My aim off this exam project is to focus on the simple and complex features of architecture around many areas of Jersey. So far, I have researched 2 different artists, Matthieu Venot and Hélène Binet, who I believe both fit well with my topic as they both present their images in both simple and complex. This project matters to me because Jersey is where I grew up mainly surrounded by interesting structures which are rapidly evolving over time. I am aiming to carry out around 4-6 photo shoots of different districts around the island to make sure I have more than enough images in preparation for my final exam. At the moment, I have successfully carried out 2 photoshoots from Fort Regent and the Waterfront, gathering around 100 images so far. I am going to experiment photographing these structures in different weather conditions and different times from early day to night time. I want to carry out photoshoots all around St Helier from Westmount Apartments to the Jersey brewery to ensure I gain enough images for the final exam. Also, I am going to manipulate these images through the use of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to make sure I can present my images in the best of form.
For my simple or complex exam project I am aiming to carry out at least 3-5 photoshoots to gather as much material as I can before entering the exam period. I am approaching the topic of simple or complex through architecture so St Helier is a good place to gather images. I want to photograph unique structures and shoot close ups of interesting features of a building in response to my project. Over my multiple photoshoots I am aiming to collect around 250-300 images from all around the streets of St Helier.
Matthieu Venot is a self-taught French photographer whose pictures capture the urban environment in a most graphic and transformative of ways. Focusing on the part rather than the whole, his photographs abstract his surroundings into colourful graphical vistas turning the quotidian into the iconic.
Focusing his lens on architectural details and adopting fairly constructivist angles, the artist succeeds in creating abstract geometric images. He only photographs when the weather is incredibly good and thus Matthieu uses the immaculate sky like the background in a studio. This, he maintains, is his way of not disturbing the composition of his pictures : simple and graphic. Lines cross over and overlap. shapes stand out from this blue background and have us forgetting what we are observing : a roof, a wall, a railing, a balcony.
The blue sky background also enhances the colours. Colour is, in fact, of the utmost importance in Matthieu Venot’s photography. Excluding the Breton greyness, the photographer transforms the town and has us thinking more of California or Florida. According to the artist, the choice of pastel colours is a way of transmitting, through his photos, his own personal optimism.
Venots images are all taken during a sunny, bright day without any clouds. I think he does this to keep the pattern of the lighter shade of colour to create contrast between that and the sky. By using such vibrant colours allows Venot to capture the finest details with defined lines and exquisite geometric shapes.
Image Analysis:
I have chosen to analyse this image due to the different approach of Matthias Venot by capturing this image in a slightly later time throughout the day, producing more colour. Instantly, you can notice the simplistic style Venot has attempted to follow. The image only contains around 5 different colours, all creating a great contrast between one another. This differs from Venots usual images as the sky is not completely blue, but rather displaying some colour from the sunset. The use of the colours from the sunset create an effective formation of the building due to the sky being a similar shade of colour. It seems as if Venot has positioned himself and his camera beneath the structure and heavily zoomed in. The full moon makes the image much more powerful due to it creating the sense of completion and transformation.
Hélène Binet is a Swiss-French architectural photographer based in London, who is also one of the leading architectural photographers in the world. She is most known for her work with architects Daniel Libeskind, Peter Zumthor and Zaha Hadid, and has published books on works of several architects.
Binet was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2008 and the Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award in 2015. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“It’s like being a musician in front a big audience. You can’t get it wrong. In that instant, you have to be the best of yourself, you bring your mind to a place, not to lose that unique moment” – Hélène Binet is explaining her commitment to working with the venerable techniques of analogue, as opposed to digital, photography, of carrying around heavy equipment, loading it with expensive film, of putting her head under the dark cloth at the back of a large-format camera, of composing the photograph with the upside-down image it offers on its glass screen and then developing and printing the results in a dark room.
There’s a fascination in Binet’s photographs with shadows and light and how they fall on materials such as weathered stone or rough concrete. Expanses of them, which are usually in black and white, are often dark, with lit elements emerging from their depths. Your eye is drawn first to the bright spots, before finding that there’s more going on in the shadows. Most of her coloured photographs have such a limited range of hues that they look almost monochrome. When she does burst into bright primaries, as with the yellow, blue and red of some circular La Tourette skylights, the effect is all the more powerful.
I have chosen Helene Binet as one of my artists to study because of her unique style of capturing architecture in a monochrome display. Her images range between both simple and complex ideas of architecture through the way she positions her camera towards the structures. I want to create images that are similar to her projects by involving many black and white images that are mainly classed as simple.
Here is one of Helene Benits most unique images throughout her architecture photo projects. In this image Benit captures the photo with the use of natural light, with many aspects of shading. It shows a low contrast image of a unique structure with a heavily shaded shape that viewers find hard to identify. The image is produced in a monochrome format displaying some sort of 3d shapes. Benit seems to have positioned her camera more below the structure to make it seem as if it is towering over the viewer. The sky and the slight shaded triangle create an effective contrast because of the binary opposite colours being black and white. I would class this image more over to the simple side of the topic, this is because of the basic colours and shapes with no complex features of the building. However some may see the image as complex due to them having no idea of what they are gazing at, which I believe Benit has done on purpose to confuse the viewer.
During this project I would like to explore the topic of Simple vs Complex throughout the idea of architecture. I have chosen this approach instead of portraiture or still life because architecture really interests me when it comes to simple and complex structures. I will photograph many different areas around St Helier and St Saviour.
Photo-shoot locations:
Around Jersey are many interesting buildings and complexes that I can photograph in order to produce a successful project. St Helier is filled with many different styles of buildings that can create unique images. I will travel around the streets of St Helier to capture the simplistic buildings and the slightly more complex structures.
Finance district Westmount apartmentsWaterfront and harbourBrewery and apartment complex
