurred and Gustave ended up in debt. In 1857, Gustave started to produce seascape photography. A series of dramatic and poetic seascapes that bought international acclaim.
When photographing the sea in such early stages of photography, Gustave likes to capture how the eye would perceive the image rather than change it. Gustave would do this by creating two negatives of an image physically, (one half the sea, one half the sky.) Then he would use these two parts of images and paste them together as well as creating two different exposure levels in each negative. This would create a contrast between the darkness within the clouds and natural light that beams down on the sea.
Joe Cornish
Cornish is a British photographer, born in 1958. Cornish, inspired by the sea and natural landscapes, captures quality images from the surroundings of the UK and abroad. Currently Cornish is working and living in North Yorkshire taking photographs of the North York Moors and coastal areas. Joe uses the quality of light in every aspect of his photography and even plans for different light use every time before going for a photo-shoot. Joe states that light is the most important aspect of his images. Here are some examples of images taken within Joes best time of light being used;
Joes images seem to have a chosen colour theme to each one. Joe finds himself positioned with a camera to always have something set within the foreground and a wide background. When photographing the sea, Joe seems to capture the water always so still and travelling at smooth and slow way. Here we can see that Joe wants to capture the beauty and tranquillity within the world. Whether it be a cold scene of wintery sea or a summer day with the sun setting, Joes images all link and would not be mistaken for someone else’s work. in my opinion, linking these images together is the theme of intriguing colours and the smoothness found within the sea and sky.
What is the relationship between photography and memory?
Opening quote:
“The lips… may be as sweet as honey and… kisses as smooth as olive oil, but when it is all over, …he leaves you nothing but bitterness and pain. …he will take you down to the world of the dead.”
Proverbs 5:3-4
Inspirations:
Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
The photobook will use a classic paper since it will suit photo books of all sizes and can be used for both hardback and paperback covers. It’s a satin finish paper, which means it’s a bit more subtle than gloss-coated paper and also provides a higher level of readability.
The colour of the photobook will be coloured since it makes the book more appealing to the reader.
Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
A4 size, Portrait, though not all images take over one full page, some take up a section, some full bleeds allowing for each individual image to be the primary focus of each section/ page.
The photobook will use Lay Flat binding. This means that both sides of the book are completely flat so the pages do not turn over automatically. This binding makes it really easy to browse your Photo Book.
The cover image will wrap around the front cover as well as the back cover.
Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
The story for this is a personal one since it comes to show the good and the bad of dating culture along with how Christianity has helped certain decisions I made in these relationships.
The book will involve a series of images showing 2 same sex models getting intimate as long as “real” images of my own and archival images. As well as this, the book will show various text messages I have received along with bible quotes which have helped me through the journey.
Photographing the sea: Analysing 150 years of seascapes from Gustave Le Gary to Joe Cornish.
In what way has Gustave Le Gray and Joe Cornish explored photographing the sea?
For my personal study I would like to explore how seascape photography has developed over time in the last 150 years. Firstly, I will be looking at the origins of early imagery of the sea by French photographer Gustave Le Gray (1850-1880). In comparison, I will study how these early seascape has influenced contemporary photographers, such as Joe Cornish (British). I will be analysing in depth images of seascapes produced by the chosen photographers and compare their methodologies and approach, such as, camera technology, photographic techniques and also the overall aesthetic qualities. I will be researching historical information about what inspired these photographers as well as other contextual factors. As a response I will be photographing the island of Jersey, such as; coastal areas, bays, cliffs and purely the ocean itself within different weather conditions. I will be producing a photobook representing a selection of my best images with reference to similar styles of these photographers.
A History of Seascape
The earliest known evidence of landscape imagery to be recorded is between 1826-1827. It was an urban photograph taken by a French inventor called Nicephore Niepce.
First photograph, by Joseph Nicephor Niepce. 1826
This photograph took just under eight hours to accomplish as in the earliest days of photography, technical restraints with cameras such as long exposure times would render any movement visible; making it blurry to the eye. Photographers were bound to work with static subjects, such as outdoor scenes lacking in movement. As camera technology and equipment advanced over years, higher quality images were produced. This saw the rise of Pictorialism
“Pictorialism, an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality.”
www.britannica.com/technology/Pictorialism
Pictorialism developed during the years of late 1860s. Photographers would acknowledge their camera tools and equipment as a paintbrush. Imagination and creativity was developed through photography becoming a form of art. In the 1880s a photographer named Peter Henry Emerson invented an aesthetic theory called “naturalistic photography”. Peter’s work involved pictorialism as for his photography includes an artistic approach.
Footbridge near Chestnut, photogravure by Peter Henry Emerson, c. 1888
The idea was to suggest photography should have an artistic expression to rise above the mechanical process of using a camera. Between the years of 1840-1900, photos were produced by many photographers using the photographic term of “daguerreotypes”
“Each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate”
www.daguerreobase.org
Daguerreotypes were rather heavy, detailed and sharp portraits. In the early 1840/50s materials used were mirror like surfaces and very fragile. They were very expensive as for the metal plating so only housed with upper class buyers. Detail within the images of daguerreotypes were wanted for landscape photographers such as Gustave Le Gray.
Images were taken of waterfronts with extreme high levels of visual info. Through the 20th century landscape and seascape photography was ruled by the Americans as they had varied, vast unchartered territory all round including impressive coastal areas. As technology improved, the photography industry became more varied for the subject matter. When photographing the sea, weather is one of the main components to what mood, emotion, and atmosphere is set in a photograph. The weather is known to be the glue that holds an image together as for how much natural light is exposed, whether it be raining, sunset, sunrise, all making a different scene each time.
Firstly I will be studying the photography world of Gustave Le Gray, a French photographer that lived between the years of 1829-1884. Gustave studied painting in the studio of Paul Delaroche and shortly after in 1847 made his first daguerreotypes. Gustave decided to stick to portraiture in his studio in France for the majority of his early photography practice. In 1857, Gustave started to produce seascape photography. Gustave did similar work to William Henry Fox, a process involving paper negatives to be waxed out prior to sensitization, therefore creating a crisper image. This process gave Gustave’s images a tonal balance and the majority of the time gave dramatic contrast in the skies.
Family and financial issues occurred and Gustave ended up in debt. A series of dramatic and poetic seascapes that bought international acclaim. Within two years, Gustave paid all debt from profit of his internationally known seascapes and landscape work. An image supporting Le Gray’s famous uprising in the photography industry can be known to be the photograph named;
“The Great Wave.”
“The Great Wave” is known to be one of the most dramatic seascapes Gustave has produced. Technical mastery with expressive grandeur, meaning impressiveness is found within the whole photo. At first glance, clearly Gustave has used a slow shutter speed, but with this image being over 150 years old, camera equipment would be at lower expectations than the modern era of photography. A slower shutter speed can be identified by the rush of the wave coming in, appearing slightly blurry and a sense of smoothness. Although Gustave has captured the movement of the ocean, stillness and in focus static subjects have been incorporated into this image such as the shore line rocks and the pier appearing from the middle left emerging out lining up with the ocean’s horizon. These subjects matter greatly as for the contrast and quality difference compared to the rush and movement within the water. At the horizon on the far right, a line occurs where clouds and sea meet. This indicates the joint between two separate negatives, a technique known as combination printing that Le Gray perfected. Combination printing is the photographic technique of using the negatives of two or more images in conjunction with one another to create a single image. In his case, Le Gray made one image with the exposure for the bright sky and another for the darker sea. Clearly, the clouds have been darkened to set a more serious mood within the atmosphere. As for the sea, highlights are made towards the white spray coming off the waves. A more harsh approach is photographed where the middle of the sea meets the middle of the physical image. This particular part of the image includes higher levels of contrast and a higher level of clarity compared to the rest of the photograph. This invokes a more serious tone. After separating both pieces, Gustave combines the two parts together again creating his final outcome. The combination of the two negatives allowed Gustave to have tonal balance between sea and sky. This sets a more truthful sense of how the eye sees a scene, rather than how a camera perceives nature. Today you can recreate a similar image with perfect exposure by layering different images in image manipulation software such as Photoshop. However, this predicated on photographers making a set of images using exposure bracketing. Here is an example of my own work that has been cut into two negatives and combined together to make a tonal balance between sea and sky;
Another photographer such as Joe Cornish, inspired by the sea and natural landscapes, captures quality images from the surroundings of the UK and abroad. Cornish is a British photographer, born in 1958 who travelled among other photographers throughout his life. In 1986, Cornish’s photography was accepted into the majority of more than 30 photo travel books. Currently Cornish is working and living in North Yorkshire taking photographs of the North York Moors and coastal areas. Joe states;
“my photography is an attempt to express the most beautiful and powerful qualities of the light that i encounter”
First Light – Photobook by Joe Cornish
When planning for a photo-shoot, Cornish plans for the quality of natural light rather than visual aspects of a scene. This light usage has a prime time of use. This can linger around 20 minutes either from first light to sunrise, or sunset to last light. Another aspect of nature that Cornish uses to enhance the beauty of his landscape and seascape work is known to be the edge of weather. This is either the leading or trailing edge of a storm, where clouds meet sky in high contrasting colours, rainfall in distance or the surroundings, these all contribute to making Cornish’s photography dramatic and powerful. Cornish uses a variety of techniques when editing his images such as vignetting the corners of images to give a more ominous approach. Cornish is a fan of using colour as a source of representation towards moods, emotions and feelings. Therefore, using colour to represent moods within his photography is a technique the artist Pablo Picasso used. Cornish is inspired by Picasso in a sense of how Picasso uses colour to reflect different moods and emotion within his paintings. For example, Picassos “blue period” dramatically caught recognition throughout Europe during the years of 1901 to 1904. This period of Picasso’s life occurred as for the death of one of his friends. This so called “blue period” involved an artistic technique called the monochromatic technique. The use of one theme of colour throughout an art piece. Picasso would use blue to represent grief and despair. Occasionally warms areas with browns and oranges to give his paintings a simple realistic touch. Here are some examples of Picassos work..
Picasso, “blue period” 1901-1904
Picasso used this technique to represent colour as the source of moods, emotions and feelings. This gives use viewers a physical message to how Picasso may feel. Cornish on the other hand, being a contemporary photographer, photoshop can be used to cancel and add different levels of colour to photos. Cornish uses the monochromatic technique inspired by Picasso. For example, Cornish uses the colour theme blue within many of his photographs. An example of this is seen below from Cornish.
North Yorkshire, 2020
Cornish clearly has represented the monochromatic technique using a purply blue as a main theme then warmed the image with the sunset in the background. This gives the image a tonal balance. The quality of light in this image influences emotion and imagination. With the main source of light being natural and provided by the setting sun in the background, a soft spread of yellows and oranges emerge from the sun creating a sunset glow effect on the clouds and afar. With low falling tide, large areas of smooth sand retain enough water to provide reflections. These reflections consume the colours that beam down from above. In this particular image, Cornish seems to have a controlled amount of editing within photoshop for these strong, tranquil colours to emerge brighter than they normally would. This creates a more inviting, and intriguing mood. Half of the image Cornish has used the technique of monochromatic use of colour, following off one of his favourite influences, Pablo Picasso. Cornish has created a wintery scene of coldness as for the sand having a blue tint throughout the whole bay. A dull blue from the sea with wintery white foam indicates a raw, cold sea. Movement within the sea can be dictated where the swirl’s of water circle together near the shore in the foreground of the image. These circles yet again suggest tranquillity and calmness within natural environments. Vignetted corners darken the exposure levels and heighten shadows. This image clearly states the beauty of sunset scenery within the UK. This image is inviting as for the high vibrancies and saturation levels that blush off the sun into the clouds. As a whole, the seascape is pretty, relaxing and a formal sunsetting image. Physically capturing this image, Cornish uses a tripod, a 50mm lens, low IOS, and a low shutter speed to capture the smoothness within the moving water in the foreground.
Conclusion
Although both photographers have a major time range within each other, roughly 100 years, similarities can be found in both seascape works.
Over 100 years of camera development, there is a clear indication between camera quality with Cornish using higher tech then Le Gray. The quality of light captured in an image from Le Gray used a method to control exposure called combination printing whereas Cornish liked to used a technique called exposure bracketing (taking 2 or more photos of the same thing but in different exposure levels.) This lead on to images having different themes of colours, gradients and involved one of Picassos method of monochromatic use of colour.
Both photographers seem to have more differences than similarities in a first glance of their work. An example of this can be boldness and vibrancy within Cornish’s work compared to the dull and fearful work of Le Gray. The physical quality of the images have different ranges of resolution. Editing processes between the two photographers varied. Le Gray physically pasting images together such as different skies and seas etc. Cornish using an up to date photoshop app to apply different areas of contrast, exposure levels, tonal balance etc. All these factors end up linking to what camera equipment was available within the era of time both photographers present their work.
