Coursework (Component 1) will account for 60% of the grade
The Personal Study (critical essay) will account for 12% of Component 1 (this is tackled in Year 13)
The theme for this year is “Home”
There will be an Externally Set Assignment in Spring 2024, with various Controlled Conditions (15 hours duration over 3 days off-timetable) throughout Yr 12 and Yr 13…
Key competencies
Camera Handling skills
Blog post design and content development (digital portfolio)
Selection and editing of images (using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop)
History and Theory
Analysis and interpretation of key artworks
Creative development of ideas
Conclusion of personal outcomes (this could be in digital form, printed matter, zines, gifs, films, photo-books and more)
Coursework Deadlines will be issued throughout the course and must be adhered to…
Controlled Conditions Schedule
January 23rd / 24th / 25th May 24th / 25th / 26th July 11th, Tues 12th, Wed 13th
Throughout the course we will endeavour to track and monitor your progress, and feedback the information you need to improve in meaningful 1-1 sessions, email updates and comments on each student’s blog. Over time, we have found this system to be progressive and a valuable process in enhancing each student’s awareness of their development in the subject.
We would urge each student (and parent) to ensure that 2-5 hours per week is spent on INDEPENDENT STUDY, and aim for 2-3 blog posts to be submitted each week. We have regular assessments to complete and want to reflect each students progress as accurately as possible!
Throughout Year 12 we will explore aspects of the theme HOME. This will include photographing and making imagery from a range of aspects of your home, habitat and environment…as well as finding out how various artists, researchers and even scientists respond to the concept of island-ness and in particular, Jersey itself.
…we can also access such resources as Geological sites that could include dolmens and other neolithic structures, such as La Cotte in St Brelade. Bays could include rocks, coastline and mythologial sites, such as Devil’s Hole and others.
To start with, we will be looking at how we can photography rocks, stones and pebbles as well as beach detritus in different ways.
Have a look at TYPES OF ROCK here to help you understand the structure of our island home
This is a plan for the first half term and will help you to develop some key skills and competencies.
Key creative outcomes…
Still-life: Collect at least 5 different objects/ debris (natural/ man-made) from your site and photograph as object in-situ and also create a mini-studio at home using black/white paper or other materials as a backdrop. Bring these objects to class too.
Shapes & Form: Look for interesting found objects to help you explore line, shape, form, texture, pattern and colour (the formal elements
Abstract & close-up: move in closer and look for textures/ patterns/ colourisation/ surfaces/ repetition within granite.
Photo-montage: create a range of outcomes that incorporate aspects of cut-n-paste, juxtapositions, overlays and multi-exposures
There are seven basic elements to photographic art that we must explore over the coming weeks:
Photographers have to impose order, bring structure to what they photograph. It is inevitable. A photograph without structure is like a sentence without grammar—it is incomprehensible, even inconceivable.
— Stephen Shore
Photographs consist of formal and visual elements and have their own ‘grammar’. These formal and visual elements (such as line, shape, repetition, rhythm, balance etc.) are shared with other works of art. But photographs also have a specific grammar – flatness, frame, time, focus etc. ‘Mistakes’ in photography are often associated with (breaking) the ‘rules’ and expectations of this grammar e.g. out of focus, subject cropped, blur etc. Some photographers enjoy making beautiful images but others are more critical of what beauty means in today’s world.
Let’s us take a close look at photography’s visual language and grammar using Photo Pedagogy’s Threshold Concept #8
Photo Literacy?
What does it mean to be literate in photography? Superficially, it might suggest an ability to ‘read’ a photograph, to analyse its form and meanings. But what about the making of photographs? We would argue that literacy is more than just a command of the mechanics of a particular ‘language’. It also takes into account fluency of expression and sensitivity to material. Words and images are different. A photograph of a particular subject is different to a description of the same subject in words. It is surely possible to see, understand and appreciate a photograph without the need for words. And what about the other possible ‘literacies’ such as emotional and physical literacy?
Most photography courses require some evidence of understanding in the form of words. As the year progresses we would like you to be able to analyse images using these four categories TECHNICAL, VISUAL, CONTEXTUAL, CONCEPTUAL.
EXTRA READING: In photography Formalism was advocated by John Szarkowski (Curator of Photography at Museum on Modern Art, New York) who is his book; The Photographer’s Eye (1966) identified five elements involved in the formalist approach to the analysis of photography, they are: the thing itself, the detail, the frame, time and the vantage point. Read an essay here where this is discussed in more detail:
Darren Harvey-Regan Beauties of the Common Tool, Rephrased II, 2013 Fibre-based handprint, mounted, wooden frame with museum glass
ca. 90 x 70 cm
What you must do…
Walker Evans greatly influenced Darren Harvey-Regan, and both artists paid careful attention to choice of objects, composition, lighting and exposure values.
You must explore the work of both artists (create a blog post that compares and contrast their work) and develop a range of images in response to their outcomes. For this, you will need to use the selection of objects you have brought in to class from your own HOME, or alternatively use those we have provided for you. Be experimental with choosing different apertures settings and creative with lighting set-up; key light, reflected light, back light etc. and we will show you various lighting arrangements too.
Albert Renger Patszch
a specific attitude to photography and the advantages of the camera as a way of seeing called…
The New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit).
The types of subjects he preferred to photograph
The ways in which he explored the formal elements in his work e.g. form, light, rhythm, line, texture, repetition etc.
His famous book ‘The World is Beautiful’
Other photographers at the time who were similarly interested in objectivity
Contemporary photographers who have been influenced by the idea that ordinary objects and scenes can be photographed to reveal their beauty.
Historical context
There are numerous reasons why some photographers in the 1920s (along with other artists) began to represent the world with “objective, sober eyes”:
a response to the chaos of the First World War and a rejection of the culture leading up to it
a rejection of the emotional and spiritual concerns of Expressionism and an interest in the rational and political
a response to rapid industrialisation in Europe and America
a response to the particular qualities of the camera and a move away from painterly effects like soft focus
Karl Blossfeldt
Never formally trained in photography, Blossfeldt made many of his photographs with a camera that he altered to photograph plant surfaces with unprecedented magnification. His pictures achieved notoriety among the artistic avant-garde with the support of gallerist Karl Nierendorf, who mounted a solo show of the pictures paired with African sculptures at his gallery in 1926 and, subsequently, produced the first edition of Blossdeldt’s monograph Urformen der Kunst (Art forms in nature), in 1928. Following the enormous success of the book, Blossfeldt published a second volume of his plant pictures, titled Wundergarten der Natur (The magic garden of nature), in 1932. The clarity, precision, and apparent lack of mediation of his pictures, along with their presentation as analogues for essential forms in art and architecture, won him acclaim from the champions of New Vision photography. His work was a central feature of important exhibitions, including Fotografie der Gegenwart and Film und Foto, both in 1929.
Blossfeldt’s work adheres to the rules of TYPOLOGIES
Anna Atkins
In October 1843, the botanist and photographer Anna Atkins (1799–1871) wrote a letter to a friend. “I have lately taken in hand a rather lengthy performance,” revealed Atkins. “It is the taking photographical impressions of all, that I can procure, of the British algae and confervae, many of which are so minute that accurate drawings of them are very difficult to make.”1 Atkins proceeded to inquire whether a mutual acquaintance, also interested in aquatic plants, would care to receive a copy of her recently completed book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.
Atkins learned of photography through its British inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot. Only months after Talbot patented his most successful photographic process, in 1841, Atkins and her father, a respected scientist, decided to replicate the “talbotype” at their home. “My daughter and I,” Atkins’s father wrote to Talbot, “shall set to work in good earnest ’till we completely succeed in practicing your invaluable process.”3 Ultimately, it was a different photographic process—the cyanotype—that captivated Atkins. Developed by her friend and neighbor Sir John Herschel, the cyanotype process produced blue-and-white prints that Atkins prized for their sharp contours and striking colors. Atkins added hundreds of new plates to Photographs of British Algae throughout the 1840s and early 1850s, all the while refining cyanotype chemical solutions and exposure times.
Mandy Barker
Sea of artifacts by Mandy Barker
Matthew Brown (ex-student)
Here is a selection of images made by Matt Brown last year as part of his Personal Study: Bouley Bay.
Have a look at his blog here for more ideas around his research, artists inspirations and further experimentation.
Entwining image and object, the work of Darren Harvey-Regan (b. 1974 Exeter) often sees a hybridisation of the conventions of photography and sculpture. As quietly humorous as they are frustrating his works challenge the viewer to distinguish where representation ends and the object begins. “The presentation of photographs in interaction with objects serves to highlight the inherent tensions within representation; between the photograph as an object and the image of the world it contains. In this way, I consider the photograph as being something not only to think about, but to think with.”
01.tif
“As a medium reliant on how the natural world appears to it, can a photograph ever be truly abstract? Yet what process is more abstract than collapsing mass, depth and time into a single surface?” – Harvey-Regan
In geology an ‘erratic’ refers to a rock that differs from its native environment, having been carried and deposited there by a long-vanished glacier. Similarly Darren Harvey-Regan in his latest series executes both the photographic and physical act of lifting something out of its context, playing on overlapping appearances and processes.
The Erratics (Exposures) presents images of natural chalk rock formations eroded by wind and sand. Using an old large format field camera, Harvey-Regan sought out the monolithic chalk forms of Egypt’s Western Desert, a vast natural parallel to the singular studio-bound objects that frequently recur in his practice.
Both The Erratics (wrest)and (chalk fall in white) use sculptural compositions made by the artist from chalk collected from the rock falls along England’s South Coast. By carving smooth planes and shapes into rough rocks, Harvey-Regan works with and against perception of its natural forms. In the photographic works – (wrest) – the chalk is shaped towards the two-dimensional image surface of the print, while in the installation (chalk fall in white), the perception of a flattened image surface is created within the three-dimensional forms themselves.
Harvey-Regan uses art historian Wilhelm Worringer’s essay Abstraction and Empathy as both a background for the work and as a means to consider the nature of the photographic medium. For Worringer, ‘empathy’ describes our need to connect to the visible world, identifying with it and representing it. Conversely, ‘abstraction’ is proposed as a means of coping with the overwhelming phenomena of the world by extracting things from their place in space and time whilst distilling them to purified line, form and colour.
Both abstraction and empathy are captured in these works and their photographic process. The forms exposed in their natural surroundings in Erratics (Exposures) remain curiously abstract while tending more towards empathy, while forcefully sculpted objects in Erratics (Wrest) are balanced on the edge of the organic and abstract.
Still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe. The impetus for this term came as artists created compositions of greater complexity, bringing together a wider variety of objects to communicate allegorical meanings.
A New Medium
Still life featured prominently in the experiments of photography inventors Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, as far back as the 1830s. They did this in part, for practical reasons: the exceptionally long exposure times of their processes precluded the use of living models.
Symbolism and Metaphor – Vanitas
Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death.
The term originally comes from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’
Vanitas are closely related to memento mori still lifes which are artworks that remind the viewer of the shortness and fragility of life (memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’) and include symbols such as skulls and extinguished candles. However vanitas still-lifes also include other symbols such as musical instruments, wine and books to remind us explicitly of the vanity (in the sense of worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods.
Paulette Tavormina
Inspired by the works of 17th century Old Master still life painters such as Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian, American photographer Paulette Tavormina creates stunningly lit imagery of fruits and vegetables immersed in dark atmosphere
Mat Collishaw
A perfect example of the old technique getting combined with modern-age ideas is Mat Collishaw’s Last Meal on Death Row series of works. Although they appear as meticulously arranged staged photography still lifes of food, each image is actually based on death row inmates’ last meals before they are executed. Apart from the eerie subject, the pictures deliver a strong drammatic effect through an excellent use of chiaroscuro.
Krista van der Niet
On a much more lighter, even pastel note, we have Dutch photographer Krista van der Niet, whose compositions often include fruits and vegetables mixed with mundane objects such as socks, cloths and aluminum foil, giving it all a contemporary feel. Her photos often carry a dose of satire as well, which references consumerism and popular culture through a clever employment of objects within a carefully composed scenery.
Laura LetinskyOlivia Parker
Experimenting with the endless possibilities of light, self taught photographer Olivia Parker makes ephemeral constructions. She started off as a painter, but soon turned to photography and quickly mastered the way to incorporate an extensive knowledge of art history and literature and reference the conflicts and celebrations of contemporary life in her work. Over the many years of her artistic career, her style remained fluid, yet consistent
Richard Kuiper
Think paintings by Pieter Claesz or Adriaen Coorte, only in plastic. That’s how one could describe the photographs of Richard Kuiper, whose objects are all made of this everlasting, widely used material, including water bottles, floral arrangements, even the feathers. The artist tries to draw our attention towards the excessive use of plastic in our everyday lives, with the hope we will be able to decrease it before it takes over completely.
What you must do…blog post on still life
Define what still life is
Show examples of still life painting and photography
Include specific artist references
Provide a chronological timeline of still life photography
ThenAnswer
What is Vanitas?
What is Memento Mori?
What kind of metaphors and symbols are used in still life and why?
Creatively respond to one of the artists above and create a set of images that clearly shows your understanding of…
A series of blog posts should now show a combination of visual experiments, Adobe Lightroom selections and adjustments, 3-5 final images and an evaluation
Inspired by minimalist sculpture and painting, these simple but effective still life studies encapsulate the formal elements . Artists such as Giorgio Morandi have a clear influence here…and again there is a strong connection between painting and photography, historically and traditionally.
1. The Stack
2. Using light and paper / tracing paper to create shadows and silhouettes
3. Print out initial images and re- appropriate / cut-n-paste
4. White / monochrome
5. Splicing two images together – use either printouts or Photoshop
6. Conceal and reveal – light and shade
What you must do…
Collect a group of objects that you think combine well. Consider shape and size, colour, texture etc.
Then look carefully at what / how Mary Ellen Bartley groups, lights and photographs her objects. Aim to create a set of images by altering the layout, lighting, focus, composition etc.
Print some of the results off — and then rip, tear, cut-n-paste to create a photo-montage. Re-photograph this and develop the composition into a final outcome.
Creative Developments
A closer look at ….Layering / overlays / multi-exposures and more…
A photomontage is a collage constructed from photographs.
Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2)
Artists such as Raoul Haussman , Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield employed cut-n-paste techniques as a form of propaganda…as did Soviet artists like Aleksander Rodchenko and El Lissitsky
Photomontage has its roots in Dadaism…which is closely related to Surrrealism
The Art Critic 1919-20 Raoul Hausmann 1886-1971 Purchased 1974 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T01918
You’re going to utilise your images from the studio object shoot and other material you have created recently for this…
Using your OBJECTS photographs to create experimental new images either by hand or using image manipulation software OR both!!!
The examples below were created using five images. The figure was cut out leaving an interesting negative shape and outlined. Other images could be slid underneath until connections and interesting compositions started to occur.
How to make a GIF in Photoshop 1. Create layer for each image 2. Window > timeline 3. Select > Create Frame Animation 4. Drop Menu > Make frames from Layers 5. Timeline > select Forever 6. File > Export > Save for Web Legacy > reduce image size to 720 x 720 pixels
A gif created using just three images.
A gif using 6 images.
Alwaysfollow the 10 Step Process and create multiple blog posts for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :
Mood-board, definition and introduction (AO1)
Mind-map of ideas (AO1)
Artist References / Case Studies (must include image analysis) (AO1)
Photo-shoot Action Plan (AO3)
Multiple Photoshoots + contact sheets (AO3)
Image Selection, sub selection, review and refine ideas (AO2)
Compare and contrast your work to your artist reference(AO1)
Evaluation and Critique (AO1+AO4)
Final Outcomes for HOME Part 1
You must edit and save / export a range of images for printing to the PRINT FOLDER found here by Thursday 20th October
M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\Year 12 HOME objects Oct 2022
Still Life Photos 1-3 images
Single Object Photos 1-3 images
Photomontage Analogue 1-3 images
Photomontage Digital 1-3 images
Remember to include a range of sizes
A3 / A4 / A5 and black and white images too
Image Resolution and Sizing
Final Outcomes for HOME Part 1
You must edit and save / export a range of images for printing to the PRINT FOLDER found here by Thursday 20th October
M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\Year 12 HOME objects Oct 2022
Still Life Photos 1-3 images
Single Object Photos 1-3 images
Photomontage Analogue 1-3 images
Photomontage Digital 1-3 images
Remember to include a range of sizes
A3 / A4 / A5 and black and white images too
File Handling and printing...
Remember when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to 1000 pixels on the Short edge for “blog-friendly” images (JPEGS)
BUT…for editing and printing when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to Short edge for “high resolution” images (JPEGS) like this…
A5 Short Edge = 14.8 cm
A4 Short Edge = 21.0 cm
A3 Short Edge =29.7 cm
This will ensure you have the correct ASPECT RATIO
For a combination of images, or square format images you use the ADOBE PHOTOSHOP > NEW DOCUMENT + PRINT PRESETS on to help arrange images on the correct size page (A3, A4, A5)
You can do this using Photoshop, Set up the page sizes as templates and import images into each template, then you can see for themselves how well they fit… but remember to add an extra 6mm for bleed (3mm on each side of the page) to the original templates. i.e. A4 = 297mm x 210 but the template size for this would be 303mm x 216mm.
Half Term
Week 8
Mounting and framing final images
Week 9 Year 12 off timetable on Wed 9th and Thurs 10th November
Mounting and framing final images
Making a Virtual Gallery in Photoshop
Download an empty gallery file…then insert your images and palce them on the walls. Adjust the persepctive, size and shape using CTRL T (free transform) You can also add things like a drop shadow to make the image look more realistic…
Throughout Year 12 we will explore aspects of the theme HOME. This will include photographing and making imagery from a range of aspects of your home, habitat and environment…as well as finding out how various artists, researchers and even scientists respond to the concept of island-ness and in particular, Jersey itself.
Autumn | Part 1 objects, detritus and ephemera
Winter | Part 2 landscape and surroundings
Spring | Part 3 people, community and identity
Week 20
Mon alternative room : blog /edits / start portrait project
Tues alternative room : blog /edits / start portrait project
Wed alternative room : blog /edits / start portrait project
YOURPHOTOGRAPHY CONTROLLED CONDITIONS Jan 23rd + 24th + 25th (7 hours per student)
Groups 12A + 12B / Periods 1-5 breaks as normal
Select, edit and arrange final images – ANTHROPOCENE
Complete all relevant and supporting blog posts
Add final images to print folder INCLUDING RURAL / URBAN IMAGERY
THEN…
Frame up / mount all available prints
Review blog and make improvements
“ANTHROPOCENE”
This is a mini-unit to help you explore further opportunities with your landscape photography. We will spend time looking closely at this and discussing ideas with you…
ANTHROPOCENE
What is Anthropocene?
How and why are photographers exploring this concept?
Use your skills and knowledge to date to tackle and approach this theme. ie: abstract, portraiture, identity, landscape, studio based photography etc. – YOU DECIDE!
The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans.
The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time.
DISCUSS
Now watch this and discuss / compare the way in which various photographers have responded to this theme…
Blog Posts to make : CHECKLIST
Define “Anthropocene” and explain what it is.
2. Add a mindmap and moodboard of images, ideas and trigger points on your chosen genre ie: portraiture, studio (object or portraiture), abstract, landscape etc. You should aim to include a range of data, statistics, information, maps, documents, policies, pledges etc at this point to show a wide range of research methods and justification…
(These photographers should directly influence your final outcomes re : MOCK EXAM)
Make sure you describe in detail:
Why have you chosen this artist?
What interest you about their work?
How does the work relate to the theme of Anthropocene?
What are you going to do as a response to their work?
4. Organise and carry out your photo-shoots !!! You MUST complete a minimum of 2 PHOTO-SHOOTS (100-200 photos) in readiness for the mock exam itself. Responding to the theme of Anthropocene in your chosen genre.
5. Edit, select and develop your photographs and post contact sheets.
6. Produce a comparative analysis between one of your photographs and an image of one of your chosen photographers – discuss similarities and differences.
7. Develop your ideas through your images by editing, making decisions, reviewing and refining – selecting your collection of images or image as your final response to Anthropocene. Your final outcome could be an image, a collection of images, an altered landscape, a small zine, an exhibition in a virtual gallery, a projected image etc, etc.
8. Ensure your write an evaluation that comments on your original intentions (what you set out to do) and how your realised those intentions. Is your outcome successful? Comment on strengths and successes.
Task : Constructed Seascapes
Take a look at these photographic images (click on each image to expand):
‘The Great Wave’, the most dramatic of his seascapes, combines Le Gray’s technical mastery with expressive grandeur […] At the horizon, the clouds are cut off where they meet the sea. This indicates the join between two separate negatives […]Most photographers found it impossible to achieve proper exposure for both landscape and sky in a single picture. This usually meant sacrificing the sky, which was then over-exposed. Le Gray’s innovation was to print some of the seascapes from two separate negatives – one exposed for the sea, the other for the sky – on a single sheet of paper.
This ongoing body of work consists of staged landscapes made of collaged and montaged colour negatives shot across different locations, merged and transformed through the act of slicing and splicing […] ‘Constructed Landscapes’ references early Pictorialist processes of combination printing as well as Modernist experiments with film […] the work also engages with contemporary discourses on manipulation, the analogue/digital divide and the effects these have on photography’s status.
The Great Wave … sunlight breaks through the clouds above the waves at Sète, France, 1856–59 Illustration: Gustave le Gray
Industrial-scale US cattle farms captured by satellite imagery. These images, discovered by Henner while researching satellite photographs of oil fields, look more like post-apocalyptic wastelands than acreage in America’s heartland.
Diane Burko’s images of melting glaciers and dying coral reefs are not just pictorially impressive; they have strong emotional impact. (Carter Ratcliffe)
Diane Burko, “Postscript” (2019), mixed media: bleached coral mounted on wood, 50 x 25 inches
As a photographer how would you respond to climate change? Can a study of the environment and landscape of Jersey be an inspiration for a Personal Study?
Study latest issue: Photography+ Environment #14 from Photoworks that looks at the role of the photographer in documenting and confronting climate catastrophe. To explore this question, each writer and artist invites us to think about the relationship between photography and climate change, and between the photographer and their environment
Edward Burtynsky…nature transformed through industry
George Marazakis…humanity’s effect on Earth
Sebastiao Salgado…documentary photographer and photojournalist, respect for nature while also sensitive to the socio-economic conditions that impact human being
J. Henry Fair…uses pictures to tell stories about people and things that affect people.
David Maisel…radically human-altered environments.
Camilo Jose Vergara…documentation of American slums and decaying urban environments.
Andrew Moore…the effect of time on the natural and built landscapes.
Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre….modern ruins.
Yao Lu… contaminated landscapes – created from landfills and mounds of derelict rubble.
David T. Hanson… waste land.
Troy Paiva…”Urban Explorer” investigating the ruins of “Lost America”.
Obviously, you can also use past photographers we have looked at throughout the landscape unit, especially industrial and urban landscape photographers. (see below)
Alexander Apostol
Bernd & Hilla Becher
Donovan Wylie
Edward Burntsky
Frank Breuer
Gerry Johansson
Joel Sternfeld
Josef Schultz
Lewis Baltz
Noemie Goudal
Darren Regan Harvey
Keith Arnatt
ABSTRACT Approaches
You may focus on and wish to respond through the genre of abstract photography. Look back to the photographers from your first unit or discover new ones. Below are just some images to help you to engage in the topic.
OBJECT – studio lighting
You can also use your skills to produce an object based project. Looking at how objects might reflect the theme of Anthropocene. ie: single use plastics, disposable objects, waste, rubbish etc.
Mandy Barker
Barry Rosenthal – collection of discarded plastic objects.
Naomi White – plastic bags.
Sophie Thomas – found, discarded plastics/rubbish.
Steven Gallagher – plastic bag topology photography
Mandy Baker – marine plastic debris
THINK
What and where are you going to photograph and how you are going to take your images!!
Is it out and about, indoors, setting up your own lighting, collecting objects, photographing people, looking for abstract imagery etc.
Contacting Ronez quarry and gaining access to take photographs? Explore the industrial areas around La Collette – power station, recycling centre? The impact of farming on the land – plastic sheeting, poly tunnels etc, etc. Collecting washed up plastics from the beach. Asking family and friends to photograph them etc.
You may decide that you want to make a statement on the current situation in Jersey. Take images that may evoke discussions to do with over population, the housing crisis, social divides (rich/poor), securing National Park land etc, etc.
Open Cast Mining – Quarries: Ronez, St Peters Valley, Sand Quarry St. Ouens
Power Stations – La Collette, Bellozane Sewage Treatment
Urbanisation – St Helier: Grands Vaux, Le Marais Flats, Le Squez etc.
Mass Wastage – La Collette recycling centre
Disposable Society – La Collette recycling centre – refrigerator mountains etc
Land Erosion – farming industry: poly tunnels, packing sheds, plastic covered fields etc. Old Glass Houses
Over Population – poverty/social divides: Social Housing sites. Car Parks, traffic etc.
Industrialisation – La Collette area, Bellozane, industrial estates. Desalination Plant, German Fortification (WW2)
Altered Landscapes
“Unexpected Geology #18” – Ellen Jantzen (2018-19)
Altered landscapes focus on the process of using photoshop, or physically, in order to change the original composition of a landscape photograph. This may include changing the colours of the image, or in general changing the composition of the photo itself. For example cutting and pasting certain elements or adding forms of repetition or echo to the photograph.
Examples of altered landscapes
“Dust Storm” – Tanja Deman (2010)
Fernweh series explores the concept of a modernist city through its extreme relations to the landscape. The images are placed on a blurred line between a past which reminds us of a future and a future which looks like a past. Scenes are referring to the modernist ideas and aspiration of a man conquering the natural wild land and subordinating it to the rational order, and the consequences of those aspirations, which switched into the longing for an escape from urban environments.
Noémie Goudal’s practice is an investigation into photographs and films as dialectical images, wherein close proximities of truth and fiction, real and imagined offer new perspectives into the photographic canvas. The artist questions the potential of the image as a whole, reconstructing its layers and possibilities of extension, through landscapes’ installations. Noémie Goudal is represented by Edel Assanti (London) and the Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (Paris).
Part of “Restore to Factory Settings” series – Felicity Hammond (2014)
Part of “Geometric Reflections” series- Victoria Siemer (2015-16)
Joan Fontcuberta Orogenesis Derain , 2004
In Landscapes without Memory, an exhibition of forty large-scale works made between 2002 and 2005, Fontcuberta harnesses a piece of landscape-rendering computer software designed for the military, which creates photo-realistic three-dimensional models based on two-dimensional sources.
Fontcuberta uses software called Terragen to create photorealistic visualisations of landscapes, but instead of using cartographic data as this software is designed to use, Fontcuberta has replaced it with canonical images of landscapes taken from the history of art.
Gill is a British photographer, who mainly draws inspiration from his immediate surroundings of inner city life in East London and more recently Sweden with an attempt to make work that reflects, responds and describes the times we live in.
His work is often made up of long-term photo studies exploring and responding to the subjects in great depth.
Altered landscapes inspired moodboard
Creative Techniques to explore…
Joiners
Panoramics
Globes
Tilt-Shift
Kaleidoscopic
Photomontage
Text
Embroidered / stitched / connected / collaged
Acetate + projections
Interference eg Stephen Gill
Accessing Archival Imagery
You may need / want to experiment with archival images of Jersey to incorporate into photomontages or other creative processes…
Compare and contrast your work to your artist reference(AO1)
Evaluation and Critique (AO1+AO4)
Final Outcomes for HOME Part 2 Anthropocene + Landscapes
You must edit and save / export a range of images for printing to the PRINT FOLDER found here by ….
Natural Landscape Photos 1-3 images
Urban + industrial Photos 1-3 images
Anthropocene 1-3 images
Remember to include a range of sizes
A3 / A4 / A5 and black and white images too
File Handling and printing...
Remember when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to 1000 pixels on the Short edge for “blog-friendly” images (JPEGS)
BUT…for editing and printing when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to Short edge for “high resolution” images (JPEGS) like this…
A5 Short Edge = 14.8 cm
A4 Short Edge = 21.0 cm
A3 Short Edge =29.7 cm
This will ensure you have the correct ASPECT RATIO
For a combination of images, or square format images you use the ADOBE PHOTOSHOP > NEW DOCUMENT + PRINT PRESETS on to help arrange images on the correct size page (A3, A4, A5)
You can do this using Photoshop, Set up the page sizes as templates and import images into each template, then you can see for themselves how well they fit… but remember to add an extra 6mm for bleed (3mm on each side of the page) to the original templates. i.e. A4 = 297mm x 210 but the template size for this would be 303mm x 216mm.
Mounting and framing final images
Making a Virtual Gallery in Photoshop
Download an empty gallery file…then insert your images and palce them on the walls. Adjust the persepctive, size and shape using CTRL T (free transform) You can also add things like a drop shadow to make the image look more realistic…
Image analysis is very important in your understanding of photography. Both from learning how an image is composed or structured to the actual content and meaning of an image. You may need to understand or find out its social, historical, or political context.
Choose one of the images below and in groups discuss and record your findings to report back and share with others.
IMAGE ANALYSIS | GROUP EXERCISE 1
Using the matrix TECHNICAL – VISUAL – CONCEPTUAL – CONTEXTUAL below work in small groups to analyse and interpret this image :
Arnold Newman | Portrait of Alfred Krupp | 1963
Who – what – where – how – why?
IMAGE ANALYSIS GROUP EXERCISE 2
Using the matrix TECHNICAL – VISUAL – CONCEPTUAL – CONTEXTUAL below work in small groups to analyse and interpret this image :
Robert Frank Trolley, New Orleans, 1955, from The Americans
Using the matrix TECHNICAL – VISUAL – CONCEPTUAL – CONTEXTUAL below work in small groups to analyse and interpret this image :
Kevin Carter Starving Child and Vulture 1993
Who – what – where – how – why?
Image Analysis Group Exercise 4
Dorothea Lange Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California March 1936
Who – what – where – how – why?
Task
Create a blog post that includes the following…
Title: Image Analysis
Content : a range of images that you have learned about in the lesson (as above) including captions (title, date, artist etc)
Technical attributes
Visual Attributes
Conceptual Attributes
Contextual Attributes
…to show you knowledge and understanding, research skills and articulation of analysis and interpretation.
Extension : Representation,Standards and Ethics
Photographers (and artists in general) can bend, twist and manipulate the truth…they can influence how we understand the world.
THE AGE OF THE IMAGE
Watch this interesting documentary!
How we represent individuals and groups of people, change the context or meaning, and how fair we are with our methods has huge importance on the way we work…
THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
So far hopefully you have the chance to present your summer task and in groups discuss the role of photography and what it is and have gained an understanding of what an image is and how to analyse an image.
NOW we’re going to look at the HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
First we’re going to watch Episode 1, BBC – The Genius of Photography.
Hopefully you all will have your personal school login accounts and passwords etc.
Your First Steps…
file management
standards and ethics
code of conduct
You should all have a valid login now…which provides you with a Hautlieu Creative account so that you can start creating andcurating your own blog.
This will be your normal, everyday login details. We expect you to check your emails everyday too…and get used to using Office 365, Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom and follow us on Twitter too (HautlieuC).
The blog provides you with a neat platform to showcase your learning, including knowledge and understanding and of course your images too.
You should have access to the Media Drive (M : Drive)…this is where you must store all of your files. Please check this!
You will learn how to adapt and organise / store your image files…and you must manage file sizes carefully.
We will teach you step by step how to use the blog…then it is down to you to look after it and present your work as thoughtfully and carefully as possible. Each time you publish a blog post…it is then available for marking and assessment. Unpublished work will not normally be marked…thus affecting your progress and success.
We will also comment on your blog posts regularly…which will appear as a new email for you. You are expected to respond to the advice and suggestions accordingly. We constantly track your approach to lesson, independent study and overall progress.
You are expected to take responsibility for your own learning, progress and success during A Level Photography…
minimum 2-5 hours per week
weekly photo-shoots (200+images) must clearly demonstrate a range of approaches, reinforcing the techniques you have learnt
complete any / all incomplete class tasks by the end of the week
contribute your own photo-assignments + research
seek out opportunities to extend your learning / skill level
if you are absent / remote learning – you must check the blog daily / check emails for instructions, guidance and advice and complete in accordance with deadlines for your teaching group (these may change depending on timetable).
We all have various roles and responsibilities…
Hautlieu School Code of Conduct
Be respectful when taking photographs…think about who / what is in the frame and how you are representing / misrepresenting people
Ask permission where necessary…
Do not trespass on private land / derelict property…safety is important always
Copyright…beware !
Always credit the artists work in your research / blog including imagery
Please refer to this resource to help you navigate your camera’s function and settings. You will learn how to apply these skills learning to various photo-shoots over the next few months…and you should aim to provide evidence of these skills throughout your coursework.
Remember to practice and experiment. Use your eyes and look. The more you look, the more you will see. How you see the world will determine what kind of photographer you will become.
A camera is only a tool, and it is down to you to get the best out of your equipment by becoming confident and comfortable
Camera Skills
You must experiment with each of these skill areas as we move through our sequence of photo-shoots. Remember to include / produce a blog post on each that includes evidence of your experiments and successes…
Remember to use What / How / Why / When when describing and explaining what you are experiencing and achieving with each of these…
Using Auto-Focus
Using Manual Focus
White Balance
ISO
Aperture
Focal Length : wide, standard and telephoto lenses
Depth of Field
Show / fast Shutter Speed
Exposure and exposure compensation
Exposure bracketing
Ansel Adams and the visualisation of an image
Exposure Triangle : ISO – Shutter Speed- Aperture
Depth of Field
Camera function layout
Camera function layout
Ensure you are using technical vocab too…use the helpsheet to guide your literacy
Exposure Bracketing
Many digital cameras include an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) option. When AEB is selected, the camera automatically takes three or more shots, each at a different exposure. Auto Exposure Bracketing is very useful for capturing high contrast scenes for HDR like this…
…by taking the same photograph with a range of different exposure settings
You can use Exposure Compensation to quickly adjust how light or how dark your exposure will be using these controls…
Or set the amount of “bracketing” like this…
Then you can create your High Dynamic Range images by using this process in Adobe Photoshop…
Understanding Composition
The Rule of Thirds
One of the fundamentals of painting and photography, the Rule of Thirds is a technique designed to help artists and photographers build drama and interest in a piece. The rule states that a piece should be divided into nine squares of equal size, with two horizontal lines intersecting two vertical lines.
Your A Level Photography Summer Task is to respond to what Jersey means to you. You could explore aspects of heritage , lifestyle, community, surroundings, the past, present or future. You must complete a sequence of individual tasks and respond thoughtfully and creatively in order to produce a range of visual outcomes.
Expected time input = 5 hours minimum – 10 hours maximum
To get started you must choose at least one person who has a connection to Jersey. Take notes on their personal details (why and how they are in Jersey, name, age etc.) Then, you must agree with the person how you will photograph them (portraits), photograph a selection of personal objects and artefacts, and also photography a specific location. The three components must connect the person to the place.
From these images : You will be creating a set of simple photo-montages that are based on a combination of a person, an object and a place…
1. by stacking 3 images on top of each other in a strict order. This can be done digitally or created with prints, scissors, glue etc…
2. by juxtaposing 2 / 3 images alongside each other
3. by merging or blending 3 images together to create a double or multi-exposure
Stacking
1. Composite stack of 3 images : Object, portrait, landscape : Photo-montage inspired by a family connection to the RAF and Havre Des Pas, Jersey
Richard Koenig hangs a print and rephotographs this in its new location, creating intriguing illusions of space within space. Perspective lines within the two images are aligned to create optical confusion, so the viewer is disconcerted and unsure about the separation of the two spaces. His work often features intimate, private moments inset within generic, impersonal, public environment.
Juxtapose
Luke Fowler is inspired by Russian Two Frame film-making and has created a DiptychNikita Pirigov places 3 photographs alongside each other to create a triptych
Merge
DOUBLE / MULTI-EXPOSURES
Double or multiple exposures are an illusion created by layering images (or portions of images) over the top of each other. This can be achieved in the camera settings, or on Adobe Photoshop by creating LAYERS and then using BLENDING OPTIONS and OPACITY CONTROL. Artist have used these techniques to explore Surrealist Ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.
You could use apps like BLENDEDITOR for this…on your iphone
Man Ray
Man Ray
Alexander Rodchenko
Claude Cahun
Lewis Bush, Trading ZonesIdris Khan, Every…Bernd And Hilla Becher Gable Sided Houses. 2004 Photographic print 208 x 160 cm
Idris Khan’s Every… Bernd And Hilla Becher… series appropriates the Bechers’ imagery and compiles their collections into single super-images. In this piece, multiple images of American-style gabled houses are digitally layered and super-imposed giving the effect of an impressionistic drawing or blurred film still.
PHOTO-MONTAGE
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image.
Mask XIV 2006
John Stezaker: Is a British artist who is fascinated by the lure of images. Taking classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations, Stezaker makes collages to give old images a new meaning. By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images. Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous sitters with caves, hamlets, or waterfalls, making for images of eerie beauty.
Pariwat Anantachina Untitled Family no. 4. Hand collage on found photograph
Pariwat Anantachina The L_st Album is a project that sprung from Pariwat’s love of exploring secondhand markets, ea markets, and even night markets; where he purchased fascinating mementos of unknown people. Albums that may have been lost and forgotten in houses, while moving, thereby being obtained by merchant scavengers to be sold in secondhand markets. These collections were revived by conveying about the relationships of people in the society which is known to be the smallest unit and is called “family“.
Photographs you must provide…
Task 1. The Object
Photograph a set of objects that belongs / belonged to a person who has a connection to Jersey. This could be someone who has a far-reaching family history in Jersey, or someone who has recently settled in the island.
Think about lighting and positioning of the object (s) and use white / plain backgrounds and an infinity curve if possible.
Photos required 50-100
Jason Rogers
Vanitas / still life
Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death.
The term originally comes from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’
Vanitas are closely related to memento mori still lifes which are artworks that remind the viewer of the shortness and fragility of life (memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’) and include symbols such as skulls and extinguished candles. However vanitas still-lifes also include other symbols such as musical instruments, wine and books to remind us explicitly of the vanity (in the sense of worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods.
Paulette Tavormina
Inspired by the works of 17th century Old Master still life painters such as Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian, American photographer Paulette Tavormina creates stunningly lit imagery of fruits and vegetables immersed in dark atmosphere
Mat Collishaw
A perfect example of the old technique getting combined with modern-age ideas is Mat Collishaw’s Last Meal on Death Row series of works. Although they appear as meticulously arranged staged photography still lifes of food, each image is actually based on death row inmates’ last meals before they are executed. Apart from the eerie subject, the pictures deliver a strong drammatic effect through an excellent use of chiaroscuro.
Krista van der Niet
On a much more lighter, even pastel note, we have Dutch photographer Krista van der Niet, whose compositions often include fruits and vegetables mixed with mundane objects such as socks, cloths and aluminum foil, giving it all a contemporary feel. Her photos often carry a dose of satire as well, which references consumerism and popular culture through a clever employment of objects within a carefully composed scenery.
Laura LetinskyOlivia Parker
Experimenting with the endless possibilities of light, self taught photographer Olivia Parker makes ephemeral constructions. She started off as a painter, but soon turned to photography and quickly mastered the way to incorporate an extensive knowledge of art history and literature and reference the conflicts and celebrations of contemporary life in her work. Over the many years of her artistic career, her style remained fluid, yet consistent
Richard Kuiper
Think paintings by Pieter Claesz or Adriaen Coorte, only in plastic. That’s how one could describe the photographs of Richard Kuiper, whose objects are all made of this everlasting, widely used material, including water bottles, floral arrangements, even the feathers. The artist tries to draw our attention towards the excessive use of plastic in our everyday lives, with the hope we will be able to decrease it before it takes over completely.
A simple infinity curve using white paper and naturally available side-lighting…
Task 2. The Portrait
Create a set of portraits of the same person connected to Task 1 (The Object.)
The portraits can be headshots / close ups / half body / full length etc…see below for ideas and inspiration
Consider lighting and a clear, plain background eg a white wall
Photos required 50-100
THE DEADPAN AESTHETIC
According to sources the origins of the word “Deadpan” can be traced to 1927 when Vanity Fair Magazine compounded the words dead and pan, a slang word for a face, and used it as a noun. In 1928 the New York Times used it as adjective to describe the work of Buster Keaton.
It is less clear when it was first used to describe the style of photography associated with Edward Ruscha, Alec Soth, Thomas Ruff and many others. Charlotte Cotton devotes a complete chapter to Deadpan in The Photograph as Contemporary Art and much that has been written since references that essay.
In summary Deadpan photography is a cool, detached, and unemotional presentation and, when used in a series, usually follows a pre-defined set of compositional and lighting rules.
This style originated in Germany and is descended from Neue Sachlichkeit, New Objectivity, a German art movement of the 1920s that influenced the photographer August Sander who systematically documented the people of the Weimar Republic . Much later, in the 1970s, Bernd and Hilla Becher, known for their devotion to the principles of New Objectivity, began to influence a new generation of German artists at the Dusseldorf School of Photography (4). These young German photographers included Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Candida Hofer and Thomas Ruff. The Bechers (4 & 5) are best remembered for their studies of the industrial landscape, where they systematically photographed large structures such as water towers, coal bunkers or pit heads to document a soon-to-disappear landscape in a formalistic manner as much akin to industrial archeology as art. The Bechers’ set of “rules” included clean, black and white pictures taken in a flat grey light with straight-on compositions that perfectly lent themselves to their presentation methodology of large prints containing a montage of nine or more similar objects to allow the study of types (typology) in the style of an entomologist.
If you want to learn more about the theoretical and philosophical basis for the deadpan aesthetic READ HERE.
Thomas Ruff wanted to mimick the setup for a having a set of passport images taken. Read an interview with him here recently published in the Financial Times
eyes must be open and clearly visible, with no flash reflections and no ‘red eye’
facial expression must be neutral (neither frowning nor smiling), with the mouth closed
photos must show both edges of the face clearly
photos must show a full front view of face and shoulders, squared to the camera
the face and shoulder image must be centred in the photo; the subject must not be looking over one shoulder (portrait style), or tilting their head to one side or backwards or forwards
there must be no hair across the eyes
hats or head coverings are not permitted except when worn for religious reasons and only if the full facial features are clearly visible
photos with shadows on the face are unacceptable
photos must reflect/represent natural skin tone
BACKGROUND:
Photos must have a background which:
has no shadows
has uniform lighting, with no shadows or flash reflection on the face and head
shows a plain, uniform, light grey or cream background (5% to 10% grey is recommended)
This influenced by the work of earlier German photographers linked to the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s such as August Sander, Karl Blossfeldt and Albert-Renger-Patzsch.
August Sander
Karl Blosfeldt
BRUCE GILDEN: FACE: Bruce Gilden is renowned for his confrontational style and getting up close to his subject. Between 2012-14 Gilden travelled in America, Great Britain, and Colombia and created a series called FACE. Read a review here in the Guardian newspaper and another on Lensculture.
UP CLOSE
In addition to focusing on details of the face try and isolate body parts, gestures, clothing and physical features, such as hands, elbows, shoulders, neck, torso, hip, knees, feet. Your understanding of abstraction in photography; focusing on shapes, colours, light and shadows, textures and repetition is crucial here.
Satoshi Fujiwara: Code Unknown: In Michael Haneke’s 2000 film Code Unknown, there is a scene in which the protagonist’s lover, a photographer, secretly snaps pictures of passengers sitting across from him on the train.
When we look at another person, either directly or through another medium, we interpret a wide range of information based on outward appearance (face, physique, clothes and accessories, and movements)—in other words, various codes. By regulating and altering these codes in various ways, I set out to obscure the individuality and specificity of the subjects in the pictures in my series.—Satoshi Fujiwara
David Goldblatt: Particulars: Following a series of portraits of his compatriots made in the early 1970s, photographer David Goldblatt, for a very short and intense period of time, naturally turned to focusing on peoples’ particulars and individual body languages…
In this series we see hands resting on laps, crossed legs, the curved backs of sleepers on a lawn at midday, their fingers and feet relaxed, pausing from their usual occupations.
Task 3. The Place
Rule : The Place(s) must be connected to the person / people in Task 2. The locations could have a significance, or evoke a memory…
Robert Adams
You must include images of key locations in Jersey that have a historic significance to the person you have focused on. You must photograph the location(s). The Locations can be inside or outside. Try to avoid obvious / iconic locations (no sunsets over Corbiere please!)
Noemie Goudal
Richard Mosse…infrared technology used to explore key locations
Stephen Shore
Aim for locations that have a personal and unique reasoning to the personalities you are focusing on…or meaningful historic locations such as…
Dolmen / German bunkers and fortifications / traditional Jersey buildings etc
Remember : landscapes and locations have memory, historical, cultural and social significance
Consider lighting and composition, camera settings and exposure levels.
Photos required 50-100
Your powerpoint must include…
Research photo-montage and a range of artists from the selection provided
Analyse his/her work, style, technique, meaning – show some knowledge and understanding
Respond – produce at least 3 different shoots that show development of your ideas
Edit – make a first selection and cut down the three shoots to the best ten images, and justify your selection
Experiment – work on cropping, adjustments of brightness/ contrast/ colour correction and show further Photoshop / editing techniques if possible
Evaluate – describe process of experimentation and reflect on learning
Present – put all work together in a digital format such as Powerpoint
Select your most successful outcomes, print out as an A4 image and explain why you have chosen it in your final evaluation (at least 200-300 words.)
How to proceed:
Research a relevant artist reference explain why you have chosen that particular photographer. What do his / her photographs say to you? Look at composition and its visual elements e.g. line, form, shape, colour, tone, contrast, texture, depth, balance, space, perspective, viewpoint, foreground/ mid-ground/ background, rule of thirds. Look at the use of lighting e.g. natural lighting; sunlight, overcast, soft, harsh, directional, contrast and artificial lighting: studio, flash, spotlight, side-light, backlight, reflected light, shadows, chiaroscuro (light / darkness).
Use photographic language as above in your annotation and consider the artistic merits :
Technical , Visual , Conceptual and Contextual elements…
Write a short introduction about the work of your chosen photographer and the nature of their work
Issues to consider:
His / her attitude to photography and the advantages / disadvantages of the camera as a way of “seeing”
Are we looking at fact or fiction (or a hybrid of both?)
The ways in which your chosen photographer explored the formal elements in his / her work e.g. form, light, rhythm, line, texture, repetition etc.
Planning: Once you have spent
time evaluating the work of your chosen photographer, plan a shoot using the
same techniques and mindset.
You must: Produce a mind map showing your thought process and with breadth of thinking, and a mood board (collage of images) to illustrate the look and feel of your project.
You should: include your thoughts, how are you going to proceed with the project? What are your inspirations? Your doubts? Your worries? How will you start? Consider as many experiments as you can.
Recording: After planning your idea, gather together what you need. When you take pictures try and think about everything that you see in the frame – what’s in the foreground, mid-ground, background. To achieve this you must think about composing your picture (use your zoom lens and/or distancing yourself from subject/object), focussing (sharp, soft focus), use creative exposure tools on camera like fast/slow shutter speed to either freeze or blur a sense of movement, different aperture settings to control the area of focus and sharpness in your picture. E.g. a high aperture setting like f5.6 will make the background soft and out of focus whereas an aperture of f16 will make everything in the picture sharp from foreground to background. Also by zooming in or using a telephoto lens you can throw the background out of focus, or conversely if using a wide-angle everything in the frame will be in focus. Crop your images carefully.
You must:
Produce
the contact prints from at least three shoots, each dated with your selections
highlighted.
Editing: Editing is one of the most important aspects of photographic practice so be critical and selective when you choose your final selection of 5 images and then your best photograph. Think about sequence and relation between images – does your series of images convey a sense of narrative (story) or are they repetitious? Sometimes less is more!
You Must: Gather your images and select your final selection of 5-10 images, describe each of the images, artistically and share your thoughts on what why you took and then selected the image.
You should: Show your ability to correct the images using image manipulation software, such as Adobe Photoshop, consider the cropping, adjust levels, contrast, colour correction, B/W and balance of the image.
You could: Use Adobe Photoshop to enhance your creativity and expand on the possibilities that photography gives you, include screen grabs to illustrate the techniques you have used.
Presentation: Think about how you
present your work in terms of layout, scale, colour and perspective. A Powerpoint presentation is ideal
The
presentation of your photographs is just as important as your photographic
images themselves. Consistency of layout throughout is paramount and try to
make your work personal.
You must: Gather all of your
work and present it in a logical manner
A grid format could work well for this exercise…
You should: Produce an individual and comprehensive response to both your chosen artists and the inspirations that the artist has given you.
You could: Design within Adobe Photoshop or similar package, a theme to enhance the imagery and clarify the message of your response.
Evaluation: Reflect, contrast and compare the images and idea have lead to how you made the photos, development of ideas and what you were trying to achieve and communicate. This can be done throughout your layout as annotation or at the end as part of your final evaluation. Finally, choose your favourite image and present this separately from your series of images.
Make sure you bring with you: all of your work including your best A4 printed images / montages for your first photography lesson in September 2022
Remember tofollow the 10 Step Process to tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :
Mood-board, definition and introduction (AO1)
Mind-map of ideas (AO1)
Artist References / Case Studies (must include image analysis) (AO1)
Compare and contrast your work to your artist reference(AO1)
Evaluation and Critique (AO1+AO4)
Good luck and get creative!
Contact : j.cole@hautlieu.sch.je
What equipment you need to start the course…
SD Card
USB / pendrive
Card-reader / comverter
Camera (optional as we have loan cameras)
We also provide an Adobe Licence for you to install Photoshop etc
INDUCTION DAY EXERCISES
Photography’s function(s)
Photography as an art-form
Photography as a science
The difference between the study of photography and the practice of photography
Henri Cartier-Bresson once said…”Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”
What do you think Cartier-Bresson meant by this…? Discuss
Demonstrating a critical and contextual understanding of photography can be tricky, especially if the subject is relatively new to you in Year 12. The following activities have been designed to encourage you to reflect on what you know already about photography. Hopefully, some of the prompts will encourage you to further develop your understanding of photography through additional pondering and research.
In small groups, discuss the following questions. One person in the group should be responsible for making notes capturing the main ideas of the discussion:
Why do people take/make photographs?
Why is photography important?
What skills do you need to be a good photographer?
How many different kinds of photography can you think of?
How does photography help us see the world?
Can photographic images be trusted?
What are the similarities and differences between photography and other types of visual art?
When would it not be OK to take a photograph?
How do you know when you’ve made a good photograph?
Are photographers also artists?
Where is the best place to see photographs?
What kind of photography interests you most?
What confuses or frustrates you about photography?
Watch this short film in which the photographer Henry Wessel discusses his practice. Make some brief notes. What does he help us to understand about photography?
-(the-lovers-(promenade)).jpg)
