After mindmapping, I decided I wanted to focus on people in Jersey and experiences that I could relate to rather than the physical aspects of the island itself as I knew I would be more passionate about subjects that I could relate to myself and therefore would be able to create a personal study that would reflect my abilities as a photographer.
Ideas:
Focusing on what it’s like to be Portuguese in Jersey. Isolation, community, racism, disconnection. Take photos of some of the Portuguese cafes and stuff, maybe family gatherings and such? Maybe mention how the lives of English & Portuguese vary by taking photos of the inside of houses? Possibly include text on some negative experiences Portuguese people have had Jersey [i.e: slurs, discrimination etc]. Called it ‘Islands intertwined’ or something.
Mental Health? Take photos of different services and the bad advice they’ve given [i.e: cup of tea], making a statement on how the mental health scene in Jersey needs to be improved. Include quotes of what’s been said – ask people at club what they’ve been told too!! *Make sure to include how useless a lot of the advice is. Possibly do self portraits and have each photo look messier, darker, shadowy etc in order to represent how the wrong advice can do more bad than good sometimes. Have the last page be all black or just empty. Maybe add some art as well. *Reference Helena Almeida
Possibly do a piece on what my life in Jersey is like on a day to day basis? Take photos of safe places, common places, abnormal places etc. Mostly as a ‘life on the rock’ type of thing.
Possibly take a variety of portraits on different types of people living in Jersey [i.e: Different cultures, nationalities etc] along with text on their experiences. Take photos of their homes, any traditional clothing/food they have and compare them on each spread, highlighting how different people can be despite living in the same place – shows the different communities in Jersey.
Maybe do something where I conform to stereotypes about Portuguese people? Add quotes about each stereotype?
The essay was overall very detailed in terms of its historical context and inspirations, deep diving into how family albums came to exist along with thorough analyses into her key photographers, making sure to include quotes and references throughout which she then placed into a small bibliography at the end of the essay. She referred to her hypothesis ‘can the recreation of family portraits show how relationships have developed and changed over time?’ throughout the essay, linking it back to her key photographers and answering it thoroughly. She also focused on describing how she struggled to recreate photos due to the way she and her family had aged. Despite this, she showed a clear understanding and passion for what she wanted to accomplish within her personal study, providing copious amounts of information on the steps she took in order to be prepared for each photoshoot and how she worked her way around problems she stumbled across along the way, using some basic photographic terminology to describe how careful she was to recreate each image to her best abilities.
Throughout the essay, she used a variety of images from her different key photographers which helped to express her point in certain paragraphs, however, they lack captions making it difficult to see what photographer each image belongs too, especially as she mentions how similar each photographers style is visually. Along with that, her paragraphs don’t flow from one to the next like a typical essay which can make it hard to follow in certain places as she occasionally starts her paragraphs quite bluntly, especially as she doesn’t use a typical essay structure, lacking an introduction as she goes straight into her plan.
The marking criteria for the personal study
Grade Boundaries: E=1 D=6 C=9 B=11 A=14 A*=16
My Mark: 13/18
Grade: B
I decided to give her a 13 as she consistently writes about her inspirations and communicates her thoughts on the process of taking her photos along with taking into account how her key photographers took their photos as a reference too. She expresses her ideas briefly in the essay, however, lacks detail in terms of specialist terminology as she only uses basic terminology towards the end of the essay, making her fall short of an A.
Overall, I think my zine was successful as each page flows from one to the next despite the fact the each spread is so different [although it did take a lot of trial and error to make it that way], mostly due to the pops of green on every other page which helped to tie everything together to create a small narrative. Along with that, I like how my choice in images make my zine dynamic, especially in the first spread, making my zine come to life. I do, however, think that I could’ve spent some time editing some of my images so they were of a better quality, making my work look more professional.
In order to start making my zine, I had to carefully select images that I wanted to use that I thought would make an engaging narrative without looking like a bunch of rocks. To help me decide what images went where, I experimented in Adobe InDesign, changing the sizes of my images so I’d begin to understand what worked well and what I’d discard.
My Chosen Images:
I chose these images as I thought they were all quite detailed and well taken images which would allow me to create a well made zine. I tried to pick various types of images from still life photos I took in the studio and some images I took in naturally rocky areas. This would allow me to create contrasting spreads making my zine look more intriguing, especially if I were to use colour to further enhance aspects of each spread.
Process of Making My Zine:
At first, I was having a hard time as my photos kept importing into InDesign really pixilated, sometimes to the point where the images were unrecognisable which made making my zine quite difficult. I managed to fix this after some time by re-exporting my images as tiff files and setting the display performance in InDesign to high performance which allowed me to see my images clearly.
An example of my pixelated images
An example of my pixelated images
Next, I began combining my images together and thinking of ideas for spreads. I made sure to take my time and reorder the pages when I thought it was necessary in order to make sure the images all flowed together from one to the next in a linear form as I wanted to experiment with a variety of different ideas in attempt to make every spread look different which took a lot of trial and error as some of the spreads looked randomly placed. I solved this issue, however, through the use of shapes and colours as I noticed a few of my images had the colour green. From there, I decided to incorporate the colour throughout the background of most spreads whilst occasionally using black or white to stop the green from taking over the zine.
An example of me using green in a spread
An example of me using black in a spread
When choosing a title, I knew I wanted something short that wouldn’t take over the front cover yet could help to tie the whole zine together whilst still being slightly ambiguous. I decided upon ‘and repeat’ as I felt that it would encourage the viewer to look through the zine multiple times whilst also implying how the process of erosion is a never ending process, causing rocks to reshape or dissolve away. This process is only worsening due to global warming [which is causing the tide to rise higher and higher], leading the process to repeat quicker than before and release more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is having a detrimental effect on the planet. Read more here: Link.springer.com
Some Alternative Layouts:
These are some layouts I considered using but ultimately scrapped as I either developed it into something different or cut the images/layout all together.
I moved the image on the right onto a different spread and placed a different image on th8is spread as I felt like I this spread didn’t quite work the way I wanted it to
I decided this image didn’t fit with the rest of my images so I removed from my zine altogether and replaced it with a different image that worked better
These are my final outcomes for the ‘My Rock’ project. I’m pleased with most of my outcomes, however, I feel as though I could’ve spent some time developing/remaking some of my photo sculptures further in order to create a better and neater final outcome. Aside from that, I think the project went well.
Photo Sculptures:
My two photo sculptures where I focused on creating textures
My photo sculpture where I attempted to create an effect where the rock was protruding from the rest of the image
Prints Mounted:
A set of prints that I mounted together in a sort of collage onto foam board then onto card
My best joiner that I mounted onto foam board then again onto card
I looked at a variety of different sources and zines in order to get an idea for what I wanted to use in my own zine and what I thought would be interesting. Some of the things I looked at were linked to typography as I wanted to explore the use of words to make an image in itself [like Hamish Fulton’s work] and whether I could create contrast through the use of typography rather than solely relying on images. Along with that, I knew I wanted to create interesting compositions so I kept an eye out for any interesting layout I saw.
Moodboard:
I like the way the images on the left page look almost cut off the page
I like how the colours on both pages pull the spread together despite the contrasting backgrounds
The look of the text being in a circle overlaying the image looks interesting
Hamish Fulton || I like how the typography creates it’s own images and I’m interested in experimenting with this idea myself
Sophie Margot || I like the use of colour along with the simplicity of the cover as I think it pulls the whole page together
A Sentence: The difference between the size of rocks and how it affects how they age.
A Paragraph: Stability increases as the rocks grow stronger despite the decaying/erosion that has occurred. Little rocks flock towards the big rock, preparing for battle against the terrors of nature once more. The cracks, scars and imperfections from previous struggles always remain but despite this, the boulders stand tall. Some rocks and pebbles, however, know their odds and so bury themselves, making them unknown to the horrors above.
NARRATIVE: How will the story be told?
Images: I will be using images from green island throughout this project along with some still life images in order to get a mix of close-ups in both the rocks’ natural environment and in the studio.
Archives: I will look over some images from the archive and compare them to my own images before deciding whether I want to incorporate any archival images into my zine.
Tests: I want to experiment with typography and possibly write/include a poem in my zine as I think it would help to bring my images together and possibly create more meaning.
Still life is a genre of art that depicts common and usually inanimate objects, both natural and man-made, within a work of art, the style beginning with a Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Still life artists choose and arrange objects such as fruit, wine, utensils, skulls, flowers etc to their liking before painting their unique composition, having full creative freedom over the colour palette, ambience and size of the painting. The objects within each painting often allude to something bigger, creating a deeper meaning within each piece, usually related to religion and life, [i.e: skulls represent mortality, candles represent the passing of time etc] making each piece compelling to look at. This is referred to as ‘Vanitas’ and is used to remind the viewer of their own mortality through the different symbolic objects within each painting, showing how pointless and meaningless each object is without the value placed upon it.
Vanitas with musical instruments, fine vessels, books, an extinguished candle, a skull and ears of wheat [1657-1675] by Franciscus Gijsbrechts
Still life: An allegory of the vanities of human life by Harmen Steenwyck [1640’s]
Vanitas still life by Hendrik Adriessen [1650]
Still life became popular with photographers in the early 20th century, causing a lot art photographers to emerge [such as Baron de Meyer who took soft-focus images to be taken, allowing his photos to look like drawings] which allowed 2 different styles of still life photography to develop over the years: ‘found still life’ and ‘created still life’. Found still life photography would include taking images of places/objects as they are whilst created still life photography involves organising everything in frame until the desired composition is found and photographed.
A famous still life photographer whose work links with the Vanitas style is Guido Mocafico, an Italian photographer with a unique and intriguing style. His work tends to use a lot of snakes but he has taken an array of images that are composed in the Vanitas style, especially in his series ‘Nature Morte’. It is clear in his work that Mocafico carefully plans his compositions, ensuring each object is carefully placed and balanced to his liking which also allows the softer lighting to accentuate parts of his compositions, causing the shadows to overpower most of the image without underexposing it. Mocafico also has an interesting use of colours as he his images look as though they’ve been tea-bagged due to the different beige-tan shades he uses, however, he tends to add a pop of colour by adding 1 or two vibrant objects which definitely enhances the image as a whole.
One of the most famous still life photographers is American photographer Olivia Parker [born in 1941]. Her work looks very similar to paintings due to the techniques she uses to photograph each object. Her use of shallow focus allows her close-ups to really stand out against the backgrounds. In her more recent photoshoots, the colours are rich in saturation due to her use of light, making the objects within each image look artificial and unreal.
How do archives function as repositories of knowledge?
Archives are used around the globe, preserving several types of information from around the world to ensure it is not lost or forgotten from Government records to paintings. Professionals work hard to preserve such material so future generations are able to look back and compare/evaluate how times have changed. In this essay, I will specifically be researching photo archives in Jersey and to what extent they function as repositories of knowledge in both modern times and in the past, from physical buildings, i.e: the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive, formed in 1873 with the objective to create a museum and library1, to how people today use their mobile phones to capture and store thousands of images on a day-to-day basis quicker and more easily than ever before.
The Societe Jersaise was first founded by a small number of islanders who were interested in the “history, language and antiquities of Jersey” before interest began to grow which led to the publication of historical documents, a museum2 and more, photography playing a significant role in the creation of the library and museum due to it being a popular medium at the time to record research and scientific records in a documentary way. Eventually, in 1913, the Societe created sections in order to separate the different areas of interest, the photographic archives getting its own section with specialist staff being employed to ensure the best upkeep and preservation possible of the hundreds of thousands of images from a variety of different photographers, dating back from the mid-1940s to present day.
[Figure 1 || An image of the inside of the Societe Jersaise in the 1840’s]
[Figure 2 || An image of the inside of the archive in modern day]
Due to photos taken by a variety of skilled photographers over the past few centuries being so well preserved, it allows us to evaluate their techniques in modern times. Thomas Sutton is an example of a skilled Jersey photographer from the 1800s whose work has been archived by the Societe Jersaise, allowing easy access to his local images of the past. He is an important figure when it comes to photography due to his experiments and contributions which include developing the first panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens [it being able to capture in a 120° arc], taking the first permanent colour photograph, creating a photographic dictionary, and working on the development of dry photographic plates3. As his work has been documented, it allows professionals to acknowledge and explore how his work developed further after his experiments along with how it changed other people’s quality of work, creating a better understanding of how photography can be used and developed further. One of Sutton’s key images is of a Tartan ribbon [which is shown in figure 1] where he took the world’s first coloured photograph in 1861. The image itself is quite dark due to the dark background, however, this allows the brighter tones and colours to pop out, making the image as a whole intriguing to look at. Along with that, the composition of the image itself is well chosen as it focuses on the details of the ribbon, such as the pattern and textures created by the way the ribbon has been tied, whilst still keeping the image quite simplistic.
[Figure 3 || Thomas Sutton’s photo of a Tartan Ribbon]
It is certain that buildings such as Societe Jersaise have flourished over the centuries as more and more images get taken and preserved each year, especially due to how accessible cameras have become, allowing millions of photos to be taken per day compared to the limited amount of images that could be taken and produced through older cameras [I.e: film cameras] which would require a chemical-heavy process in order for the photos to even be viewed let alone published. However, the use of digital archives has increased the amount of images that can be stored along with the influence photography can have on an individual. This has and will continue to develop due to the creation of apps such as Instagram and Twitter, allowing all sorts of images to spread faster than ever before. From personal images to professional grade landscapes, finding and posting images can be done in just a few clicks, allowing for information about different cultures, social status, and environments to be easily compared. This is fascinating as it allows for a mass contrast between how individuals from the same era live such differing lives from the overwhelming amount of information that can be exhibited through the visuals alone whilst also creating an alternative to finding information on the past and comparing it to the modern day, often leading to the creation of new techniques and inspirations.
In conclusion, archives can function as repositories of knowledge through displaying past information and allowing future generations to learn from, interpret and expand upon said knowledge as they please. The different types of information that can be stored develops upon this further, as there lacks a limit as to how much history can be preserved, especially as there are many ways of conserving information, the most common being visually through images, as I have explained throughout this essay, due to how convenient comparing images from different eras and lifestyles can be, allowing us to see when different techniques emerged and developed throughout time.
