My first independent photography project ever as I had not taken GCSE Photography. I decided to explore my personal heritage and looked at photographers Dryden Goodwin and Carolle Benitah as artist references for the project. My final images were pretty limited as I had not taken as many pictures as I would have liked, however I do still like the end result.
Anthropocene-
I took a lot more pictures for this project so had a lot more to work from, I experimented a lot more with my editing style and tried to make images that are unique. I especially liked my work from the Havre Des Pas shoot, as I feel like these had some of my best edits. I chose Yao Lu and David Thomas Smith as my artist references and I especially liked my work inspired by Smith, using the same editing style in work past the Anthropocene project.
My Rock-
I enjoyed this project a lot and continued with shoots both in and out of school with even more experimental edits. I looked at David Hockney’s joiners as inspiration during a shoot and do like how the end result looks so might look at doing again in a future project.
Overall I have really enjoyed being able to use Lightroom and Photoshop to edit my images and develop my own photographic style. I enjoy alternating between portrait, landscape and object images as I enjoy shooting each in different ways.
In order to get a better understanding of how I am meant to write my own personal study, I read through Shannon O’Donnell’s personal study ‘Shrinking Violet’, which aims to challenge the perceived role of women in a western society. As of now, I do not know what the theme of my personal study will be, so I may or may not consider this as a theme for when I do create my own personal study.
Does the essay address its hypothesis?
O’Donnell’s essay very clearly addresses their hypothesis, as they clearly mention, and link to, Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman’s work throughout, as well as linking them to the theme of gender politics and female stereotypes as outlined by the hypothesis.
Does it provide new knowledge and understanding?
The essay provides a large amount of context into feminism, its role and history, as well as Cahun and Sherman as artists and feminists, without swaying from the subject of the hypothesis.
Is the essay well structured with a sense of an introduction, paragraphs and a conclusion?
O’Donnell’s essay is very clearly structured, it has a clear introduction that explains the main points of her essay before they go into further detail, the paragraphs are clearly separated and informative and the conclusion offers the main point of the essay with links to the hypothesis.
A snippet from the clear conclusion at the end of the essay.
Use and flow of language, prose, punctuation, spelling.
The use of language and grammar in this essay is very clear and portrays O’Donnell’s points very clearly.
Use of specialist vocabulary relating to art and photography.
There is some usage of specialist vocabulary which O’Donnell uses in order to point out how the photograph/painting portrays women and/or gender stereotypes.
Analysis of artist’s oeuvre (body of work) and key work(s).
O’Donnell’s main images (from the photobook tied to the personal study essay) clearly link to the theme of the essay, and also matches the style of Cahun and Sherman’s work, suggesting they stuck close to the ideas presented in the essay.
An image of Claude Cahun’s analysed in the essay
Evidence of wider reading with reference to art history/ theory, political discourse and/or socio-economical context.
O’Donnell links her points to historical events and figures, such as the suffragettes, Claude Cahun’s activism during Jersey’s occupation, as well as the traditional perception of women’s role in society.
Use of direct quotes, summary or commentary from others to make an informed and critical argument.
O’Donnell clearly uses several quotes from both artists mentioned in the hypothesis, as well as from other appropriate persons, to strengthen her main points.
A quote taken from Claude Cahun used in O’Donnell’s essay
Use of referencing system (eg. Harvard) and a bibliography.
The essay does not include a bibliography (on the same document(s) as the essay is shown on), however it does include suitable footnoting.
The footnote on the first page
Use of illustrations with captions listing name of artist, title of work and year of production.
O’Donnell’s essay does include images portraying her point(s) and selected images from the artists chosen all with captions.
An image used by O’Donnell in the essay
Marking the Personal Study
In order to get a better understanding of how the mark scheme works and how to apply it to a body of work, I marked O’Donnell’s personal study.
One of the images included in O’Donnell’s photobook
After reading and reviewing O’Donnell’s personal study, I can safely say that the marks would be within the Level 6 range (16-18), as they can clearly communicate their point using specialist art/photography terminology that expresses complex ideas. O’Donnell’s response is clearly well thought out, personal and meaningful response. I would give it a 17/18 for the personal study
How does Jono Rotman and Danny Alexander use portraiture to represent different identities.
Does the essay address its hypothesis?
yes, the essay addresses its hypothesis by making a link between themselves, tattoos and identity. They highlight the prejudice towards them as well as the signifiers let off.
Does it provide new knowledge and understanding?
Yes, the person has researched the history of tattoos and the origins. This shows they have done their research giving them first of a all a broader understanding of what their project means but also a greater understanding of the importance.
Is the essay well structured with a sense of an introduction,paragraphs and a conclusion?
Yes, the introduction gives a clear explanation to what they will be discussing and also a strong reason to why they have chosen this topic. The paragraphs are spaced nicely, new paragraphs for each new thing they’re taking about. The conclusion is good as it is honest of the photographers work and also links back to the original statement.
Use and flow of language, prose, punctuation, spelling.
The essay contains high level vocabulary and correct punctuation and spelling.
Analysis of artist’s oeuvre (body of work) and key work(s).
They have included images, given strong analysis’s and even quotes the artists.
Evidence of wider reading with reference to art history/ theory, political discourse and/or socio-economical context.
Discusses history e.g. the history and symbols behind tattoos.
Use of direct quotes, summary or commentary from others to make an informed and critical argument.
quotes from the artist
Use of referencing system (eg. Harvard) and a bibliography.
they have included a bibliography on the final page
Use of illustrations with captions listing name of artist, title of work and year of production.
Yes they have referred to the name of the image and the artist.
This is the mind map which I have constructed of initial ideas which I can use to refer to when gathering ideas for photoshoots and photographers for my personal study. In my mind map, my ideas range from weather in the countryside and woodlands areas to photos being taken in town of different weather conditions and movement of people/Christmas lights. This is because I want to experiment with both ideas beforehand to help me decide on a main focus fort my personal study whether it be in town or the woodland/countryside areas. In my photoshoots, I want to consider focusing on different textures in trees, fungi, leaves, rocks, water, etc when in woodland areas because there is a range of different textures which can be found. Whereas when I am in town, I will focus on reflections in puddles/windows, mo9vement of people and experimenting with the bokeh effect on Christmas lights and other lights around town. I have referenced a range of photographers in my work who all have experienced with these topics within their work which I can use later on to reference when considering what to do for my photoshoots.
Mood board –
This is the mood board which I have created in response to my mind-map to showcase my ideas of what I want to achieve in the end for my personal study. I liked photos which experimented with different weather conditions in a variety of locations, amounts of people to create movement in the photos in different locations because I think that these factors can transform the composition of a photograph entirely as there is a shift in the focus of the subject in the photo. This mood board incorporates photos from the photos which I have briefly mentioned in my mind-map who I want to do a deeper analysis on of their work to decide who’s work I prefer more and want to use as inspiration for my own photoshoots, while also experimenting with different filters such as black and white, gloomy dim atmospheres which drain the colours in the photos or dark locations that are brought to life trough the colours being brightened in photoshop to create different hues on the walls and floors which is reflected in the rain.
For my personal study, I intend to explore youth culture in Jersey to show life on an Island as a young adult and how it impacts people differently – I want to document the hedonistic tendencies of teenage life through a set of images depicting youth at their highs and lows whether it be a group of people at a houseparty, or just one person in their room, i want to explore the feeling of euphoria and isolation that comes with growing up and capture it in my images. I am inspired by photographers of youth culture through the years, especially artists like Tobias Zielony or Gioia De Bruijin, who I wrote about in my previous blogpost, as their candid style images depict a very accurate, in-your-face idea of youth identity, which has inspired me to recreate within my own work.
WHY DOES IT MATTER TO YOU?
My chosen theme matters to me as i feel it is important to have representation of youth, especially on an Island like Jersey, and i want to give a raw and unfiltered document on teenage life through the eyes of myself and my friends. I feel the best way to tell a story and get the point across is by sticking to what you know best, and therefore I want to give an account of exactly what goes on around me.
HOW DO YOU WISH TO DEVELOP YOUR PROJECT?
I plan to develop on my project by interviewing my friends and getting their perspective on day-to-day life as a teenager in Jersey. I plan to lay out my images according to mood – lighting will play a key feature in my project, as growing up you feel a lot of emotion, and i want to depict that through the element of colour in my images. To further develop my project, once i have taken all my images i will create a layout inspired by photographers such as Nick Waplington or Dennis Olanzo, featuring grids and double-page spreads.
WHEN AND WHERE DO YOU INTEND TO BEGIN YOUR STUDY?
I intend to begin my study by visiting friends’ houses or attending houseparties and documenting the activity that goes on there. I will photograph according to setting and lighting, as i feel both play a vital part in creating narrative within an image – my first ‘photoshoot’ is completed, i started my study whilst on a car drive, taking candid images of my friends to document the journey we went on. I have planned my project in different stages depending on location – i will dedicate certain photoshoots to groups of people to depict the feeling of euphoria you get in places such as houseparties, and on the opposite end i will show feelings of isolation by photographing my friends in more desolate locations such as car parks or in their rooms.
WHAT MAKES JERSEY SPECIAL TO YOU?
Jersey is special to me as living on an Island, i feel there is both a heightened sense of togetherness and isolation – when around friends in busier places of Jersey e.g town, there is a chaotic and rushed atmosphere, however in quieter places e.g lanes forests or fields there is an overwhelming sense of peace, which is why i appreciate living on an Island, as in a big city you can never escape from the busy landscape, but in Jersey you can.
I think this project produced some good-quality images even though it was the first project we had to do alone as it was a homework task. I liked the freedom I got during this project as we were able to pick where and who were photographed, I also think that it allowed me to be more creative with my images and try and go out of my comfort zone with talking and photographing different people. This project really interested me as portraiture is one of my favourite photography styles.
Above are images from my portrait project which I found that I enjoyed as I like having a model that was able to move around I found that I was able to portray more emotions through portraits than in my other projects. I found that most portraits, when trying to get a dramatic look, are better in black and white rather than in colour. Furthermore, I liked experimenting with the different shadows that could be created by placing the lights at different angles around the studio.
My identity project, was the most interesting and my favourite project to work on, as I got to use a lot more of the editing and technology side of photography. For my final images above I used photoshop which helped me to experiment and expand my knowledge of the software and I think that my pictures came out really well. I enjoyed this project as I also got to learn and hear a lot more about my parents and extended family. Further, I really liked having and transforming old images into newer versions of themselves with some added features. For my personal study, I think I will take inspiration from the editing of my identity project and it was one of the main features that I liked working on during this time.
Islandness
La Hocq
Plemont
Stinky Bay
My islandness project, I believe was one of my strongest as I have become more comfortable with the camera and have developed my skills throughout year 12 and into year 13. I liked this project as i was able to visit different places around Jersey and I had the freedom to photograph what I liked instead of being as restricted. I found that I could have been more creative with some of my final images as I didn’t take enough photos and struggled on how to edit them. Overall I found that the final photos that I produced are aesthetic and make a good final product.
Below I have included a variety of examples of my weakest work since the start of year 12, this helped me as I got to look through all of my work since the start of year 12 and do a self assessment to discover which of my work I would not like to take inspiration from for my personal study which I will be starting soon.
Heritage Project
I would consider my heritage project to be my weakest class trip photoshoot. I think this was mostly because it was my first time using a camera outside of the class, along with being unfamiliar with the settings and how to change the settings of the camera, this photoshoot was mostly unsuccessful, with me only producing 4 final outcomes, and three of those being the same image edited in three different ways.
Despite enjoying this photoshoot, I don’t think I will be including the Island’s history in my personal study, as I think because I’m not as interested in this idea that my images would not be good enough to be put into my future photobook. This is important for to recognise as even if I’m not sure on what my final study will be about, I am aware of what I enjoy in photography and the fact that historical sights don’t interest me as much as developing sights, such as the incinerator. This project was by far not my worst but most of the images that turned out successful were all down to luck.
Romanticism- Rural Landscapes
This was a project in which we had to explore the theme of Romanticism, inspired by Ansel Adams. I thought that this project was actually quite interesting to learn about inside and outside of class. Despite me enjoying this project my final outcomes weren’t as successful as I would have liked as I didn’t take enough time to do the photoshoot in the first place, and a lot of my original images came out too under- exposed or blurry.
For example this image above is one of my better pieces of work, it is one of my only good outcomes from this whole project, this image ending up being a lot more successful than I would have thought as I didn’t even end up editing it to make it look better. The quality of this image is still very high as I like that the vibrancy of the colours is all natural and not manipulated into the image.
From this project I learned that I liked learning about and photographing landscapes, this was because I got to explore the areas of Jersey, some of which I had never been to before. I would like to include landscapes in my project as I think that my images come out a lot better than the ones I take of people.
Joiners
These joiners did not turn out successful at all and this was because I didn’t like the experimentation, editing and formatting that came along with creating Joiners. In addition to this, when creating my Joiners, I came across the problem of me not having enough images to make the best Joiners I could, despite all of this I still didn’t end up liking any of my Joiners, this may have been because of the images I have taken.
Furthermore, the research behind creating the Joiners and the artist references included did not have any interest to me and I think this is one of the reasons why I did not put as much effort as I could into these pieces of work. Additionally, I thought that the images I used to create my Joiners weren’t that good, as you can see above it could be argued that this joiner was created with images that are all too over-exposed, as during this class trip I still wasn’t as used to the camera settings as I am now, I think that getting used to the camera and understanding how the settings work has played a key role in how much better my work has gotten.
Strongest Work
Below I have included a variety of examples of my strongest work since the start of year 12, this has helped me as I got to rediscover the work where I created the best outcomes that I had forgotten about. Throughout my final ‘Islandness’ project I will be taking a lot of inspiration from some of my old projects, as they were the most enjoyable for me to photograph and ended up being part of my strongest pieces of work.
Anthropocene Project
I am going to take a lot of my inspiration for my personal study from my Anthropocene project, this is because I think that this was the area of work where I created the most successful final outcomes, along with this being my favourite exam and topic we have done so far. By the end of the exam, I had only created 5 final outcomes, 4 images and one typology, the aspect I enjoyed most about this work was the practical process. Photographing the incinerator was a fun experience as I got to go into the sight and get images that no one else would have. Additionally, I think that the editing process was so fun for me as I got to use some experimenting skills for the first time, such as using the ‘invert’ tool in photoshop which meant that I had a new style of editing.
I have included some of my best outcomes from this mock exam, I think these are the strongest pieces of work I have ever produced, despite being made in year 12 and me having more experience now, I think that it was mostly because the quality of my original images was so good that went I put the photographs through such drastic editing, they still looked good. Its very important for me to take inspiration off this concept and even the editing style as images, as this was by far my favourite project I have done.
Additionally, this project gave me my first opportunity to create a typology for an exam piece, I didn’t plan on creating this piece but thought it was a good chance to show that I can arrange images so that they look aesthetic once they are put together. This made this project a lot more fun for me as it meant that I had an aim when going out on my photoshoots, as it was a good way to showcase all of images together and was good to show the overall pieces from my project. This was successful as it linked to my favourite theme so far in my photography course and it meant that I put a lot more time and effort into this piece.
Portraiture
My portraiture project took place at the start of year 12, after the Heritage project was over, we had a visit from Oliver Doran where the topic of studio work and lighting was first introduced to us. Before taking these images, we were taught how to control the flash and one point lighting and manage the camera settings.
Along with not finding this task very exciting, I didn’t really know how to work Lightroom or Photoshop as well as I do now, this meant that some of these images turned out to be too over-exposed and too under-exposed. My final outcomes for this project were not as successful as I would have liked, I think this is because I don’t enjoy studio work as much as I enjoy work outside of class and creative/ practical tasks we have done in the past.
This project made me not as much effort into it as I should have and this is definitely reflected in my final prints as the lighting and techniques are just not as good as they should have been. However, some of these images turned out to be successful, this is because of the good camera settings that were put there for us before taking the images. I really liked that some of these images turned out to be a lot better than I thought, even as I thought this was boring I think that this project turned out to be good considering that it was one of our first opportunities in the studio.
Islandness
Islandness was one of our most recent projects, as we went out on two school trips and got the opportunity to explore the northwest coast of the island. I thought the concept of this project would not be as good as the outcomes came out to be. As learning about Islandness meant learning about the history of the island and how much the landscaped has been naturally altered throughout time.
Despite only taking images of the seaside (all beach and rocks) I really enjoyed editing and arranging all of final images. I had a wide variety of images to select to place into the print folder and then arrange of foamboard for mounting and display. I would like to include this in my future project as it means that I will have a link to the island history than will be more linked to geography rather then features such as war fortifications such as bunkers.
This last photograph at the bottom was my favourite from my whole project as I think that it illustrated Islandness really well, taking good quality images for these mini projects makes me excited to include them in my final project, this is because printing images and arranging them when they have a high resolution means that they look a lot more aesthetic they have been arranged.
New Topographic- Urban Landscapes
The concept of the New Topographic was introduced along with the photographer Ansel Adams, the ideas of the Urban Landscapes came before the Rural Landscapes project, these photoshoots were a lot more fun compared to the rural landscapes as I got to take better images of man-made structures.
In my opinion, these are some of the best images that I have ever introduced, and I really think that they will be featured, or some images/ ideas that are similar to them, in my final personal study. Additionally, I think that these images look really clean and a lot more professional in black and white. I would like to include this in my final study as I think that it makes my images look like they are better quality then they actually are.
Additionally, I like that when photographing man-made buildings there is always structure and symmetry within the images, this makes the final outcomes more aesthetic than images of natural objects, and this is why I would like to include structures just like these in my personal study. Doing a style of photography that will reflect all of my old work I enjoyed doing will be important as it will make sure that I put more effort into my project.
Technologies/ EditingTechniques
I think that there has been a lot of developments throughout my work from the start of year 12 to now, the middle of year 13. This is especially clear through my Anthropocene project as it means that I got to use some new editing skills in Photoshop.
Here I have included an example of me using some colour editing skills in order to make some of this picture look almost like it is animated. I would like to include this type of editing in my final project as I think it provides my work with a lot of variety and links with the theme of natural vs unnatural landscapes. Furthermore, learning how to create
This type of editing, inspired by Keld Helmer-Petersen was something we learnt a long time ago as a new and intresting editing process; After selecting images to open up on Photoshop, I changed the images to black and white at first, then clicked on the Threshold setting where a gage appeared that allowed this setting to e changed up and down, to get the perfect final product there needed to be a good balance between having a plain background and detail in objects and textures in the foreground.
I am included this example of a simple photo montage, only using two images, to demonstrate that I used to create very simple photo montages and that I know I can create more detailed and successful combinations of photographs now. I don’t really like the photographs that I had chosen to put into this photo montage. However, I think that the clarity of the middle images saves the whole piece.
Another editing technique which is one of my favourites is multi-exposures, I like them because they are so varied and can be made with any two images that you want to put together, additionally, you can control the opacity so that one image can be more or less visible them the other one. These pieces are very eye-catching final outcomes as the colours are very present, and the multi-exposures I created came out the best if the two or more images I used had similar colour tones.
Here I have included a different examples of editing, as I have combined images and drastically changed one side and left the other, this was in an attempt to give the images more texture and depth, and this would inevitably make them more eye-catching. This would be good to put into my future project as images of waves crashing against rocks may come out very successful using this type of editing as the different textures of the rocks would stand out.
Future Project
Relation to my future ‘Islandness’ personal study: I have been looking back at my previous blog posts in order to help me choose which of my older work was the most successful and enjoyable. This is important and it means that if i have enjoyed the themes and liked the outcomes of my previous projects enjoy, I can build on this work and research for my future personal study. This means that my work may be easier as I am using my developed camera skills along with ideas that have already been constructed on my blog. The idea that I will not have to start from scratch again is one that interests me a lot as it means that I know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to going on photoshoots, editing images and compiling my final pieces. I have decided that I am going to stick with the theme of Islandness instead of changing to the idea of ‘My Jersey’ which is more like creating a whole new concept for my final study.
Most Influential Work
Here I have created a gallery of my best and most influential, with all of the projects and also along with my environmental portraits project and aspects of my zine, I think that this is important as it means that I can visualise all of my best work and helps me think about which sub-topics/ projects that I could maybe put together in order to make the most successful personal study I can. As this is my last attempt to show my favourite areas of photography to explore.
