Evaluation:

I am very happy with the photographs I took overall as I believe they were able to convey the exact message I was going for and have been presented exactly how I wanted. I am very happy with how my photobook turned out as well and I once again feel as if it meets the brief of what I was trying to aim for. I feel that what I have presented fits with the theme of “complex” due to the different countries exteriors, interiors and meaning behind them.

I made a lot of changes to my photobook after highlighting what I was going initially. At the very beginning of this project I said I was going to include black and white pages and black and white text, but I wanted to hold a similarity to Michael Schmidt’s work so I changed the idea of different coloured text and pages and just stuck to white pages and black text if needed. I also initially started off with a standard landscape format for my photobook but at the end decided to change it to a small square format as I preferred the concept of having a smaller book to contain complex imagery.

What went well:

I believe I was able to execute what I was envisioning and was very happy with the final results of each photograph taken. I wanted to have my work heavily inspired by Michael Schmidt which I believe I was able to achieve when editing and finalising my photographs. I was able to present the exact concept that I was thinking of going ahead with and I am very satisfied with the way I have laid everything out and presented my final outcomes.

Critique:

What I would have done differently is I would have taken more photos of Jersey due to the fact it is the island I live on and it means a lot to me. Although the main basis of my photography was to be on WWII and the history of the German occupation, however Jersey is filled with bunkers which highlight the history of the War which I have really taken advantage of as I have easier access to photographing these compared to ones in Germany and Poland. I also would have taken photos of the bunker in my garden as it is something that I own and have easy access to, it means a lot to me as it is part of where I live. Even though it isn’t a very exciting bunker, it is still one that I could have captured to signify the importance that bunkers in Jersey have to me.

Images that I’m going to print

Layout experiments

Same layout with different coloured backgrounds:

Different layout with different colours:

— Final choices and why I chose them —

For my first photograph, I ended up photographing a picture of the Berlin wall way after it was built up and knocked down. I enjoyed the overall look of this photograph as it gave off quite a freeing image as it is extremely damaged and has also been vandalised, indicating that people have the freedom to do whatever they want to it and to show that it is no longer a worry to them. I wanted to take the photograph at a different angle so that I could show off the extent of the size that it is, photographing it at a sideways angle made me think that I was managing to get a feel of how large the wall is.

For my second photograph, I decided to photograph an almost urban location from within Berlin as to show what the city looks like nowadays after the events of the war. I wanted to follow a similar editing theme to that of the first one by making it black and white. I was heavily inspired by Michael Schmidt with this photograph as I mainly focused on the urban aspects of the city rather than the rural areas which is something the Schmidt has showcased in his book “Berlin nach 45”.

For my third photograph, I ended up following the same approach with the style of the image to the first and second image. For this image, I decided to photograph within Auschwitz and I really wanted to display the building in the background followed by the barbed wire in front of it. I once again took inspiration from Michael Schmidt when editing my image, maintaining the eerie sense of this German occupant concentration camp. Michael’s work tends to consist of buildings within the area of Berlin that are manufactured or improved after the events of World War II. His images tend to be quite simple but I went for a more complex approach by containing more into the image such as the barbed wire overlapping over the building in the background.

For my fourth photograph, I decided to photograph the alleyway between one of the buildings in Auschwitz and the barbed wire that was used to prevent anyone from escaping the facility. I wanted to capture just the sheer amount of fear that the victims of this concentration camp would have had to endure by enhancing its terrifying layout of the location. Once again I decided to add on a black and white filter, just to make the image look a lot more dispiriting and to show the negative impact this has on the society.

Physical prints – Mounting my photographs

Here I have a selection of my physical prints which I have mounted up and laid out. I wanted to take an image from each photoshoot and print them off as an A3 image as to really illustrate the large impact given off at a large-scale. I wanted to highlight their importance so I made separate window mounts for each image so that they are their own thing but can also come together in a series.

After mounting my large A3 images, I went onto laying out my A4 images by first laying them out on both a black and white background to see which one I much preferred. After selecting which one I wanted to use, I grabbed some foam board and spray mounted an image onto the board and cut around it as to create a lifted image. I repeated this for another image so that I had two in total, I wanted to have two lifted images and two completely flat images on the board.

Below I have another example of a print layout experiment that I ended up doing as to finalise what colour I wanted to use for the background of my images. I ended up choosing white in the end as I thought it complimented the images more than the solid black.

Here I have a presentation of my virtual gallery. I really liked how these images turned out as I believe they were able to present exactly what I was trying to portray with both my area of study and the theme of “complex”. I wanted to articulate a complex looking exterior of Berlin, showing off all the graffiti and bunkers and buildings and also the interior of them, but I was also wanting to capture a complex meaning behind the images as well in the sense that the majority of these photographs taken were clear indications about the war and the aftermath of the event itself. I wanted to showcase what Berlin looks like nowadays in the modern reality as to present the growth of the city and society.

I like the way I placed my images together as I believe I arranged them in a sense that makes sense and allowing for each image to compliment each other nicely. I didn’t want to pair up loads of harsh images together so I placed in some softer ones with lighter tones as to break it up slightly.

Process behind making the virtual gallery

For my virtual gallery, I started off by selecting an empty of an empty gallery from the internet and opened it up in photoshop. Once I did this I inserted the images I wanted to display together and arranged them in an order that I liked the most. Once I arranged them

Adding a drop shadow to my images:

Here I have shown the process behind how to add a drop shadow to my images. Including a drop shadow makes the image appear more 3D and like it is actually framed within a gallery.

Link to my book: Aftermath of World War II

For my photobook, I initially started off by laying all the images out in a standard landscape format but decided to then change it to the small square layout. I wanted to have this be a small book of German occupant structures just to show complexity within such a small book.

— Image selection —

For my photobook, I started off by selecting a range of images that I wanted to include within this book which I felt met the brief of what the theme was asking for. Once I edited the images, I selected the icon at the top which says “Book” and the images were automatically layed out into the formation of a photobook.

I started off by changing the format of the photobook to the standard landscape version and then arranged my images in a certain formation. I much preferred the composition of the landscape format to the portrait version as I would be able to layout my images in a better selection with full-scale double spreads and larger reflections of my singular images.

— Front cover —

For my front cover, I wanted to have a thin dust jacket over the top. I didn’t want it to cover the whole book as I would like for the book to be woven and I would like for that to be visible.

In photoshop, I coloured the entire image dark grey and then coloured in the centre a thin rectangle with the writing “Aftermath of World War II” and also my name below it in red. I wanted to just mark out what I wanted to achieve with the front cover. After I have the photobook, I will want to cut out the thin strip so that it doesn’t completely cover the book.

— Editing photographs —

Here I have an example of how I have gone about editing my images. I decided to apply a black and white filter to my images and I chose filter “PB08” as I like the overall aesthetic to gave my photos. I thought the cool tone greys, blacks and whites fit the mood that I was trying to portray with my imagery.

I wanted my photography to me somewhat similar to how old photos, during the time Auschwitz was operating, were displayed and photographed as I wanted the same wounding impact from the old photographs. I tried to edit my images as close as possible to the real thing and wanted to achieve this for my final outcomes.

— Architecture —

Above I have a layout of how I want to sequence my photographs. I want to break up the layouts by containing some pages with double page spreads, two images or one on its own. I didn’t want to be incredibly repetitive with my layout so I tried to arrange the images to create a more interesting sequence.

Juxtaposition:

Above I have an example of a juxtaposed image. I wanted to break away from containing two images including buildings and monuments side-by-side, so I went ahead and included an image of the street light with a pair of shoes hung over the wire. I thought these photos worked nicely together as they are both different images so I thought they complimented each other quite nicely. The complex and messy graffiti next to the calm and simple photograph of the sky and shoes on a barbed wire, appealed to me so I put them together.

Double page spread:

Here I have an example of a double page spread. I wanted to apply this photograph as a double page one as I want to showcase a full scale presentation of what Auschwitz looked like from the outside and just show how overbearing and scary these buildings actually were. I wanted to enhance the size so that is why I decided it would be best to expand it across two pages.

Experimenting with borders:

Here is an example of about layout experiment where I chose a different border around the full image. I wanted to break away from the repetitive aspect of just scaling up the photo and leaving it like that, so I experimented with some of the other layouts in lightroom and chose a scratchy border to have around it.

— Sequencing —

Below I have a range of images of my photobook that showcase the sequence I have decided to put my photos into.

Berlin:

Above I have my variety of Berlin photographs which I decided to put all together at the very beginning. I wanted to start off with them being the starting point for my photobook as my topic is mainly on Germany and how they were able to occupy a wide range of countries and cities. I wanted to combine them all together rather than scatter them around with the other images as to prevent any confusion.

Krakow:

Above is my second sequence of images where I have combined all the photos I took within Auschwitz. I wanted once again to combine these images all together and not mix them up with the other images I have taken. Each sequence tells a different story and I wanted to achieve that by categorising the images I took in different locations, all in one section.

Jersey:

Above is my final layout in the sequence of my photobook. I wanted to capture the essence of Jersey’s German occupation history by including all the images I took of German bunkers together.

Overall, I really like the way I sequenced all my images and the order I decided to put them in. I believe they tell a story from within each segment and also altogether.

End layout

Book specification

My photobook will showcase a range of images to commemorate the aftermath of the German lead war of WWII. I thought it would be a good idea to present images regarding this topic as Jersey means a lot to me due to being born on the island and Jersey is related heavily to war topics. I thought it would be a good choice to display mainly the theme of ‘complex’ due to how big of a story there is behind the images I decided to photograph.

Narrative: What is your story?

3 words:

World War Two

A sentence:

My story is about the aftermath of Countries and cities way after the choices that Germans decided to undergo during WWII.

A paragraph:

My photobook is going to mainly consist around the area of the World War and how Jersey, Krakow and Germany was involved in aspects of the war and them all being German occupant locations.

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Design

I would like for my photobook to consist of mainly the colours black and white as I prefer the more dramatic approach to the theme I have chosen. I would like my book to be a hardback book as for it to be quite a solid book and I would like for it to consist of having a woven material for the cover of my book. I would like for my photobook to contain a variety of both black and white pages with my images included in and I would like to also contain a variety of black and white text. The size for my book will be quite small so preferably an A5 type of size and it will also have a simple layout for the cover as to not overcomplicate the entire book itself.

Moodboard of design ideas for my photobook

I have chosen to research a photobook by Michael Schmidt named “Berlin Nach 45”. Michael Schmidt’s photographs have always focused on his hometown of Berlin especially in book format-a fundamental element of his work. One of his most important bodies of work about Berlin, Berlin Nach 1945, has never before been published as a whole. It is particularly significant at this time, given the extreme urban, social, artistic, and general developmental changes Berlin has undergone within recent years. This series documents a place which, as recently as 1980, was still very much marred by World War II, and provides an impressive visual record of a city in a state of flux.

Who is the photographer?

The photographer is Michael Schmidt and he perceives and reacts to the world, offering through “fragmentation, condensation, abstraction” a “sense of space distorted in depth”, in which “existence is hollowed out to its extremes” that “take his subjects out of their historical anchorage” to offer a “harsh and completely unique view of the fragility of human existence” – “a subjective, deeply felt work of the life and suffering of people in the shadow of Berlin.”

Thomas Weski and Laura Bielau stated that “This is the strength of Michael Schmidt’s work. An ability to transcend the present – its present – and to fragment it in order to better represent it. Creations with shallow backgrounds, which play with nuances and break free from simple black and white to offer a shade of grey, evoking the rainy sky of Berlin. A true love letter, tortured, raw, deep and complex, to the city where it was born, grew and disappeared.”

Deconstructing the narrative, concept and design

The book feels quite heavy as it is a hardback book and also has a nice textured front and back cover which is woven. It has quite a rough texture to it and contains a simple front cover that is blue coloured, with the title displaying Schmidt’s name and “Berlin nach 45”. The book is also contained within a cardboard case which is cream coloured and quite solid as well with staples punched into the side of it. The title translates to “Berlin after 1945”, meaning these are photographs that are displayed from the later on stages of the city after the events of WWII. The entire concept of the photobook itself is about how the war has impacted society and the landscape of the city itself, capturing both urban and rural landscape photography to capture what everything really looks like after the tragic events of the war.

Berlin nach 45: a work of 55 pictures taken with a Linhoff camers, 13 x 18 centimeter negatives enlarged to 16 x 22 prints on paper 24 x 30cm in size.

Originally, the series was supposed to be called ‘Berlin im Wiederaufban nach 1945 (Berlin During Reconstruction after 1945), but Schmidt quickly realised that such a title would trigger the wrong conclusion: “reconstruction” would imply activity and change. But in these pictures, which appear here for the first time in book form, do not depict any people. They convey a threatening sense of silence, in which the sounds of battle still echo. The pictures in Berlin nach 45 were taken entirely in the section of Kreuzberg in Berlin.

I decided to experiment with one of my photographs that I took when I was visiting Auschwitz. What I wanted to achieve was something similar to that of Katrin Koenning. In order for me to achieve this, I opened up photoshop and opened the image that I wanted to edit, afterwards I outlined the couple in the centre of the image with the pen in white and added a soft white barrier around the outline.

I then went ahead and used both the smudge and blur tool to soften the white glow that surrounds the people so that it didn’t look too harsh. I also decided to lower the opacity of the glow as it seemed to be quite harsh the first time I did it.

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— Final outcome —

However, I won’t be using it in my final outcomes or my photobook as I don’t think it fits in with the other photographs. All my images are just of real moments and real buildings in different countries, whilst this photograph is the only edited photograph I would have to present which I don’t feel fits in with what I have already produced. I am still very satisfied with how this image turned out as it holds the same aesthetic as Koeninng’s but it doesn’t meet the brief of what I have made. Something I would change is the colour of the glow as it is pure white and doesn’t seem to fit in as well with the overall colour scheme of the image. The image contains a lot of blacks and greys but hardly showcasing any shockingly bright whites which compliment the cutout section, that is why I have decided to use the original version of the image for my photobook rather than the edited version.

I have chosen to compare these two images as I believe that they both have similarities in the two. They both contain photos from within Berlin so they first have a similarity within the fact they’re both based in the same city. Both images contain urban photography and are both based around a bridge or tram area, having other buildings in the background of them. They both display portions of the road and contain lamp posts, definitely capturing the city-like scapes of Berlin. Another similarity that both images contain is that they’re both in black and white, draining all the colour from within the photograph. I feel that draining the colour makes the more dull and moody as it is representing the aftermath of the World War.

A difference I can spot between the two images however is that Schmidt’s is more focused on the road going straight down it whilst mine is aimed more at the tram bridge and all the complex looking structures that are displayed.

Here is a full-scale presentation of the image I have chosen to compare with that of Michael Schmidt’s. I really like how this image turned out as I feel it is very similar to that of Schmidt’s who I used as a real inspiration for my pieces. Schmidt’s work has been a huge inspiration for me as I feel he is able to present the essence of what Berlin is really like through it momentous structures that have been rebuilt and modified after the tragic events during the war, showing that the city is able to move past these problems and change for the better.

For my third photoshoot, I planned to take a variety of photographs that contained bunkers and war related aspects of Jersey. I thought it would be a clever idea to showcase the monuments and buildings that were created by the Germans when Jersey was a German occupant island as it links straight into my other photoshoot themes of WWII and Germany being the main vocal point behind all photoshoots.

Contact sheets:

Colour coded and star rated:

When organising my flagged images, I went down the route of colour coding the images into the categories of green, yellow and red. Green meaning that I like these images and would like to use them as my best images to edit, yellow being that these images are a possible to be used as a final image and finally red being that I’m not going to end up using them. Carrying out this process made it easier for me to figure out which images I would like to continue developing for my final images. I thought the images that I decided to chose as my best, were able to display a good sense of photographers I have done in depth analyses of such as Michael Schmidt as they represent areas involving the war and still showcase a good model of what the photographer produces.

Green:

Yellow:

Red:

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Successful photos

Here I have a range of images that I deem to be my most successful photographs as I believed that they were able to represent both my area of study and the topic chosen for the exam itself.

Evaluation of my most successful photographs:

The photos above I really liked the look of for my project. Photograph 1 was chosen as I really enjoyed the perspective I presented as it is within a gun turret. Instead of just taking photos of bunkers from the outside, I decided to capture the inside of what it actually looked like when the German occupants were occupying them and using them during the war. Photograph 2 was also chosen as I feel it captures the true structure of what the exterior looked like for a proper German bunker, the patterns and detail that was added to it showcases that they have aged quite a bit throughout the years.

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Unsuccessful photos

Unsuccessful photo evaluation:

I have chosen these two images as examples of my least successful photographs as I don’t feel they really represent the extent of what the bunkers are like in Jersey. Image 1 showcases the ropes that are wrapped over a stone structure which was very widely used when making bunkers during the war. Although this image represents what German occupants would use during the war, it still doesn’t really represent much of the bigger picture behind what was built by Germans. Image 2 is also similar in this sense as it’s a close up of a bunker so it doesn’t show the full scale of what they’ve made.

Best images before editing:

Best images after editing:

Final outcomes, Analysis and Critique

With my images, I was very happy with how they turned out as I believe they were able to fit the brief of what I was going for. I wanted to feature bunkers and aspects of the aftermath of war within Jersey as it is the place I grew up in. I have a bunker within my garden so this section really means a lot to me personally.

Here above I have one of the images I have taken. I really like this image and the range that I ended up taking for my project, however something I would have done differently is explore more bunkers around Jersey and take more photographs, especially the one in my garden. Although the one in my garden is quite boring and I didn’t photograph it, I still thought it was a missed opportunity as to the main link between why this is important to me.