When making this first edit I originally only wanted a single red bird but found that it was too little and hard to spot in the busier image – so I added two others only with outline making them slightly more subtle.

I chose solid colour for the rabbits as it stood out better on the background – I found the more detailed versions took away from the base image. I originally created a version with a single rabbit but found I prefer the 3 together.

Experimentation over archive photograph- Decided it was too busy and tried to idea physically with thread.

Lettering around eye

Used two images and adjusted opacity to overlay – hoping to replicate Carole Benitah’s Style.

Lettering on Tide picture – unsure of including this image in final book.

Overlaid archive photograph with old letter to cut out figure.

Introduction  

Isolation is something that we have all experienced in our lifetimes, whether from acquaintances or environments we have all lived estranged; the work of Francesca Woodman and Carolle Benitah perfectly explores this relationship with loneliness in how they present themselves through self–portraits. Much of Woodman’s work can be seen as surrealist and unconventional for 1970s photography. “Even when wholly present in the picture as the subject of her self-portraits, Woodman is never quite with us, never quite with herself.” (reference using Harvard System of referencing) She often uses this Surrealist landscape she has created to maintain a sense of escapism throughout her work. Similarly, Benitah uses photo-manipulation to change the outward appearance of herself in relation to family and heritage. When looking at these two photographers it is important to consider that they are both women photographing themselves, and how the perceptions of their work may be skewed as a result. “In the past, photographs of women were made by men for a capitalist economy to favour the male gaze and feed female competitiveness.” (reference using Harvard System of referencing) When viewing Woodman and Benitah’s work it is apparent it was not made with the objectification of their bodies in mind but made with the intent of reflecting on their experiences as people and women – specifically the isolation that may come from that. 

I decided to use photos and letters that my family have kept from the past to better explore this theme of nostalgia – how my life has moved on and changes since then and my feelings around it.

I intend to use these images on their own working into them with thread or other materials and as photomontage material.

I want to focus my project on isolation and the disconnection with my life on jersey as I have a lot of nostalgia for places I lived before. After moving from Scotland where I had lived my entire life, I found it difficult to adjust to the smaller space with sufficiently more people. Nostalgia to me has always been attached to places and people, and the memories I have from them, this project is focused on the loss of home and comfortable space and the small joys from having something familiar. I want to make a photobook that focuses on this theme of isolation and nostalgia by creating landscapes, still life, and self portrait.

Compiling all of my images into a Photobook would allow the viewer to have something physical to hold and look through, it would also allow me to place my images in an intended order to create a loose through narrative. I want to use different photomanipulation techniques such as stitching inspired by the work of Carolle Benitah who uses it to show estrangement and isolation in her family throughout her childhood. I also admire the aesthetic value that Laura Letinski achieves in her work especially the way she photographs still life and colour grades her images it gives them an almost clinical feeling which I think would hand itself well to my project based around isolating experiences. A main inspiration for this project is Francesca Woodman. specifically herself portraits. I wanted to lean into self portraits for this project as I think being photographed typically makes me uncomfortable, self portraiture seems the best way to convey this discomfort I’ve had with changes to the environment around me.

I plan to shoot mostly outside as I want to capture the natural landscape specifically the ocean as with Jersey being an island you can not easily leave without a boat or flying, I plan to take these images early in the morning to get a slightly subdued light on a more overcast day. For objectivity and self-portrait I want to stage the images for the best result, I want to create self portraits from both the way Francesca Woodman would use a slow shutter speed to obscure her images and Carolle Benitah’s addition of stitching and lettering to create a more unconventional image. I want attempt to collage some images and draw over the top of them using both physical paints and photoshop. Within the book intend to have the images with little accompanying text as I think it better shifts attention to the images which I intend to have merged and manipulated with letters from family and other meaningful items.

Sources-

Essay Question

How does the work of Francesca Woodman and Carolle Benitah explore isolation through self portraiture?

• Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
• Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
• It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
• Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages
• Write down page number, author, year, title, publisher, place of publication so you can list source in a bibliography

Bibliography

List all the sources that you have identified above as literary sources. Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year distinguish them as 1988a, 1988b etc. Arrange literature in alphabetical order by author, or where no author is named, by the name of the museum or other organisation which produced the text. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources in alphabetical order e.g. websites/online sources, Youtube/ DVD/TV.

Quotation and Referencing:

Why should you reference?

• To add academic support for your work
• To support or disprove your argument
• To show evidence of reading
• To help readers locate your sources
• To show respect for other people’s work
• To avoid plagiarism
• To achieve higher marks

What should you reference?

• Anything that is based on a piece of information or idea that is not entirely your own.
• That includes, direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, definitions, images, tables, graphs, maps or anything else obtained from a source

How should you reference?

Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.

Referencing:

whole text ref-

Townstead. C (2006). Francesca Woodman. London: Phaidon Press Limited.

in text ref-

The authors makes this point ect. ‘since the mid-1980s Francesca Woodman has become one of the most talked about influential of contemporary photographers.'(Townstead 2006: 6)

(year was published). title. publishing house- place included if edited add chapter

Nostalgia

Possible Themes:

• Isolation – focusing on grandma living alone in Ireland.
• Childhood – anxiety – growing up and my approach to identity.
• Family – could focus on dad or brother.??
• Tradition – Baking?/food -mother connection through it, old written recipe book – Laura Letinski’s work
• homesickness + belonging

photomanipulation – interesting looking images that feel a bit more personal – stitching, paint, writing, – if based on family could add letters.

Carolle Benitha

Francesca Woodman

Laura Letinski- I really like the aesthetic values of her work calm and slightly clinical.

Our plan for the film we are making is telling the history of the castle through the architecture, mainly the 1500 hundreds era and the WW2 era.

When we start the film, we will be exploring the old castle, the castle from when it was built in 1588 until the Battle of Jersey in 1781. We are hoping to be able to explore the entire area, especially the chapel of St Helier, where he lived until his death in 555 AD. We also are interested in filming the green areas and the main tower of the castle, as it has a view of most of the castle from it. The Parade Ground was rebuilt during the Georgian era to how it is seen today with an Officer’s Barracks that housed 12 officers; an Infantry Barracks that housed 300 men with 6 wives of the Garrison staying the attic; a canteen at the North end; the Ordinance Store at the South; and the Gym, Library and Fire Station next to the Ordinance Store, we may use these in our film. Using the sounds from around the castle we’re hoping to create a soundscape to play throughout this portion of the film along with some music. At the end of this part there will be a cannon sound and that’s where there will be a shift in atmosphere.

In the end segment of the film we will switch to showing the fortifications from the Second World War, with a much darker tone, we will explore the different artillery bunkers on both the East and West sides of the castle both have the original guns from when the bunkers were built, none of the castle has been changed until recently, these current changes are just refurbishment and won’t actually change any of the historical significance of these buildings. We will also be filming the different fortifications including the anti-tank gun, the guns on the bunkers and the anti-aircraft weaponry. This entire segment of the film will have quite a dark, gloomy atmosphere to it, we will have some melancholic music playing in the background and some crackling music playing throughout this part.  A searchlight on rail-tracks could be wheeled out of its protective bunker under the Georgian Hospital to a position that could patrol the harbour. 100 Nazi Soldiers lived out at the castle and nothing has been changed at the castle until today. The majority of the bunkers are open to the public, with the guns being the originals and were never removed from their positions.

In both segments we will have some sort of voiceover describing what is happening in the film, or even some history of the area, some parts of the voiceover possibly being in French if there is French information posters around the place but our plan is to mainly use music and our soundscape instead of spoken facts.