The term “still life” describes a work of art that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world, such as fruit, flowers, dead game, and/or vessels like baskets or bowls. Looked at another way: still life’s depict things that are “still” and don’t move. Still life is a genre that spans art history. Most still life’s can be placed into one of four categories: flowers, banquet or breakfast, animal(s), and symbolic

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Now usually, when fresh food is used, the still life symbolism signifies abundance, riches, and the bounty of the upper class. When the food was depicted as decaying, it serves to show us our own mortality and eventual death. Still life drawing is a great way to build essential drawing skills like hand-eye coordination, creating shadow and perspective, and noticing finer details. If you know a creative mind who wants to start learning art, a drawing class experience gift may be perfect for them.

Renaissance Still Life

During the Middle Ages and into the Early Renaissance period, Still Life painting accompanied religious artworks as supplementary stylistic elements with symbolic meanings. These were usually painted in the backgrounds of religious paintings as well as on other artistic works like illuminated manuscripts, which were seen in Northern Renaissance and Early Netherlandish paintings.

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Other artists like Leonardo da Vinci and the German painter Albrecht Dürer painted Still Life’s without religious symbolism. For example, Still Life paintings were done of various natural objects of fauna and flora.

Dutch Still Life

Still Life painting started as a genre in the Netherlands, or what was termed as the Low Countries, which comprised of Belgica, Flanders, and the Netherlands. The Dutch Golden Age was a result of Dutch independence from Spain, which led to the Dutch Republic being born. Still Life was especially prominent as a painting style during this time, especially paintings of flowers.

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The Protestant Revolution also minimized the production of religious artworks, which led the way for other types of genres of painting to be explored. Still Life paintings were favoured because they depicted the everyday scenes of people and their lives and had inherent symbolic meanings from various objects. This branched into what was called “Dutch Realism”.

Modern Still Life

Modern Still Life prevailed during art movements like Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Notably, during Post-Impressionism, Vincent van Gogh brought Still Life painting to life with his expressive and flower and vase paintings. An example of this includes his piece, Sunflowers (1889).

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During the Cubist art movement, popular artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque created Still Life paintings in their characteristic abstract and cubic style. An example of this is in Picasso’s Large Still Life (1881 to 1973) and Braque’s Still Life with Metronome (1909).

Still Life Photography

A still life is a work of art that focuses on inanimate subjects. Usually, the subjects are commonplace objects. That can include both manmade objects (such as vases, items of clothing, and consumer products) and natural objects (like plants, food, rocks, and shells).

Still life photography makes it easy to experiment. In contrast to portrait and landscape photography, you don’t have to deal with live models, and you don’t have to search out an interesting location or photo opportunity. Instead, you can create your own interesting composition using common objects you have or find nearby.

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It gives you the opportunity to experiment with light, materials, textures and subjects in a controlled setting. Whatever your creative vision and artistic goals, still life is a great place to start. Still life photography essentially comes down to the study of lighting, the way rays of it interact with your object, create or eliminate shadows, and help you tell its story. Depending on your object’s surface, shape and size, the light can have different effects on it, so the best way to start is to just experiment with it all.

What to focus on when making a still life image:

• Different Lighting
• Camera angles
• Focus and Depth of field
• Adding motion
• Good set up
• Clarity of images

Image Analysis

This image is filled with many different aspects, the best being the composition of this photograph, with there not being many different objects in the image, they are all the same yet look very different, with the many different forms of oranges it shows how creative you can be with just one material. Furthermore, I think that the blue background really makes the oranges stand out, as they are opposing colours on the colour wheel meaning that it creates lots of contrast within the photograph. Additionally, I think that the fact that the oranges have been created into a shape of many balloons, shows that when it comes to still life photography any material can be adapted and this created an interesting and unique focal point for the photograph. However, I think this image could be seen as too vibrant, despite this being eye-catching I think that the composition could have been better if it was filled with many smaller balloons.

Photoshoot Plan

I will be taking photographs at Plemont and Stinky Bay, I would like to take these images round midday to ensure that I can have the best changes of having the correct lighting for this shoot, and making sure its not raining to make sure my only equipment, the camera, doesn’t get damaged.

Contact Sheets

Below I have included some contact sheets displaying the wide variety of images from my Plemont and Stinky Bay shoot, this is important as it gives an indication of how many images I have from each shoot, and helps with the organisation before image sub selection.

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Colour Coding System

Below I have placed some screenshots of my colour coding my photographs, I have included an explanation of the system and how I have come to the image sub selection process, I really like this system as it ensures that I have a clear plan in my mind of which images I am going to edit. It also helps me predict my final images just from looking through them in Lightroom.

• Purple- Best images
• Blue- Average images
• Pink- Not so good images

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Best Images after Sub Selection

There I have taken some of the images from my ‘purple’ selection above and placed them in a gallery so that they can be more easily viewed, this also helps me consider whether or not they could be displayed as 9 images or just individually. Furthermore, this is before the editing process so lots of these photographs could be made to be of a higher quality afterwards.

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Editing

Below I have included before and afters of all of the images that I have decided to edit, I think that for the most part these images came out very well, I think I didn’t end up with a wide range of good images to edit, however I think the ones that I have are of good clarity and some exposures have been edited so that the images are more legible. Furthermore, I think that changing the undertones of the images to make them appear cooler/ warmer gives them a greater effect.

Final Images/ Analysis and Critique

For my final images I have decided that these are my best options, I have included evaluations for each of my images, with explanations for each stating the strengths and weakness of each.

I have selected this as my first final image as I think that the composition of this photograph is it’s strongest point. Additionally there is lots of contrast within this piece, firstly with the warm tones of red and orange amongst the rocks in contrast with the blues in the sea. Also, there is a difference in texture between the smooth sea and the rough rocks, this means that the photograph is more eye-catching and there is more depth within the image. In my opinion this is my strongest out of all of my final images and this is mostly because of the clarity of the original image, meaning not much drastic editing was needed in order to make it successful.

I have selected this as my first final image as I think that the colours of this image are very aesthetic , this is captured by the original composition of the photograph as the yellow rocks in the foreground and the green and blues tones in the background, captured in the sea compliment each other well. Additionally, I like that the perceptive of this image is quite unique, this along with other features such as the rule of thirds, created by the outlines of the rocks all make this final piece successful. Alternatively, the weakness within this image is that the piece isn’t filled with interesting components, so they could be seen as boring or uncreative.

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I think that if I were to display my final images I would place these two portrait images together, as I think that they go well together, as the similarities and differences of the two means that they compliment each other well. The image on the left is filled with many different colours and the one on the right is filled with more blue and greys, the first being filled with warmer tones helps contrast with the cooler tones in the second and this means that these images are stronger together as one cohesive piece. Furthermore, this helps with my project as the photographs being more interesting makes the project more interesting as bring vibrancy to the rocks. However, I think that the first image is a lot stronger so maybe this could be displayed by itself.

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This final image is very different from my others as the fact that it’s black and white means there I could make the contrast and the clarity of this photograph very high and it could still be successful. This made the image more aesthetic as it added a lot of texture; both throughout the rocks and amongst the water moving on the sand. I like this image as I feel like it capture a moment in time which will never happen, making it more unique. Furthermore, the tones in this photograph means that the foreground is filled with light and the background contrasts as the rocks and dark and the texture isn’t as prominent.

I have selected this as my last final piece as my favourite aspect of it is the composition, this means that the most prominent features are the rocks, as the orange and brown tones in them mean that a sense of perspective is formed as they appear like they are brought forward throughout the image, with the contrasting water in the background. However, I think that this piece wouldn’t have been at all successful within any editing as the clarity of the original photograph wasn’t as good as I expected.

Photoshoot Plan

I will be taking photographs at L’Etacq/ Stinky Bay, I would like to take these images round midday to ensure that I can have the best changes of having the correct lighting for this shoot, and making sure its not raining to make sure my only equipment, the camera, doesn’t get damaged.

Contact sheets

Below I have included some contact sheets displaying the wide variety of images from my L’Etacq shoot, this is important as it gives an indication of how many images I have from each shoot, and helps with the organisation before image sub selection.

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Colour Coding System

Below I have placed some screenshots of my colour coding my photographs, I have included an explanation of the system and how I have come to the image sub selection process, I really like this system as it ensures that I have a clear plan in my mind of which images I am going to edit. It also helps me predict my final images just from looking through them in Lightroom.

• Purple- Best images
• Blue- Average images
• Red- Not so good images

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Best Images after Sub Selection

There I have taken some of the images from my ‘purple’ selection above and placed them in a gallery so that they can be more easily viewed, this also helps me consider whether or not they could be displayed as 9 images or just individually. Furthermore, this is before the editing process so lots of these photographs could be made to be of a higher quality afterwards.

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Editing

Below I have included before and afters of all of the images that I have decided to edit, I think that for the most part these images came out very well, I think I didn’t end up with a wide range of good images to edit, however I think the ones that I have are of good clarity and some exposures have been edited so that the images are more legible. Furthermore, I think that changing the undertones of the images to make them appear cooler/ warmer gives them a greater effect.

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Final Images/ Analysis and Critique

For my final images I have decided that these are my best options, I have included evaluations for each of my images, with explanations for each stating the strengths and weakness of each.

I have selected this as one of my final images from this L’Etacq shoot as I think that there is many interesting components to this image. Firstly, I think that there is lots of contrast between the rocks and the sky, as I have increased the saturation in order to enhance this. This effect is created by the interesting perspective of the photograph, as I took the image from the beach, looking up to the rocks and the sky. I like that this means that half of this image if rock and half is sky, and also the fact that each rock is visible in the image as the clarity is very high. Furthermore, throughout the photograph there is lots of texture created by the clear view of the rocks, this creates more depth of field within the piece.

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I have put all three of these final pieces together, arranged in this order as I think that if they were printed out onto materials such as foamboard they would look best this way. The most prominent feature of all of these images is the high contrast and increased clarity. They have all been edited to black and white so that this is more obvious, and I think that these are my most successful three images as they all link well, with the bottom one being slightly different yet still being linked through the ‘My Rock’ project. Furthermore, its important the note that the perceptive all of these images makes them more unique and I think this adds to the successfulness of these pieces. Alternatively, they could be viewed as more boring or generic as they are monochromatic, however, I think this reminds us of how old these rocks are.

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I have selected these as my last final two images as I think they have many similarities and differences. They were both taken at the same Jersey Sit of Special Interest, however features of these photographs such as the tones are very varied, as the one of the left is filled with warm yellow and green tones with nicely contrast with the greys in the foreground of this image. Alternatively, the one on the right is filled with cooler toned greys throughout the whole image with spots of colours such as the green in the background. However, I think that the clarity of these images could hinder there successfulness, as most of the increased clarity’s had to be increased through editing and weren’t part of the original images.

Process

Below I have included some images to help explain the process of how to produce a joiners, inspired by David Hockney’s work. Using Photoshop and the images selected from Lightroom, we used the Photomerge tool to digitally create the joiners. The main advantage of this process is that it’s quick and creates effective joiners as long as long as you use legible photographs.

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Outcomes

To make the joiner we had to create a quick collection in Lightroom, creating the folder make it easier to export the images into Photoshop to create the joiners. Below I have added some contact sheets so that the process is more visual.

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Evaluation: This outcome was created from good original images, the main disadvantage of this piece of its composition. As the angle of the image could be viewed as boring along with the fact that someone is in the joiner, meaning it distracts from the focus of the Sight of Special Interest. Despite this piece not being fully natural, the La Pinacle being in the background means that there is some variety within the piece. The photographs matching up perfectly means that the details in features such as the horizon and rocks aren’t lost.

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Critique: This joiner looks very much like my other one, which could be seen as a negative as there isn’t much variation in my work. Furthermore, I think these piece is a little over exposed and the fact that the angle captures more of the ground then the sky and rocks means that all you can see is grass. Despite this, the images used to create this are very legible meaning that the final piece turns out clear and aesthetic.

I think that this joiner is one of my best, as the warmer tones in the joiner adds to it’s effect. However, I think that the fact that there is a missing part in the bottom middle of the image creates a bad focal point for it. Despite this, I feel like with lots of editing this could become a lot more successful joiner as I like the location of Stinky Bay a lot, as I think that this is one of Jersey’s most aesthetic geoparks.

I thought that this would be my best joiner, however it didn’t turn out as successful as I anticipated, I think that the perceptive of this joiner is quite creative, however the final space of the image came out a bit strange and I think that changing the shape through editing wouldn’t fully fix the problems of this joiner.

Experimentation

Below I have taken my joiners and changed them into 3D shapes, I have altered some of their textures to add more depth and variety to my experiments. In my opinion, these make the joiners more fun but don’t really match with David Hockney’s work.

Original Joiner

Edited

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I think that this joiner is a lot more successful in black and white, this is because more contrast is created between the actual joiner and the white background. I think that more contrast within the joiner there is, the more successful in the first place.

Original Joiner

Edited

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The edit on the right is my favourite of all of my joiners, again there is lots of contrast as I have washed out the joiner by purposefully having a very white sky, this along with the circular shape means that there is lots of focus on the picture itself rather than the background.

Original Joiner

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David Hockney

David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.

At the Royal College of Art, Hockney featured in the exhibition Young Contemporaries – alongside Peter Blake – that announced the arrival of British Pop art. He was associated with the movement, but his early works display expressionist elements, similar to some works by Francis Bacon. When the RCA said it would not let him graduate if he did not complete an assignment of a life drawing of a live model in 1962, Hockney painted Life aPainting for a Diploma in protest.

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Hockney has experimented with painting, drawing, printmaking, watercolours, photography, and many other media including a fax machine, paper pulp, computer applications and iPad drawing programs. The subject matter of interest ranges from still lifes to landscapes, portraits of friends, his dogs, and stage designs for the Royal Court Theatre, Glyndebourne, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

David Hockney has been featured in over 400 solo exhibitions and over 500 group exhibitions. He had his first one-man show at Kasmin Limited when he was 26 in 1963, and by 1970 the Whitechapel Gallery in London had organised the first of several major retrospectives, which subsequently travelled to three European institutions. LACMA also hosted a retrospective exhibition in 1988 which travelled to The Met, New York, and Tate, London.

Joiners

What are joiners? a single image made up of multiple overlapping images. It is a photo collage, but not a traditional collage in which different photos are simply arranged together to form a patchwork piece. A joiner photo tells a single story. It is a composite of a single scene or subject made from multiple photos.

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What makes a good joiner? He called these collages and photo montages joiners. This distinctive approach to image making was a reflection of Hockney’s dislike for photographs executed with a wide-angle lens. By creating his joiners, Hockney sought to reflect the process of seeing, creating a narrative based around visual experience.

Hockney’s Work

How did Hockney create his first joiner? He called these collages and photo montages joiners. This distinctive approach to image making was a reflection of Hockney’s dislike for photographs executed with a wide-angle lens. By creating his joiners, Hockney sought to reflect the process of seeing, creating a narrative based around visual experience.

Image Analysis: The neutral tones in this image give it a very subtle atmosphere, I think that the brown tones in the foreground and the lighter blue sky in the background, separated with a lot of land, make for an interesting composition for this joiner. I like the fact that you can see the original paintings, especially in the sky of this joiner, as i think that it adds a lot of depth and texture to this image, meaning it cannot be viewed as boring. Furthermore, I think that the perspective of the image is important to note, as it creates a different feel to the piece as objects such as the yellow and red sign become more eye-catching. This image is one of my favourites out of Hockney’s work as it carries more significant being the first joiner ever created, and additionally it made a huge impact on the photography community.

Emily Allchurch

Emily Allchurch, born 1974 in Jersey, Channel Islands, lives and works in Hastings, East Sussex. She trained as a sculptor, receiving a First Class (Hons.) degree in Fine Art from the Kent Institute of Art & Design – Canterbury in 1996, and an MA from the Royal College of Art in 1999, where she began working with photography as a material. Since then, she has exhibited regularly in solo and group shows in the UK and internationally.

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Allchurch uses photography and digital collage to reconstruct Old Master paintings and prints to create contemporary narratives. Her starting point is an intensive encounter with a city or place, to absorb an impression and gather a huge image library. From this resource, hundreds of photographs are selected and meticulously spliced together to create a seamless new ‘fictional’ space. Each artwork re-presents this journey, compressed into a single scene. The resulting photographic collages have a resonance with place, history and culture, and deal with the passage of time and the changes to a landscape, fusing contemporary life with a sense of history. 

Her works are held in public and private collections worldwide, with a complete set of her Tokyo Story series in the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, with a further set in the collection of Fidelty in Tokyo. In 2020, the Museum of London acquired a lightbox version of Babel London (after Breugel) to go on permanent display, when it opens at its new site in West Smithfields in 2025.

Her Work

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What I like about her work: I think that her work is very unique, there is common theme throughout her work, which is creating building’s into painted joiners. Furthermore, I think that the fact that her work is easily identifiable means that her name is more widely known. In all of these pieces there is significant contrast between the buildings and the sky, with the buildings all containing bright colours and then the sky blending to cooler blues and greys, creating contrast between warmer and cooler toned colours, and adding a wide variety of colours to her work.

Image Analysis

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This is one of my favourite image out of Emily Allchurch’s work, this is because of many components in the image, the first is the wide variety of colours and textures throughout the piece. With the bricks in the building with all of the heavy detail contrasting with the stale blue sky in the background, the lack of texture makes the building more eye catching and it more apparent that its the focal point for the image. Furthermore, I think that the composition of the joiner is significant as its a very busy piece, as the building is filled with depth, the foreground is filled with other aspects such as natural component such as people. This created more contrast and adds depth of field to the image.

Introduction

Geopark: A geopark is a unified area that advances the protection and use of geological heritage in a sustainable way, promoting the economic well-being of the people who live there. There are global geoparks and national geoparks. With this year’s additions, the number of sites in the Global UNESCO Geoparks Network is brought to 177 in 46 countries.

Many UNESCO Global Geoparks promote awareness of geological hazards, including volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, and many help prepare disaster mitigation strategies among local communities.

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‘The aim of the centre is to introduce the Aspiring Geopark project and encourage people to explore Jersey and discover its stories along the way. The Island has been shaped by tide and time over millions of years. Jersey’s exceptional geology and important cultural heritage form the outstanding surroundings we enjoy every day.’

With the new threats of climate change and further urban developments- Geopark sites are heavily protected and are spread around the island, they include dolmens, heritage sites-such as Gronez Castle- and rocky outcrops. All sites are significant in Jersey’s heritage- with some sites dating back to over 6,000 years ago.

Sights of Special Interest

Natural Sites of Special Interest (SSIs) are places that are considered to be of public importance because of their special zoological, ecological, botanical or geological interest, or a combination of these and other special qualities.

SSSIs are designated in accordance with the duties in law placed upon each of the country nature conservation bodies (CNCBs) to notify as a SSSI any area of land which, in its opinion, is of special interest by reason of any of its flora, fauna, geological, geomorphological or physiographical features.

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Jersey Sights

The Island’s first ecological Sites of Special Interest (SSIs) were designated in 1996 and we now have 19 – mainly in the south and west of Jersey and covering a total of four per cent of Jersey.

Examples of these sights of special interest are L’Etacq, Le Pinacle and Stinky Bay which are all Geopark sites. These are parts pf the islands incredible history and add to its landscape, they contain many different types of rock including sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.

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Le Pinacle is a protruding pinnacle of rock, at the coastal edge of a Les Landes in the north-west of Jersey, with remains and ruins at its base dating from five periods including the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. There is also evidence of a rectangular Gallo-Roman temple.

L’Etacq was surrounded on two sides by a forest of oak trees. One year, waves moved up St. Ouen’s beach and began to flood the land. The sea rose until it covered the manor, and eventually it covered the oak forest as well. When the tide is very low at St. Ouen, you can still see black tree stumps – the petrified forest, all that remains of the oak trees that once surrounded the manor.

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Frank Gohlke

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Similarities: Above I have demonstrated that I have been influenced by Frank Gohlke’s work. One of the main similarities in our work are the structures within our them, with us both having included tanks means that our work has a visual link to the topic of Anthropocene and the New Topographic, and these themes both explore how human life has impacted the natural environment. This message is reiterated when you think about the fact that the tank may contain naturally occurring substances such as water or oil, and these elements are contradicted by their surroundings, which are man altered metal and other features such as tarmac and houses (in Gohlke’s work). This means that the link between the image go beyond what is just visual. Additionally, the levels of contrast in both of the photographs, with the metal features appearing a range of tones and textures in the photographs. What’s also important to note is the perspective of both of these images, with the composition being similar yet not identical, its apparent that both were taken from afar. My work is a lot closer but the purpose that the tanks are the key focal point of the images is repeated.

Differences: The most apparent difference between my work and Frank Gohlke’s work is the sky. In Gohlke’s work this feature is full of contrast and a focal point for the photograph. I could have made the sky darker in photoshop to make the image stronger and more like Gohlke’s work. However, I still like that the sky is light in my image and it compliments the tones in the tanks, but it separates it from my artist’s work and creates differences. Additionally, the composition of our photographs are unalike as he has been taken from a distant viewpoint and mine is taken from a lot closer up, with mine following the rule of thirds more as mine is more symmetrical with a closer up focal point. Gohlke’s focuses more on a number on manmade objects and lacks a focal point with the tanks so far away.

Bernd and Hilla Becher

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Similarities: I think comparison I have attempted to recreate one of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s pieces, with my photograph being taken at Fort Regent so I could get the best view of the reclaimed land. I like how similar these photographs are as the composition helps it feel as it they have been taken with the intention to look alike. The message behind both of out work has the same purpose, with both of the work demonstrating how much humans have changed the planet, but in this case focusing on cityscapes and how drastic the affects on industrialisation are.

Differences: The way that these images have been edited with there technology at the time is very different, obviously Bernd and Hilla Becher were more limited with what styles of editing they could do and the quality of images they could produce, but the fact that their image is dull and mine had to be greatly edited to match this is an indication of how much manmade technology has changed, and this example is just with cameras. I think this also means that their work turned out to be a more yellow toned image whereas mine has a cooler toned feel.

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Evaluation: I have selected this as my first final image for a number of reasons; I think the composition of the image is one of its main strengths. With the incinerator being in the background towards the left and the metal pipes being very far into the foreground creates a good perceptive and sense of depth. Furthermore, the lighting of the original image was perfect considering the time of day it was taken at, meaning this image required minimal editing and to edit this image all I did was change the saturation of the image from a blue tone to more of a yellow tone, this meant that the final image came out appearing to have been taken at dusk. Additionally, the rule of thirds is demonstrated in this final piece, with the incinerator taking up the first two thirds of the image and the metal pipes taking up the rest. This links to the topic of Anthropocene as it demonstrates how human life has forced the natural landscape to adapt to our needs.

Critique: This piece could be viewed as not having enough components to link to our topic of anthropocene, the fact that this piece is so subtle could be a negative thing as theres not much contrast within this image. The sky isn’t filled with clouds so this image wasn’t as successful edited in a monochromatic way and it could be viewed as dull compared to my other piece of work. Furthermore, the photoshoot during at which this image was taken could have been planned better so that clouds could have present, which would have gave the image more depth.

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Evaluation: This final piece is a reflection on human life on not just the landscape but specifically how human life has affected Jersey, as this photograph of the reclaimed land illustrates how we have been forced to expand our environment in an unnatural way to combat our overpopulation and overconsumption crisis in the island. This image was taken at an angle with shows an overview of Jersey, the composition of the image means that this image is filled with features. Additionally, making this image black and white means that the individual structures become more evident. This piece was taken using manual camera settings and this allowed for the final piece to come out with good lighting, altering the contrast however, does make it look a little bit unexposed.

Critique: The fact that this photograph was taken from such a far point away, it means that there is no focal point within the image and it becomes a little muddy. This is created because of the lack of contrast and texture within the piece. I attempted to create more juxtaposition within the piece, but this didn’t work because of the clear sky in the original image.

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Evaluation: This final piece is probably my favourite all, factors which aid this piece in being one of the best firstly includes the lighting. The original photograph was always one of my strongest and this was only enhanced by adding the colour. By overlapping a border affect is created and this helps create even more contrast between the warm toned pink and cool toned blue. Furthermore, placing the pinker image at a smaller size over the original meant that the unedited image is still visible. This was meant to be an experiment but I really like the ideas of the colours together so this was developed into a final piece. Additionally, the green within the pink photograph is cool toned so despite all of the contrast these images do link together.

Critique: The blue background image is a little lost with the vibrance of the pink in the centre, the overlapping factor mean that a new better piece cane be created but this only occurs when another image has to be compromised. Furthermore, the pink image could have been replaced with a saturated image that complimented the blue border rather than contrasted it.

Evaluation: I have selected this as my last final photograph as it was intended to be a Frank artist reference but it turned out to be one of my most aesthetic images. This is because of the composition of the image, the angle at which it was taken means that the tanks are in the centre. The metal structures and road heavily contrast with the tanks and the sky, I like how half of the photograph is composed of lighter features and half are composed of darker, creating a more cohesive image. I think the message behind this image is more important then the piece itself, I think it has a sense of sadness would could link back to anthropocene as its all about what humans have done to the earth, which are mostly negative factors.

Critique: I think that I could have cropped this image to get rid of the tarmac in the foreground and some of the image could have also been taken away from the left side of the photograph. Despite this image being more true to my artist reference it could be more exciting and possibly (by using Photoshop) only edited the sky within the image to create more contrast and more of a dramatic look, which would also link to our topic of romanticism.

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Evaluation: I have selected this as the arrangement for my final gallery as I think that the lighting of the individual images makes for a more cohesive image. There is lots of contrast within this image and this makes it more successful as its more of an eye-catching piece. The photographs have been placed so that the images with metal pole or water tanks are not next to each other, this is to create differentiation within my work. Additionally I think that the lighting of the image plays out well together as they lighter and darker images are placed next to each other,

Critique: This work could be seen as not a true typology and all the image are of of the same thing or taken in the same way. I have attempted to make the levels or contrast and lighting all the same in each of the images, however, I’m not sure if this was apparent or if all of my images turned out successfully.

Montages

Here I have demonstrated some montage work that I have created from the images above, a combination of monochromatic and colour work. I have also added descriptions and critiques for my work. All of these have been made in Photoshop using a type of cut and paste method to create new photographs from already existing ones.

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I had the idea to create a more interesting piece by combining two half of an image, edited in different way together to add contrast and attempt to make it more aesthetic. I decided to divide this image in this way as I think the incinerator looks better in colour and the contrast and textures in the metal pipes come through more when they have been edited in a monochromatic way.

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Here I have created a montage using two versions of the same images to create a juxtaposition, I used the ‘adjustments’ tool in Photoshop in order to create the pink image in the centre, as this changes the saturation within the image. Additionally, I chose blue and pink as blue is a cool toned colour and pink is a very warm toned colour. I think this image turned out aesthetic as the centre image has hints of green and blue in one section and this helps link the whole piece together, making it more cohesive.

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Here I have mostly images from my first photoshoot in order to create these montages, I think that placing the colour images in the centre was a good decision as it creates an aesthetic focal point for the pieces. Furthermore, the photographs in the background of these get a bit lost but I think the overlapped images help combat this issue, deciding what size to make the central images was the most important part.

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I have reused the first montage above to create this piece, meaning that only half of the image could be edited. The red and turquoise colours contrast well together, however this experiment didn’t turn out as well as expected as there’s not enough contrast or link each half of the photograph. However. I do think the colours bring out structures within the incinerator, such as the metal and glass.

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I have created these two montages, they would link well together as the first original image was taken from outside of the incinerator and the second was taken inside at the top floor, where there are massive glass windows, which enabled me to use the best natural light to take the image. I have layered half of the images over the other half. For the first image I changed the contrast but only for the overlapping image, whereas for the second I cropped the left half of the image, placed it over the centre of the right half of the image and then used the ‘adjustments’ setting to make all of the metalwork blue, with contrasts with the warmth of the yellow.

Multi-exposures

Below I have demonstrated some of my multi exposure ideas, using my photographs and photoshop I have overlapping certain parts of the image and then used the adjustment setting and the opacity to merge the image together, sometimes using colour to eventuate the images. The purpose of these multi exposures is to show how much progress humans have made when it comes to industrialising the island.

I think that creating a multi exposure using one very busy image with another that only has one focal point always makes for good multi exposures. For example above I have used one image with water tanks and another of the overlooking view of Jersey from the top of Fort Regent. I think despite being monochromatic this image turned out to be eye-catching as there is a lot of depth throughout this multi exposure. The top layer of the image has a lot of simple aspects and this contradicts well with the busy background.

This piece was created combining two halves of the same photograph, I think the red and blue colours compliment each other well. This piece could be hard to view as the structures and all of the lines do get muddy, but this could be seen as an abstract way to create a multiple exposure, as the colour adds more elements to the image, and therefore adds to the depth of the image.

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Above I have created a gallery containing an unedited multi exposure and then below the ones edited with colour. I really think the colour helps link to the project of Anthropocene, as the trees and grass often turn out to be contrasting colours, such as the red and blue in the third edit above. This helps us further visualise the difference between manmade and natural structures. I made the multi exposure so that the image of the incinerator was in the background, as I feel like this has been the focus of a lot of my work so far.

Colour Edits

Below I have included some visual examples of my experimenting with the colour settings in Photoshop, sometimes only altering half or one section of the photographs, and other times attempting to illustrate how much of our environment has been shaped by people and how much is natural.

Coloured editing work best with my images which contain metal structures/ objects as the reflective material enhances the colours and makes the pinks and blues lighter. One of the only downfalls of this image is the fact that the original image was not of good quality, the clarity and exposure had to be edited before making this multi exposure, however I still think it turned out successfully as the final piece came out bold and clear. Additionally, the composition of the original photograph made this process easier as there is lots of little details that ended up being nicely edited with the colours.

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To create this piece I have selected the area of the photograph which contains the incinerator in Photoshop, using the polygonal lasso tool. After I changed the colours in this part of the image to make them brighter. This has made the image more aesthetic because it looks like a cartoon part of the photo. It could also be viewed that it appears as though this part of the photograph has been hit more by the sun or taken at a different time of day. This created contrast within the image as the altered part looks fake and the rest of the natural surroundings look real.

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This piece is very similar to the original photograph, as I haven’t done any other editing such as cropping and overlaying images. To edit this I have only changed the saturation of the image to a pink tone, and through this some green tones have appeared underneath the metal on the left side of the image. In my opinion this piece turned out successfully as I have used it to create a montage as well, the colours really eventuate the textures of the metals and I like how it looks like its surrounded by a glowing light, something unnatural to match with the pipes in the image itself.

Sequencing

Below I have included some ideas for sequencing, if one of these were to be my final piece, I would print them out at size A5 and then create a window frame with a black border, these ideas are just digital layouts of how I would do this. I have showed a range of formats for this grid so that I can show my thought process visually. For now I have just created a gallery to demonstrate the layouts, as I have tried to do so in Photoshop but the quality of the images decreased.

1st Attempt

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I have created this layout for my first sequence considering the lighting in each of the images, I think that I have a good contrast between images with lighter and darker exposures. This was in an attempt to make the lighter images stand out and for the silhouette in the darker images to be the focus of them. I think this turned out successful but may be interpreted as random and created without an intention behind it. Furthermore, because the lighting pf the images isn’t the same it means it doesn’t as well to my Bernd and Hilla Becher artist reference.

2nd Attempt

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This sequence was created with the intention of grouping images with similar objects/ structures next to each other, creating subsections within the sequence, I think this links well back to original purpose of sequencing (grouping together images of the same objects) and the lighter photographs have been placed in the central row of the arrangement in order to bring attention to this part of the sequence. This piece is probably the weakest out my experimentations as I think that the randomness of my other work is more aesthetic.

3rd Attempt

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My third attempt at creating a sequence came out as one of my favourites, despite the randomness of this piece, I think that placing my stronger images in the centre of the arrangement or at the top creates a aesthetic focal point for the sequence. In addition, having images with less exposure around the outside and then lighter in the top centre means that your focus is drawn to all of the piece. Alternatively, some of my images look to dark in this piece and I could be viewed as having too much contrast.

Introduction

Below I have included some screenshots and descriptions of how I have edited my images in Lightroom Classic, I have also created a ‘before and after’ gallery below for the monochromatic and colour editing. This makes it easier, along with the explanations, to understand the editing process and how it makes the photographs more aesthetic.

Monochromatic Editing

Process: I have edited this range of images below in order to link back to my Frank Gohlke and this helps me link to his industrial work. During the editing process I firstly altered the photographs so that they had no saturation and vibrancy, then to add definition to the images I created increased the texture, clarity and dehaze. The final part of the editing process was to change the exposure and contrast so features such as the clouds in the sky and other lines within the images would be more present.

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Intentions: In addition to changing these features, the whites and blacks setting came in very helpful as it meant the engravings in the metals became as more prominent part of the edited images. I didn’t think any of these images needed cropping as I think keeping in some of the surroundings means that the photographs look more like some of my selected artists work, making the next comparing and contrasting part of my project easier.

Colour Editing

Explanation/ process: Despite a large part of my project being centred around monochromatic work, I have still included some examples of editing in colour. The process of editing these photos included more adjustments such as cropping, realignment and exposure rather than features such as exposure. Some of these images only needed subtle changes, such as a change in saturation, but including evidence they have been edited means they have a higher chance of being used as some of my final images.

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Outcomes: Above I have just slightly edited these images to enhance them, some of these images don’t look drastically changed, however I think this is a positive as it means me original work was good. For example, I have only changed the exposure, clarity and saturation for most of these images. For the last two images I only changed the tone of the image so that it might now appear to have been taken earlier on in the evening when the sun was higher in the sky. Alternatively, I’ve found that putting down the exposure on some of these photographs meant that they became too saturated, so to fix this issue I had to make some of the images more dull.

Best Edits

Here are some of my best edited images, this process was made easier as these original images were of a high quality compared to the rest of edits, meaning the angles at which they were taken and the lighting (exposure) didn’t need greatly changed.

This photograph is one of my strongest throughout both of my photoshoots, it only required little editing with the exposure being increased by a small amount and the saturation being increased as well. I think that this original image is strong because of the composition and lighting so not many adjustments were required. Having the camera on manual meant that I could change the lighting as the sun was setting, considering this was taken as dusk.

I think this is one of my most successful edits as it very drastic, with the first photograph being full of saturation and the second being full of contrast, both of these images are strong, However, the second links to the work of Frank Gohlke and therefore integrates into my project more, the main changes with this example is the vibrancy, exposure and clarity, as I’ve found the clarity greatly affects monochromatic photos.

I have chosen to edit this photograph in a monochromatic way as aspects of the image such as the glass of the incinerator have been extenuated and now appear more noticeable. This is important as it makes the image more aesthetic and less dull, altering the contrast makes the image more dramatic and links to the topic of romanticism and Ansel Adams.

This image is one filled with buildings and structures which are part of Jersey’s reclaimed land. Making this photograph monochromatic meant that the structures have more contrast between them, as the exposure and shadows settings helped to distinguish between each building, I have tried to create as much contrast within the sky so that this part of the image isn’t lost, as its important when juxtaposing natural and manmade features of the image.

This photograph wasn’t noticeably edited as I thought just changing the image from more of a blue tone to more of a yellow gave the image more vibrancy and a better and different kind of saturation. Furthermore, I altered the exposure by decreasing it so that the focal point of the photograph, the incinerator, would be more recognised.