A-Level Coursework

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 60% of the total marks and the remainder 40% accounts for the External Set Assignment (Exam) in 2023. The Personal Study essay account for 12% of the total coursework marks. The last week before H-Term 6-10 Feb is a Mock Exam and will count as final DEADLINE

What is a Personal Study?

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.

Links to a previous essays: 

Olivia Mooney-Griffiths: In what way are family photographs extensions of our memories as well as our identities?

Sophie Marett: In what way have Robert Darch and Josef Sudek used their photography as a form of therapy? 

Eleanor Jones: In what way have Mary Ellen Mark and Laia Abril portrayed women’s mental and physical health? 

Emma Price: In what way have Jim Goldberg and Ryan McGinley represented youth in their work?

Lawrence Bouchard: What Constitutes a ‘Real’ Image?

Thomas Le Maistre: How do Robert Mapplethorpe and Karlheinz Weinberger portray ‘Lad Culture’ through the medium of portraiture?

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 of ‘islandness’

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 of ‘islandness’.

Up until now you have explored ‘islandness’ focusing on geological sites of special interest through MY ROCK project in class and produced three different outcomes; photo-collages (‘joiners’), 3D photo-sculpture and a photo-zine. All these outcomes are exploring a sense of place and storytelling 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 coursework marks and grades!

You can decide to continue to respond to or investigate the theme of ‘islandness’ in a similar or different way looking at Jersey’s geology, or take a fresh look at the theme and create a body of work thinking about MY JERSEY – 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.

For example, some of the subjects or issues you wish to explore within the theme of ‘islandness’, you may have explored previously in Yr 12 projects based around the theme of ‘heritage’, that included PORTRAITURE and IDENTITY and LANDSCAPE and ANTHROPOCENE. Or, you may wish to develop new ideas around COMMUNITY and FAMILY. It may be useful for you to revisit some of the projects you have already covered in your coursework, so far (see below).

Dec 2021- Jan 2022 Portrait and Identity

ANTHROPOCENE – Mock exam

Landscape Photo Assignment 2 Due date Fri 25th MArch

ROMANTICISM & RURAL LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

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.

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.

Narrative and Photography

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 Thurs 5 Jan 2023.

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 27 Jan 2023

MOCK EXAM: 6 – 10 Feb 2023. 3 days controlled test (15 hours)
Groups: 13C: MON 6 – WED 8 FEB
13D: WED 8 – FRI 10 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 there is potential opportunity that we will be making a collective newspaper based on the theme of ‘islandness’.
DEADLINE: 24 March 2023

Week 9: 9 – 13 Nov
Developing Personal Study
Review and Reflect

Lesson task Wed: Personal Investigation
Choose one final project from past students.

INSPIRATIONS: PAST PERSONAL STUDIES

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 Thurs: 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 FRI: Review and Reflect
complete the following blogpost

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 all the coursework (Personal Investigation) that you have produced write an overview of what you learned so far (both as Yr 12 and Yr 13 student) and publish on the blog.

1. Describe which themes (heritage, anthropocene, geology,) 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.

Week 10: 14 – 20 Nov
Introduction to Personal Study
Explore theme of ‘islandness’
complete the following blogposts

STARTING POINTS > IDEAS > INTERPRETATIONS > INSPIRATIONS

LESSON Mon: Sean Dettmann, director or JICAS (Jersey International Centre for Advanced Studies) will come to Hautlieu and present how Island Studies are central to JICAS and its students postgraduate studies.

‘islandness’

‘island’ – a piece of land completely surrounded by water

Before we continue, let’s consider more closely what the concept of islandness is. As ontology is concerned with the nature of being, islandness could be defined, or described as:

The property of being or belonging to an island, especially insofar as it affects society and culture.

Or put more simply: A focus on islands and island communities.

Read this text: What is islandness for a broader definition.

If we consider this more carefully, we think of islandness within the context of:

Island characteristics

A sense of place and identity

Isolation vs connectedness

Insularity – (geographical, cultural, political, social and economic constraints)

RESEARCH & RESPOND – Group work

TASK: In small groups of 2-3 students discuss the concept around ‘islandness‘ and produce a mindmap and moodboard. Take a photograph of your findings and publish on the blog.

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.

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 Tue-Fri: In groups of two produce a poster that reflects on one of the key areas listed above.

• Research the topic thoroughly using resources listed on the Island Identity website
• Watch Island Identity Film
• Read report: What does Jersey Mean to You?
• Consider these four questions in Island Identity Survey

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 geological sites of special interest and its 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, Current housing crisis and cost of living, Environmental protection and sustainable living, Future issues for young people of Jersey???

Illustrate it with images where appropriate and include hyperlinks to resources and any references that may help you to develop your ideas further.

The brief is to show JERSEY through your eyes as students of photography. Reviewing your past projects, moodboard and mindmap write 250-500 words where you consider the following:

Wed 16 Nov: Homework Task
Jersey – a Crown Dependency
Deadline: Wed 23 Nov

RESEARCH > Explore why Jersey is a Crown Dependency. Produce a blog post with text and images (incl video links) that illustrates your understanding of Jersey constitutional relationship with the UK.

The Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown dependency, which means that it is not part of the UK but is rather a self-governing possession of the British Crown. However, the UK Government is constitutionally responsible for its defense and international representation.

Resources:
Jersey’s History (GoJ)
Crown Dependencies – Royal Family
Visit Jersey (jersey.com)
The World Factbook – Jersey
Jersey Finance – Our History
Jersey Heritage – TV
La Société Jersiaise website
The National Trust for Jersey website
Channel Islands Occupation Society website
Events on Jersey.com website

RESPOND > Photo-assignment: Binary opposites
TASK: Choose one binary opposite below that is linked with the theme of ‘islandness’ and Jersey’s constitutional relationship with the UK and produce a set of 3 images that illustrates each word.

• inwards vs outward
• negative vs positive
• closure vs openness
• isolation vs connectedness
• autonomy vs dependence

THEORY > BINARY OPPOSITES

definitions:
Binary opposites: a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.

Theory of binaries. According to French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, meaning is often defined in terms of binary oppositions, where “one of the two terms governs the other.”. An example would be the white/ black binary opposition in the United States, the African American is defined as a devalued other. An example of a binary opposition is the male-female dichotomy, where male is the dominant gender and women are subservient (patriarchy).

Patriarchy: a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it, both within family, workplace and government.

Synonym: a synonym is a word that means the same or nearly the same thing as another word

Antonym: a word of opposite meaning. The usual antonym of good is bad.

Binary opposition & narrative: Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist who developed the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. Levi Strauss theory on binary opposition talks about how narrative can be split into opposites, such as Good and Evil, Man and Woman, Rich and Poor, etc. Due to having these opposites, when together it creates the conflict in the narrative story and this becomes the central climax. Read more here.

Explore more about narrative here

Narrative and Photography

Week 11-12: 21 Nov – 6 Dec
PERSONAL STUDY: Statement of Intent and Artists references
HOMEWORK: Contextual Studies: Conversations on Photography. Deadline Wed 30 Nov
complete the following blogposts

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 how you interpret the theme of ‘islandness’, subject-matter, topic or issue you wish to explore, artists references/ inspirations and final outcome – photobook or film.

You may wish to consider:

• What makes Jersey special to you?
• What are the distinct qualities of island life?
• A sense of place and identity
• Explore the notion of the ‘Jersey way’ or ‘Jersey-ness’.

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.

Plan your first photo-shoot as a response to initial ideas. Must be published on the blog by Mon 5 Dec.

There are three photographic genres that you could apply to developing ideas and planning photoshoots, they are:

LANDSCAPE > PLACE > GEOGRAPHY > ENVIRONMENT > GEOLOGY
– familiar vs unfamiliar, ordinary vs extra-ordinary, vernacular vs spectacular
PORTRAIT > PEOPLE > IDENTITY > CULTURE > COMMUNITY
– individual vs collective
STILL-LIFE > OBJECT > HISTORY > MEMORY > FAMILY
– private vs public

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 23 Nov: CONTEXTUAL STUDIES 1
Conversations on Photography: As a case study read one interview, identity 3 quotes and apply theory to a analysis of one image.

Go to Blogpost here for more details

PRACTICE > RESPONSES

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?

Week 13: 5 – 11 Dec
Theory & Practice: Art Movements & Isms
HOMEWORK: Photographic response
Deadline Wed 14 Dec
complete the following blogposts

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.

THEORY > Art Movements & Isms

For this task you need to select an art movement and ism that is relevant to your Personal Study.

• Pictorialism
• Realism / Straight Photography
• Modernism
• Post-modernism

Follow these instructions:

1. Start by watching the films below, study PPT presentations and read articles here which will provide you with an overview.

2. Copy the text from the sheet here and produce a blog post with the information needed for each art movement as basic knowledge from which to develop your study further.

How Did Pictorialism Shape Photography and Photographers ?

Realism vs Pictorialism: A Civil War in Photography History

In A-level Media Studies postmodernism is a key part of the knowledge and understanding. For a more in-depth study and analysis use the resources here

POSTMODERNISM | 2023 Media Blog (hautlieucreative.co.uk)

Movements: Straight Photography

Modernism and Postmodernism History

Modernism – TATE Gallery

Postmodernism – TATE Gallery

Postmodern Art

3. Choose one of the art movements/ isms relevant to your Personal Study and write 500 words which would form the basis of paragraph 1 in your essay on Historical/ theoretical context and publish on blog.

4. Use information you gathered in Art Movements & Isms sheet as a starting point for your paragraph.

5. Select two literary sources from above and identify relevant quotes (at least two) that you can incorporate into your paragraph.

6. Your paragraph must include visual examples of artists making work within that art movement that is relevant to your Personal Study.

7. You may wish to draw upon your knowledge and understanding from your studies around the origin of photography in Yr 12. See link here

History of Photography

Wed 7 Dec: Homework Task
Produce a photographic response to Art Movement/ Isms
Deadline: Wed 14 Dec

Make a creative response to your research and analysis of an art movement/ ism that is relevant to your personal study project. This could be a new photo-shoot or re-working images/ material already made. Aim to produce at least 3 different creative outcomes and produce a blog post with your responses and an evaluation.

Week 14 + XMAS: 12 Dec – 5 Jan
Essay: Academic study skills
Book/Film: Plan 3 photoshoots for Xmas

ESSAY

Mon: Literary sources:

• 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
• Here is a list of  possible questions to investigate that may help you.

Wed: 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 where appropriate. 
• 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

BOOK/ FILM

Thurs: Plan Photo-shoots

Produce a blog post with a detailed plan of at least 3-4 photoshoots that you intend on doing in response to your Personal Study in the next 3-4 weeks – including Christmas break. Follow these instructions: what, why, how, when, where?

Fri: Work-in-Progress

Prepare a 2-3 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.

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 – 16: 5 – 15 Jan
Essay: Introduction and Paragraph 1
Book/ Film: Edit photoshoots and evaluate

ESSAY

Thur 5 Jan: 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 where appropriate. 
• 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

Essay Introduction
In this lesson you will write a 45 mins draft essay introduction following these steps:

1. Open a new Word document > SAVE AS: Essay draft
2. Copy essay question into Essay title: Hypothesis > if you don’t have one yet, make one!
3. Copy your essay introduction (from Essay Plan) which will give you a framework to build upon and also copy your Statement of Intent.
4. Identify 2 quotes from sources identified in an earlier task using Harvard System of Referencing.
5. 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.
6. Add sources to Bibliograpphy > if by now you don’t have any sources, use  S. Sontag. On Photography Ch1
7. Begin to write a paragraph (250-500 words) answering the following questions below.
8. 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?

WED 11 JAN: CONTEXTUAL STUDIES 2
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.

Go to Blogpost here for more details

BOOK/ FILM

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?

Week 17: 16 – 22 Jan
Essay: Write Paragraph 2 & 3
Book/ Film: 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

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?

INSPIRATIONS / IDEAS / INTERPRETATIONS

My London: through the eyes of Liz Johnson Artur, Kalpesh Lathigra and Sirui Ma. Themes of family, discovery and the natural world inform the work of these three contemporary photographers.

You can also look for contemporary photographers here on LENSCULTURE or visit the photo-agency MAGNUM Another good source for conversations with artists are on A Small Voice, which are conversations with contemporary photographers. You may not be able to listen to the podcasts in school due to network security, but at home or outside of school is fine.

PORTRAIT > PEOPLE > IDENTITY > CULTURE > COMMUNITY

Max Miechowski: A Big Fat Sky

The Holderness coastline in north-east England is Europe’s fastest-eroding coastline, with nearly two metres of land lost to the cold waters of the North Sea each year. The shoreline is made up of soft clay, unlike the durable rock in other parts of the country, and it breaks away much easier. Along with the earth itself, homes, shops and all manner of man-made structures tumble down the steep cliffs as rising sea levels eat away at their base. Documentary photographer Max Miechowski was born in Lincolnshire, not far from these disappearing sites. He spent many of his childhood holidays in seaside resorts along this stretch of land, and remembers them fondly. So much so that in 2019 they became the focus of his series A Big Fat Sky – a body of work that Miechowski hoped would present England’s east coast sincerely, away from the tongue-in-cheek depictions we have grown accustomed to through the work of some contemporary British photographers. “It’s not just people drinking cups of tea, covered in ice cream on the beach,” he says. “There is something else happening there, and I wanted to paint a slightly dreamier, more sensitive picture of that landscape.”

While making the work, Miechowski became increasingly aware of the effects that the rapid coastal erosion was having on seaside towns. He decided to return to them at a later date. When the pandemic hit at the beginning of 2020, he figured it was the ideal moment to do just that. Travelling by car, Miechowski ventured to the spots along the coast that were most at risk of disappearing, from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent all the way up to Yorkshire’s Spurn Point, exploring and shooting in the day, sleeping in his car by night. The resulting body of work is Land Loss. “It was a case of visiting those places and starting to get an understanding of what they look like, what they feel like, and who lives there,” he says. “But I was also thinking about how I might respond to them.”

Read more here.

Kingsley Ifill and Danny Fox: Holy Island

“The objective of these landscapes was not only to show what Britain looked like at this particular time, but also to convey how it felt to drive through it, and to stand by while it moved around you”

Danny Fox

Kingsley Ifill and Danny Fox met around 10 years ago on the London art scene. The photographer and painter quickly became friends, but their artistic collaboration didn’t begin until much later. In 2020, they released the first of their trilogy of books, Haze: a series of 92 Polaroids made during the Covid-19 lockdown in Fox’s makeshift speakeasy, and now studio, in Cornwall. Later that year, they published a book of nude portraits, which were made in 2019 in LA. Their latest collaboration, Holy Island, marks a departure. While the first two books were published under Ifill’s own imprint, Tarmac Books, Holy Island is released by Loose Joints. More significantly, its subject matter moves away from figurative studies and into the landscape. 

In December 2021, Ifill and Fox set out on an eight-day road trip around the British Isles. “We wanted to do something that was completely different,” says Ifill. “Grey skies and muddy fields in English winter were as far removed as it could be from, you know, pretty people in the Hollywood Hills.” Neither artist had a particular interest in landscape images. “I’ve always liked landscape painting as a genre,” says Fox, “but never felt I had anything to contribute to it before. It’s more difficult to make a landscape ‘your own’.” But in this mutually unfamiliar territory, the photographer and painter found a new subject matter. 

Read more here.

Close Enough: New Perspectives from 12 Women Photographers of Magnum

Twelve women photographers, both current and former Magnum members, meditate on process in an expansive exhibition at the International Center of Photography.

It’s not about the fetishisation of a subject. But about the motivations and intentions of bearing witness to what’s happening in our world. Each project contributes to a picture of the possibilities of interacting with others and having photographic exchanges. It’s timely. I hope it’s inspiring too.”

Charlotte Cotton, Close Enough’s curator

Exploring the possibilities of photography has been at Magnum’s heart since its inception. Founded in 1947 in the shadow of World War Two, the agency marked the alliance of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour, bound by their curiosity in photography and the world. Storytelling was central from the beginning. The show’s title playfully rifts off Capa’s famous saying: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.“ The quote evokes the idea of an intrepid documentarian, an image to which Magnum is bound despite not being entirely accurate then or now. “If you think about the photographic spectrum within Magnum, it’s always surprising that it’s still dominated by Robert Capa on one end, with frontline, photojournalistic work, and Cartier-Bresson on the other, with more formal concerns expressed in street photography,“ says Meiselas. “But, between those two, my male and female colleagues take more diverse approaches with their photography.“

Today’s collective remains an amorphous entity with a greatly expanded membership for whom Capa’s charge will mean many things. In the show’s context, one might interpret ‘close enough’ as remaining an ethos of sorts. But one with different connotations: relating to an intangible photographer-subject relationship, as opposed to the physical proximity of the camera. A sense of relationality snakes through the exhibition present within each project. It also emerges between the photographers themselves: three generations of women who belong, or have belonged, to the collective. As Meiselas reflects, “What has interested me as the bridge between the earlier culture of women in Magnum – Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Marilyn Silverstone, Martine Franck, and myself – and this new generation, is how they see the world differently. It’s not to say that there aren’t men within Magnum and outside our community who develop extended relationships like these. The show was not conceived to exclude men, but rather to be inclusive of women and allow them to reveal the kinds of connections that they have in their work as they interface in dialogue with each other.“

Meiselas is joined by Olivia Arthur, Myriam Boulos, Sabiha Çimen, Cristina de Middel, Bieke Depoorter, Carolyn Drake, Nanna Heitmann, Hannah Price, Lua Ribeira, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Newsha Tavakolian. It would be impossible to do justice to the individual projects here, but to learn more from several of the participating artists, listen to discussions, co-produced by Magnum and British Journal of Photography, here.

Har Shaam Shaheen Bagh: One Hundred Days of Resistance

“The tent itself was the central womb. It was constantly shape-shifting, swelling to accommodate more protesters”

Har Shaam Shaheen Bagh: One Hundred Days of Resistance, is an urgent and necessary record that collates photographs, drawings, maps, letters, songs and other material from the protest site. The book is testimony to the quiet resilience and tender songs of freedom of the women of Shaheen Bagh.

Har Shaam Shaheen Bagh is a book that depicts the life and death of a protest site. Within its pages, Indian photographer Prarthna Singh constellates images, portraits, maps, children’s drawings, songs, poems, letters and other memorabilia born from the Shaheen Bagh movement. Self-published earlier this year, the book is a record of radical female resistance, an attempt to validate its significance and resist its active erasure. 

On 15 December 2019, a small group of Muslim women from the Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood started a bonfire and a sit-in protest on one of Dehli’s busiest highways. They were responding to a brutal act of police violence at Jamia Millia Islamia university where students were demonstrating against two government bills designed to strip the Indian constitution of its promise of religious equity, forcing Muslims to leave or be internally displaced. While injured students were rushed to medical facilities, and others were barricaded in their classrooms, their mothers and grandmothers took to the streets.

Read more here.

Juan Brenner: Genesis

In the Guatemalan Highlands, a new generation is coming of age, adopting the culture of global youth for an aesthetic that blends tradition and contemporary trends. After a turbulent time away, Brennerreturned to his homeland looking for personal peace and, with his latest project, documents a turning point in the country’s troubled history.

Juan Brenner’s Genesis is a project that thrives in the space in between. It constellates survival and loss, war and peace, beauty and brutality, tradition and modernity to describe a new era in the Guatemalan Highlands. We feel it most pronounced in how young Guatemalans are reimagining the aesthetic codes of their country. Inspired by social media and the cultural force of reggaeton, they adorn themselves in streetwear, gold chains, grills, acrylic nails and colourful hair, recontextualised with traditional indigenous garments. These creative instincts signal more than a redefinition of beauty and identity; they embody a new, defiant set of aspirations for living. While many elders perceive this as a threat, Brenner believes it is the dawn of a critical new era.

“I really identify with the younger generations in Guatemala right now,“ says Brenner. “They are creating their own story. The Highlands’ youth are the first generation to effectively establish an intelligible dialogue with their contemporaries worldwide. There is a [new] vitality, which springs from the territory itself, coupled with the splendour that always belonged to this group. It’s really beautiful what’s happening, but I’m one of the few people in the country who feels that way. People are terrified about losing cultural rituals because the kids are exposed to new influences. Documenting that is one of the main pillars of Genesis.“

Read more here.

Laurence Philomene: Puberty

“Colour is like a different language that we all understand. Certain colours have certain codes in our society. At the same time, colours can also have a very intuitive feel to them… a certain energy. I like to use that to communicate what I’m feeling”

In their debut book ‘Puberty’, Laurence Philomene journals two years of gender transition. Documenting a ‘second adolescence’, the Montreal artist’s immersive book is intimate and dynamic in equal measure

Leafing through the pages of Puberty by Laurence Philomene is like reading a teenage diary. Bound in a softcover debossed with yellow cursive and gold stars, its pages are filled with colour and scrawled with handwritten notes. The book follows two years of a transition in which Philomene, who is non-binary, undergoes hormonal replacement therapy (HRT). 

Anchored by a series of self-portraits organised chronologically, the project reveals intimate details about Philomene’s lived experience as a chronically ill transgender person. We meet their cat Vashti, and their best-friends Nina, Lucky and Rochelle; we learn about their nighttime rituals and their favourite neighbourhood willow tree. But reading this ‘journal’, as such, doesn’t feel voyeuristic or intrusive. Philomene has invited us into this space. On the first page of the book, decorated with multi-coloured sparkles, they write: “This story is my offering to you. I am so grateful for your love and energy while reading it. I hope it ignites a light of possibility in your heart.” And so it begins. 

As a young photographer, Philomene was “obsessed” with artists like Wolfgang Tillmans and Tim Walker, and magazines like Love Magazine, Pop Magazine, Dazed, and I-D. Ten years later, their own work is featured in the very titles they idolised, including Dazed and i-D, but also mainstream publications like The New Yorker, Vogue Italia, and CNN

Read more here

Yelena Yemchuk: Odesa

Yelena Yemchuk: Odessa

“Now, when I look at it, of course, I’m like, ‘Where the hell is this guy right now?’, ‘Where is this girl?’ And my heart is breaking for where they could be”

Yelena Yemchuk

Following the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, Yemchuk spent five years travelling to Odesa to document young people volunteering to join the army. Her upcoming photobook is a reminder of the love and lives of the young Ukrainian people now faced with war

“People have said that in my work, I tend to romanticise my country,” says Yelena Yemchuk. “When you look at the photographs that I take in Ukraine… everything has a little halo of beauty around it. Even if it’s just a dirty jacket lying on the ground with a cigarette stubbed out on it.” 

Yemchuk was born and raised in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which at the time of writing is facing the full force of Vladimir Putin’s hostile army. The photographer is no stranger to the collateral damage of dictatorships. At the age of 11, during the later years of Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year rule of the Soviet Union, Yemchuk’s parents emigrated to the United States, leaving behind everything and everyone they knew. 

After graduating from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, Yemchuk began translating her relationship with Ukraine to photography, a process that became more focused during her frequent trips back. Yemchuk first visited Odesa in 2003, and immediately felt a connection with the city and its inhabitants. “That was when I found my language,” she says. “We were on the beach and I had three or four rolls of film in my pocket. Five minutes later, I was running back to get the rest of my film. It was like one of those amazing dreams where everywhere you look there’s a photograph, everywhere you look there’s something going on, something magical happening.” 

Ten years would pass before Yemchuk visited again, in 2013. “It felt like Odesa [was] its own floating dreamland… I needed to capture it right there and then,” she says. “I didn’t know what I wanted to shoot, I was just shooting and hanging out and experiencing the city.”

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

add video on identity politics from post last year…

Here are some blog posts from a couple of years 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.

LOVE & REBELLION, part 3: ART & activism

Love & Rebellion, part 1: RACISM & COLONIALISM

Love & Rebellion, part 1: RACISM & COLONIALISM

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

LANDSCAPE > PLACE > GEOGRAPHY > ENVIRONMENT > GEOLOGY

Vanessa Winship
Snow – photobook
The Season exhibition

Reflections on absence, agency, and change weave through Winship’s quiet, observational images

“I seem to be asked to go to places in the winter,” says Vanessa Winship, reflecting on the works collected in her new exhibition, The Season, currently on view at Huxley-Parlour, and in her new book, Snow. The images, which span seven winters and five countries, are delicate, muted: frost clinging to gathered bracken, the quivering paleness of ice at a lake’s edge. They are the product of seven years of creation — a period encompassing international political upheaval, increasing climate disaster, and two years of a pandemic.

Winship’s vision of winter, however, is not harsh or unforgiving. Speaking to me on Zoom, she invokes Breughel’s winter scenes: the benign hush of his skies, ice-skating figures scattered underneath. “Winter isn’t negative,” she says. “We have to have winter. We have to have dormancy. We have to tighten our belts.”

The body of work that became Snow began as a commission. A magazine sent Winship to Ohio, US, to search for the Amish. “I didn’t feel that I got what the magazine needed,” she says. “I decided to return — in the same weather conditions, like a detective, to see if I could figure out what was disconcerting me,” she remembers. “I went back to Ohio alone, attempting to somehow comprehend this feeling I had about the landscape.”

Read more here.

Mimi Plumb: The Golden City

“For a lot of us, the 1980s were a very dark period in American history. There was not a lot of optimism. Being able to comment on the world with photography is what interested me.” 
Mimi Plumb

Mimi Plumb unearths the darker side of the Golden City, San Francisco. After living in the city since the 80s, Plumb’s new book gathers snapshots of walks around the neighbourhood as she grappled with the unsettling disillusionment and shortcomings of the social landscape

I am sitting in the light-flooded living room of Mimi Plumb’s second-storey flat in Berkeley, melting into a cosy, plush chair. Plumb sits nearby on the couch. She is telling me about her first job, working for the department of housing, after receiving her bachelor’s degree from the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in 1976. For three years, she photographed farm workers and Native American housing throughout California; an experience that proved formative. “What I was seeing felt like Band-Aids, and that politicised me,” she explains. “I started to think, ‘How can we address these kinds of problems?’” 

These seeds of social concern informed her practice and conversations when she returned to SFAI for her MFA in the mid-1980s. Plumb recalls that, “for serious discussions about the meaning of my work, its overriding content, my concerns, fears and anxiety about what I saw in the world, I spoke with Larry Sultan. We often talked about what is to be done. Do images make a change? Can images make a change?” She continues: “For a lot of us, the 1980s were a very dark period in American history. There was not a lot of optimism. Being able to comment on the world with photography is what interested me.” 

Many of these pictures also evoke the work in Henry Wessel’s Incidents (2013), moments drawn from everyday life that subtly unsettle as one closely surveys the scenes. Plumb’s distinctive aesthetic approach and framing of the world further imbue her subjects with a psychological intensity, together creating a disquieting tension that compels sustained, curious looking. Even the most innocuous scenes – a construction site, a woman laying outside on a blanket, a teenager lost in thought on a stool – are rendered uncanny through Plumb’s lens. Her striking, nighttime portraits in The Golden City, where fill flash is regularly used to dramatic, eerie effect, most acutely demonstrate this surrealism.

Stephen Gill: Talking to Ants

The photographs in this series were made in East London between 2009 and 2013. They feature objects and creatures that I sourced from the local surroundings and placed into the body of my camera.

I hoped through this method to encourage the spirit of the place to clamber aboard the images and be encapsulated in the film emulsion, like objects embedded in amber. My aim was to evoke the feeling of the area at the same time as describing its appearance as the subject was both in front and behind the camera lens at the same moment.

I like to think of these photographs as in-camera photograms in which conflict or harmony has been randomly formed in the final image depending on where the objects landed.

CLIMATE CHANGE > ANTHROPOCENE

Diane Burko: Read a review Visualizing Climate Change through Abstract Expressionism of Burko new exhibition Seeing Climate Change. Her work is compared with Abstract Expressionistic painters such as Barnett Newman and Clifford Still and sublime paintings by J.M.W. Turner.

Diane Burko’s images of melting glaciers and dying coral reefs are not just pictorially impressive; they have strong emotional impact. (Carter Ratcliffe)

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?

For comparison, see work by photographers; Stephane Couturier and his series Melting Point or Urban Archaeology

Other photographers exploring ANTHROPOCENE

Edward Burtynsky (Oil, Quarries, Water, Mines, Anthropocene), Mitch Epstein (American Power), Vera Lutter (Body of Work), Michael Wolff (Architecture of Density), Philippe Chancel (Fukushima), Robert Adams (Turning Back), Edgar Martins (The Diminishing Present), Gideon Mendel (Drowning World, Scorched Surfaces), Yao Lu (New Mountain and Water), Emily Allchurch (Jersey born artist based in London)

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.

ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene…more ideas

Where in Jersey is it anthropogenic?

• 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

1. 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”
2. 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”
3. 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

The COP27 summit in Egypt will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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. 

Other Stakeholders in Jersey who promotes a greener and sustainable future includes. National Trust for Jersey, Jersey Heritage and Societe Jersiaise where you visited the Photographic Archive – it may be useful for you to research ‘old’ photos of Jersey on their online catalogue.

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.

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.Diana Markosian: Inventing my Father

FAMILY

Approaches to Family photography

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.

Laura El-Tantawy: In The Shadow of Pyramids

In her first book, Eqyptian born, London based photographer, Laura El-Tantawy explore the uprising and protests in her homeland of Egypt.

Diana Markosian: Inventing my Father

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. 

I still do.

Diana Markosian Santa Barbara

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.

Yury Toroptsov: Deleted Scene

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: Venetian Suite

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

This books 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.

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.

FILMMAKERS / CINEMA

Have a look at the many references to video art, avantgarde cinema and experimental filmmaking listed in these blogposts below

LOVE & REBELLION, part 3: ART & activism

LOVE & REBELLION, part 3: ART & activism

Narrative and Photography

Narrative and Photography

MON: Academic Sources

Week 16: 9 – 15 Jan
Essay writing: Academic study skills
Contextual Study: Decoding Photography

EXTRA

In Pulp Fiction, there are some elements of binary opposition

Vincent and Jules

Ringo and Yolanda

Butch and Marcellus

Levi Strauss – Narrative Theory, Binary Oppositions

Levi Strauss put forward the theory that all narratives contain binary oppositions. 
The way we understands words and ideas are not certainly because of their meaning but due to the existence of their opposites.
This can be linked to out narrative with casting of characters and the chosen personalities of the protagonist and antagonist. 
As the theme of insanity is often used in psychological thriller the binary oppositions I have considered are mind vs body and reality vs fantasy. As the narrative is updated Levi Strauss’ theory will be taken more into consideration to enable us to identify many more oppositions.

The Lion King – Good V Bad
 to create anticipation as the viewer wants good to win. (Protagonist V Antagonist)

Humans V Aliens –                                                                                      Reality V Fantasy allows the viewer to switch                                     between worlds through graphics presenting high                             production values.

Week 12: 28 Nov – 4 Dec
Personal Study:
complete the following blogposts

1. STATEMENT OF INTENT > The brief is to show Jersey through your eyes as students of photography. Write 250-500 words where you consider the following:

• Consider what makes Jersey special to you?
• What are the distinct qualities of island life?
• Explore the notion of the ‘Jersey way’ or ‘Jersey-ness’.

Illustrate it with images where appropriate and include hyperlinks to resources and any references that may help you to develop your ideas further.

There are three photographic genres that you could apply to developing ideas and planning photoshoots, they are:

LANDSCAPE > PLACE > GEOGRAPHY > ENVIRONMENT > GEOLOGY
– familiar vs unfamiliar ordinary vs extra-ordinary vernacular vs spectacular
PORTRAIT > PEOPLE > IDENTITY > CULTURE > COMMUNITY
– individual vs collective
STILL-LIFE > OBJECT > HISTORY > MEMORY > FAMILY
– personal/private vs public
SOCIETY > ANTHROPOLOGY > CULTURE.

The challenge/ task/ brief/ assignment is to show Jersey through your eyes as students of photography.

• Consider what makes Jersey special to you?
• What are the distinct qualities of island life?
• Explore the notion of the ‘Jersey way’ or ‘Jersey-ness’.

Identity involves searching your soul, engaging with difficult issues, and asking not only who we are, but how others see us and what a vision for the future might look like. Capture a variety of perspectives – perspectives that are complex, multiple, overlapping, and at times contradictory. Think about what aspects of Jersey you value, or things which you don’t. Reflect on ‘how you see you self’ and ‘how others see you’?

Engage with
Be thought-provoking and reflective

Autobiographical – based on real or lived experiences of your life. The images you produce could be a form of self-expression and personal style/ personality through the emphasis on fashion and how you dress. Could be an insight into your sense of self, character and personality. Family history, relationships and friendship groups

Photo assignments linked to theory into practice (every two weeks, read + record
1. Make a set of 3 positive images of Jersey
2. Produce an image that poses a question
3. Record aspects of what you consider unique to the island
4. How to photograph your soul?

Produce a series of photographs that:
‘confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel’ (David Campany from On Photographs – link to reading his book + set an essay

Assignment: Students design their own set of rules/ manifesto to follow (class activity)

personal and cultural signifiers
signs and symbolism > semiotics (see my text in I & C newspaper)


binary opposites:
individuality vs togetherness
nature vs culture
male vs female
black vs white

Approaches:
Documentary > factual > real > observational
Staged > fictional > imagined > constructed

Theory: photographic gaze

boundaries as a sub-theme for a photography project

Artists References: MY LONDON – linked to Photo London (find

EXTRA

In context of Jersey our new project, MY JERSEY asks:

What are the distinct qualities, characteristics and identities of living on an island like Jersey?

TASK: Write 250-500 words where you try and answer that question. Illustrate it with images where appropriate and include hyperlinks to resources and any references that may help you to develop your ideas further.

binaries: Resilience, insular (insularity), closure, openness, isolation, connectedness, boundaries, tensions, ambiguities, barriers. borders, integration, ecosystems, traditions, autonomy, dependence, inward-looking, outward-looking,

Week 10: 15 – 21 Nov
Introduction to Personal Study
Island Identity

Contextual Research 1: Crown Dependency

Contextual Research 2: Island Identity

Week 11: 22 – 28 Nov
Developing Personal Study
Review and Reflect

Lesson task MON: Personal Investigation
Choose one final project from past students.

INSPIRATIONS: PAST PERSONAL STUDIES

The Institute of Island Studies is a research and public policy institute based at the University of Prince Edward Island focusing on the culture, environment, and economy of small islands around the world, with an emphasis on Prince Edward Island. LEARN MORE

What is islandness?

from: What is islandness? – Islands on the Edge: Exploring Islandness and Development in Four Austral (1library.net)

Islandness is a term which I will discuss here in its theoretical context; I will draw on empirical support from the case islands when I consider islandness further in chapter nine. However, I should note that it has only been through an understanding of the other research themes and of the case islands that I have been able to comprehend the nuances of the term ‘islandness’. Islandness, much like the term island, is a contested concept and one that is variously defined in nissological literature; there is “much scope for unpacking what is meant by islandness” (Baldacchino, 2004: 272). Consulting the dictionary, I note that a quality or condition is denoted by the suffix -ness, and so islandness broadly refers to island qualities, which are distinguishable from those of continents. At it broadest level, parallel to the definition of islands in relation to continents, islandness then relates to the distinctive characteristics of islands as compared to those of continents. But are islands really distinct from continents in the modern era? Péron (2004: 328-9) perceives increasing homogenisation of islands with mainlands, yet notes the survival of island distinctiveness:

I will explore distinct characteristics of islands, and of island identity, later in this chapter. The extent of isolation/connectedness of islands, or the permeability of their boundary, is a key debate in island studies (Hay, 2006) and an important component of islandness. After all, “Island studies is very much about the implications of permeable borders” (Baldacchino, 2007b: 5), and “tensions and ambiguities [such as isolation/contact] disclose the very stuff of ‘islandness’” (Warrington & Milne, 2007: 382). Islands are bounded systems but its boundaries are porous, open to both positive events and threats, such as over-development. Norberg-Schulz (1980: 13) considers that “the enclosing properties of a boundary are determined by its openings”; this can be applied to island boundaries which have tangible openings, or links to the outside world, such as airports and ferry terminals, and intangible openings such as trade and social exchanges with continental dwellers. Pitt (1980) points out the sharpness of boundaries and notes that boundaries do not only contain groups but permit all kinds of boundary crossings. For example, islanders may commute to work in cities and thereby diversify the island’s income base.

Consulting the dictionary, I note that a quality or condition is denoted by the suffix -ness, and so islandness broadly refers to island qualities, which are distinguishable from those of continents. At it broadest level, parallel to the definition of islands in relation to continents, islandness then relates to the distinctive characteristics of islands as compared to those of continents. But are islands really distinct from continents in the modern era? Péron (2004: 328-9) perceives increasing homogenisation of islands with mainlands, yet notes the survival of island distinctiveness:

All modern conveniences can be found, and the transport links with the mainland ‘close by’ are generally now more swift, easier and more comfortable; so much so that the distances seem to be reduced, as does the effect of the maritime barrier that has for so long cut off island dwellers from the rest of the world. And yet, if the inhabitants are to be believed, and if we listen as well as to the enthusiastic commentaries of regular visitors from the mainland, our conclusion might well be the same as that of commentators in the nineteenth century. A typical claim would be: ‘Here, things are different’. How does one explain the fact that this enduring distinctiveness of small islands is still so powerful and obvious that it easily confers an original identity to those who live there, emanate from there, or even just go there frequently?

Islandness is perched between the forces of closure (isolation) and openness (connectedness). Even as a transition zone or liminal space, the boundary is double-sided; it has an inward-looking aspect and an outward-looking one (Pitt, 1980).

Hence, I would like to define islandness as the dynamics of the natural boundary and the resulting island qualities, including elements geographical (for example, degree of separation from a mainland), political (often expressed through tensions between autonomy and dependence on a mainland jurisdiction) and social (such as islander identity and sense of place). While Meistersheim (1989, cited in Hache, 1998: 41) settles on several terms: ““insularity” is what belongs to the realm of geography and economics, and can be quantified, while “insularism” is all that is pertinent to politics, and “l’îléite” (“islandness”) is all that is related to the field of perception and the imaginary that surrounds islands and their societies”, I collapse these terms into components of islandness. Offshore islands have a degree of islandness, with greater islandness equating to more inward-looking and/or independent islanders and less islandness meaning greater integration with and/or dependence on a relevant mainland. Thus, islandness is an ambiguous concept:

islands and ‘islandness’ may best be understood in terms of a characteristic set of tensions and ambiguities, opportunities and constraints arising from the interplay of geography and history. Geography tends towards isolation: it permits or favours autarchy, distinctiveness, stability and evolution

Baldacchino (2007b: 15) uses the term islandness in place of insularity due to the latter’s “negative baggage30” and he describes islandness as “… an intervening variable that does not determine, but contours and conditions, physical and social events in distinct, and distinctly relevant, ways” (Baldacchino, 2004: 278). The Oxford English Dictionary defines insularity in terms of both its physical status and the impact of this physical status on its human inhabitants: “1. The state or condition of being an island, or of being surrounded by water; 2. The condition of living on an island, and of being thus cut off or isolated from other people, their ideas, customs, etc.; hence, narrowness of mind or feeling, contractedness of view.” Lehari (2003: 99) writes that “An island is a simile of a life style; an insular way of life or islandisation, however, is a social phenomenon and problem”. I consider islandness to be a more complex term than insularity, and one that provides greater scope for positive connotations. Insularity is commonly used as a negative term, representing closure and closed minds. The term islandness invokes both closure and openness, and hence can be used as a more positive term. However, Hache (1998: 47) uses the term insularity and asks “is geography really the driving factor when it comes to understanding islands and insularity?” In his view, insularity as a social phenomenon is the use, by people who live on an island or who belong to an island, of this very geographical characteristic in view of asserting a distinctive identity; of explaining their economic, social, cultural and political situation; and of justifying specific demands in those fields. Hache (1998) also considers that islands are subject to at least two factors that justify the perception of insularity as a hurdle: the permanent nature of the constraints imposed by their geographical condition (excluding those big and/or close enough to the mainland to have a fixed link, islands have to live permanently with the implications of their maritime isolation); and the fact that an island economy is always in a situation of extreme vulnerability since the implications of

Island characteristics

A key characterisation of islands has been as vulnerable places, environmentally, socially and economically (Adrianto & Matsuda, 2004; Briguglio, 1995; Kelman, various). Generalisations are difficult, but it can be argued that islands are subject to the impact of a common range of challenges associated with their island status (Royle, 2001). Islands have fewer resource options than continents. Compared to continents, islands have a high ratio of coastline length to area, and coasts are particularly sensitive environments. Islands are subjected to wave action from all sides and tend to have limited natural resources, such as hydrological catchments. Resource shortages, particularly water, can restrict development. Blomgren and Sorensen (1998: 321) discuss the role of geography in the economic problems of peripheral places:

The geographical criteria [sic] is important not only in terms of absolute distance [from economic centres], but also in terms of accessibility. Hence, less accessible regions such as islands and mountainous areas are more prone to experiencing economic underdevelopment. This relationship between insularity and economic development has been termed ‘the small island syndrome of underdevelopment’, indicating further that size is inversely related to the seriousness of the development problem.

Small islands typically have a narrow economic base and diseconomies of scale mean higher per capita costs to provide basic infrastructure and services. The water barrier raises transportation costs which impacts across island economies. Transport constraints affect a range of economic and social issues, including tourism and access to health care (Baldacchino, 2004). Small populations also make islands more demographically volatile – for example, youth out-migration – with knock-on effects. The loss of a small

number of young families could result in the closure of an island’s only school, while an influx of retirees could put pressure on health services. Such limiting characteristics of small islands can restrict sustainable development options.

However, islands also have characteristics of resilience, which can be defined as “the ability of human societies and associated ecological systems of land and water to cope with, adapt to and shape change without losing options for future development” (UNESCO & Contributors, 2004, n.p.), and islanders can have advantages – such as greater pools of social capital – over continental dwellers in this regard. However, Baldacchino (2004c) argues that the expressions ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ are not useful and that nissologists should move away from using such terms. My four cases are all continental islands, which are typically described as less ‘vulnerable’ than oceanic islands as they are physically closer to mainlands (although jurisdictional issues can influence resilience more than physical environments). Considering the diversity of islands and their multitude of economic, environmental and social variables, I do not consider it worthwhile labelling islands as vulnerable or resilient. Rather, it is important to recognise the various constraints that may face individual islands and to address these in management strategies. It is also imperative to identify opportunities for sustainable development which arise from particular island characteristics and these may include strong community bonds and the means to limit introduction of pest species and control tourist numbers.

In addition to focusing on the characteristics of individual islands, it is useful to recognise that offshore islands may share features that are distinct from their mainlands. Unlike many oceanic islands, offshore islands tend not to be significantly different from their adjacent mainlands in regard to geology and species composition, as they were once joined to these larger landmasses.

Sense of place and identity

Gillis (2004) writes of the philosopher Montesqieu assigning a determining role to geography, arguing that it shapes human populations and as such there is something peculiar about islanders. Islandness relates to the consequences of the geographical description of a piece of land as an island: specifically the environmental, economic, social and political consequences of this demarcation:

The physical boundaries of islands create not only a bounded entity in which society is structured, but a recursive dynamic between physical boundaries and social and cultural characteristics. The cultural and social imperatives appear to bounce off the physical boundaries which then reflect back, amplify, and reinforce those features that determine the island’s identity (Billot, 2005: 394).

It is these social and cultural characteristics (the more intangible elements of islandness) that I wish to focus on – the effects of islands on people, particularly the identity of islanders and sense of place. Norberg-Schulz (1980) writes of the Roman concept genius

You can focus on the geography of the island as a place exploring its ancient and modern landscapes/ such as its geology of rocks and granite formations, or the build/ man-made environments of human interaction and habitation.

Key words:
Nostalgia, tourism, beaches

GEOGRAPHY > PLACE
rock, granite, bays, beaches,
nature, trees,

IDENTITY > PEOPLE

natural or human/ urban/

Zine – Sept > use same material + visit to SJ?
– include Flora studies / cyanotypes > Anna Atkins – British Algae
– workshop with Tom Pope (if he returns to Jersey for exhibition
– tea stains (Lewis Bush – new book: Rainbow’s Depravity)

Artists References
– AiR: Alexander Mourant > new project/ analogue processes/ performance (Claude Cahun + Clare Rae) how to engage with landscape (rocks)

External agencies:
JICAS – Sean Dettman
Geopark – Ralph Nicolls (geologist)
Luddite Press – workshop (mono printing?)

Theory / Contextual studies:
Photography & materiality: essay
Island Identity report
Prince Edward Island Journal
Photo pedagogy