Over the course of year 12 and 13 we have worked on many different projects. I have chosen three of mine to review and reflect before I begin my personal study.

My Jersey:

One of my very first projects was called ‘My Jersey’. Within the project I explored the life of my grandad who was a farmer on the island for the majority of his life/ until he was no longer able to. I chose to do this for my project as I felt that it linked well not only to Jersey but also to myself making it easier for me as I had a better understanding and could relate to the images. I have taken images of the farm, some of the tractors that are still there and of my grandad as well as using old images of him that my grandparents had. I think that this explores the theme of ‘nostalgia’ and ‘home’ very well within my photography, as it is my families history with the Jersey farming industry and how my parents, grandparents and so on grew up with the farm as their main part of life. To present my images I used the artist Noemie Goudal. She is an artist who takes images and print them out to them place them in front of another background images to take her final image. I was inspired my by her however, I took my own approach on it and instead used photoshop to place my images over the top of one another with different opacity’s and sizes to see the back image more or less. I liked this project because it allowed me to reflect on how my family’s way of life was back then and how different it is to how we live now. It was also interesting to see how my parent grew up living on the farm and, how many children grow up these days without that factor with the world modifying over the years. Overall I like how this project turned out and think the final outcomes are a more engaging way to present my project allowing viewers for their own interpretation as well.

my outcomes:

rural and urban:

My second project that I have chosen to reflect on is the ‘rural and urban’ project. Whilst these were two separate projects I have decided to reflect on them together as I think they go hand in hand in some ways. For this projects I focused on landscape images and architecture which is one of my favourite areas to photograph. This helped during my project as it allowed me to create better images as I was more interested in it. To take my rural images I walked through some lanes in St Clements and Grouville, photographing the fields that were around me as well as the beach and some houses that I felt fit the theme. For some of these photos I was inspired by Adam Burton who is a British landscape photographer. I liked how his images were focused on nature and captured the same thing that I was trying to capture. Once I had collected a large amount of images I edited them by, making some black and white to show the contrast in the images with the different tones, I adjusted the brightness of some images as well as the tone of colours that they captured to make them feel more rural etc. For the urban images I walked through town and bellozane to create more architecture images and construction. With my images I then edited them as well as make some final pieces with with them from editing them on photoshop. Overall I like how both of these projects turned out and think that I may do something inspired by these for my personal study linking to architecture.

some of my outcomes:

the sublime:

The last of my projects that I am going to reflect on is ‘the sublime’. Again, I liked this project as it allowed me to photograph more landscape images, focusing on the coast with the weather and sea being a main part. Whilst taking these images I used different shutter speeds determined by what I wanted my images to turn out like. For some of them with waves I had a longer shutter speed to make them flow better, whilst some of the other had a shorter shutter speed to make them sharper. I like these images as I think they show of Jersey well and link to the theme nostalgia from growing up hear especially as I live on the coast as well. For this photoshoot I chose to use the artist Ansel Adams who was an American landscape photographer. I think that some of my images are a good interpretation of his but from a Jersey point of view especially with it being an island. Once I had taken my images I opened them up on Lightroom and made some of them black and white to show the detail, different tones and to make the images feel for gloomy as it is on the coast in the winter. Overall I like how all of these image turned out. I think that they all hold lots of depth and detail with the different tones in the black and white images. I like some of the areal shots as they capture Jersey almost as if I am a visitor who sees Jersey very differently to how I do which adds a variety to my work. I think that I could link my personal study to this project in some way to do with the island landscape or beaches.

some of my outcomes: