For my personal study, I think I want to explore nostalgia and childhood, growing up by the beach and other memories I am fond of. I want to look at archived photos of me as a child, and possibly recreate them in a nostalgic sense.

This idea matters to me because it is nice to reflect on the past, and the comforting sense nostalgia gives. In my childhood I spent a large amount of time at St Ouens beach and it would be exciting to return to my childhood memories through photographs. The nostalgic theme is also drawn into the process of taking the images, not only seeing the final product.

I will begin my project by finding archived images from the beach, and some other memories because I want to experiment with a few locations and memories to see which create the best story and composition. I might edit some of the images to look more archived, e.g. add film filters, grain, black and white, intensify the colours to make them look old. I will then visit the sites multiple times at different points in the day to get different lighting, areas and be inspired by new things each time.

My first thought is to produce a photobook, that tells a story in an ‘order’. I want to experiment with different layouts and opacities to create interesting compositions, rather than just the images presented on their own. I also would use the photobook to create a theme colour that ties in with the nostalgic sense e.g. pinks or golden yellows.

I am interpreting the theme of nostalgia by reflecting on my past and idealising it. Through my work I might try and portray the feelings of being a teenager living in society today, and show the pressures or body image, social media, and more. This could juxtapose with the ‘happier’ childhood archives. I am unsure if I will create a more negative look on teenage life, or if I will show a positive side. I will develop my ideas as I take the images and work out the best outcomes. Some artists that I have found and will take inspiration from are Rinko Kawauchi, William Eggleston, Maxi Magnano, Julia Kurland and Marco Kahold. I will shoot places and people as my main subjects and possibly some objects in the studio such as childhood bears or toys. I might take some photos of myself to show the change, but from a low perspective to emphasise my growth from childhood. Most of my images will be outside due to the fact that natural lighting will play a key role in my images, as I love the golden haze in the sky that winter sunsets create. My images will hold the aesthetic look, but some might be staged to create the Julia Kurland images. I would like to use some text in my book because I think it adds to the sense of nostalgia. I would probably use my handwriting and scan it, with the content being how I feel about the childhood, or writing that I did as a child. I could use a combination to show the change.

For editing, I am going to use Lightroom Classic for my basic edits, then further my editing in Photoshop. This will make a difference because without further editing in Photoshop, I won’t be able to create the nostalgic hazy look, or add anything into the shot. I might experiment with AI or inserting other shapes to add a childish sense to the photos.

This week I am going to take some initial photos to help me start off my project, even if I don’t end up using them, it will help lead me toward better ideas.

Maxi Magnano

‘Seeing Maxi Magnano’s works is like going on a trip on your own to a place you have never been before — exploration on solitude and a reflection on how we inhabit spaces, how we make them ours. On today’s interview, he shares with us how he started, what motivates him and how he found his remarkable artist voice.’

https://www.lomography.com/magazine/345671-interview-with-maxi-magnano

I have discovered the work of Magnano through research into nostalgic photographer online. He uses lighting and ambiance to create the nostalgic effect on his images, giving them a sense of warmth that links to the ‘good old days’ comfort nostalgia brings.

Maxi Magnano is an Argentinean photographer who took up photography at the age of 25. He began by shooting as a hobby using a digital camera, he developed a passion for it and began focusing on photography as a full-time career. Expanding his portfolio, Magnano wanted to capture feelings of melancholy and nostalgia. He typically avoids human subjects and focuses on everyday settings. This produces a sense of solitude and an ominous sense. He uses light and shadow as a key factor to attain the sense of life in the atmosphere.

Marco Kahold

I have also discovered the photographer Marco Kahold, who has recently created a book named ‘The Theory Of Intimacy’. He is a German photographer who enjoys travelling the world and capturing the ’emotional Zeitgeist’, whilst growing his ideas and discovering new aesthetics.

I was drawn to his photography because his images hold the hazy and golden look that I want to re-create in my image.

Marco Kahold’s website:

https://www.marcokd.com/shop/theory-of-intimacy

Book Layout Ideas

Kahold’s Layouts:

I want to explore an area of street/urban night photography around jersey, which is perfect because we are separated into different parishes which each have their own village of houses and streets like their own little cities. I want to try and capture images of these area’s at night with illuminate lighting to create an aesthetic image with dim lighting but some with bright lighting and experiment with mixing and layering the images using photoshop and lightroom, whilst capturing a lot of people in the images and characters. Its more nostalgic than important to me because from the age of 11-15 I was always out on my bike with friends doing anything we could find that was fun or find interesting, for example trying new things like skating, finding abandoned areas around jersey because there isn’t much else you can do in jersey. But what connects this nostalgia to a night theme is that most of this would happen during winter which had shorter afternoons, and a majority of my fond memories are with fuzzy lamp lighting during the dark, and I think a lot of people can see the areas I’m going to photograph as nostalgic because most people would be out in these areas as a kid, finding what to do or having fun. And I want to represent that in a clearer way with higher quality but also contrast it with some images with docile areas to show the balance jersey has between the packed areas and more docile areas. I’m going to be mainly going to areas which have a good amount of lighting during the night but also areas which have people in to capture them in a moment or in motion. I’m going to present these images in a photobook as I like the layout it has. I’m going to have more of a wider perspective of my images through framing areas from a far away but not too close, and I’m going to be looking for a lot of shapes of street lights, apartment areas, people who present an aesthetic. These images will include a lot of architecture and well light, street areas during the night, with natural and artificial lighting. I don’t want to use too much forced lighting or and over use of lighting otherwise this wouldn’t look or feel like the aesthetic I’m aiming for.

I am going to explore childhood through ‘nostalgia‘ which is a positive, wistful, or longing sentiment that one experiences when they are reminded of something from the past , I’m doing this because I used to look at my parents photo album a lot during my childhood and loved seeing the connection between my parents and how close they were with their friends and family, I would also wonder if my life would be the same as theirs if I was their age. I wish to produce a photobook with both the photos of my parents opposite to the photos I have taken, I have already started taking photos on my disposable for 2 weeks however it wasn’t a lot so I will continue to take photos during the Christmas break. I’m going to develop my project by having my disposable and digital camera with me at all times.

How I wish to take the photographs is by taking snapshots I will be doing this by randomly taking photos, how I will make this happen is by sometimes giving the cameras to my friends or family, this is because the photos taken by my parents were snapshots and weren’t planned however I will also make some staged photos. The people that will be included in the photos are my friends, family and myself. The photos will be taken as a documentary in a familiar natural environment both inside and outside as my parents varied their photos from both, the style I’m going for is a vintage aesthetic. What I might include is one or two pictures of me when I was a child with my parents or siblings the reason for this is to compare the difference from there and now and how my parents and my life have evolved since then. Underneath each photo (both archive and recent photos) will have the dates so the viewers are aware of when the time period was.

Femininity vs Masculinity

My intake on it

For this project I brought together some of my friends and took multiple pictures of them capturing their femininity in my garden with natural lighting in nature to express what my idea was to be feminine. I also took pictures of my brother and his friend in my garage with a combination of natural and artificial lighting with them doing “Masculine activities” and then edited them to be monotone.

Femininity is

Traits such as nurturance, sensitivity, sweetness, supportiveness, gentleness, warmth, passivity, cooperativeness, expressiveness, modesty, humility, empathy, affection, tenderness, and being emotional, kind, helpful, devoted, and understanding have been cited as stereotypically feminine.

Masculinity is

 qualities and attributes regarded as characteristic of men. When we talk about masculinity, we’re talking about a person’s gender. Gender is a social construct, and is one of many ways we as humans make meaning and create social structures.

The concept of femininity and masculinity have been shaped by cultural norms and beliefs throughout history. They are not fixed or universally defined, and can vary across different society’s. Society’s understanding of femininity and masculinity has evolved over time, and continues to evolve.

Examples

My response

Examples

My response

Anthropocene

My intake on it

For this project I took inspiration from Mandy Barker and took my images of single use e-cigarettes due to the increase in popularity for them and the harmful impacts that they are having on our environment.

Definition

The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.

Examples

My response

Street photography

My intake on it

For this project we went on a day trip to St Malo while trying to capture people going about their everyday life.

Definition

Street photography is a photographic practice of shooting people in everyday life in everyday environments. These photographers commonly aim to capture spontaneous moments of people in a candid state.

Examples

Response

In conclusion I think that I am going to take most of my inspiration from my femininity shoot in my Femininity vs Masculinity project. This is because I feel that it would link to my idea the best about capturing my childhood and my relationship with my sister.

Nostalgia is a word that comes from Greek and means a sentimental yearning for the past. It can evoke feelings of pleasure with occasional notes of sadness. Nostalgia often arises when something reminds us of a particular time in our lives. It can be triggered by a song, a photo, or even a familiar smell. It’s a way for us to connect with our memories and reflect on the passage of time. Nostalgia can be a powerful and comforting emotion.

Moodboard

Over the course of studying Photography A-Level, we have completed a number of projects and looked at a variety of artists. Some artist we’ve studied are Ansel Adams, Justine Kurland, Clare Rae and Hilla and Bernd Becher. Studying these variety of different artist’s allowed me to grow a deeper understanding of the camera and my preferred style of photography.

During the course of my A-Level study of photography I also learnt how to use various design software’s such as Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, InDesign, Premier Pro and briefly Audio Audition, when creating our film.

In my own personal study I will be focused on interpreting the work of the Becher’s; Typologies. In which they took photographs of industrial buildings and displaying them in a grid format.

REFLECTING ON PAST WORK:

1. Justine Kurland: Girl Pictures

MOODBOARD:

MY IMAGES:

REFLECTION:

‘Girl Pictures’ by Kurland was a project I really enjoyed. It allowed me to experiment with portraiture photography, while also taking pictures with my girl friends showing ‘girlhood’ in the teenage years. This project seemed to be easier as we are in our teenage years, which allowed me to photograph among my peers. Taking very stereotypical ‘feminine’ images allowed me to take images in different locations which let me explore photography inside and outside.

2. LIGHTING TECHNIQUES

MY IMAGES:

REFLECTION:

Taking picture in the studio allowed me to understand the camera settings better. Here we explored double exposure and different lighting techniques. This unit allowed me to understand how to use the studio and professional lighting stands and overall how to use the camera and studio safely. I really enjoyed taking pictures using the coloured gels as I think they enhanced the visual of the image, but using different colours it allowed me to change the mood of the image entirely. By doing this project I grew a deeper understanding how one setting of a camera or your location could change the entire picture.

3. FILM

REFLECTION:

This was my least favourite project. Creating a film is a lot harder then it seems and it took a lot of team effort and co-operation. I did not like this project as there were so many other aspects you had to think about; photography, video and audio. I was not experienced in managing sounds or sound effects and found it hard to create a good sequenced that flowed. However this project improved my time management skills and co-ordination and allowed me to learn software’s such as Audition and Premier Pro.

For my Statement of intent about nostalgia I am going to explore my childhood and what it was like growing up with a twin.

This is important to me as we grew up together and are never apart, Whenever I think back to my childhood she is the first thing that comes into my mind and all the different memories and experiences that we have been through together.

I wish to develop this project by taking sets of images of the contrast between our childhood toys and how in our household there was always two of everything. I also want to try and capture our relationship/friendship and how it has grown over the years. I would also like to capture how when growing up we where treated as individuals by family but yet treated like the same individual by people who are not so close with us.

I am thinking about presenting my project in a photobook as I feel that it would be the best way to display my work in a professional manner and links to my project as we have multiple photobooks of us growing up together. I would like to include a variety of different photography styles into my photobooks such as a mixture of Portraits, Landscapes, and Still-life as I feel that only one style could not capture my full intent for this project.

I intend to begin my study within the next month while taking images in various different locations such as the beach and our house. I would also like to take a set of images of objects in the studio as I feel that that type of lighting would be the best to isolate them and help outline them.

Moodboard

I struggled to find images online that would relate to what I am trying to capture with my project

This mood board presents some of my inspiration for what I want my photos for my project to look like:

There is a range of childhood images and images of teenagers as this is what will be shown in my photobook.

This is my mindmap of my ideas for this project:

My interpretation of the theme ‘NOSTALGIA’ is heavily based on childhood and memories of growing up. So for my personal study I’m going to explore childhood in comparison to life now as teenagers. To present this I’m going to collect baby/childhood photos and take my own images of my friends now as teenagers, in contrast. I am going to look at the artist Justine Kurland, especially her book ‘GIRL PICTURES’ and follow a similar style to that and also research Jim Goldberg with his book ‘RAISED BY WOLVES’ that looks at teen lifestyle from a more urban and grungy perspective. I have decided to look at this topic in particular as I find it interesting to see how much people have changed and look at what we do differently then vs now. I am planning to present my project in the form of a photobook as turning the pages could be a metaphor for time passing and it enables a wider selection of images. I will be shooting these images in a mixture of documentary style of photography as it is representative of reality and is the same style as most childhood photos, staged documentary as this is what Justine Kurland did and some portraiture. This will involve me bringing my camera around with me when me and my friends go out and capture moments that represent who we are now and what we, as teenagers, do aswell as staging and planning/setting up some shoots.

Moodboard for the teenage images:

Moodboard for the childhood images: