1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating  with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.

Jim Goldberg: Raised by Wolves. From 1985-1995, Jim Goldberg worked on the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco getting to know a number of homeless teens, building the relationships that would come to form the basis of Raised by Wolves, the ground-breaking monograph that redefined commonly held notions of documentary work. This photobook describes the stories of runaway, and homeless teens trying to survive on the streets. Jim Goldberg was on the California streets photographing and interviewing his adolescent subjects, their social workers and the police. They all lend a distinct dimension to the harrowing picture of American urban life, and the adversarial institutional culture surrounding it..

2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)

Jim Goldberg is an American artist and photographer, whose work reflects long-term, in-depth collaborations with neglected, ignored, or otherwise outside-the-mainstream populations. “I tried to pull the curtain away and talk about issues of neglect and abuse and show the breadth of reasons why these kids were running from home. Often it was because of abuse, or the pursuit of Hollywood dreams, or coming out to their parents and being kicked out.” Received well by critics, often described as very powerful.

3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:

• Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper: Book uses laminated paper feels very slippery, but creates a good texture on the photographs included, book has a very woody smell to it
• Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both: Uses black and white and coloured photographs, majority of photographs black and white, all paper laminated.
• Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages: Book is portrait, slightly bigger than A4, 315 pages.
• Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello: Soft cover images wrapped on page no dust cover, stich binded.
• Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping:
• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing: Poetic, very intriguing
• Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told: Story is told through the lives of the people photographed within the book, book revolves around runaways and homeless teens.
• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative: Stories of the teens have been put into the book next to photographs to help give understanding to the photographs themselves and to create a deeper narrative within the book.
• Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts: Most images take up a whole page, some double spread images, no fold outs or inserts, one grid.
• Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process: The book takes you through the stories of teens living on the streets with most photographs being black and white to compliment the dark lives of those photographed within the book.
• Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others: Stories of the teens photographed are placed next to images within the book.

Introduction (250-500 words)

Through my narrative personal study, I want to give a ‘voice’ to the historical past of immigrants and why they travel and how they adapt to unfamiliar places as a source of better income. I am going to focus on my grandparent’s story and how they travelled from Madeira to Jersey to seek better income for a better life for themselves and for a better life for my mother and my uncle. 

This topic interests me as there are a lot of immigrants in Jersey, families that have moved here for a better life just like my grandparents. As an island Jersey has opened to places like Madeira. 

There is no specific links between my previous studies and my chosen personal study topic however My grandparents worked at Hamptonne Farm so I will be going back to Hamptonne farm photographing the fields and tracing the path that my grandparents took on their journey for wealth which included a struggle of bringing my mother and uncle over to Jersey due to

I will be incorporating images from my family archive and where I can demonstrate how its modernised from Madeira interlinking with Jersey to what it is like to be an immigrant 30 years in the past to becoming an Entitled Jersey Citizen. 

Paragraph 1 (500 words)

Realism is the opposite of Pictorialism where objects, environments and people are manipulated. Realism is an object, environment, people etc photographed how it can be seen directly through a human’s eye. Realism is focussed on Naturalism with no form of manipulation through scratching onto photo negatives nor pouring chemicals onto images and scratching lines etc.  

I am liking my project to Realism as I want my images photographed as naturalistically as possible to reflect the reality throughout my narrative.  

Paragraph 2 (500 words) 

For my first Artist I am studying Rita Puig

Rita Puig-Serra Costa Where Mimosa Bloom 

https://paper-journal.com/rita-puig-serra-where-mimosa-bloom/#:~:text=Where%20Mimosa%20Bloom%20is%20a,experience%20of%20grief%20after%20loss.

Paragraph 3 (500 words) 

My second artist is

Conclusion (500 words)

Bibliography: 

Our inward-looking Island has become a more accepting place place

https://scalar.usc.edu/works/let-me-get-there/immigrants-photographic-legacy

https://paper-journal.com/rita-puig-serra-where-mimosa-bloom/#:~:text=Where%20Mimosa%20Bloom%20is%20a,experience%20of%20grief%20after%20loss.

WHERE MIMOSA BLOOM

THE PHOTOBOOK ITSELF

“The Middle of Somewhere”, a photobook by Sam Harris contains documentary images of his wife and two daughters travelling India and Australia, focusing on capturing memories of his daughters growing up, with a large reference to growing up living off the land in rural communities. The photobook is not organised in chronological order: purely intending to capture memories, the photobook displays themes of family, fatherhood and growing up.

WHO IS THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Sam Harris created this personal photo project in order to capture memories of his young family’s travel through India and Australia, this project grew into an independently published book that won multiple awards including a Lucie Award 2015, and most recently the People’s Choice for the Australian Photobook of the Year Awards 2015.

WHAT IS THE NARRATIVE, CONCEPT AND DESIGN OF THE BOOK

The book is quite like a scrapbook in a way, deep within the pages lie an amalgamation of scribbled memories, with alternative narratives, diary entries, post-its, hastily scrawled love notes and tea stained prints: with the almost poetic title supplying intrigue to readers as it looks almost like a notebook- with the title being whimsical and vague.

The book is portrait and has a soft card, textured cover, with the look of being hand-drawn and painted with a simple small wraparound containing the name “The Middle of Somewhere” and “Sam Harris” handwritten, presumably by the photographer himself.

Inside the book, pictures are only in colour. Depth and context is added throughout the book in the form of inserts, foldouts and even an almost separate book inside called “Travelogue” containing images from travelling to India and Australia.

There are running motifs throughout the book, with images often only being warm toned and vibrant- obviously since the book is about Harris’ family, images are concentrated on his family and are in (somewhat) chronological order: with text sharing context and background of the images.

As stated before, there is an influx of fold outs and inserts in this photobook, mainly being of text; including recipes, diary entries, context for the images, post it notes written by Harris’ children and even a whole almost other separate book titled “Travelodge” containing images of the young family travelling and living in Australia and India.

The images themselves are not massively edited, it is potential they have been made more vivid or saturated however as they were taken to capture memories- it is unlikely they have been edited. There is one image in black and white featuring a particularly stormy day however all the other images are stylistically vivid in colour, mainly warm tones however rich greens and blues are presented.

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Examples of Martin’s Work

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“We all know our landscape is constantly changing, but as we live in the moment we rarely perceive a big sense of difference”

Michael Marten

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From looking at Martins work I gather that he aims to illustrate the ebbs and flows of our environment by taking two photos of the same coastal location at both low and high water, and displaying them side by side. A majority of his images show intense drastic landscape changes in coastal environments, with minimal editing or colour grading – just him leaving original tones and colours.

What his images portray is very closely linked to islandness in the way that he portrays the sea and tidal changes, which is the defining part of island living and will link in nicely with my personal study as I look into what disconnects the island of Jersey from the rest of the world.

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I chose to reference Michaels’s work as I feel that it links well into the overall theme of islandness as it obviously portrays coastal movements of the sea which I a key part of island living; but more specifically my focus on loneliness, isolation and disconnection. This is seen in his photos where he captures busy beaches full of people and then the same beach when it becomes unreachable during high tide.

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In these photos, Micheal takes advantage of natural lighting in order to give a massive contrast between the before and after. By efficiently timing his shoots in accordance with the tidal range he was able to capture low tide at a time when the beach was busy with people and the sun was out providing a light, clear image. He has used a tripod to keep the same angle in both images, and by using a wide shot it captures more people, contributing to the contrast in the second image as they would all be covered.

In the second image, the tide has obviously come up covering the beach which was once full of people. The lighting is much darker as the photo was taken later in the day, but when given context from the first image it makes it slightly eerie.

Michael has used the bridge in the centre as a focal point which makes it clear that the two images are of the same place. Michael also used a slightly slower shutter speed to create a bit of blur while the waves crashed over.

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I will be attempting to create my own selection of similar images by photographing coastal points such as Gorey Harbour, Le Hurrel Slip, and St Helier Harbour. I will be doing this by photographing POIs at low tide and high tide, keeping a specific angle by marking my tripod and where I place it.

Diana Markosian is an American and Russian visual artist who uses both film and photography to portray her roots. Her series ‘Inventing My Father’ and ‘Mornings (With You)’ depicts her relationship with her father after not seeing him on almost 20 years after moving away when she was 7. The series also includes text about her relationship with him, focussing on the awkward tension between them as they both view each other as strangers.

I feel inspired by her images due to how they’re clearly laced with personal and emotional aspects. The amount of time that she’s put into creating each individual image along with how she’s chosen to compose, edit, and present them allows us to see the emotional distance between her and the people within each image yet still portrays the warmth she feels for them. I hope I can portray a similar feeling within my own project by looking further into her work.

PICTORIALISM

time period : 1880-1920

Key characteristics/ conventions : images that resemble paintings blurred fuzzy imagery to make photography art

Artists associated: Clarence H. White, Peter Henry Emerson

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes: scratching and brushing in darkroom and soft focus Vaseline on lens

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period: 1880-1920

Key characteristics/ conventions :  photographs that are not manipulated, either in the taking of the image or by darkroom or digital processes, but sharply depict the scene or subject as the camera sees it.

Artists associated: Clarence H. White

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

MODERNISM

Time period:

Key characteristics/ conventions :

Artists associated:

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

POST-MODERNISM

Time period:

Key characteristics/ conventions :

Artists associated:

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

Daniel W. Coburn is an American photographer who doesn’t follow traditional methods of photography, often using a slow shutter speed to create purposefully blurred images along with a mix of well focused images to represent his ideas.

I am particularly inspired by his series ‘Next of Kin’ where he staged photographs of his immediate family members and explored various themes without sugar coating how he and his family are together, leaving him with a raw set of images rather than creating the stereotypical, picture-perfect photo album. Along with that, I also take inspiration from his series ‘The Hereditary Estate’ where he continues with the theme mentioned above whilst delving into the darker side of his family history, highlighting what would’ve otherwise been supressed. In this series, however, he chose to take exclusively black and white photos of objects and places rather than just focusing on his family members, creating a more emotional response, especially once compared to ‘Next of Kin’, almost making it seem as everyone has disappeared.

I plan on taking some photos in a similar style as Coburn, using careful composition of me and my parents mixed in with some images of personal items/places in order to create a meaningful set of photos.

Next of Kin Series: Examples

The Hereditary Estate Series: Examples

The plan for this photoshoot is on this blogpost.

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Editing

Contact Sheet:

(As this was my first ever attempt at a night photography shoot, a lot of the images were blackened out).

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To start editing, I selected the images that I could use for potential final images by using the ‘Pick’ and ‘Reject’ tools on Lightroom.

I then narrowed my selection down further by using the star rating tool, these are the images 4 stars or higher:

This is my final selection of images:

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Final Edited Images:

I also made black and white versions of each image, this wasn’t the most effective however:

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Comparison with Lawrence’s work:

I was inspired by this particular image taken by Lawrence, the bright red in Lawrence’s image was what I was going for with this image, however I did not have the knowledge and skill at night photography than I do now, which meant my photographs weren’t as bright as Lawrence’s. Both mine and Lawrence’s images depict a tree under artificial lighting, the tree photographed by Lawrence has a more ethereal and open shape, while mine is a more angular and enclosed shape. My images likely had a far longer exposure time than Lawrence’s (due to my lack of knowledge), however as a result, the stars in my images take the form of lines instead of dots, creating a unique and otherworldly appearance. My light source likely having a smaller radius than Lawrence’s made my photograph have a large amount of shadows that contrast wit the bright reds, unlike Lawrence’s image in which the tree is almost fully lit-up.

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Evaluation

As a first experience to night photography, I think this shoot went well. I enjoyed the process as it is very different to regular photography as there is a sense of surprise as to what the images will turn out like. I think my use of light was effective and I got the hang of the exposure times the more images I took (in this case the exposure times were up to 3-4 minutes). I enjoyed experimenting with the gels as they gave each image a different tone and execution, due to the varying exposure times they require.

What went well:

I think the images good compositionally, with the tree being the central focus of the image, mixed with the slightly upwards facing viewpoint to include some of the sky and stars (which created a nice effect due to the longer exposures). I think the use of coloured lighting gives the image an otherworldly effect, which matches with the main idea behind this project, meaning I have stuck to my ideas well.

How I can improve:

While the images have nice lighting and colours, they are slightly out of focus, giving the images a noticeable blur. I could still use these images for a final piece if it involves heavy editing or distortion. This is simply inexperience with this genre which caused this mistake, if I try a photoshoot like this I will aim to make the focus correct so the images look as high quality as possible.

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Part Two of this photoshoot here.

‘She Dances on Jackson’ Photobook by Vanessa Winship.

1. Research a photo-book. 

(describe the story it is communicating  with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making)

‘She Dances on Jackson’ communicates a story of how Winship tries to understand the link between the landscape/territory and its inhabitants within the United States who are living the ‘American dream’. She attempts to show this link through travelling through a vast amount of states such as California, Virginia, New Mexico, Montana, etc and how she views them from her perspective. The genre of the photobook ‘She Dances on Jackson’ is a exhibition catalogue, an exhibition catalogue is seen as a book that describes a temporary exhibition within a museum/art gallery which includes main images/descriptions of the exhibit and its theme. Therefore, this leads into the approach that Vanessa Winship takes within her photobook ‘She Dances on Jackson’ which is where she photographs a person and the landscape that they link too, this can be seen through the layout of the photobook where there is a picture of a person which is then followed by a landscape on the opposing page.

2. Who is the photographer?

(Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)

Vanessa Winship is the photographer who created the photobook ‘She Dances on Jackson’ and the funding for this project across the United States was from her being the 2011 winner of the Henri Cartier-Bresson award. The reasons as to why she created it is to emphasize the connection between the subject and photographer (in the portraits) as they are aware of themselves when she is photographing them, although they are strangers which she encounters throughout her travels in different American cities and towns. This creates a contrast between the landscapes which she photographs within her book as the photos mainly include no people but have curious and unique alterations to the landscape in which she photographs, creating a nice flow between the person and landscape. The intended audience for this photobook is not specific as it is a personal project made by Winship but the title came from an a moment in which she was shooting in Jackson, Mississippi where a young girl began to dance with her mother to a band a train station and the two hold a strong connection and Winship became curious on their relationship, who they were and where they are going.

3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design:

• Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.
• Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
• Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
• Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello
• Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping.
• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.
• Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative.
• Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
• Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
• Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others.  Use of captions (if any.)

The book which I have chosen to look at feels quite big but light and easy to carry in your hands, yet you wouldn’t bring it around with you everyday as it is impractical. The first 2 pages when you open the book are black which sets the theme throughout the book as the photos which are featured are also printed in black and white. This leads on to the first page, which is a creamy white like the rest of the pages in the book, on the book which has the title ‘she dances on Jackson’ in a small grey print which then flows to a plain page which is followed by a photo on the opposing page of a landscape. This then leads to the introductory page of the right side of the book which features Vanessa Winship’s name, then the title underneath and on the bottom right of the page the word ‘MACK’ is written in a small block font. This creates a lead for the rest of book which follows the pattern of the left side of the book being plain and the right side holding a picture in black and white, although this alternates in some parts swapping positions, which alternates between a landscape and person each time. The format of the book is square A4 and holds over 200 pages and the front cover has a linen texture. It includes a photo from Winship’s work that is found within the book and it is turned into red for the background colours and the silhouette of the trees/birds/grass are coloured in black. The title ‘she dances on Jackson’ is in a small letterpress print on the bottom right of the cover in silver. It is barely seen, due to its small size, but has a faint glow to it depending on the light which shows simplicity and solitude which are themes that are carried throughout the book recounting Winship’s journey across America. Most of the photos within the book create a story of finding people who live in these areas which Winship has explored and photographing the landscape in which they live in or one she thinks matches their nature, this creates a link between the subject and landscape as there is a sense of identity found within the photos, as many of the photos have people of different ethnicities, classes, etc. The photos stories are left for you to decide on the story in which they hold as there aren’t any captions to guide you through the narrative of the book, making the book simplistic yet effective in what it is describing as the ‘American dream’.

“FOR EVERY MINUTE YOU ARE ANGRY YOU LOSE 60 SECONDS OF HAPPINESS”

Made by Julian German, who happened to meet an old man named Charles Albert Lucien Snelling after spotting his unique coloured house with plants for sale outside. I can perceive this book as being made with the intention of entertaining and enlightening people.

This specific book is a hardcover made of a unique canvas material, with prints of white, yellow, green and blue flowers around it. The cover also includes a silkscreened title box with the book name and authors name. Its slightly bigger/more square than A4 size in a portrait layout, and doesn’t include page numbers but I can estimate there to be around 30. I find the title is clearly literal but is an attempt to be an intriguing way of putting a phrase to make it more rememberable- while also foreshadowing how the contents are meant to be pleasant and enjoyable to consume.

The story is based around an old widower who has a passion for flowers, but can gauge that the creator chose to write on him after being intrigued by his simplistic life and general happiness and content with this life. This is shown as Julian takes a look into his simple life, including lots of shots of the man himself, along with shots of his old house, and lots of shots of his flowers/flower themed décor. Julian has for the most part stuck to one image per page, bar images of the man’s personal photo books featured on the first and last few pages. Julian has left many a page blank, and photos with minimal editing; which i perceive as a an attempt to focus the viewers attention on the striking simplicity of the images and overall the life of the man he is portraying.