Narrative: What is your story?
Describe in:

• 3 words:

Comfort, adventure, nature

• A sentence:

Follow the path of the many beautiful places which are found throughout Jersey, you’ll never know what you might find.

• A paragraph:

Jersey holds many different pathways for you to explore. There are so many different valleys, woods, trails for you to go and see. It provides you with a sense of comfort and tranquillity as the chirping of the birds fills the air and the rushing of the water flowing by in a stream guides you throughout.

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Design: Consider the following…

• How you want your book to look and feel:

Portrait, sleek, smooth.

• Paper, ink, format, size and orientation:

Shiny paper, a small amount of text throughout which discusses the journey that the photobook takes you on when you see the various naturistic landscapes of Jersey.

• Binding and cover:

Hard cover.

• Title:

Unsure of title.

• Design and layout:

To have a page which is blank every couple of pages, alternate between having a couple of black and white pictures to colour, make sure that an image of a person/animal appears every 4-5 pages to create a story.

• Editing and sequencing:

Black and white and colour, pair most images up, leave a few for single paged images and full page spreads.

• Text:

Have a small amount of text included to provide a story throughout the book, do not overload it, keep it short and simple.

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Mood board –

This is my mood board which is compromised of images of different layouts and covers that resemble the theme of nature and weather photography as that is the theme for my photobook. I really liked full page spreads or spreads with photos that correlate together on each side but I will also incorporate single page spreads as well within my photobook for photos which work well as stand alone images.

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Contact sheets

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The aim for this photshoot was to create 3 or 4 pieces inspired by Michael Marten, and capture the changing of the tide in the harbour of Gorey. I used photos of my tripod positioning to get the same angles and framing for both pictures as shown below.

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Selections

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“Youth culture refers to the societal norms of children, adolescents, and young adults… distinct from those of adults in the community.” (Wikipedia: 2022)

Actions and attitudes, styles and behaviours, music, and beliefs, are all factors which make up ‘Youth Culture’. Similar to animals, youth tend to be reckless and stick together in pacts where they feel most comfortable, accepted, and familiar. Young adults, differ from adults in the sense where they don’t take things so seriously, they’re brains are still mouldable, they tend to be quite ‘careless’, they are free. I have chosen this area of research because as a teen in Jersey, I am aware of the struggles and hardships we face living on a small island where we often feel trapped and suffocated, with little places to go and a lack of new things to see. The pressure we are faced with living in such a small community, where everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business. Justine Kurland and Ryan McGinley both capture youth culture in ways of rebelling against their countries, Kurland focussing on escaping this idea of ‘The American Dream’ and McGinley on rebelling the governing law. The two photographers capture youth culture in vastly diverse ways, Kurland’s, being soft and fairy tale-like while McGinley’s displays a much grittier, and rougher lifestyle. In this essay, I intend to create an understanding of Justine Kurland’s work from her book ‘Girl Pictures’, I also intend to compare and discuss the work of Ryan McGinley’s ‘The Kids Were Alright’

Abigail Solomon Godeau, a famous writer and postmodern critic, discussed what she refers to as the inside/outside positions which photographers can take when photographing their subjects. The binary opposing views of inside/out is at the heart of Godeau discussion. An outside perspective may come across as: voyeuristic, objectifying, distant, alienated/alienating, touristic, unsympathetic. On the other hand; an inside perspective: privileged, intimate, trusting, sympathetic/empathic, engaged, participatory. Godeau refers to a criticism by Susan Sontag in relation to the work of Diane Arbus, within the criticism, Sontag states that because Arbus has an outside perspective the involvement becomes unsympathetic, objectifying, and voyeuristic. Susan Sontag argued that certain forms of photographic depiction were especially complicit with processes of objectification that precluded either empathy or identification “Arbus was indicted as a voyeuristic and deeply morbid connoisseur of the horrible.”- (Solomon-Godeau year: pg no). Seemingly, it means that an outside position when photographing a subject is wrong on moral terms and an inside position is good “engagement, participation and privileged knowledge.”. Ultimately, Godeau’s aim was to find or create a sense of truth towards photography.

Justine Kurland, a runaway, was born in Warsaw, New York 1969, Kurland is known for capturing utopian landscapes and communities which often have a sense of going against the American dream. I was heavily drawn in by her book ‘Girls Pictures’, in which we are introduced to utopic feminist alternative to the American existence. Within the book we are introduced to a group of girls travelling through the different seasons and terrains of America, ‘runaways’. ‘I don’t know any of the girls in Justine Kurland’s Girl Pictures, but it really feels like I do. Or at least, I must have seen them. Maybe they were there on the side of the highway, or in some public restroom, or just standing on a sidewalk as I passed by. The girls in their baggy jeans and bare feet. The girls in their leather boots and used sweaters. There’s something about them that feels like so many teenage girls. The images in this book weigh me down with a sense of nostalgia, and it’s not just the late nineties fashion. It’s the fact that the girls seem to be disappearing. Like catching a wild animal in a trap, it feels like by the time you look at each image of these girls you’ve already missed them. They’ve run off to someplace better or just some place that isn’t here.’ (reference using Harvard) I was intrigued by Kurland work, I found a huge sense of personal familiarity within her pictures which I feel relate to the youth of Jersey so perfectly, the need to escape, to discover the unknown, fleeing the nest in which we often feel trapped, suffocated.

‘Girls pictures’ is a source of fantasy escapism which captures a sentiment and desire in which a lot of youth desire. The images tell the story of teenage girls who are runaways while living in the periphery of American life, wild yet still in ways dystopically connected to humanity through roadways, drainpipes, overpasses, buildings, and cars. It does become clear to see that the images are constructed however the images hold an energy which seems candid. The images creating an overwhelming alluring sense of freedom as well as a sense of ‘sisterhood’, brought on by the continuous theme of pacts, it is rare to see an image of a girl alone. Kurland, as a young girl, was too a runaway. Her past life experiences give Kurland an inside perspective on the nature of the subjects making the images authentic although constructed. However, Kurland was an adult at the time she had taken these images she also does have an outside perspective. How did she know the youth then was the same as when she was a young runaway? Was it genuine?

The construction of Kurland’s images is fascinating, not only do the images feel nostalgic, from the early 2000’s wardrobe and the sense of carefree silliness. Kurland’s images reference the style of the spirited tableaus reminiscent of rococo art which originated in France in the early 18th century which depicted middle class youth embracing nature through play, often captured in pastel colours. Rococo art also captures art in a constructed yet candid way as if they were trying to capture a lively moment. The freedom within this art translates directly to Kurland’s work, through her use of capturing images in a soft light on overcast days or early morning rather than the beaming midday American sun. Kurland has also referred to Arthur Rackham, an English illustrator known for his depictions on fairy tales as a source of inspiration for the project, giving the photo collection a huge sense of a story book. Rackham’s illustrations feature characters embracing and connected with nature in a playful sense. Kurland’s image ‘The Bathers’ allude to a history of paintings under the same title such as Cezanne’s ‘The Large Bathers’.

Kurland’s images are almost cinematic and create a narrative from a single image, a popular theme in 90s photography, also seen with photographers such as Jeff Wall and Gregory Crewdson, two photographers in which Kurland studied during her time at Yale. Kurland’s images favour wide, horizontal frames which almost seem as if they are stills from a film, they allow the imagination to imagine a story, when being compared to images from someone like Gregory Crewdson, seem a lot more real from her skill in disguising the construction and from that we are pulled so deeply into the story of her characters and their lives creating less of an establishment and more of an emotional feeling.

This image is called ‘Puppy Love, fire for sale’, the first thing I notice when I see this image, similar to many others by Kurland, is the abolishment of gender stereotypes. The image features girls in clothes which differ from skirts and dresses, they are seen in dirty denim and relaxed hair. The fire pit pouring with flames could be a metaphor for the fire and drive which is keeping these runaways going. The makeshift tents show that the girls, although young, can take care of themselves. The pink and blue tents seemed to be split apart, this could perhaps represent the social split between boys and girls in a metaphorical meaning or perhaps in a literary sense as this is a girls only adventure. The girl wrapped in a blanket in the background of the image makes me want to know where she has been: collecting wood for the fire? Sourcing berries?… The focal image of the image is the fire pit, which leads our eyes to the tired looking girls surrounding it perhaps suggesting they have had a day of adventure. The lighting is soft and seems to be early evening, the vibrant orange laying onto the girls skin highlight their energy and optimism. It could be said that in this photo Kurland has an outside perspective as she is older, she may not feel the possible fear or unease that the girls are feeling, while the girls are sleeping in their makeshift tents, will she be sleeping in her van? However, following back up with Kurland’s past of being a runaway, she probably knows exactly how it feels to be sleeping in an open place with minimal shelter.

Ryan McGinley, an American photographer, began his journey in New York City in 1998. McGinley’s work on ‘The kids were alright’ features photographs and polaroid’s of youth in New York City in the late 90s with a documentary approach. McGinley creates a powerful portrait of his generation, from representation of their debauched lifestyles in a gritty, rebellious, and daring way often focussing on moments of both pleasure and pain, fun, and boredom. The kids were alright exploring McGinley and his friends in states of varying nudity, ecstasy, and Reckless abandon. McGinley has a vast inside perspective on this project, some of his images being taken as a way of him remembering what he had done that evening when he woke up the next day, we are seeing an almost authentic and real intake of 90s New York youth.

McGinley uses a post-modern approach to his work, Postmodernism was the collective name given to the shattering of modernism. In photography this was the direct challenge to the ideal of fine art photography whose values were established on an anti-commercial stance. McGinley really approached the insider perspective with depth, allowing us in on events such as moments shared with his first boyfriend, giving us a much more intimate and possessive view of his life through his work. McGinley’s work holds a huge sense of freedom and living in the moment, Dash Snow, a multimedia artist who covers the drug fuelled anarchy of New York life commented ‘People fall in love with McGinley’s work because it tells a story about liberation and hedonism’ (reference using Harvard). ‘The Kids were Alright’ beautifully captures the raw fun and emotion of youth, it embodies the prevalence of an unspoken sex culture as well as diving into the gay and queer culture In New York, something seemingly lost and hidden due to the HIV hysteria. McGinley captured the weird and unwashed, the bloody and the truth.

This image by Ryan McGinley, show the subject holding two bags of seemingly narcotics over his eyes, his could suggest that the influence of drugs is all around him, being shoved in his face through television, music, the media and from general surroundings. This could also suggest, drug culture, which links with sub cultures such as youth and sex culture, two cultures which McGinley covers. These young people are chasing a high, states of ecstasy perhaps to escape the depression and calamity surrounding them with the AIDS virus. The boys T-Shirt displays some sort of mockery towards the police, perhaps suggesting the ACAB movement. This picture seems exciting, the boy is wearing his bag suggesting that they are about to go somewhere or just arriving somewhere. Where are they going

In conclusion, Ryan McGinley and Justine Kurland represented youth culture from an inside perspective, focussing on familiarity and personal experiences. Justine Kurland fairy-tale like photos ultimately being a representation of her past as a young runaway while also expressing her views and hatred of the American Dream. Ryan McGinley used his current place in life in a documentary way to capture the rebellious fun as well as a portal to express his emotions as a young gay may in the midst of the AIDS virus while just wanting to be young and free. Within my own work, i attempted to capture moments of careless fun e.g. hanging out with my friends, I also included images which I had taken at festivals and raves. In response to Kurland, I wanted top emulate the style of her very soft and light images in which I focussed on capturing inside to make it more authentic to my group. In relation to McGinley, I captured more grungy black and white images which tend to be at night time.

Write a bibliography using Harvard system

Bibliography

https://www.photopedagogy.com/uploads/5/0/0/9/50097419/week_5_abigail_solomon-godeau_inside_out.pdf

https://www.miandn.com/artists/justine-kurland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justine_Kurland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_McGinley

How has Tristan Still and Fred Mortagne explored the movement in skateboarding within their work?

SKATEBOARDING IS FAR BETTER THAN ANYTHING MAGAZINE’. ‘The spine of British skateboarding magazine ‘Sidewalk Surfer’, Issue 24, March ’98. One would be hard pressed to find a skateboarder who would disagree. The words – ‘Skateboarding is better than sex’ – more than once have been uttered to me at a skate park or dropped in a philosophical discussion of life between skateboarders. In this study I am going to investigate how the world of skateboarding and the movement in it can be portrayed through photography, capturing photographs from unusual angles that you do not usually see in skateboarding photography. I have been skateboarding from the age of 13 and have always been interested in the media side of skateboarding, whether that is filming or photographing skateboarding. I want to show in this study how the world can be portrayed through skateboarding and how differently the world is seen through a skateboarder’s eyes. Two photographers pop up in mind when I think about my intentions with this study, Tristan Still and Fred Mortagne. These certain photographers portray the world of skateboarding in their own unique ways, with Fred Mortagne even being nicknamed ‘Frangle’ – the unusual angle only he sees. Both artists have been documenting skateboarding since the 1990s, when skateboarding first started gaining popularity, capturing genuine and gritty shots of early skateboarders. This study could be linked with my previous urban photography work, as skateboarding is all about finding new spots within urban areas to experiment different tricks with. In this study I have explored finding new unused angles within the urban area of jersey as well as the skatepark to capture unique photographs of skaters. My work has developed from just taking my camera out with me every time I go for a skate with my friends, taking photographs of them as we skate about to create this photobook. Different digital processes were used to create some of my final images, such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom editing.

Both of my artists and my own work seem to relate to the photographic movement of Realism. Photo-realism first emerged in America in the 1960’s, it grew out of the Pop and Minimalism movements that preceded it. Photorealists were interested in breaking down hierarchies of appropriate subject matter by including everyday scenes of commercial life in their work. One of the biggest influences of the Photo-realism movement was Walker Evans, born in 1903 he is best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression, his elegant, crystal-clear photographs and articulate publications have inspired several generations of artists. Artists such as Paul Strand photographed subjects on the streets of New York, to which he referred his work as ‘Straight Photography’. With Straight Photography the goal was to depict a scene or subject in sharp focus and detail, many photographers used darkroom techniques and manipulation to their images to enhance the appearance of their photographs. Skateboarding photography fits perfectly into the subject of ‘Straight Photography’, capturing your subject with sharp focus as they attempt to land a trick, or capturing a photograph of multiple skaters with sharp detail as they all attempt tricks. Skateboarding photography started to emerge in the 1980’s, around the same time ‘street’ skateboarding first started to gain popularity. Skaters would go out with whatever camera they had and start documenting their sport. During the early days of skate photography, magazines, zines, and write-ups from media were almost the only way to distribute the photographs taken by these photographers, with one of the artists I am exploring mainly having their photographs portrayed through magazines. As the Internet became bigger and more dominant photographers could easily show off their work through apps such as Instagram the landscape of skateboarding photography was altered indefinitely. It became very easy to show off skate photography, gaining it much more attention and leading to a very big variety of different styles of skate photography. Weather theses different styles involved using different lenses or photo manipulation techniques, skateboarding photography has evolved so much since it first started to emerge in the early 1980’s.

The first photographer who I am exploring is Tristan Still, a multidisciplinary artist whose work is driven by his own personal relations, mostly in the photographic practice. His work has been published internationally and has won several awards for his work over his career. From 1996 to 2011 Tristan Still photographed skateboarders all over Australia in what he describes as his ‘personal search for Animal Chin,’ the proclaimed founder of skateboarding. ‘Skateboarding is powerful enough to change one’s vision of the world – concrete is no longer simply a building material, a bench is no longer just for sitting, and stairs and accompanying handrails are no longer simply devices to aid one in descending or ascending from one level to another. The urban world is a massive and intricate playground to be explored, full of potential.’ (reference using Harvard system) Tristan Stills work on skateboarding features not just the skateboarders posing and doing tricks, but also has a focus on the movements behind these tricks. Landing certain tricks with the right movements can be extremely difficult and Tristan Captures the right movements and moments within his photography. In this image photographed by Tristan, it showcases the perfect movement and moment a skater is mid-air in a stylistic pose. The image is shot in black and white, which I believe is very effective and adds focus to the main subject of the image, the movement of the skateboarder, as well as this, the black and white colouring of the image makes it much easier to see just how much height the skater has managed to get making the photograph much more impressive. The black grainy edges around the image seem to almost pinpoint the skater as the main subject of the image also, making it a much more effective image.

The second artist whose work I am exploring is Fred Mortagne, a French born artist who has a unique style of photographing skateboarders. As a teenager, Fred Mortagne shot his friends skateboarding through the historic city centre of his home Lyon. He grew to film and photograph some of skateboarding’s most iconic characters. Bit by bit, Mortagne began to blend still photography into his film. ‘I became used to visualising angles that would be good for photography, but didn’t necessarily work for video’, (reference using Harvard system) employing a 24-90mm lens with a high ISO so he can get a better grain within his images he has become known for picturing from angles no one else sees. Mortagne got one of his earliest shots of a skateboarder coursing through a hotels carpark while leaning off a balcony of a hotel room on the 17th floor. ‘Bewitched by skateboarding at the age of 8, my passion for the “useless wooden toy” eventually became the catalyst for my life to come. While feeling out of place at school, entering the adult world seemed like a never-ending foggy day. No perspectives at sight. Skateboarding was the only guiding light. It brought all the missing links: freedom, fun, friends, adventures… and all of a sudden, my future gained clarity.’ (reference using Harvard system) Mortagne’s work almost completely consists of black and white images, this creates a clear contrast between the skateboarders pictured in his images and the landscape surrounding them. With usual skateboarding photography, the focus is mainly on the subject within that image, but with Mortagne’s work the focus seems to be on the environment that the subject is within, leading to some very interesting pieces of work. Nearly 25 years since Mortagne started filming skaters he released his first photobook titled “Attraper Au Vol” (Catch in the Air) and features images of skaters on locations all over the world. ‘With skateboarding, you travel a lot trying to find new spots, we skate around modern buildings which often also happen to be very photogenic’ (reference using Harvard system). Mortagne explains that when you film skateboarders it is very close up, so you lose the dimension of where the skateboarders fully are, and he wanted to recapture that dimension within his photography. Attraper au vol is the culmination of Mortagne’s photographic career, from 2000 to 2015. A feast of lines and angles, his black-and-white compositions blend his subjects into their environments, offering an abstract perspective on architecture, geometry and the human figure. This image from Mortagne showcases the idea behind his work very well. The picture shows a skateboarder attempting a varial flip, as he is pictured from a very unusual angle that is showcasing architecture of a city as well, which is a unique but effective take on skateboarding photography. The skaters movement is perfectly captured within an opening of the architecture suggesting that anywhere can be skated with the right movements.

In conclusion, both artists who I have explored, Tristan Still and Fred Mortagne, showcase the movement of skateboarders through photography in their own ways. Tristan Still using a more traditional way of capturing skaters, showcasing the movements through up close shots as well as clear wide shots of skaters attempting tricks and skating around. While Fred Mortagne uses a less traditional way of capturing the movements of skaters, using unusual angles through the landscape around them to create some very interesting pieces of work. Both artists approach to photographing skateboarding is very different, however they both have the same outcomes, capturing the movement of skaters perfectly within their environments. Both artists have photographed in black and white, which I believe has made their work even more impactful as it provides a main focus on the subjects in the image instead of their surroundings, where the focus may be lost and the whole image would become less effective. Overall, both artists have used their own unique styles to capture the movement within skateboarding very effectively.

Bibliography

Renaldi, R. (2017), BJP #7856: Tales of the City

https://www.tristanstill.com/skateboarding-life

In what ways has LaToya Ruby Frazier represented identity between generations of women?

“It’s imperative we tell our own stories, controlling the framework, content and narrative” (LaToya Ruby Frazier, 2018)

This essay will explore how female identity has been represented through different generations of women. The hypothesis will draw upon the work of LaToya Ruby Frazier , particularly the work around Braddock and the social, economical and political changes that her hometown has had on her family. For example, research into her celebrated body of work, The Notion of Family, published in 2014 has enabled me to gain different perspectives on the role of feminism in art, the influence of female role models within family structures, and how women are represented in photography specifically. Growing up with a single mother and solely women in my upbringing has influenced my interest in my essay topic and led to my research in the representation of women in art and historical family roles. In her book The Notion of Family, Frazier uses poignant images of multiple generations of women in her family. These images highlight the history of her family and the plight they have faced as working-class African American women in an ex-mining town in rural America. The intimate, deeply personal portraits in this photobook create thought-provoking sentiments about the ideas of womanhood, women in the family and female identity throughout multiple generations. She considers her work a “conceptual documentary”,(Harris, 2014), and she uses her work not only to show that of familial relationships, but “as a vehicle for both social change and aesthetic possibility: beauty, in her work, does not preclude protest any more than education presumes awareness.”. These ideas further influenced my interest in Frazier’s work, and this is something that I like to use in my work. Frazier’s documentarian approach creates more insightful images, with heavily contextual images detailing the struggles of those whose voices often go unheard: not only women but working-class, African American women.

To respond to my selected artists, I am using archival images as well as new images of myself, my mother and my grandmother, drawing inspiration from family records. I plan to compare feeling, pose and appearance between new and archive images (taken from photo albums), to produce a thoughtful commentary on how female identity changes through three generations. I will explore this mainly through photomontage and collage, a method that I have used successfully in the past and want to develop in this project. Subsequently, in this essay, I will discuss the historical representation of women: in art, photography, and families and reference my key artist and her work about female identity and generations of women.

Throughout many periods of history, both in society, culture and art, the portrayal of women, the ‘role of a woman’ and family structures are presented in many different ways. Throughout historical western society, women have been consistently presented as the primary caregivers, both for their children, for the home and their husbands. This can be seen in sculpture and art dating back to as early as the 1500s. Women in art around his period and up until the late 20th century were presented as fragile and soft and as a “passive object, and the receiver of an active male gaze” (Kaufman 2005). For example, in the Italian renaissance, women were, like women of the middle ages, denied all political rights and considered legally bound to their husbands. Women were considered merely housewives, and if not married were not allowed to live independently. During this period, women were presented in art as vain, and self-obsessed figures were presented only for the pleasure of the male onlooker. For example, in Giovanni Bellini’s 1515 painting “Young Woman at her Toilette”, the nude female subject is presented as a symbol of wealth, with Bellini using rich green tones and the feature of a Venetian landscape to her left. This painting connotes a sense of calm and softness, which further highlights the way women were represented during the renaissance period.

With the invention of photography in the early 19th century, the representations of women were seemingly unchanged. Male photographers dominated the art, with the majority of images extremely serious and posed. Family portraits at this time were the same: mothers were pictured holding their children, with the father standing above with a stern look on his face. Even this layout highlights the place women had in society in the time in victorian society, at the time of the invention of photography. The identity of women represented in these early images was that of a mother, a housewife, and an inferior figure to her husband, who loomed above her, somewhat threateningly, demonstrating power and control. Another sub-genre of these early portraits was the so-called “Hidden Mother Photography”, which was a genre that included portraits of young children, with their mother present, but hidden in the photograph. This genre grew more popular due to the long exposure times of early cameras, and the need for mothers to hold their children still for long periods. These images are somewhat chilling – despite their seemingly innocent nature, they show how mothers were seen as objects and merely useful for parenting – the concealment of the mothers’ bodies and faces creates a sense that “The mothers seem to have been aiming to create an intimate bond between the child and the viewer, rather than between themselves and the child.” (Nagler 2013). This subscribes to the mother wanting to please the viewer, creating a perfect picture of her child for those looking at the image, a polished ideal of the relationship and identity that exists between a mother and child. This manipulation shows the early presence of the male gaze and its influence on representations of female identity in photography.

Moving into the 20th century, as women had more and more freedom and a louder voice within society, many female photographers began to document their identity in their own words – not in the words of men who have controlled the media and the role of women within the media for decades. The male gaze has become more and more redundant in recent years, with developments in all of the areas of the visual arts that lean towards more of the female gaze – images that do not solely exist for the visual pleasure of the male onlooker – “Woman as image, man as bearer of the look”. Instead, as the influence of feminism has become more visible in photography, many female photographers have produced images and series that depict their own identity, for themselves, or the viewing of other women – these can be powerful, as they depict female voices within the arts that have been silenced and altered for centuries. For example, Carrie Mae Weems created an iconic photograph which represents an intimate portrait of motherhood, through an understated kitchen depiction of a mother and daughter with makeup. This depiction of a mother-daughter relationship contrasts violently with the silenced mothers in the “Hidden Mother” portraits of Victorian mothers, whose relationships with their children were censored and removed from the images. The image below highlights the struggle that women in visual art, especially photography, have experienced to create work that represents them as the women they are today.

African – American photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier’s images are crucial pieces in the development of the modern media’s representations of women. She considers her work closely related to sociology, documenting the struggles of working-class African American American women. The media and its’ representations are central to Frazier’s work. The fact that Frazier considers her work sociological is important to the context of her images – her work is not journalistic, as she seeks to separate her narratives from that of the media, drawing a line between her personal experiences, and the media’s representation of such: “If I were a journalist, I would not be able to edit and frame my photographs. I look for a narrative or context that will amplify the voices of the marginalised…and the current issues we face.” (Frazier 2018). This quote of Frazier’s signifies how taking a sociological approach to her subjects allows her to tell her own story, without bias and as she wishes – not as society wishes, for a journalist. In her work, Frazier not only documents social issues but the generations of women in her family. In her highly acclaimed project, “The Notion of Family”, she creates unique documentary images in which she features herself, her mother and her grandmother. Through her work, Frazier herself documents her own family and their surrounding stories. She seeks to dismantle discriminatory ideas of women and disadvantaged communities like her own in Braddock, Pennsylvania and creates unfiltered and stark images of her female relatives, which create an eye-opening reality of her family’s experiences. Frazier’s work subsequently has strong links to feminism – as a woman she uses her work as a tool of resistance against stereotypical representations of black women. Her images are heavily contextualised, each subject with their own stories and experiences told within the project, dismissing the female stereotype of vanity, and shallowness, as projected by the male gaze: “An endlessly reproductive imitation of surface” (Phelan 1993). Instead, Frazier’s imagery appeals to the female gaze, rejecting surface-level depictions of women, and creating her own narrative. Her modern depictions of female identity and marginalization are opposite to the historical depictions mentioned above – Frazier disproves the historical preconceptions of women, and creates a modern display of female power and experience in her work.

This image of Frazier’s is from “The Notion of Family” project. The photograph is black and white, which creates stark contrast – for example, the middle has a large concentration of black tones. This creates a clear division between the two parts of the composition which could signify a dividing factor in the family which drives the two subjects apart. This could be a reason why Frazier chose this composition. This black-toned area of the photograph matches the black of the t-shirt of the subject to the left, creating a link between these two areas of the picture. This image uses the rule of thirds which can be seen in all parts: on the left the start of the black doorframe, creating the first third, the whole of the doorframe creating the centre third, and the rest of the image to the right creating the last. The focal point in this image is the door, which creates a high contrast with the different tones of the white towel. It could be said that the inclusion of separation in this image, with the door, could reference separation between generations – it may signify turbulence within their relationship. This separation is intriguing, as it could have many different meanings. It is possible that the photographer composed her image in this way to force the viewer to question what they think about the photograph, and what they think the work relates to. The composition raises questions about the posing of the image, and the context, something personal to Frazier and her mother. Additionally, The exclusion of faces and the body language of the two subjects could signify tension between the two characters or unsettled feelings. The inclusion of dark spaces in this photograph suggests trouble or problems within the family – in this context the plight of Frazier’s family as former steel miners, suffering the consequences of a failed industry. Within the image, there is a sense of nostalgia, helped by the presentation of the two subjects but also the aesthetic qualities: it was shot on film and in black and white which creates a more sentimental image of family. As seen throughout “The Notion of Family”, Frazier’s use of a film camera and “20th Century documentary aesthetic” (Frazier 2014) is used to document the lives of three generations of women, whose lives “parallel the rise and fall of the steel mill industry”. Frazier uses film and ‘old-fashioned’ methods to relate her work to the time in which the steel-milling industry began to fail, the late 20th century. The collapse of this industry had a direct effect on its workers, leaving them without income and subsequently developing severe health problems. By using photographic processes popular at the time, Frazier creates a link between the surface-level elements of her photograph the technical processes), with the plight of her subjects.

Overall, Latoya Ruby Frazier’s project “The Notion of Family” is a powerful display of female identity, documenting the plight of African American women in modern America. Her work represents generational identity with unfiltered images of her family, unravelling the stereotypes of women seen historically: through art, racism, the media, and sexism. This influences Frazier’s sociological approach to her work, examining the contextual problems behind her work instead of purely aesthetics. Frazier’s unique approach to her work has therefore influenced my project: rather than looking purely at technical things such as composition and framing in my image, although still important, I have begun to arrange and compose my images in a way that creates a narrative – creating intimate images of myself and my family. These images tell a story of lineage, generational change and identity. In my project, like Frazier, I have sought to create meaningful portraits of women, delving below surface-level stereotypes.

This image of my own is heavily influenced by the work of LaToya Ruby Frazier. It was carefully composed using the rule of thirds: the first third is comprised of the mirror and its’ wall, with the reflections. The middle third perfectly frames the first subject’s shoulders, making her the focal point of the image. The right third then frames the last subject. This composition to the right of the image isolates the two subjects in their separate parts of the photograph – this is contrasted with the left of the image, in which the mirror shows them together. The two subjects have different viewpoints and gaze in different parts, created by the reflections of the mirror: to the left, the subject is looking through the mirror towards the camera, suggesting a sense of looking inward or self-reflection. In the centre, the second subject is looking directly at the camera, but in the mirror, she gazes away. The subjects are looking in opposite directions, but as mother and daughter, I think the inclusion of a mirror in this image centralises the idea of generational identity, especially between women: historically women were seen as vain and self-centred, and including a mirror in my work has re- identified a mirror as a symbol of identity and similarity between two women.

Bibliography

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For my last shoot, I decided to do a landscape shoot inspired by the landscape images taken by my artist reference Vasantha Yogananthan, trying to evoke parts of his style in my colour choices.

While not a perfect match, I do really like the influence Yogananthan’s style had on my editing and colour choices.

For my third shoot I decided to use old images from a visit to South Africa several years ago, because they were not taken with the intention of this project, there were not many but I did find them useful.

I edited a selection of images in both colour and monochrome to take inspiration from both Frazier and Yogananthan.

Despite my inexperience when I conducted this shoot, I do really like how these final images look, especially my colour ones.

I decided to do a shoot of a collection of objects and images inside my house, focusing on objects related to myself and my family.

I decided to alternate between monochrome and coloured images, taking inspiration from both LaToya Ruby Frazier and Vasantha Yogananthan. Again I do not have many pictures from this shoot due to camera issues on the day.

Photoshoot plan

Genre	Lighting	Props	Camera Settings	Idea	Location
Portraiture	Artificial	Tripod	Continuous shooting (10 at once)	Self – portraiture	Home – lounge and bedroom

Contact Sheets

Editing

Overall I think my editing was quite successful – at first, I tried editing in colour but due to the poor light quality in these images, I changed to black and white. I prefer editing in black and white with high contrast and grain even with better-lit images so this worked well.

After doing numerous edits in black and white, I created copies of various best images and began to experiment with colour grading in colour, and then in black and white. I don’t know if these images will necessarily be in my final outcomes but I still think they were quite successful.

My experimentation with colour grading was helpful as it will be something I can use later on in this project, for example when editing other images for different parts of the project.

Final Images

Evaluation

This photoshoot could be improved. The lack of good lighting impacted the quality of my images as I was shooting using overhead lighting that was too warm-toned. I tried to combat this with white balance, ISO and using a cool tone which did help slightly but I think I will carry out another photoshoot of self-portraits with much better light, possibly in another location. I want to touch on my identity linked to the location in the photos, which I did touch on a little in this shoot but due to struggles with lighting my locations were limited around my house. I plan to re-develop this shoot at my grandmother’s house, or again at my house, now that I have gotten to grips with the correct camera settings, using my tripod effectively and positioning myself in the way I want compositionally. However, I think this photoshoot was in some parts successful – I produced quite a few images which I like, showing my personality which was a strong point of this shoot. I wanted to bring across my identity in this photoshoot, and then be able to link this later on to how this links with my mother and grandmother’s identities, both now and also with the help of archival material, which then forms the main idea of my project. Having completed this photoshoot, I am going to carry out another self-portrait shoot which links more directly to my archival material and with better lighting quality.

Photoshoot 2

Lighting	Subject	Location	Idea	Theme	Props	Settings
Natural, window lighting with some overhead lights.	Myself	Bedroom, living room	Personal Identity, generational identity, adolescence	Self-portraiture	Tripod, camera.	Creative Auto, portrait.

Aims of the shoot

This shoot is a development of my last self-portrait shoot. As I discussed above in my evaluation for my last shoot, I have gained further inspiration from photographing archival family images. These images have given me inspiration for posing, framing and editing – I plan to juxtapose archival and new images in my photo book and I feel that the development of this new shoot will generate further images that will draw clearer comparisons between the two sets of images. This photoshoot is in the same location as my last shoot: my bedroom and living room, which are two places of significant personal identity to me. I wanted to show this through my poses, background and attitudes throughout my shoot, taking inspiration for these aspects from my archival images. In this shoot, I aimed to take images with improved lighting quality than my last shoot – as shown above, I took my images too late in the day which produced poorly lit and overly grainy images, and this shoot was planned in part because of this also.

Contact Sheets

At the start of my shoot, I struggled with the yellow lighting and warm tones of my living room. I shot in a better light than my last shoot, so I had less of a problem but it was still unhelpful – I only took a few images here and then moved to my bedroom.

After moving to my bedroom the lighting improved – I only used natural light which helped me in producing clear images. In my lounge I struggled with yellow-toned lighting which reduced the quality of my work – natural light helped.

These are my best images for the shoot, flagged and given a purple label which corresponds to this particular shoot.

Final Images

Inspired by Lewis Baltz

Below I have shown some of my images which are much like that of the works of Lewis Baltz, and then how I have edited them in Photoshop and Lightroom to either make them more creative, or adding another image to them in an attempt to create more depth within the images created from this project. I would like for someone to look at my final images and consider the work of Lewis Baltz’s work next to mine, as I have attempted to stay within the rules of his work so that I could create more thoughts in regards to the compare and contrast posts.

I particularly like this photograph above, and believe it is among most more successful pieces throughout all of these images. This is because of the composition of the image and how the simplistic look can be associated with Baltz, but the smooth tones and colours could be representations of Misrach. I believe that having some photographs which can correlate to either or both of my artists increases the quality and final pieces that my photoshoots create.

Inspired by Richard Misrach

To demonstrate how I have taken inspiration from Misrach, I have selected some edits and showed how I have edited some images in photoshop to create my own versions of Misrach’s work. These images are some of my most successful from all of photoshoots, and additionally I think that they represent Jersey well, as these photographs all show the island in a beautiful way, especially as the sunsets are so appealing and contrast a lot of Baltz’s work. I like that Misrach’s work is a lot softer and somewhat more elegant than Baltz, and it could be said that this is because of the variety of smooth shades and colours, which I have been trying to recreate in the image below.

These photographs are from both my La Collette and my Greenhouses photoshoots, I really like the fact that these pieces of work are good quality examples of his work, whilst also having elements of my own style of work. For example, the first and last images and angles of structures that I like to continuously recreate in my shoots, whilst Misrach only uses wide shot images of buildings/ landscapes, with lot of negative and free space throughout his photographs. This is mostly how our work differs as I have taken inspiration from the types of landscapes and lighting, however the compositions of our work are very different.

Editing Process

Below I have demonstrated how to cut out parts of images from photoshop and place an image behind, the aim of this was to create visually interesting edits which could be presented as final pieces onto form board or placed in virtual galleries. I had this idea as soon as the project began and thought that these pieces could have a lot of potential and depth behind them. To create this I had to use photoshop in order to cut of the squares using the ‘object selection tool’.

Overall, I don’t think that these pieces came out successfully at all, they didn’t come out to be the way that I expected, maybe this was because of the images that I have used in the background (one being from my Greenhouse photoshoot and the other being from google) as they seem to look good against the tan/ warm tone of the block of flats. I think that these images did not appear to come out as I would have hoped, however I think that this isn’t a bad thing as I can recreate this technique with maybe a different image of the flats.

Inspired by my previous project

My last Anthropocene Project included lots of inverted and colour editing, and after creating photographs that are much like Lewis Baltz and Richard Misrach, I have decided to include some both original and edited images from all of my photoshoots which don’t necessarily relate to any of these artists. The whole purpose of this is to show some of my own creativity outside of the inspiration I have taken from both of my selected photographers. I would like to showcase the experimentation that I have done which may not be as successful or even featured in my book, but demonstrate that editing images can make them more interesting.

This is my first example of using the invert filter, I think that this image doesn’t look as good invert as all of the subtle colours and tones are lost throughout. I like that this image is very bold representation of Anthropocene, there is still a gradient of brown to orange and yellow throughout the image and I think this adds to the complexity of the photograph, and shows that this kind of editing can be very successful or not worth it, In my opinion, its a good way to change images that you would like to be bold and ones you would like to present as stand out images.

What is the purpose of this editing and how does it link to Anthropocene? This editing below is created by changing the ‘Colour Balance’ setting in Photoshop. I like this editing as I think that it makes metal framework and structures look like more successful/ higher quality pieces of work. The purpose of this harsh editing is more supposed to be used on images of natural landscapes. This is because this editing looks very drastic and unnatural, and changing images of natural objects in a unnatural way is a microcosm of the human impact on natural life. This is important for my project as these small bits of editing relate to a bigger and much more serious topic; Anthropocene. Which greatly affects out world today, and will one day affect how we live and the limits we have to exist in.

For example, this image relates to my paragraph above, this is both a human and a natural structure, as it has been unused for many years and now natural has reclaimed its place at this location, with all of the plants/ ivy growing back where it used to be. This sequence above demonstrates how these photographs still have their original quality, the colour editing only adds a message about the consequences that human life has had on the environment.

In my opinion, this editing does look better on photographs of industrial landscapes rather than natural landscapes, however, the purpose and message behind the editing is more related to natural features and I think that I should stick to this as it relates to my project a lot more.

Overview: I think that this editing is mostly successful, but is only needed with plain images or ones that are too simplistic. I think that busier images with already good editing done to them do not need this kind of drastic editing. Overall, I do think that some people would not understand the premise behind this type of editing when first looking at my work. However, I think that they turned out better than I expected, but not as successful as my photographs/ edits of work from my last Anthropocene project. Besides some downfalls to this work, in my opinion it was worth doing as it allowed me to demonstrate that creativity doesn’t always create high quality and useable outcomes. Furthermore, I don’t think that I will be using these pieces in my photobook as I think that my book will mainly consist of monochromatic images. I still wanted to illustrate how my plain photographs can be changed drastically to better fit the concept of my project.