Contact Sheets

Whilst at Hampton we got the opportunity to take photos of the Living History characters, here I have demonstrated how I took my images, asking the characters to move and hold different objects to create a wider range of images. I think that this range of portraits was my favourite to take as we had some help from Tom Kennedy who showed us how to use reflectors and how to angle the camera to create more legible images.

Final Images

Here I have edited some of my favourite photos from my collection of portraits. In Lightroom I have altered the exposure and white balance to changes the images, also making one black and white. I think that my favourite image would have to be the first one as I like how the image is quite zoomed out, showing the surroundings, whilst till making the character the main aspect of the image. Furthermore, I like how the editing done to this makes the dark browns very dark and the white very clear, creating more contrast.

One of my favourite features of Lightroom is being able to split the screen to show your image before and after it has been edited, this is helpful as you can make a judgement as to whether your image looked better before or after. In addition, the small changes made during editing become more evident, like in my last final image where I have just altered the clarity.

Contact Sheets

Here I have placed some images of contact sheets from Adobe Lightroom Classic, this is to show that I have developed some understanding of how to use Lightroom and how images can be edited to make some of their features stand out such as contrast and vibrancy. I like using Lightroom as I can place my favourite images into collections, this helps when editing my images to make them more aesthetic, and as adjusting their image size so I can make blog posts with the correct image sizes.

Editing

Below I have showed how i have edited my images in Lightroom by inserting screenshots whilst using Lightroom. As you can see above in my contact sheets, a lot of my photos didn’t turn out will as the exposure was to low , therefore their is limited visibility. So I have selected some images to make them lighter and more vibrant. This example of one of the living history characters is a good example of how adjusting the contrast makes the image look more professional.

Below I have demonstrated me organising my images from Hamptonne into folders in Lightroom, this is so when I have thousands of images in the Media drive and in Lightroom, I can easily locate specific image as they will be categorised. Furthermore, I have attempted to sort them into folders which corelate with the blog posts I have been publishing.

History of the Jersey Corn Riots

In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from the Island. Anonymous threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed the following year to keep corn in Jersey. In August 1769 the States of Jersey repealed this law, claiming that crops in the Island were plentiful. Though there was no known loss of life, many came armed with sticks and clubs, and an usher was thrown over the court railing during the disturbance. The event paved the way for major political reform on the island. In the reform, known as the Code of 1771, the Royal Court was stripped of its legislative powers, meaning that from 1771, only the States Assembly could create laws.

The power of protest

At the exhibit we got to see examples of signs and objects people used to protest, it was create to learn about the history of the corn riots and how these riots impacted peoples lives hundreds of years ago. Acts of resistance started taking place. A corn ship about to export goods was raided by a group of women who demanded that the sailors unload their cargo and set about selling it on the Harbour, giving the proceeds to the owner of the vessel. Other disturbances took place, leading to the events of 28 September 1769.

Affects of the Corn Riots at the time

The Lempriere family were exporting corn over what they needed which meant that the people of Jersey were going hungry. The price of corn was increased and the price of rent was increased the monopoly of the Lempriere family was in full force. People came to riot at the royal square and they ordered that their demands be written in the Court book of the time. The Greffier obliged and their orders included demanding a fair price for food and living.  Lempriere family decided they didn’t want to make any of these changes, so they went to London to present the rioters problems to the King. This was done albeit not exactly truthfully, so the King said that all the demands should be erased from the Court records. Locals were obviously furious. But £100 was offered to any rioters who turned another in so many people now changed sides. For Jersey the Corn Riots were the beginning of making the Law fairer for the people of Jersey.

Black history month

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people.

October is black history month, this is especially significant following the unfortunate death of George Floyd last year, which triggered a much vaster way of supporters as his death was spread worldwide through the news and social media. Even through this event was terrible, it expanded the BLM movement and we even held a gathering in Jersey at People’s Park. The BLM movement originally was formed in July 2013 with the use of the #BlackLivesMatter on social media, which went viral on apps such as TikTok.

Camera Obscura

A camera obscura an optical device which is the ancestor of modern cameras. From the 17th century onwards some artists used it as an aid to plotting compositions. Essentially the camera obscura consisted of a lens attached to an aperture on the side of a darkened tent or box. This invention is still relevant today but the first ever model attempt to create a camera obscura came to life when Alhazen first used one all the way back in the 11th century who was a scientist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. In addition, he wrote books and also invented the pinhole camera. This invention revolutionised the Renaissance period as art was could be recorded in another method than paintings, it was also popular as it was more efficient than painting and less time consuming.

Nicephore Niepce

Nicephore Niepce was a french inventor who is known more commonly as the inventor of photography and the pioneer of the field as he created the first photographic image in 1826, taken with a camera obscura, he did this by placing the plate into a camera obscura and positioned it near a window in his second-story workroom.

He “developed” this picture by washing away the unhardened bitumen with lavender water, revealing an image of the rooftops and trees visible from his studio window. And thus the first known photograph was born. Niepce himself called it heliography. advanced his work in 1826 and 1827 when he used a primitive camera to produce the oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene. In addition, Niepce pioneered the future of photography as the term “heliography” became more well-known, his experimentation of using light sensitive materials made for images to be created on plate or stone.

Louis Daguerre and Daguerretypes

Louis Daguerre was was a French artist and photographer, recognised for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography as this process creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. The process required great care. After exposure to light, the plate was developed over hot mercury until an image appeared.

As Daguerre was professional scene painter for the opera with an interest in lighting effects, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s and came to create his first photo in 1838, it was even more impressive as it was of a person in Paris. Furthermore, in contrast with Niepce’s work, this process only requires 20-30 minutes of exposure whilst the first image ever created took around 8 hours.

Henry Fox Talbot

Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes in 1834, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries, he is best known for his development of the calotype, an early photographic process that was an improvement over the daguerreotype of the French inventor Louis Daguerre. In 1842 Talbot received a medal from the British Royal Society for his experiments with the calotype.

A calotype is a process that uses a paper negative to make a print with a softer, less sharp image than the daguerreotype, but because a negative is produced, it is possible to make multiple copies. The image is contained in the fabric of the paper rather than on the surface, so the paper fibres tend to show through on the prints. Talbot also created the oldest negative in existence as he created an image of a latticed window in Lacock Abbey in August 1835.

Richard Maddox

Richard Leach Maddox was an English photographer and physician who invented lightweight gelatin negative plates for photography in 1871. This enabled photographers to use commercial dry plates off the shelf instead of having to prepare their own emulsions in a mobile darkroom. This method involved a glass plate coated with a gelatin emulsion of silver bromide. It can be stored until exposure, and after exposure it can be brought back to a darkroom for development at leisure.

Maddox was influential as, for the first time cameras could be made small enough to be hand-held. This increased photography’s appeal as it was now more convenient, and therefore common. Dry plates were also practical as being pre-coated with a light-sensitive gelatin could be easily transported to external locations and the photos developed at a later time, back in the darkroom, greatly helping photographers to expand their business in outside locations.

History

First introduced by John Herschel, creating cyanotypes is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. Originally Herschel, an astronomer, created cyanotypes as a way of ‘copying his notes’.

Whilst we were at Hampton we had the opportunity to experiment with cyanotypes as it was a perfectly sunny day to collect natural objects such as feathers, leaves and sticks and for the paper to dry quickly. This was a fun new experiment to carry out as i had not learnt about cyanotypes before and it was interesting top see how the reaction on the paper only took one minute to occur. The reaction works when iron compounds react with UV light and washed in water to oxidise to create Prussian blue images.

Anna Atkins

English botanical artist, collector and photographer Anna Atkins was the first person to illustrate a book with photographic images. Her nineteenth-century cyanotypes used light exposure and a simple chemical process to create impressively detailed blueprints of botanical specimens. Anna’s innovative use of new photographic technologies merged art and science, and exemplified the exceptional potential of photography in books.

I like how Atkins’ work includes lots of contrast between the blue and the white, this shows that she is very experiences using this material. In addition, her compositions throughout her pieces of work make the very aesthetic. This image below on the right is my favourite as the different areas of the plant are each very legible and look very natural.

Experimentation

Below I have included an image of the cyanotype I created at Hampton. My composition wasn’t very thought out but I do like how the final piece turned out as the legibility of the induvial strokes of the feather contrast with the washed out background. Furthermore, some parts of this piece didn’t turn out as great as others, as the flower petal near the top left corner doesn’t have a clear outline and its unclear that its part of nature. However, i do like the randomness of this piece is what makes it unique in my opinion, the main part of the piece which is the large leaf makes up the majority of the white.

History of Hamptonne

Hamptonne Country Life Museum gives the visitor a unique insight into the rural life carried on in Jersey for centuries. Dating back to the 15th Century the house and farm are perfect for discovering the rural history of Jersey.  Explore the different houses which make up Hamptonne, find out more about Jersey’s history of cider making in the cider barn and wander through the cider apple orchard and meet the Hamptonne calves, lambs, chickens and piglets in the traditional farmstead. 

Discover Syvret House, a decorated and furnished farmhouse gives a unique window into 1940s rural life, including; agricultural traditions, day-to-day family life, language, religion and the experience of the German Occupation.

It is now part of the Jersey Heritage group, as people can buy memberships and visit Jersey’s historical sites an unlimited amount of times for a fixed price. Tourists love this site as it offers an insight into what life was like during the 15th century.

Living History

At Hampton there are a range of living characters such a housewives and weavers, these characters are there to further help you visualise what life was like 400 years. It was really interesting to see what houses looked like and to learn about ho farms were run centuries ago, in particular how cider as homemade from the apple orchard and the use of horse power.

Furthermore, the weavers talked to us about the history of sewing in Jersey and the laws in which materials had to be made of 3 strings to be sold on the market. They also demonstrated how balls of yarn were made of wool using an old machine, and where original models can be seen. The living history part of Hampton was one of my favourites as we could guide the models and ask they to move and hold different objects, meaning I could take a variety of different photographs.

Way of life in the 15th century

One of the main places to learn about the way of the life in the 15th century was the house in the centre of Hampton, there they had voice overs about life during the and and living with rations whilst we took photographs of older objects such as the metal bath, beds, shoes and the type of food that was eaten. In addition, I enjoyed analysing how different is life is now to that it was like several centuries ago.

I think that it was interesting to learn about the history as it makes us realise how industrialised out world is today, and how back then they had to rely on horse power and no electricity, the real life example of how they used to make cider made this even more fascinating to learn about.

Tom Kennedy and natural lighting

We had time in small groups to talk to Tom Kennedy who demonstrated to us how to properly use natural lighting when taking photographs inside, with the help of (sheets of white and shining plastic) to make sure the light was evenly dispersed around the living history model.

Photography’s Functions

In my opinion there are multiple functions/ uses of photography it can be used to capture memories and events in someone’s personal life, or on the other hand it can become very general and varied, such as pictures of natural events in the newspapers. Furthermore, it can be used to communicate everything that is occurring all around the world at one time, although photographs only capture one point in time and sometimes don’t show the whole story, pictures can communicate important issues such as climate change, mental health and the pandemic. Personally the main function of photography is to capture memories such as holidays around the world and growing up in my childhood home.

Photography as an art form

Photography can be viewed as a from of art and self expression as it can portray someone’s emotions through an image or a collection of images, people can manipulate their images to emphasise specific parts of the image. However, this makes images untrustworthy and misleading, for example when celebrities use photoshop to make their images look more aesthetically pleasing. Photography contrasts with other visual art forms as in my opinion its the most misleading, but can have the most influence other other opinions, mostly because a whole story sometimes cant be told through one photo. Photography as an art illustrates how the work is done by the photographer/ artist rather than jus the camera itself, this allows famous photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson to explain the thought process and development behind his images.

The study and practise of photography

One of my favourite thing about visual arts in general is the many ways in which it can be used in very serious situations such as finding out what a criminals face looks like on CCTV or illustrating how many children starve in third world countries. The practise of photography is very important as even though we might not know it we need it to show evidence of everything from school work, to the discoveries of new planets, as some of my favourite high resolution images are of earth from thousands of miles away. I think that the main benefit from the study of photography is how it can change your perspective on things, anything from the angles and the lighting to the way in which situations are viewed. For example, the famously controversial image that Kevin Carter taken had a serious message behind it, not telling the whole story, whereas if he had included the food bank in the background of his image then maybe it would not have bee as controversial in a negative way, this demonstrates how easily images can be manipulated.

Kevin Carter’s controversial image

Kevin Carter’s photograph above is described as “iconic” as this picture of this starving Sudanese girl and the vulture was published in the New York Times in 1993. The stillness of the bird and the collapsed girl in this image made for a very cold and somewhat sad image, as some think it’s a matter of time before the girl is eaten by the vulture as she is so fragile. In my opinion this image can be seen as haunting and shows the real struggles that people in third world countries experiences. Carter could have aimed to spread awareness for starvation across the world when this image was published, having a good intention behind the image. On the other hand, this image looks a lot more controversial then it actually is, as this is just a snapshot in time, only showing half a story, the parents and food bank were in the background ready to help the little girl.

There was a sad truth about Carter shocked many as his controversial image was linked to his death, which was unfortunately a suicide as he was largely blamed for not helping this child as the public was not aware of the the surroundings as the fact that this child was completely fine despite collapsing. This story highlights the real effects photography sadly has on peoples lives as unfortunately Kevin’s family and friends now have to live with the consequences of this photograph being published too.