Mon 5 – Wed 7 Feb: Class 13A + 13B 15 hours controlled test Photography classroom + Photography studio
DEADLINE: LAST DAY OF YOUR MOCK EXAM ESSAY > PHOTOBOOKS / FILM > BLOG POSTS
IN PREPARATION FOR MOCK EXAM MAKE SURE THE FOLLOWING IS READY BY THE END OF THIS WEEK:
Complete and proof read essay draft this week (so there is enough time to make final corrections and incorporate it into book design in Mock exam.)
Upload new photoshoots and edit in Lightroom – make sure to produce blog posts showing selection process and experimentation of images.
A draft layout of your photobook/ rough cut of film edit before your Mock Exam begin (that time is used to fine tune design with teacher’s approval)
Review Checklist on blog for overview of work that must be completed.
Go through Go4School Tracking Sheet (sent in email on 17 Jan) and improve, complete and publish missing blogposts.
Structure your 3 day Mock Exam as follows:
DAY 1: Essay: Complete essay, incl illustrations, referencing and bibliography + publish on blog. Essay also needs to be added and presented at the end of your photobook)
DAY 2: Photoshoots/ recordings: Complete editing images or recordings for your photobook / film + produce blog posts showing selection process and experimentation of images. Use a combination of print screens + annotation. Write an evaluation about what went well and what you need to do next to develop your shoots and project.
DAY 3 Photobook/ film: Complete photobook design/ edit film + produce blogpost showing design process and evaluate. Produce a blog post showing layout and design process using a combination of print screens + annotation.
Prints: Select final prints and produce blog post showing presentation ideas and create mock-up in Photoshop and create a virtual gallery. Make sure you save final images in print folder here by end of the day:
Blogposts: Finish and publish any missing blog posts as per Checklist and your Go4School Tracking sheet.
ESSAY Publish final essay as a separate blog post with illustrations of key works by artists and your own images analysed in your text, as well as a bibliography listing all literary sources used. Also incorporate essay in the back of your book using layout in text columns and include illustrations and bibliography.
Marking Criteria
PHOTOBOOK Make sure you have a made a blog post that charts your design decisions, including prints screens of layout with annotation and write an ongoing evaluation. If you complete it; final book design must be checked and signed off by teacher.
For more help and guidance editing, process and evaluation go to blog post below.
BLURB – ORDER BOOK Inside Lightroom upload book design to BLURB, log onto your account on their website, pay and order the book.
Consider spending a few extra pounds on choosing better paper, such as Premium Lustre in check-out, change colour on end paper or choose different cloth/ linen if needed.
FILM Make sure you have a made a blog post that charts your editing process, including prints screens with annotation and write an evaluation. If you complete it; final film must be checked and signed off by teacher.
For more help and guidance on editing, process and evaluation go to blog post below.
Export final film as mp4 file and upload to Youtube / Microsoft Streams and embed on Blog. Follow these steps:
In Premier: Click on Sequence > Render IN/OUT
File > Export > Media
Export Settings: Format H.264
Output Name: use title of your film and save to V:Data drive
Click Export at bottom
Using Microsoft Stream: Open up Office 365
Go to All Apps and select Stream
Create > Upload Video
Browse to upload your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description, choose thumbnail and publish
My Content > Videos > embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
In Youtube: Set up an account at home (www.youtube.com)
Click Create (top right corner) > Upload video
Select file > your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description and choose thumbnail
Once uploaded, embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
BLOGPOSTS All blog posts in relation to the above must be published, including any other supporting posts missing from previous work modules since the beginning of Yr 13 academic year, including zines which must be printed & bound, Hockney ‘joiners’, 3D photo-sculpture and final prints.
See previous student, Stanley Lucas as a guide on blogposts that needs to be done and published before you the end of your Mock Exam.
EVALUATION: Upon completion of photobook/ film and presentation of prints make sure you evaluate and reflect on your learning and final outcomes. Comment on the following:
How successful was your final outcomes (book, film, prints etc)?
Did you realise your intentions?
What references did you make to artists references? comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
FINAL PRINTS Select your final prints (5-7) from photobook/ film and make a blog post showing ideas about how to present them.
In photoshop produce a mock display (create new document size A1: 594 x 841mm) using different image sizes, for example: A3 x 2, A4 x 2, A5 x 3
PREPARE AND SAVE IMAGES FOR PRINTING:
Add your images to the print folder here…M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\YR13 PRINT FOLDER NOSTALGIA
Complete any unfinished work from last term if you have time, For example: select images for print form Zine and My ROCK project.
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
Ensure you label and save your file in you M :Drive and then copy across to the PRINT FOLDER:
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.
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…
Howarth, S. (2016) ‘Is My Family Normal?’ in Family Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson.
McLaren, S. (2016), ‘Thanks for Sharing!’, in Family Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson
Williams, V. (2013). ‘Who’s Looking at the Family, Now’ in Family Politics, Issue 20. Brighton: Photoworks.
All three texts above are too large a file to be uploaded to blog – find text here: M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\NOSTALGIA\Contextual Studies\READING
Photography and Memory
Kuhn, ‘A. Remembrance: The Child I Never Was’ in Wells L. (ed) (2003) The Photography Reader. London: Routledge
Frames of Mind: Photography, Memory and Identity by Anwandter, Patricia Marcella In Frames of Mind, I have sought to explore the themes concerning the dynamic construction of memory. What do we choose to remember and how do we reinforce it? Who are we in relationship to who we were? Working with a collection of over five hundred images accumulated throughout my life, I have reinvestigated the images and their interrelationship with one another
Overview of Barthes book Camera Lucida in Photo Pedagogy The first half of this article talks about Barthes theory of a studium and punctum. The latter part about a photograph of his dead mother which allows him to think about memory. Commentary on Barthes book
Rereading: Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes Article by Brian Dillon in the Guardian, 26 March 2011 Grieving for his mother, Roland Barthes looked for her in old photos – and wrote a curious, moving book that became one of the most influential studies of photography
DEATH IN THE PHOTOGRAPH – critical article in response to Roland Barthes seminal book ‘Camera Lucida’ reflecting on photography.
Judith Butler is an academic and writer who is an authority on feminism and gender studies, incl queer theory. Her seminal book is: Gender Trouble which we do have a copy of in the Library LRC and in Media. Here is a good overview of her work – make sure you read it all and watch video as well.
Bate, David (2016) ‘The Art of the Document’ in Art Photography. London: Tate Gallerie How documentary photography now is considered within a fine-art context.
Solomon-Godeau, Abigail (1994), ‘Inside/ Out’ in Photography At The Dock: Essays on Photographic History, Institutions, and Practices. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press
PRACTICAL WORK: This term you have 5 weeks to complete all coursework, including essay and photobook or film. This include all relevant blog posts demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of: RESEARCH > ANALYSIS > PLANNING > RECORDING, EXPERIMENTATION > PRESENTATION > EVALUATION.
DEADLINE: MUST complete final photo-shoots/ moving image recordings by MON 5 February 2024
ESSAY: We will continue to spend at least 1 lesson a week on CONTEXTUAL STUDIES where you will be learning about critical theory, photo history and contemporary practice as well as developing academic study skills to help you writing your essay. However, it is essential that you are organising your time effectively and setting aside time outside of lessons to read, study and write.
DEADLINE: Essay MUST be handed in FRI 2 FEB 2024
PHOTOBOOK / FILM: Returning after Christmas we will be spending the whole month of January developing, designing and printing the photobook which will include your essay and somewhere between 40-60 images sequenced to tell a story. For those making a film you will spend January editing moving images and sound in Premiere.
MOCK EXAM: 5 – 9 Feb 2024. 3 days controlled test (15 hours) Groups: 13A: MON 5 – WED 7 FEB 13B: WED 7 – FRI 9 FEB
DEADLINE: Completion of photobook or film LAST DAY OF YOUR MOCK EXAM.
Week 15-16: 4 – 14 Jan PHOTOBOOK: Editing photoshoots FILM: Editing footage and sound ESSAY: Hypothesis, essay plan and Introduction
PHOTO-SHOOTS:Lessons Thurs 4 – Fri 5 Jan Upload new images from to M:drive and begin to edit in Lightroom. Follow these instructions:
EDITING:
Save shoots in folder and import into Lightroom
Organisation: Create a new Collection from each new shoot inside Collection Set: PHOTOBOOK
Editing: select 8-12 images from each shoot.
Experimenting: Adjust images in Develop, both as Colour and B&W images appropriate to your intentions
Export images as JPGS (1000 pixels) and save in a folder: BLOG
Create a Blogpost with edited images and an evaluation; explaining what you focused on in each shoot and how you intend to develop your next photoshoot.
Make references to artists references, previous work, experiments, inspiration etc.
Prep for photobook design: Make a rough selection of your 40-50 best pictures from all shoots. Make sure you have adjusted and standardised all the pictures in terms of exposure, colour balance.
EVALUATING: Upon completion of photoshoot and experimentation, make sure you evaluate and reflect on your next step of development. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
ESSAY:Lessons Mon 8 – Fri 12 Jan Complete the following:
MON: Academic Sources
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.
https://vimeo.com/223710862
Here is an full guide on how to use Harvard System of Referencing including online sources, such as websites etc.
TUE: Essay Question
Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.
Tue: Essay Plan Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure
Essay question:
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
Wed-Fri: EssayIntroduction In this lesson you will write a 45 mins draft essay introduction following these steps:
Open a new Word document > SAVE AS: Essay draft
Copy essay question into Essay title: Hypothesis > if you don’t have one yet, make one!
Copy your Statement of Intent from previous blogpost.
Identify 2 quotes from your literary sources using Harvard System of Referencing.
Use one quote as an opening quote:Choose a quote from either one of your photographers or critics. It has to be something that relates to your investigation.
Begin to write a paragraph (250-500 words) answering the following questions below.
You got 45 mins to write and upload to the blog!
Think about an opening that will draw your reader in e.g. you can use an opening quote that sets the scene. Or think more philosophically about the nature of photography and its feeble relationship with reality.
You should include in your introduction an outline of your intention of your study, e.g.
What are you going to investigate?
How does this area/ work interest you?
What are you trying to prove/challenge, argument/ counter-argument?
Whose work (artists/photographers) are you analysing and why?
What historical or theoretical context is the work situated within?
What links are there with your previous studies?
What have you explored or experimented with so far in your photography project?
How will your work develop.
What camera skills, techniques or digital processes have you used, or going to experiment with?
PHOTOBOOK: Lessons Mon-Wed Produce a number of blogposts that show evidence of the following:
1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.
2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)
3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:
Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.
Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.
Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative.
Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others. Use of captions (if any.)
UNDERSTANDING PHOTOBOOKS: NARRATIVE, EDITING, SEQUENCING, DESIGN, FORM, FUNCTION
Earlier in the academic year we looked at narrative in photography. Let’s refresh our memory and revisit some of the theories around visual storytelling.
Narrative is essentially the way a story is told. For example you can tell different narratives of the same story. It is a very subjective process and there is no right or wrong. Whether or not your photographic story is any good is another matter.
Narrative is constructed when you begin to create relationships between images (and/or text) and present more than two images together. Your selection of images (editing) and the order of how these images appear on the pages (sequencing) contributes significantly to the construction of the narrative. So too, does the structure and design of the photo-zine or photobook.
However, it is essential that you identity what your story is first before considering how you wish to tell it. Planning and research are also essential to understanding your subject and there are steps you can take in order to make it successful. Once you have considered the points made between the differences in narrative and story complete the following:
CASE-STUDIES: Let’s explore some examples of images used in photo-essays and photobooks and see if we can identify the story as well as examine how narrative is constructed through careful editing, sequencing and design.
PHOTO-ESSAY: The life of a country doctor in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains
“A photo is a small voice, at best, but sometimes – just sometimes – one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought”W. Eugne Smith
W. Eugene Smith compared his mode of working to that of a playwright; the powerful narrative structures of his photo essays set a new benchmark for the genre. His series, The Country Doctor, shot on assignment for Life Magazine in 1948, documents the everyday life of Dr Ernest Guy Ceriani, a GP tasked with providing 24-hour medical care to over 2,000 people in the small town of Kremmling, in the Rocky Mountains. The story was important at the time for drawing attention to the national shortage of country doctors and the impact of this on remote communities. Today the photoessay is widely regarded as representing a definitive moment in the history of photojournalism.
Here is a Powerpoint with more information about how to construct a Traditional Picture Story that includes individual images such as:
Person at Work
Relationship Shot
Establishing Shot
Detail shot
Environmental Portrait
Formal Portrait
Observed Portrait
Here is a link to an entry for Percival Dunham considered Jersey first photojournalist for a very brief period in 1913 and 1914, when he worked for Jersey Illustrated Weekly and then the Morning News, the main competitor for many years for the Evening Post (now the Jersey Evening Post and the island’s only daily newspaper for over half a century). Try and identity individual images as above from a selection of prints from the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive that holds over 1000 images by Percival Dunham in their collection.
Select somewhere between 12-15 images from the set and edit and sequence them to construct a specific narrative.
Record an image of your sequence and produce a blogpost where you describe the above process.
PHOTOBOOKS: In October of 1958, French publisher Robert Delpire released Les Américains in Paris. The following year Grove Press published The Americans in New York with an introduction by American writer, Jack Kerouac (the book was released in January 1960).
Like Frank’s earlier books, the sequence of 83 pictures in The Americans is non-narrative and nonlinear; instead it uses thematic, formal, conceptual and linguistic devices to link the photographs. The Americans displays a deliberate structure, an emphatic narrator, and what Frank called a ‘distinct and intense order’ that amplified and tempered the individual pictures.
Although not immediately evident, The Americans is constructed in four sections. Each begins with a picture of an American flag and proceeds with a rhythm based on the interplay between motion and stasis, the presence and absence of people, observers and those being observed. The book as a whole explores the American people—black and white, military and civilian, urban and rural, poor and middle class—as they gather in drugstores and diners, meet on city streets, mourn at funerals, and congregate in and around cars. With piercing vision, poetic insight, and distinct photographic style, Frank reveals the politics, alienation, power, and injustice at play just beneath the surface of his adopted country.
Since its original publication, The Americans has appeared in numerous editions and has been translated into several languages. The cropping of images has varied slightly over the years, but their order has remained intact, as have the titles and Kerouac’s introductory text. The book, fiercely debated in the first years following its release, has made an indelible mark on American culture and changed the course of 20th-century photography. Read article by Sean O’Hagan in The Guardian
MORE PHOTOBOOKS: A few photobooks dealing with memory, loss and love
I went back to Russia to visit the places containing scattered vestiges of my father’s memory.
On a mission to photograph the invisible, with Deleted Scene photographer Yury Toroptsov takes us to Eastern Siberia in a unique story of pursuit along intermingling lines that form a complex labyrinth. His introspective journey in search of a father gone too soon crosses that of Akira Kurosawa who, in 1974, came to visit and film that same place where lived the hunter Dersu Uzala.
Yury Toroptsov is not indifferent to the parallels between hunting and photography, which the common vocabulary makes clear. Archival documents, old photographs, views of the timeless taiga or of contemporary Siberia, fragments or deleted scenes are arranged here as elements of a narrative. They come as clues or pebbles dropped on the edge of an invisible path where the viewer is invited to lose himself and the hunter is encouraged to continue his relentless pursuit.
Dealing with the grief that the photographer suffered following the death of her mother, Where Mimosa Bloom by Rita Puig Serra Costatakes the form of an extended farewell letter; with photography skillfully used to present a visual eulogy or panegyric. This grief memoir about the loss of her mother is part meditative photo essay, part family biography and part personal message to her mother. These elements combine to form a fascinating and intriguing discourse on love, loss and sorrow.
“Where Mimosa Bloom” is the result of over two years work spent collecting and curating materials and taking photographs of places, objects and people that played a significant role in her relationship to her mother. Rita Puig Serra Costa skillfully avoids the dangerous lure of grief’s self-pity, isolationism, world-scorn and vanity. The resonance of “Where Mimosa Bloom” comes from all it doesn’t say, as well as all that it does; from the depth of love we infer from the desert of grief. Despite E.M.Forster’s words – “One death may explain itself, but it throws no light upon another” – Rita Puig Serra Costa proves that some aspects of grief are universal, or can be made so through the honesty and precision with which they are articulated.
I received a text message. “Today, our divorce was finalized.” The message from my mother was written simply, even though she usually sends me messages with many pictures and symbols. I remember that I didn’t feel any particular emotion, except that the time had come. Because my parents continued to live apart in the same house for a long time, their relationship gently came to an end over the years. It was no wonder that a draft blowing between the two could completely break the family at any time.
In Japan, legend has it that a man and woman who are predestined to meet have been tied at the little finger by an invisible red string since the time they were born. Unfortunately, the red string tying my parents undone, broke, or perhaps was never even tied to begin with. But if the two had never met, I would never have been born into this world. If anything, you might say that there is an unbreakable red string of fate between parent and child.
Before long, I found myself thinking about the relationship between my parents and . How many days could I see my parents living far away? What if I couldn’t see them anymore? Since I couldn’t help feeling extremely anxious about it, I was driven to visit my parents’ house many times. Every day I engage in awkward conversation with my parents, as if in a scene in their daily lives. I adapt myself to them, and they shift their attitude toward me. We do not give way entirely to the other side, but rather meet halfway. Indeed family problems remain unresolved, although sometimes we tell allegorical stories and share feelings. It means a lot to us that our perspectives have changed with communication.
My family will probably never be all together again. But I feel without a doubt that there is proof inside of each of us that we once lived together. To ensure that the red string that ties my family together does not come undone, I want to reel it in and tie it tight.
‘The Epilogue’ is the book about the story of the Robinson family – and the aftermath suffered in losing their 26 year old daughter to bulimia. Working closely with the family Laia Abril reconstructs Cammy’s life telling her story through flashbacks – memories, testimonies, objects, letters, places and images. The Epilogue gives voice to the suffering of the family, the indirect victims of ‘eating disorders’, the unwilling eyewitnesses of a very painful degeneration. Laia Abril shows us the dilemmas and struggles confronted by many young girls; the problems families face in dealing with guilt and the grieving process; the frustration of close friends and the dark ghosts of this deadliest of illnesses; all blended together in the bittersweet act of remembering a loved one. Read more here on Laia Abril’s website
Here are a few lists of Best Photobooks 2022 and 2023
Thurs-Fri: EssayParagraph 1 In this lesson you will write a 45 mins draft essay paragraph 1 following these steps:
Use information gathered in previous blog posts, or use hyperlinks below, in relation to Art Movement and Isms relevant to your artists references and their work.
Select at least two quotes from your literary sources that you can incorporate into your paragraph.
Your paragraph must include visual examples of artists work within that art movement that is relevant to your Personal Study.
Consider content and instructions below
Complete Paragraph 1 and upload to the blog at the end of lesson
Paragraph 1 Structure (500 words): Use subheading. This paragraph covers the first thing you said in your introduction that you would address.The first sentence introduces the main idea of the paragraph. Other sentences develop the subject of the paragraph.
Content: you could look at the following…exemplify your hypothesis within a historical and theoretical context. Write about how your area of study and own work is linked to a specific art movement/ ism. Research and read key text and articles from critics, historians and artists associated with the movement/ism. Use quotes from sources to make a point, back it up with evidence or an example (a photograph), explain how the image supports the point made or how your interpretation of the work may disapprove. How does the photograph compare or contrast with others made by the same photographer, or to other images made in the same period or of the same genre by other artists. How does the photograph relate to visual representation in general, and in particularly to the history and theory of photography, arts and culture.
Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!
Week: 18 (Yr 12 Mock exam): 22 – 28 Jan PHOTOBOOK: Editing & designing Photobook FILM: Editing Film ESSAY: Complete paragraph 2 & 3 (artists case studies)
PHOTO-SHOOTS:Lessons Mon- Wed Upload new images from to M:drive and begin to edit in Lightroom. Follow these instructions:
EDITING:
Save shoots in folder and import into Lightroom
Organisation: Create a new Collection from each new shoot inside Collection Set: PHOTOBOOK
Editing: select 8-12 images from each shoot.
Experimenting: Adjust images in Develop, both as Colour and B&W images appropriate to your intentions
Export images as JPGS (1000 pixels) and save in a folder: BLOG
Create a Blogpost with edited images and an evaluation; explaining what you focused on in each shoot and how you intend to develop your next photoshoot.
Make references to artists references, previous work, experiments, inspiration etc.
Prep for photobook design: Make a rough selection of your 40-50 best pictures from all shoots. Make sure you have adjusted and standardised all the pictures in terms of exposure, colour balance.
EXPERIMENTING:
Export same set of images from Lightroom as TIFF (4000 pixels)
Experimentation: demonstrate further creativity using Photoshop to make composite/ montage/ typology/ grids/ diptych/triptych, text/ typology etc appropriate to your intentions
Design: Begin to explore different layout options using InDesign and make some page spreads for our newspaper (format: 280.5 (h) x 420 mm (w)
Alternatively design a photo-zine. Set up new document as A5 page sizes. This is trying out ideas before you begin designing photobook.
Make sure you annotate process and techniques used and evaluate each experiment
EVALUATING: Upon completion of photoshoot and experimentation, make sure you evaluate and reflect on your next step of development. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
FILM:Lessons Mon- Wed Bring footage from video/ audio recordings to lessons: Follow these instructions:
EDITING: • Save media in folder on local V:Data Drive • Organisation: Create a new project in Premiere • Editing: begin editing video/ audio clips on the timeline • Adjusting: recordings in Colour / B&W appropriate to your intentions.
EXPERIMENTING: • Video: experimenting with sequencing using relevant transitions and effects • Sound: consider how audio can add depth to your film, such as ambient sound, sound fx, voice-over, interview, musical score etc. • Title and credits: Consider typography/ graphics/ styles etc. For more creative possibilities make title page in Photoshop (format: 1280 x 720 pixels) and import as a Psd file into your project folder on the V-Data drive.
EVALUATING: Write an evaluation on the blog that reflects on your artistic intentions, film-editing process and collaboration. Include screen-prints from Premiere and a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of the shooting/ production for further annotation. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
Thurs-Fri: Essay Paragraph 2 & 3 In each lesson you will write a 45 mins draft essay paragraph 2. First, go to your blog posts that you produced about your artists references and copy your research and analysis into your new paragraph. You may need to re-structure or re-write some of the sentences using linking words so that they flow better in a coherent manner. You may also need to do some more research and interpret their work in relation to your essay question. Follow these steps:
Paragraph 2 Structure (500 words): Use subheading. In the first sentence or opening sentences, link the paragraph to the previous paragraph, then introduce the main idea of the new paragraph. Other sentences develop the paragraphs subject (use relevant examples, quotations, visuals to illustrate your analysis, thoughts etc)
Content: you could look at the following...Introduce your first photographer. Select key images, ideas or concepts and analyse in-depth using specific model of analysis (describe, interpret and evaluate) – refer to your hypothesis. Contextualise…what was going on in the world at the time; artistically, politically, socially, culturally. Other influences…artists, teachers, mentors etc. Personal situations or circumstances…describe key events in the artist’s life that may have influenced the work. Include examples of your own photographs, experiments or early responses and analyse, relate and link to the above. Set the scene for next paragraph.
Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!
Paragraph 3 Structure (500 words): Use subheading. In the first sentence or opening sentences, link the paragraph to the previous paragraph, then introduce the main idea of the new paragraph. Other sentences develop the paragraphs subject (use relevant examples, quotations, visuals to illustrate your analysis, thoughts etc)
Content: you could look at the following…Introduce key works, ideas or concepts from your second photographer and analyse in-depth – refer to your hypothesis…Use questions in Pg 2 or add…What information has been selected by the photographer and what do you find interesting in the photograph? What do we know about the photograph’s subject? Does the photograph have an emotional or physical impact? What did the photographer intend? How has the image been used? What are the links or connections to the other photographer in Pg 2? Include examples of your own photographs and experiments as your work develop in response to the above and analyse, compare, contrast etc. Set the scene for next paragraph.
Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!
Week: 19 – 20: 29 Jan – 9 Feb ESSAY: complete Essay hand in draft Fri 2 Feb PHOTOBOOK: complete layout, design and order book FILM: complete final edit and export film MOCK EXAM: 3 days (15 hrs) Mon 5 – Fri 9 Feb
In the next two weeks focus on beginning to edit and collect all your images, archival material and texts, including finishing writing your essay needed to complete your photobook.
ESSAY:Mon-Wed Complete conclusion, bibliography, proof read and hand in draft essay no later than Fri 2 Feb 2024. Follow these steps:
Conclusion (500 words): Write a conclusion of your essay that also includes an evaluation of your final photographic responses and experiments.
List the key points from your investigation and analysis of the photographer(s) work – refer to your hypothesis. Can you prove or Disprove your theory – include final quote(s). Has anything been left unanswered? Do not make it a tribute! Do not introduce new material! Summarise what you have learned. How have you been influenced? Show how you have selected your final outcomes including an evaluation and how your work changed and developed alongside your investigation.
Bibliography: List all the sources that you used and only those that you have cited in your text. 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, exhibitions, Youtube/TV/ Videos / DVD/ Music etc.
PHOTOBOOK: Thurs-Fri DRAFT PHOTOBOOK LAYOUT: FRI 2 FEB
You want to aim for a draft layout and hand in draft version of your essay before your Mock Exam day, then use that day to fine tune design and complete essay.
1. Write a book specification and describe in detail what your book will be about in terms of narrative, concept and design with reference to the same elements of bookmaking as above.
Narrative:What is your story? Describe in:
3 words
A sentence
A paragraph
Design: Consider the following
How you want your book to look and feel
Paper and ink
Format, size and orientation
Binding and cover
Title
Structure and architecture
Design and layout
Editing and sequencing
Images and text
2. Produce a mood-board of design ideas for inspiration. Look atBLURB online book making website, photo books from photographers or see previous books produced by Hautlieu students on the table in class.
3. Create a BLURB account using your school email address. With Blurb you have different options on how you design your book:
a) Using Lightroom to design your book which is integrated with BLURB. Only for use on school computers, unless you have LR at home on your own laptop.
b) Download Bookwright via Blurb onto your own laptop and work offline at home and you can work indecently of school. Here you have full control of layout/ design features. Once completed, you upload photo book design to Blurb
c) Choose online option if you want to work directly online. Very limited layout/design options (not recommended!)
For those who wish to make their own hand-made photobook using Indesign follow the same steps as below in terms of documenting and annotating your design process. or if you want to customize your Blurb book see me for more details on how to do it.
4. Using Lightroom make a rough selection of your 40-50 best pictures from all shoots. Make sure you have adjusted and standardised all the pictures in terms of exposure, colour balance/ B&W, contrast/brightness etc. Produce blogpost from each shoot with selection of edited images following instructions below.
EDITING:
Save shoots in folder and import into Lightroom
Organisation: Create a new Collection from each new shoot inside Collection Set: PHOTOBOOK
Editing: select 8-12 images from each shoot.
Experimenting: Adjust images in Develop, both as Colour and B&W images appropriate to your intentions
Export images as JPGS (1000 pixels) and save in a folder: BLOG
Create a Blogpost with edited images and an evaluation; explaining what you focused on in each shoot and how you intend to develop your next photoshoot.
Make references to artists references, previous work, experiments, inspiration etc.
EXPERIMENTING:
Export same set of images from Lightroom as TIFF (4000 pixels)
Experimentation: demonstrate further creativity using Photoshop to make composite/ montage/ typology/ grids/ diptych/triptych, text/ typology etc appropriate to your intentions
Make sure you annotate process and techniques used and evaluate each experiment
EVALUATING: Upon completion of photoshoot and experimentation, make sure you evaluate and reflect on your next step of development. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
Did you realise your intentions?
What references did you make to artists references? comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on new photoshoot, editing, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
5. Print a set of small work prints (4 to one A4 page) on the Laserjet, cut them up in guillotine and lay them out on the big white table for editing.
6. Decide on format (landscape, portrait) size and style of your photo-book. Begin to design your photo book, considering carefully, narrative, editing, sequencing, page spreads, juxtaposition, image size, text pages, empty pages, use of archival material etc.
7. Add your illustrated essay at the end of your photo book, including title, any captions (if needed), bibliography, illustrations of artists work (incl data) and images of your own responses. Think carefully about font type, size and weighting.
8. Produce screen prints of layout ideas as you progress and add to Blog for further annotation, commenting on page layout/ narrative/ sequencing/ juxtaposition of pictures.
9. Make sure all blog posts are finished including, research, analysis, experimentation, annotation and an evaluation of final outcomes.
9. FINAL PRINTS: Select a set of 5-6 photographs as final outcomes and evaluate – explaining in some detail how well you realised your intentions and reflect on what you have learned in LOVE & REBELLION project.
10. Save final prints in our shared PRINT folder (no later than 15:00 end of your Mock exam day) in a high-resolution (4000 pixels on the long edge.) Save each images in your name i.e. first name_surname_title_1, and 2, 3 and so on.
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\PRINTING\A2 Coursework Prints Spring 2024
ESSAY: In the Spring term will be spending 1 lesson a week every Wednesday on writing and developing your essay. However, you will need to be working it independently outside of lesson time.
Objective:Criteria from the Syllabus
Be aware of some of the methods employed by critics and historians within the history of art and photography.
Demonstrate a sound understanding of your chosen area of study with appropriate use of critical vocabulary. – use for image analysis
Investigate a wide range of work and sources
Develop a personal and critical inquiry.
Marking Criteria
Academic Sources:
Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video .
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.
https://vimeo.com/223710862
Here is an full guide on how to use Harvard System of Referencing including online sources, such as websites etc.
TUE: Essay Question
Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure.
Essay question:
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography, visual and popular culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
Essay question: Hypothesis
Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
Introduction (250-500 words). Think about an opening that will draw your reader in e.g. you can use an opening quote that sets the scene. You should include in your introduction an outline of your intention of your study e.g. what and who are you going to investigate. How does this area/ work interest you? What are you trying to prove/challenge, argument/ counter-argument? What historical or theoretical context is the work situated within. Include 1 or 2 quotes for or against. What links are there with your previous studies? What have you explored so far in your Coursework or what are you going to photograph? How did or will your work develop. What camera skills, techniques or digital processes in Photoshop have or are you going to experiment with?
Paragraph 1 Structure (500 words): Use subheading. This paragraph covers the first thing you said in your introduction that you would address.The first sentence introduces the main idea of the paragraph. Other sentences develop the subject of the paragraph.
Content: you could look at the following…exemplify your hypothesis within a historical and theoretical context. Write about how your area of study and own work is linked to a specific art movement/ ism. Research and read key text and articles from critics, historians and artists associated with the movement/ism. Use quotes from sources to make a point, back it up with evidence or an example (a photograph), explain how the image supports the point made or how your interpretation of the work may disapprove. How does the photograph compare or contrast with others made by the same photographer, or to other images made in the same period or of the same genre by other artists. How does the photograph relate to visual representation in general, and in particularly to the history and theory of photography, arts and culture.
Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!
See link to powerpoints: Pictorialism vs Realism and Modernism vs Postmodernism here
Paragraph 2 Structure (500 words): Use subheading. In the first sentence or opening sentences, link the paragraph to the previous paragraph, then introduce the main idea of the new paragraph. Other sentences develop the paragraphs subject (use relevant examples, quotations, visuals to illustrate your analysis, thoughts etc)
Content: you could look at the following...Introduce your first photographer. Select key images, ideas or concepts and analyse in-depth using specific model of analysis (describe, interpret and evaluate) – refer to your hypothesis. Contextualise…what was going on in the world at the time; artistically, politically, socially, culturally. Other influences…artists, teachers, mentors etc. Personal situations or circumstances…describe key events in the artist’s life that may have influenced the work. Include examples of your own photographs, experiments or early responses and analyse, relate and link to the above. Set the scene for next paragraph.
Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!
Paragraph 3 Structure (500 words): Use subheading. In the first sentence or opening sentences, link the paragraph to the previous paragraph, then introduce the main idea of the new paragraph. Other sentences develop the paragraphs subject (use relevant examples, quotations, visuals to illustrate your analysis, thoughts etc)
Content: you could look at the following…Introduce key works, ideas or concepts from your second photographer and analyse in-depth – refer to your hypothesis…Use questions in Pg 2 or add…What information has been selected by the photographer and what do you find interesting in the photograph? What do we know about the photograph’s subject? Does the photograph have an emotional or physical impact? What did the photographer intend? How has the image been used? What are the links or connections to the other photographer in Pg 2? Include examples of your own photographs and experiments as your work develop in response to the above and analyse, compare, contrast etc. Set the scene for next paragraph.
Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!
Conclusion (500 words): Write a conclusion of your essay that also includes an evaluation of your final photographic responses and experiments.
List the key points from your investigation and analysis of the photographer(s) work – refer to your hypothesis. Can you prove or Disprove your theory – include final quote(s). Has anything been left unanswered? Do not make it a tribute! Do not introduce new material! Summarise what you have learned. How have you been influenced? Show how you have selected your final outcomes including an evaluation and how your work changed and developed alongside your investigation.
Bibliography: List all the sources that you used and only those that you have cited in your text. 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, exhibitions, Youtube/TV/ Videos / DVD/ Music etc.
Use this simplified list to check that you are on task. Every item on the list represents one piece of work = one blog post. It is your responsibility as an A-level student to make sure that you complete and publish appropriate blog posts each week.
FINAL OUTCOMES & DEADLINES ESSAY > Fri 2 FEB 2024 PHOTOBOOK / FILM / PRINTS > last day of Mock Exam CLASS 13A > WED 7 FEB CLASS 13B > FRI 9 FEB
AUTUMN TERM
WEEK 11: 20-26 Nov 1. REVIEW & REFLECTION > overview of past projects
WEEK 12: 27 Nov-3 Dec 1. RESEARCH & EXPLORE > ‘NOSTALGIA’ – produce mindmap & moodboard 2. STATEMENT OF INTENT (500 words)
WEEK 13: 4 – 10 Dec 1. ARTISTS REFERENCES > case-study 1 2. PLAN & RECORD > creative responses
Week 14: 11 – 17 Dec 1. ARTISTS REFERENCES > case-study 2 2. PLAN & RECORD > creative responses
Week 15: 18 – 19 Dec 1. LITERARY SOURCES > select 3-5 key texts for essay
XMASBreak: 19 Dec – 4 Jan 1. RECORDING: Produce a number of PHOTOSHOOTS (at least 2-3 in response to your Personal Study and bring to lessons in January. 2. READING: Key texts (interviews, reviews, articles etc.) about your subject, photo-history and chosen artists in preparation of writing your essay in January.
SPRING TERM
Week 16: 4 – 14 Jan 1. PHOTOSHOOTS/ VIDEO RECORDINGS > edit, review and evaluate 2. ESSAY QUESTION > formulate 2-3 variations of hypothesis 3. ESSAY PLAN > define each paragraph 4. ESSAY > introduction
Week 17: 15 – 21 Jan 1a: PHOTOBOOK > select book and deconstruct narrative, concept and design 1b: FILM > select film and deconstruct narrative, editing and sound 2. ESSAY > paragraph 1 – historical context
Week 18: 22 – 28 Jan (Yr 12 Mock Exam Mon-Wed) 1. PHOTOSHOOTS/ VIDEO RECORDINGS > edit, review and evaluate 2a: PHOTOBOOK > select book and deconstruct narrative, concept and design 2b: FILM > select film and deconstruct narrative, editing and sound 3. ESSAY > paragraph 2 and 3
Week 19: 29 Jan – 2 Feb 1. ESSAY > conclusion, bibliography, proof-read DEADLINE: Hand in essay Fri 2 FEB 2a: PHOTOBOOK > write a book specification; narrative, concept and design 3a: PHOTOBOOK > moodboard and create Blurb account 2b: FILM > storyboarding; narrative, visuals and sound 3b: FILM > moodboard and begin editing
Week 20: 5 – 9 Feb MOCK EXAM 1. ESSAY > publish final essay with illustrations and a bibliography 2a: PHOTOBOOK > complete design and include essay in Blurb 2b: FILM > complete editing film, export and embed on blog 3. PRINT > select a set of 5-6 final prints for mounting 4. BLOG > review and complete all supporting blogposts
The A-level coursework consist of two modules, Personal Investigation (practical work worth 72 marks) and Personal Study (written work worth 18 marks) which are interlinked and informed by each other. All the work that you produced (both coursework and mock exam) in Yr 12 also contributes towards A-Level coursework and overall equates to 60% of the total marks and the remainder 40% accounts for the External Set Assignment (Exam) in 2024. The Personal Investigation accounts for 48% and the Personal Study accounts for 12% of the total coursework marks. The last week before H-Term 5-9 Feb is a Mock Exam and will count as final DEADLINE
What is a Personal Study?
The aim of this unit is to critically investigate, question and challenge a particular style, area or work by artists/ photographer(s) which will inform and develop your own emerging practice as a student of photography. The unit is designed to be an extension of your practical work in your Personal Investigation module where the practical informs and develops the theoretical elements and vice versa of your ongoing project.
Your Personal Study is a written and illustrated dissertation, including a written essay (1000-3000 words) and a lens-based body of work (either stills photography or moving image) with a number of final outcomes produced from your Personal Investigation unit.
PRESENTATION: This year you have a choice to make either a short film (3-5mins) or a photo book, either online using Blurb or by hand using traditional book binding techniques, which you design to include both your essay and a final selection and sequence of your photographs produced as a response to the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’. In addition, you are expecting to produce an appropriate amount of blogposts that demonstrates your ability to research, analysis, plan, record, experiment, present and evaluate. You are also encouraged to print and present a number of images from your practical work as final outcomes.
Explore Shannon’s blog posts to learn more about her Personal Study into patriarchy and women’s traditional role
What it says in the syllabus (Edexcel)
The personal study will consist of a critical and analytical written piece of a minimum 1000 words continuous prose, making links to the student’s own practical investigations, supported by contextual research. Through the personal study, students will demonstrate understanding of relevant social, cultural or historical contexts. Students will also express personal interpretations or conclusions, and use technical and specialist vocabulary. The focus of the personal study can be any concept, movement, person, people, artefact(s), or other source of reference. However, it must be related to their own ideas, investigations and practical work. The personal study can take any form but must: ● be presented as a separate piece in writing ● be a minimum 1000 words on the chosen subject ● be written in continuous prose ● be in a presentable format for assessment ● include a full bibliography, citing all references.
Students will need to consider: ● critical and analytical content ● expression of personal interpretations and conclusions ● contextual research and understanding ● links between research, analysis and own investigations ● use of specialist terminology and vocabulary ● clarity of expression and language ● appropriate structure and presentation.
The personal study must be the student’s own work, forming an essential part of their independent investigations. Development of the personal study may be supported through presentations to the class, discussions and individual tutorials. Teachers can also help students to focus their ideas for the personal study by asking them to produce a proposal or an outline of their intentions. Students may support their progress in writing the minimum 1000 words with visual examples of their own work and the work of others, sketchbook annotation, notes from visits, exploration of materials and the development of their own ideas. Any references to others’ writing should be acknowledged through a bibliography. Internet sources should be cited with a brief description of the source material.
To summarise: ● supporting studies will help to prepare for both practical work and personal study ● the practical work(film, photobook, prints and supporting studies) and personal study(essay) may be approached in any order, or progress simultaneously ● the outcome for the personal study must form a separate presentation ● work must not be added to or altered once submitted for assessment ● the practical work will be marked against all four Assessment Objectives, equal to 48% of all coursework marks. ● The personal study comprises 12% of the final qualification and is marked out of 18.
How to get started: Link your chosen area of study to your previous work, knowledge and understanding based upon your chosen theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’.
Up until now you have explored the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’ focusing on visiting tourism and heritage sites, such as St Malo and Elizabeth Castle and produced three different outcomes; A3 page-spreads, photo-zine and a short film. All these outcomes are exploring a sense of place and cultural identity through storytelling. It’s up to you to decide how you want to explore the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’ further and choose a medium that you enjoy most and feel will give you the best chance at producing a quality final outcome. This project will be the final chance you have to improve your coursework marks and grades!
For example, some of the subjects or issues you wish to explore within the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’, you may have explored previously in Yr 12 projects based around the theme of ‘HOME’, that included PORTRAITURE and FEMINITY vs MASCULINITY and LANDSCAPE and ANTHROPOCENE and STILL-LIFE and FORMALISM Or, you may wish to develop new ideas around COMMUNITY and FAMILY. It may be useful for you to revisit some of the projects you have already covered in your coursework, so far (see below).
The choice is between making a photobook; exploring a subject and theme in depth using photography as a tool for visual storytelling, either through observation (documentary) or staging (tableaux) a series of photoshoots. Making a film might be more in line with your creative skills set and offer other elements to storytelling, such as combining moving image and sound. Either option offers its own unique set of challenges and opportunities for you to express yourself creatively as A-Level Photography student.
PRACTICAL WORK: You have 4 weeks in lesson time in the remainder of the Autumn term, and at Christmas another 2 weeks to complete principal shoots and make new images. This include all relevant blog posts demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of: RESEARCH > ANALYSIS > PLANNING > RECORDING, EXPERIMENTATION > PRESENTATION > EVALUATION.
PHOTOBOOK: Returning after Christmas we will be spending the whole month of January developing and designing your photobook, which will also include your essay and somewhere between 40-60 images sequenced to tell a story.
FILM: If you are making a film, then you will be spending January editing your footage, including both visual (moving image/ still-images) and sound (ambient sound, voice-over, sound effects and music scores). Your essay will be published as a separate blog post.
DEADLINE: MUST complete 4-5 new photo-shoots/ moving image/ sound recordings this AUTUMN and SPRING TERM that must be published on the blog by WED 24 January.
ESSAY: We will be spending minimum 1 lesson a week on CONTEXTUAL STUDIES where you will be learning about art/photo history, critical theory and contemporary practice as well as developing academic study skills to help you writing your essay. However, it is essential that you are organising your time effectively and setting aside time outside of lessons to read, study and write.
DEADLINE: Final Essay MUST be handed in Fri 2 February 2024
MOCK EXAM: 5 – 9 Feb 2024. 3 days controlled test (15 hours) Groups: 13A: MON 5 – WED 7 FEB 13B: WED 7 – FRI 9 FEB
DEADLINE: Completion of photobook or film LAST DAY OF YOUR MOCK EXAM.
NEWSPAPER: From the work that you produce as part of this unit there is potential opportunity that we will be making a collective newspaper based on the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’. DEADLINE: 22 March 2024
Week 11: 20 – 26 Nov Developing Personal Study Review and Reflect
Lesson task Mon:Personal Investigation Choose one final project from past students.
For photobooks, look through sequence of images carefully and study their supporting blog posts. For films, watch film saved in shared folder here and study their supporting blog posts.
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\LOVE & REBELLION\FILM\Personal Study
Present their project in class and comment on the book, or film’s quality, with reference to: Concept > ideas and meaning behind project Narrative > a sense of a story or subject being explored Editing > consistency and quality of imagery Sequencing > the order of which images appear on the page or in the film to tell a story Design > layout of images and choices of format, size, front-cover, title and other design elements Aesthetic > how something looks and overall beauty (or lack of) of final product.
Make an assessment using the mark sheet below and calculate a grade.
Lesson task Tue:Personal Study Read the essay and comment on its overall written and interpretative quality as well as its use of critical, contextual and historical references, eg.
Does the essay address its hypothesis?
Does it provide new knowledge and understanding?
Is the essay well structured with a sense of an introduction, paragraphs and a conclusion?
Use and flow of language, prose, punctuation, spelling.
Use of specialist vocabulary relating to art and photography.
Analysis of artist’s oeuvre (body of work) and key work(s).
Evidence of wider reading with reference to art history/ theory, political discourse and/or socio-economical context.
Use of direct quotes, summary or commentary from others to make an informed and critical argument.
Use of referencing system (eg. Harvard) and a bibliography.
Use of illustrations with captions listing name of artist, title of work and year of production.
Make an assessment using the mark sheet and calculate a grade.
Lesson Task Wed-Fri: Review and Reflect complete the following blogpost
Objective:Criteria from the Syllabus
Essential that students build on their prior knowledge and experience developed during the course.
Develop your written dissertation in the light of your chosen focus from the practical part of previous coursework and projects.
From all the coursework (Personal Investigation) that you have produced write an overview of what you learned so far (both as Yr 12 and Yr 13 student) and publish on the blog.
1. Describe which themes (Nostalgia, Anthropocene, Home, Feminity/ Masculinity/ Identity etc,) medium (photography, film), approaches (documentary, tableaux, conceptual), artists (incl contextual references to art history, movements and isms) and photographic skills, processes, techniques and methods (incl learning new software) inspired you the most and why.
2. Include examples of both previous and current experiments and imagery to illustrate your thinking.
Week 12: 27 Nov – 3 Dec Introduction to Personal Study Explore theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’ and write a Statement of Intent complete the following blogposts
something done or presented in order to evoke feelings of nostalgia.
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 can be triggered by many things, such as music, movies, places, or people. Nostalgia can have positive effects on mood, social connectedness, self-esteem, and meaning in life.
wistful evocative romantic sentimental emotional about the past regretful dewy-eyed maudlin homesick
MIND-MAP and MOODBOARD
RESEARCH > It it is paramount that you explore the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA‘ in a personal and unique manner. Produce a mind-map and mood-board of ideas/ interpretations/ starting points working in small groups of 2-3 students and feedback to the class.
Consider what it is that makes you feel nostalgic about Jersey, your home, family, friends, a song, a memory, an experience. For example, you can generate ideas linked to childhood, family history or places, sites or locations that holds a special memory in your heart. These memories may be either positive or negative depending on what story you wish to explore as a photographer.
Revisit the sites of your childhood – the places where you played or spend time with friends/ family. You could choose sites or locations that triggers specific childhood memories or experiences. For example; beaches/ castles/ heritage sites/ bunkers/ home/ gardens/ family gatherings/ parties/ celebrations/ birthdays/ weddings/ holidays. Some of these sites could be Jersey landscapes and landmarks, such as Corbiere Lighthouse, Gronez Castle, Mt Orgueil, Elizabeth Castle, Fort Regent, St Ouen’s Bay, L’Etacq, St Brelade beach, Plemont, Ann Port, Rozel Bay, Jersey Zoo, Bouley Bay, Bon Nuit, Gorey Pier, St Helier harbour, People’s Park, Liberation Square, a St Helier area or neighbourhood and Parish church/ community hall or playground etc.
definitions: Binary opposites: a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.
Theory of binaries. According to French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, meaning is often defined in terms of binary oppositions, where “one of the two terms governs the other.”. An example would be the white/ black binary opposition in the United States, the African American is defined as a devalued other. An example of a binary opposition is the male-female dichotomy, where male is the dominant gender and women are subservient (patriarchy).
Patriarchy: a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it, both within family, workplace and government.
Synonym: a synonym is a word that means the same or nearly the same thing as another word
Antonym: a word of opposite meaning. The usual antonym of good is bad.
Binary opposition & narrative: Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist who developed the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. Levi Strauss theory on binary opposition talks about how narrative can be split into opposites, such as Good and Evil, Man and Woman, Rich and Poor, etc. Due to having these opposites, when together it creates the conflict in the narrative story and this becomes the central climax. Read more here.
NARRATIVE > STORYTELLING
In this module we will examine how different narrative structures can be used to tell stories in pictures from looking at photobooks as well as cinema. We will consider narrative within a documentary approach where observation is central in representing reality, albeit we will look at both visual styles within traditional photojournalism as well as contemporary photography which employs a more poetic visual language that straddles the borders between objectivity and subjectivity, fact and fiction.
Write a Statement of Intent of 250-500 words that clearly contextualise;
What you want to explore?
Why it matters to you?
How you wish to develop your project?
Which form you wish to present your study (photobook, film, prints etc)
When and where you intend to begin your study?
Make sure you describe how you interpret the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’ and any specific subject-matter, topic or issue that you wish to explore, including references to artists, art movement and any other inspiration. Revisit your mind-map and mood-board and hone in one or two ideas. For example, you may wish to consider:
How you wish to photograph places, people, objects – carefully selecting your point of view (framing), composition and lighting.
Will you be making images outside or inside, shooting on locations or use the studio.
Will your images be documentary (observational), or tableaux (staged) in your approach, style and aesthetic look?
What will you include?
What will you leave out?
How will you present these images to the viewer?
In a book, a film, or prints on the wall?
With or without accompanying text?
In a grid, typology study or a linear sequence?
Will you be manipulating images using montage/ collage techniques or apply AI technology?
Will you be using any specific photographic technique, process of software (Photoshop, Premiere, Audition, Blurb online book making)
What difference do these decisions make to the meaning of your images?
PLAN > RECORD > As a creative response to initial ideas set out in your Statement of Intent plan a relevant photoshoot this week that provide you with some visual material to develop your project. There are three photographic genres that you could consider when developing ideas and planning photoshoots, they are:
LANDSCAPE > PLACE > GEOGRAPHY > ENVIRONMENT > GEOLOGY – familiar vs unfamiliar – ordinary vs extra-ordinary – vernacular vs spectacular PORTRAIT > PEOPLE > IDENTITY > CULTURE > COMMUNITY – individual vs collective STILL-LIFE > OBJECT > HISTORY > MEMORY > FAMILY – private vs public
Produce a blog post from each shoot with careful selection, adjustments and editing of images in Lightroom. Review and evaluate shoot for further development and experimentation. Your first photo-shoot MUST be published on the blog by Wed 13 Dec.
Week 13: 4 – 10 Dec INSPIRATIONS: Artists References PHOTO-SHOOTS: Planning & Recording complete the following blogposts
THEORY > ANALYSIS ARTISTS REFERENCES:
Objective:Criteria from the Syllabus
Select artists work, methods, theories and art movements appropriate to your previous coursework work as a suitable basis for your Personal Study.
Investigate a wide range of work and sources
ARTISTS REFERENCES: Select 2-3 artists/photographers that have inspired your work already and that you would like to research in depth as a basis for your Personal Study. Compare and contrast their practice and work following these steps:
Produce a mood board with a selection of images and write an overview of their work, including methods, style, approach and subject matter.
Select at least one image from each photographer and analyse in depth using methodology of TECHNICAL > VISUAL > CONTEXTUAL > CONCEPTUAL.
MEANING & METHODS: Identify meaning and methods behind selected artists/photographers work and research at least 3 different literary sources (online articles, books, YouTube clips) that will provide you with different critical perspective and views other than your own.
The literary sources will also provide you with something to read for further contextual understanding and critical thinking in preparation for writing your essay. Make sure you save hyperlinks photocopies etc in a new folder: Academic References.
Incorporate quotes and comments from artist themselves or others (art critics, art historians, curators, writers, journalists etc) using a variety of sources such as YouTube, online articles, reviews, books
Make sure you reference sources and embed links to the above sources in your blog post.
EXTENSION: CONTEXTUAL STUDIES1 Conversations on Photography: As a case study read one interview, identity 3 quotes and apply theory to a analysis of one image.
PLANNING: Produce a blog post with a detailed plan of at least 3-4 photoshoots that you intend on doing in response to analysis and interpretation of Artists References above. Make sure photo-shoots relates to the ideas on how you intend to develop your project as set out in your Statement of Intent. Follow these instructions: what, why, how, when, where?
RECORDING: Complete planned photo-shoot and bring images with you in the New Year to class. Begin to edit and show experimentation with images using Lightroom / Photoshops/ Premiere as appropriate to your intentions. Make sure you annotate processes and techniques used.
EVALUATION: Upon completion of photoshoot and experimentation, make sure you evaluate and reflect on your next step of development. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
Week 14: 11 – 19 Dec HOMEWORK TASK: WINDOWS and MIRRORS Essay: How can photography be both ‘mirrors’ and ‘windows’ of the world? Photo-assignment: a creative response to documentary (reality) and tableaux (fiction) photography DEADLINE: THURS 4 JAN 2024
WRITE >To show knowledge and understanding of the differences between documentary truth and staged tableaux photography you need to write a mini-essay. This essay will the last opportunity to develop your essay writing skills and can be viewed as a starting point for you to develop your own individual personal study essay with a unique hypothesis. Follow link and instructions here:
PHOTO-SHOOT > Based on the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA‘ – and with relevance to your Personal Study – produce 3 images that are documenting reality and another 3 images that are staging reality. Use either camera or AI technology, or a combination at free will. The focus here is on creativity, imagination and experimentation.
CONTEXT: For further understanding and context of the historical, conceptual and aesthetic differences between documentary practice and tableaux photography read the following sections below and click on the hyper links.
DOCUMENTARY vs TABLEAUX PHOTOGRAPHY
CONTEXTUAL STUDIES > 1 blog post. Describe the genres of documentary photography and tableaux photography and highlight the differences and similarities in the style and approach of the image-making process. For example: What do we mean by a photograph that is ‘documentary’ in style. How does a staged tableaux image construct a narrative different from documentary photography? Which of the two genres are best at representing truth? Or, is photography now unreliable as ‘evidence’ or ‘bearing witness’ and be a ‘window’ onto the world due to new technology, such as AI and other digital image manipulation software. In order to answer these questions fully, you may want to refer to your earlier essay; Photography and Truth: Can a photograph lie? See more here:
Aim to write 500-1000 words and include images to illustrate both genres of photography and show evidence of reading by including direct quotes from sources and referencing using Harvard system.
RESOURCES > First, Look through both these PPTs to get a basic understanding documentary photography and tableaux photography.
Photographer Rob Hornstra on documentary, storytelling and slow journalism
Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen spend five years working in the Sochi Region where the 2014 Winter Olympics where held. Here is a link to The Sochi Project
British documentary photographer Chloe Dewe-Matthews
Jeff Wall, Insomnia, 1994, Transparency in lightbox, 172,2 x 213,5 cm
Stranger than Fiction: Should documentary photographers add fiction to reality? Documentary photography belongs to the realm of truth, yet some photographers are testing the boundaries between reality and fiction in a bid to reach a public that is accustomed to these narrative forms in the literary and cinematic worlds. In contemporary photography today your have what some people call Fictional Documentary (similar to TV genre such as doc-drama) where you interpret real or historical events through fiction. This is often expressed through a personal and artistic vision which are operating somewhere between fiction and fantasy with some elements of truth or historical data that has been re-imagined.
See the work of: Cristina de Middel (Afronauts, Sharkification, This is What Hatred Did), Max Pinckers (Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty), Vasantha Yogananthan (A Myth of Two Souls), Ron Jude (Lick Creek Line), Eamonn Doyle ( i ) Paul Graham (Does Yellow Run Forever), Yury Toroptsov (Fairyland, House of Baba Yaga, Divine Retribution), Gareth McConnell (Close Your Eyes), Joan Fontcuberta
EXTRA READING: For a contemporary perspective on documentary practice read photographer, Max Pincher’s Interview: On Speculative Documentary To read this interview you must access it online from home as it is blocked from internet filter in school.
Photography Agencies and Collectives World Press Photo – the best news photography and photojournalism Magnum Photos – photo agency, picture stories from all over the world. Panos Picture – photo agency Agency VU – photo agency INSTITUTE – photo agency Sputnik Photos – photo collective made of Polish and East European photographers A Fine Beginning – photo collective in Wales Document Scotland – photo collective in Scotland NOOR – a collective uniting a select group of highly accomplished photojournalists and documentary storytellers focusing on contemporary global issues.
My London: through the eyes of Liz Johnson Artur, Kalpesh Lathigra and Sirui Ma. Themes of family, discovery and the natural world inform the work of these three contemporary photographers.
Maybe consider producing a series of images or film about MY JERSEY that reflects on your lived experiences, anything from childhood to recent Storm Ciarán that affected many islanders and their families, homes, communities, neighbourhoods and areas of destruction in Jersey’s landscape, both in the countryside and urban areas, such as parks and green spaces. You could document both the destruction left behind by the storm in its aftermath and the rebuilding/ repairing. This photographic study could draw on your previous landscape studies, both natural and man-made > link to old blog posts
Read more here in the JEP or BBC Jersey about Storm Ciarán in Jersey.
You can also use generative AI either in Photoshop or DreamStudio. See this fake Tornado video that received over 400K views on TikTok
You could focus on trees in Jersey that has been uprooted, damaged and cut down and photograph them as a series of Typology studies. (make link to Yr 12 blog post) These images could be compared with archive photos of the Great Storm in 1987. Read and see more here about weather in Jersey through the ages on Jerripedia.
The Government of Jersey and other environmental agencies and groups, such as the National Trust for Jersey and Jersey Trees for Life are calling for a Tree Council to be formed that will oversee the planting of hundreds of new trees. You could document this process and record those involved in the replanting effort, such as tree surgeons, arboriculturists and volunteers.
Particular areas that were hit hard where many trees were felled by the storm, include ‘The bendy Tree’ on the Five Mile Road, trees in the ground of the Atlantic Hotel, along the Railway Walk and Grande Route de St Ouen (near St Ouen’s Manor).
Explore these options…
St Helier
Residential areas
Housing estates
Retail Parks and shopping areas
Industrial Areas
Car Parks (underground and multi-storey too)
Leisure Centres
Building sites
Demolition sites
Built up areas
Underpass / overpass
The Waterfont
Harbours
Airport
Finance District (IFC buildings)
FALLEN TREES a responce to Storm Ciarán in Jersey
Explore more her in the pdf: M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\NOSTALGIA
Many of the photographers associated with new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made, selecting subject matter that was matter-of-fact. Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development.
The New Topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
What was the new topographics a reaction to?
The stark, beautifully printed images of the mundane but oddly fascinating topography was both a reflection of the increasingly suburbanised world around them, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental…
Post-war America struggled with
Inflation and labor unrest. The country’s main economic concern in the immediate post-war years was inflation. …
The baby boom and suburbia. Making up for lost time, millions of returning veterans soon married and started families…
Isolation and splitting of the family unit, pharmaceuticals and mental health problems
TYPOLOGY means the study and interpretation of types and became associated with photography through the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose photographs taken over the course of 50 years of industrial structures; water towers, grain elevators, blast furnaces etc can be considered conceptual art. They were interested in the basic forms of these architectural structures and referred to them as ‘Anonyme Skulpturen’ (Anonymous Sculptures.) Each industrial structure was photographed from eight different angles on an overcast day with light grey sky mimicking the detached white background in a photographic studio. Their aim was to capture a record of a landscape they saw changing and disappearing before their eyes so once again, Typologies not only recorded a moment in time, they prompted the viewer to consider the subject’s place in the world.
The Becher’s were 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
Albert-Renger-Patzsch
See also the work by Americans, William Christenberry and Ed Ruscha’s photographic works on types e.g. Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1964). Every building on the Sunset Strip (1966). Or Idris Khan‘s appropriation of Bechers’ images.
Not least of the Bechers’ legacy is their lasting influence on subsequent generations of artists who use the photographic medium today, most notably the students taught by Bernd Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy between 1976 and 1996. Among his most renowned students are Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, and Thomas Struth.
Andreas Gursky
Thomas Struth (b. 1954) Ferdinand-von-Schill-Strasse, Dessau 1991 1991
Thomas Ruff
Candia Hofer
If you feel drawn to a particular location, site or landscape in Jersey you can photography that over a period of time, exploring different light, weather conditions. See work by Richard Misrach:Golden Gate, Hiroshi Sugimoto: Seascapes (influenced by Gustave Le Gray and combination printing), Michael Maarten:Sea Change, Mark Power:The Shipping Forecast, and his recent project in Guernsey;
Richard Misrach:Golden Gate Begun in 1997, the project is yet another chapter in Misrach’s ever-growing thesis on the fundamental changes which humanity exacts on nature. Although a seemingly immutable structure, Misrach demonstrates how looking upon the Golden Gate Bridge is a constantly changing experience, resonant with the erratic complexity of the natural world. Each photograph evidences how light and weather alter one’s view. This fact is further highlighted by the consistent perspective Misrach takes in composing each shot. It is not the act of photographing which embellishes the day-to-day changes of this landscape, rather it is something beyond the control of the camera. Misrach takes the position of its steady transcriber.
My theory is that if I take great care to get the lighting, detail and composition just perfect, people will look at my images longer. The longer they look at them, the more likely they are to understand and to effect change. I am convinced beauty is an effective strategy to get someone’s attention. Richard Misrach, OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 3 OCTOBER 1998
Contemporary approaches to views of horizons between sky and sea, see inspiration from Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto whose monochrome images are minimalist and spiritual in their expression.
If you intend to explore sea landscapes you must do contextual research in relation to the art movement of Romanticism – see below. Technically you must make images exploring diverse quality of light, expansive views and weather patterns at different times of the day. Make sure to use a tripod, cable release and apply exposure bracketing and experiment with HDR techniques in post-production. Other techniques such as panoramic images and Hockney ‘joiners’ and Typology studies are also appropriate.
Jersey west coast has unique identity and geography. For many it is place of refuse from work, school and where they go for relaxation, leisure, beach, surfing, walking. If we think about Jersey and an island surrounded by water and with a one of the fastest tidal moments in the world you can look at photographers who has explored the notion of sea or water in interesting ways.
Michael Marten: Sea Change Excellent use of diptych and triptych and exploring low vs high tides to see how it changes a landscape scene
Mark Power: The Shipping Forecats Intangible and mysterious, familiar yet obscure, the shipping forecast is broadcast four times daily on BBC Radio 4. For those at, or about to put to sea, the forecast may mean the difference between life and death. In The Shipping Forecast, Mark Power documents the 31 sea areas covered by the forecast,
Roni Horn: Dictionary of Water Water is a series of photographs of the surface of the Thames. It is ever-changing: now swirling, now scrunched like black tin foil, now in Turneresque lemon and flame colours, now plucked up into dune shapes. Each is annotated with tiny numbers, which refer to footnotes. The footnotes, hundreds in total, worry away in small type under the images – they happen, in other words, under the surface, and concern what the water suggests and conceals. (“Black water is sexy. / What is water? / What do you know about water? Only that it’s everywhere differently. / Disappearance: that’s why suicides are attracted to it. / You can’t talk about water without talking about oneself. / Down at the river I shot my baby.”)
[no title] 1999 Roni Horn born 1955
Robert Adams:Turning Back Inspired by the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, photographer Robert Adams’s most recent work presents a new look at the territory these explorers covered and the results of their effort. Titled Turning Back: A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration, the project considers the explorers’ historic journey as they returned to the East. Starting at the Pacific, Adams traveled along the Columbia River, recording the geography and how the land has been used. His photographs show the coastal tourist areas, the vast acreage of timber cultivation and clearcutting farther inland, and the small family farms of eastern Oregon. The pictures offer a reflection on the promise described by Lewis and Clark — a meditation on what was lost and what is retained, what we value regionally and as a people with a common history.
In conjunction with the museum’s spring 2007 exhibit “Robert Adams: Turning Back” we sent Daniel Houghton ’06 to Oregon to interview photographer Robert Adams.
Tom Wood: All Zones off Peak – Using public transport as a method of exploration
George Georgiou: Last Stop
Alec Soth: For over two decades, Alec Soth’s images – of disenchanted youth, religious fervour and rural poverty – have come to define our image of contemporary America. In a recent book, I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, sees him bring his distinctive eye away from the great outdoors and into the privacy of the bedroom, photographing friends and acquaintances in a project that explores how we as humans connect with one another.
“When I started again I didn’t want to do a big American project, a complicated narrative and all this stuff coming together,” he explains. “I just wanted to be a photographer. I really wanted to strip everything down to just being in a room with another person. I wanted to get away from this feeling of exploitation and all those ethical quandaries you have to work out on the fly.”
See also his other long-term projects, Sleeping By the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, Songbook – all conceived and published as photobooks. On his website you can read and study his work more in detail, including several video podcasts, such as Pictures & Words, Real Time vs Storytime where Soth talks about the art of photography, storytelling and photobook making.
On portraiture and photographic storytelling
Alec Soth tells the story of Charles — a subject he encountered during the making of his celebrated body of work “Sleeping by the Mississippi.”
Explore some of the ideas here in Constructed Landscape by Photopedagogy, or revisit artists, ideas and photographic tasks from Anthropocene project in Yr 12
‘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
Dafna Talmor: This ongoing body of work consists of staged landscapes made of collaged and montaged colour negatives shot across different locations that include Israel, Venezuela, the UK and USA. Initially taken as mere keepsakes, landscapes are merged and transformed through the act of slicing and splicing. The resulting photographs are a conflation, ‘real’ yet virtual and imaginary. This conflation aims to transform a specific place – initially loaded with personal meaning, memories and connotations – into a space that has been emptied of subjectivity and becomes universal.
In dialogue with the history of photography, Constructed Landscapes references early Pictorialist tendencies of combination printing as well as Modernist experimental techniques such as montage, collage and multiple exposures. While distinctly holding historical references, the work also engages with contemporary discourses on manipulation, the analogue/digital divide and the effects these have on photography’s status and veracity. Through this work, I am interested in creating a space that defies specificity, refers to the transient, and metaphorically blurs space, memory and time.
Tanja Deman is a Croation artists who was Archisle’s International Photographer-in-Residence in Jersey in 2017. Her art is inspired by her interest in the perception of space, physical and emotional connection to a place and her relationship to nature. Her works, incorporating photography, collage, video and public art, are evocative meditations on urban space and landscape. Observing recently built legacy or natural sites her work investigates the sociology of space and reflects dynamics hidden under the surface of both the built and natural environment.
Tanja Deman Fernweh
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.
Tanja Deman Collected Narratives
Collective Narratives is a series staging a moment of contemplation of nature and built environment. Natural spectacles, framed in theatrical space are contemplated by an audience. These constructed images consolidate: geological formations; a projection of an urban environment; an arena; a deep chasm; a theatre and a crumbling slag-heap through a very active kind of watching. Deman says about her work, ‘while making the series ‘Collective Narratives’ I was interested in different types of spectatorship and architectural settings in which they are taking place. Moreover, the notion of a ritual in which a large group of people gathers and participates in order to experience something together by observing, intrigued me. I see these spaces for cultural and sports spectacles, as zones of pure potential, where the world must be rebuilt or re-imagined every time they are in use. Having liberated them from their utilitarian, commercial restrains, and the environments in which they were created, I allow them to cross the boundary of reality. Together these scenes examine time and the strange modes of spectatorship attached to the inanimate world. A collective witnessing of phenomena that are usually experienced in private atmospheres.
ARCHIVES: In the Photographic Archive at the Society Jersiaise there are significant works by early Jersey landscape and architectural photographers such as Thomas Sutton
Remains of ruined coastal defence tower, Tour du Sud, La Carrière, St Ouen’s Bay, Jersey. Plate from Souvenir de Jersey, published 1854.
Other photographesr in the Photo-Archive who explored Jersey landscapes, topographical views, town, countryside, build-environments etc . Samuel Poulton, Ernest Baudoux, Albert Smith , Edwin Dale, AK Lawson, Paul Martin, Godfray, Frith (put in surnames first for searching online catalogue here.
Baudoux, Ernest. View of Victoria College, St Saviour, with boys standing informally outside
NATURE: In their most recent collection of work, The Meadow, photographers Barbara Bosworth and Margot Anne Kelley explore the connections and relationships formed between humans and the natural world. Over the course of a decade, the two have taken numerous photographs of an area of land in Carlisle, Massachusetts. Combined with Kelley’s writing, the collaborative project resulted in this uniquely-crafted work. The land they have chosen serves as an ideal subject, composed of paths and abandoned farmland reclaimed by the vibrant foliage.
Embodying a diaristic style, the final product has the feeling of a handcrafted scrapbook recollected from someone’s bookshelf. Tucked as if by accident between the pages are small booklets bearing the photographers’ experiences, and the occasional fold-out triptych which embellishes the arts-and-crafts vibe. A detailed appendix documents the numerous foliage, fungi, and pebbles found during the exploration of the meadow. They even transcribe the logs of the previous property owner, who chronicled day-to-day the teeming life he discovered on a series of wooden doors.
You can also look for contemporary photographers here on LENSCULTURE or visit the photo-agency MAGNUM Another good source for conversations with artists are on A Small Voice, which are conversations with contemporary photographers. You may not be able to listen to the podcasts in school due to network security, but at home or outside of school is fine.
Family can be interpreted in different ways, one is to consider it in relation to the concept of HOME – which can be interpreted as both family or community. Home is also more than just the four walls of your house where you live with your family. Jersey, the island where you perhaps are born or where you grew up can be considered a home too. Home can be interpreted as a community. If you are away from home you often think about your home with a sense of nostalgia. Home can be associated with memories, feelings, hopes, fears etc.
For further inspiration and context study the exhibition Home Sweet Home and book of the same name. Aldo read feature here on Lensculture
Some photographers explore family using a documentary approach to storytelling, others construct or stage images that may reflect on their childhood, memories, or significant events drawing inspiration from family archives/ photo albums and often incorporating vernacular images into the narrative and presenting the work as a photobook.
Documentary approach > recording life as it is > camera as witness
Documentary is storytelling through a series of images of people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject. Read more here Documentary Photography
Larry sultan vs Richard Billingham > artists photographing their parents > straight photography vs snapshot aesthetics > formal vs informal.
Tableaux approach > constructed or staged narrative photography Tableaux is a style of photography where people are staged in a constructed environment and a pictorial narrative is conveyed often in a single image, or a series of images that often makes references to fables, fairy tales, myths, unreal and real events from a variety of sources such as paintings, film, theatre, literature and the media. Read more here Tableaux Photography
Anna Gaskell vs Hannah Starkey > childhood vs adolescent > memories vs fairytales > literature vs cinema
Anna GaskellHannah Starkey
Alfonso Almendros vs Maria Kapajeva > family reflections > memories > childhood
Alfonso Almendros, Family ReflectionsMaria Kapajeva
Archival approach > photographs, moving image, sound recordings, documents and objects from public or private archives, such as family history, diaries, letters, financial and legal documents, photo-albums, mobile devices, online/ social media platforms. Archives can be a rich source for finding starting points on your creative journey. This will strengthen your research and lead towards discoveries about the past that will inform the way you interpret the present and anticipate the future. See more Public/ Private Archives
Rita Puig-Serra Costa (Where Mimosa Bloom) vs Laia Abril (The Epilogue)> artists exploring personal issues > vernacular vs archival > inside vs outside
Rita Puig-Serra Coasta, Where Mimosa BloomLaia Abril, The Epiloque
Carole Benitah (Photo Souvenirs) vs Pete Pin > family > identity > memory > absence > trauma
CAROLE BÉNITAH is a French Moroccan photographer. Her work explores ideas of memory, family and the passing of time. Often pairing old family snapshots with handmade additions, such as embroidery, beading and ink drawings, Bénitah seeks to reinterpret her own history as a daughter, wife and mother. Here is LINK to the gallery that represents her with a brief description of her work. Read also an interview with Benitah HERE.
Carole Benitah, Photo-Souvenirs
With each stitch I make a hole with a needle. Each hole is a putting to death of my demons. It’s like an exorcism. I make holes in paper until I am not hurting any more.
—Carolle Benitah
Pete Pin
Ugne Henriko (Mother and Daughter) vs Irina Werning vs Chino Otsuka > re-staging images > re-enacting memories
Phillip Toledano:Days with my Father DAYS WITH MY FATHER is a son’s photo journal of his aging father’s last years. Following the death of his mother, photographer Phillip Toledano was shocked to learn of the extent of his father’s severe memory loss. He started a blog on which he posted photographs and accompanying reflections on his father’s changing state.. Through sometimes sad, often funny, and always loving observations, we follow Toledano as he learns to reconcile the elderly man living in a twilight of half memories that his father has become, with the ambitious and handsome young man he occasionally still sees glimpses of.. DAYS WITH MY FATHER is an honest and moving reflection about coming to terms with an aging parent.
Philip Toledano from his book: My Mum died suddenly on September 4th, 2006
After she died, I realized how much she’d been shielding me from my father’s mental state.
He doesn’t have alzheimers, but he has no short-term memory, and is often lost.
I took him to my mother’s funeral, and to the burial, but when we got home, he’d ask me every 15 minutes where my mother was. I’d explain carefully that she had died, and we’d been to her funeral.
This was shocking news to him
Why had no-one told him? Why hadn’t I taken him to the funeral? Why hadn’t he visited her in the hospital?
He had no memory of these events.
After a while, I realized I couldn’t keep telling him that his wife had died. He didn’t remember, and it was killing both of us, to re-live her death constantly.
I decided to tell him she’d gone to Paris, to take care of her brother, who was sick.
And that’s where she is now.
This site is a journal.
An ongoing record of my father, and of our relationship.
For whatever days we have left together.
Mitch Epstein ‘Family Business
Julian Germain:For every minute you are angry you loose sixty seconds of happiness. A Portrait of an elderly gentleman. Photographs by Julian Germain with the photo albums of Charles and Betty Snelling
“I met Charles Albert Lucien Snelling on a Saturday in April, 1992. He lived in a typical two-up, two-down terraced house amongst many other two-up, two-down terraced houses… it was yellow and orange. In that respect it was totally different from every other house on the street. Charlie was a simple, gentle man. He loved flowers and the names of flowers. He loved color and surrounded himself with color. He loved his wife. Without ever trying or intending to, he showed me that the most important things in life cost nothing at all. He was my antidote to modern living.” Over eight years, photographer Julian Germain documented Charlie, an elderly man living alone on England’s Southern Coast, unfettered by the misplaced aspirations of the modern world; instead he spent the last years of his life absorbed in memories of his family, his love for flowers, music and the quotidian pleasures of the crossword. Germain’s charming photographs are a beautiful, gentle portrait of a gentleman in his twilight years.
For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness; photo album; Charles SnellingFor every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness; photo album; Charles Snelling
Matthew Finn: When artists find inspiration in a muse, it’s usually a wife or a lover – but for photographer Matthew Finn it has always been his mother. Read article here in The Guardian where Finn talks about photographing his mother over a 30 year period.
Over a thirty year period, from 1987 onwards, Matthew Finn collaborated with his mother, Jean, to document her everyday life through a series of portraits taken in her home in Leeds. This is a record of the ordinary, of a daily routine with which we are all familiar. It is also a record of the gradual shift from middle age to old age, and, in Jean’s case, to the onset of mixed dementia and a move from the family home into residential care. It is a poignant body of work, filled with warmth yet conscious of the fragility of life. Quiet domestic interiors act as a stage for life’s everyday details, and though the focus is on the individual the bond between mother and son is a powerful constant, even as the balance of that relationship begins to change.
TASKS > produce a number of appropriate blog posts
PRACTICE > PHOTO-ASSIGNMENTS
Documentary: make one environmental portrait using a family member.
Tableaux: construct a childhood memory in a photograph.
Archive: produce a montage that must include an archival image from your family/ personal photo- album.
RESEARCH > ANALYSIS: As starting points for your tasks, choose to look at a comparative study of the pairing of artists references above in each area of Documentary, Tableaux and Archive.
Write a thoughtful evaluation of each artists and consider how their work is referencing the theme of family – discuss the subject-matter, content, concept, context, construction, composition, camera, then compare, contrast and critique. Ask yourself: What? Why? How?
Remember to MAKE YOUR BLOG POST VISUAL and include relevant links, podcasts, videos where possible.
ARTISTS REFERENCES: Follow these steps to success!
Produce a mood board with a selection of images.
Provide analysis of their work and explain why you have chosen them and how it relates to your idea and the theme of FAMILY
Select at least 2 key images and analyse in depth, FORM (describe what you see, composition, use of light etc), MEANING (interpretation, subject-matter, what is the photographer trying to communicate), JUDGEMENT (evaluation, how good is it?), CONTEXT (history and theory of art/ photography/ visual culture, link to other’s work/ideas/concept)
Incorporate quotes and comments from artist themselves or others (art critics, art historians, curators, writers, journalists etc) using a variety of sources such as Youtube, online articles, reviews, text, books etc.
Make sure you reference sources and embed links to the above sources in your blog post
PLANNING > RECORDING: Plan at least 1 shoot as a response to each photo-assignment above. Show evidence of planning using mind-maps, mood-boards and write a specification with details of how, why, when, where, whom? Be organised and complete one shoot per photo-assignment per week.
DEVELOPING > EXPERIMENTING: Edit shoots and show experimentation with different adjustments/ techniques/ processes in Lightroom/ Photoshop appropriate to intentions. Reflect and evaluate each shoot afterwards with thoughts on how to refine and modify your ideas i.e. experiment with images in Lightroom/Photoshop, re-visit idea, produce a new shoot, what are you going to do differently next time? How are you going to develop your ideas?
EXTENSION: Explore your own family/ personal archives such as photo-albums, home movies, letters, boxes and make a blog post with a selection of material that will inform and develop your Personal Investigation. For example. you can focus on the life on one parent, grand-parent, family relative, or your own childhood and upbringing.
Either scan or re-photograph archival material so that it is digitised and ready for use on the blog and further experimentation.
Plan at least one photo-shoot and make a set of images that respond to your archival research above and/ or Personal Investigation.
For most of my life, my father was nothing more than a cut out in our family album.
An empty hole.
A reminder of what wasn’t there.
I have few childhood memories of him.
In one, we are dancing together in our tiny apartment in Moscow. In another, he is leaving.
My father would disappear for months at a time. Then, unexpectedly, he would come home.
Until, one day, it was our turn to leave.
The year was 1996.
My mother woke me up and told me to pack my belongings. She said we were going on a trip, and the next morning we arrived in our new home, in California.
We never said goodbye to my father.
For my mom, the solution to forget him was simple. She cut his image out of every photograph. But those holes made it harder for me to forget him.
I often wondered what it would have been like to have a father.
When I was seven years old, living with my family in Moscow, my mother woke me up in the middle of the night and said we were going on a trip. The year was 1996. The Soviet Union had long collapsed, and by then, so had my family. We left without saying goodbye to my father, and the next day landed in a new world: America.
Inspired by the 1980s American soap opera Santa Barbara, my mother enrolled with an agency in Russia that posted listings in American newspapers and catalogs for so-called mail-order brides. She was 35. We arrived to the coastal town of Santa Barbara, and were met by an older man who would soon become her husband, and take the place of my own father. And this is where the story begins. The idea of touching something that felt untouchable.
I returned to Russia to visit the scattered remnants of my father’s memory. In fact, I hardly know anything about him. He died before I turned two. I have no personal memories of him. Almost nothing that could have recalled its existence has survived. There was just his camera. When I was nine, I found it in the closet where my mother had kept it safe for years. I took it apart to the last screw as if I was looking for something hidden inside. With my own unconscious hands, I destroyed the last object that bound us to my father.
There are still his photos, which he had taken and drawn himself. My father was an amateur photographer. In one of these photos, I am a five month old baby lying face down on my parents’ bed. My eyes are fixed on him, the photographer. My father, who has only thirteen months to live.
His untimely death made him an abstract character, a shadow at the gates of nothingness. He was almost forgotten. No one spoke of him anymore. His grave has been abandoned. All I knew about him was from a few stories that people who knew him told me. Despite everything, these stories told and repeated with more or less precision depending on the witness maintained a semblance of memory. Just as folklore is passed on, repeated and revised from generation to generation.
LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Notion of Family
In this, her first book, LaToya Ruby Frazier (born 1982) offers an incisive exploration of the legacy of racism and economic decline in America’s small towns, as embodied by Braddock, Pennsylvania, Frazier’s hometown. The work also considers the impact of that decline on the community and on her family, creating a statement both personal and truly political
Sophie Calle: Venetian Suite
Sophie Calle’s practice is characterised by performances using rule-based scenarios, which she then documents. Venetian Suite consists of black and white photographs, texts and maps that document a journey the artist made to Venice in order to follow a man, referred to only as Henri B., whom she had previously briefly met in Paris. Although Calle undertook the journey in 1979, the texts describe the actions as taking place in 1980. Venetian Suite records Calle’s attempts to track her subject over the course of his thirteen-day stay in Venice. She investigates and stalks him, enlisting the help of friends and acquaintances she makes in the city. Eventually Henri B. recognises Calle, and they share a silent walk. Even after this encounter Calle continues her project, shadowing Henri B. from a distance until his arrival back in Paris. The work was initially produced in book form in 1983; the same year Calle also presented the work as a sound installation in a confessional booth. In 1996 she configured Venetian Suite as a gallery-based work, the appearance of which deliberately recalls a detective casebook, with texts written in a style that mimics and deconstructs the narrative tension typical of detective novels or film noir. The text begins as follows:
For months I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following them, not because they particularly interested me. I photographed them without their knowledge, took note of their movements, then finally lost sight of them and forgot them. At the end of January 1980, on the streets of Paris, I followed a man whom I lost sight of a few minutes later in the crowd. That very evening, quite by chance, he was introduced to me at an opening. During the course of our conversation, he told me he was planning an imminent trip to Venice. I decided to follow him. (Calle and Baudrillard 1988, p.2.)
Matt Eich:I Love You, I’m leaving
This books is my meditation on familial bonds, longing, and memory. The series borrows from personal experience and the visual language of the everyday in order to create a fictional account that mirrors my reality. Made during a time of personal domestic unease, I photographed as my parents separated, and my family moved to a new city.
Yoshikatsu Fujii:Red Strings I received a text message. “Today, our divorce was finalized.” The message from my mother was written simply, even though she usually sends me messages with many pictures and symbols.
https://vimeo.com/102344549
I remember that I didn’t feel any particular emotion, except that the time had come. Because my parents continued to live apart in the same house for a long time, their relationship gently came to an end over the years. It was no wonder that a draft blowing between the two could completely break the family at any time.
In Japan, legend has it that a man and woman who are predestined to meet have been tied at the little finger by an invisible red string since the time they were born. Unfortunately, the red string tying my parents undone, broke, or perhaps was never even tied to begin with. But if the two had never met, I would never have been born into this world. If anything, you might say that there is an unbreakable red string of fate between parent and child.
Before long, I found myself thinking about the relationship between my parents and . How many days could I see my parents living far away? What if I couldn’t see them anymore? Since I couldn’t help feeling extremely anxious about it, I was driven to visit my parents’ house many times. Every day I engage in awkward conversation with my parents, as if in a scene in their daily lives. I adapt myself to them, and they shift their attitude toward me. We do not give way entirely to the other side, but rather meet halfway. Indeed family problems remain unresolved, although sometimes we tell allegorical stories and share feelings. It means a lot to us that our perspectives have changed with communication.
My family will probably never be all together again. But I feel without a doubt that there is proof inside of each of us that we once lived together. To ensure that the red string that ties my family together does not come undone, I want to reel it in and tie it tight.
MORE PHOTOBOOKS: A few photobooks dealing with memory, loss and love
Yury Toroptsov:Deleted Scene
On a mission to photograph the invisible, with Deleted Scene photographer Yury Toroptsov takes us to Eastern Siberia in a unique story of pursuit along intermingling lines that form a complex labyrinth. His introspective journey in search of a father gone too soon crosses that of Akira Kurosawa who, in 1974, came to visit and film that same place where lived the hunter Dersu Uzala.
Yury Toroptsov is not indifferent to the parallels between hunting and photography, which the common vocabulary makes clear. Archival documents, old photographs, views of the timeless taiga or of contemporary Siberia, fragments or deleted scenes are arranged here as elements of a narrative. They come as clues or pebbles dropped on the edge of an invisible path where the viewer is invited to lose himself and the hunter is encouraged to continue his relentless pursuit.
Rita Puig Serra Costa: Where Mimosa Bloom
https://vimeo.com/124694405
Dealing with the grief that the photographer suffered following the death of her mother, Where Mimosa Bloom by Rita Puig Serra Costatakes the form of an extended farewell letter; with photography skillfully used to present a visual eulogy or panegyric. This grief memoir about the loss of her mother is part meditative photo essay, part family biography and part personal message to her mother. These elements combine to form a fascinating and intriguing discourse on love, loss and sorrow.
“Where Mimosa Bloom” is the result of over two years work spent collecting and curating materials and taking photographs of places, objects and people that played a significant role in her relationship to her mother. Rita Puig Serra Costa skillfully avoids the dangerous lure of grief’s self-pity, isolationism, world-scorn and vanity. The resonance of “Where Mimosa Bloom” comes from all it doesn’t say, as well as all that it does; from the depth of love we infer from the desert of grief. Despite E.M.Forster’s words – “One death may explain itself, but it throws no light upon another” – Rita Puig Serra Costa proves that some aspects of grief are universal, or can be made so through the honesty and precision with which they are articulated.
Laia Abril: The Epilogue’
‘The Epilogue’ is the book about the story of the Robinson family – and the aftermath suffered in losing their 26 year old daughter to bulimia. Working closely with the family Laia Abril reconstructs Cammy’s life telling her story through flashbacks – memories, testimonies, objects, letters, places and images. The Epilogue gives voice to the suffering of the family, the indirect victims of ‘eating disorders’, the unwilling eyewitnesses of a very painful degeneration. Laia Abril shows us the dilemmas and struggles confronted by many young girls; the problems families face in dealing with guilt and the grieving process; the frustration of close friends and the dark ghosts of this deadliest of illnesses; all blended together in the bittersweet act of remembering a loved one. Read more here on Laia Abril’s website
Twelve women photographers, both current and former Magnum members, meditate on process in an expansive exhibition at the International Center of Photography.
It’s not about the fetishisation of a subject. But about the motivations and intentions of bearing witness to what’s happening in our world. Each project contributes to a picture of the possibilities of interacting with others and having photographic exchanges. It’s timely. I hope it’s inspiring too.”
Charlotte Cotton, Close Enough’s curator
Alessandra Sanguinetti: ARGENTINA. Buenos Aires. 1999. The Necklace.
Over a period of five years, Alessandra Sanguinetti documented the relationship and transition to adolescence of two cousins in Argentina. The images has been published in two photobooks: The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and The Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams. Read more here
ciggarette 001
Exploring the possibilities of photography has been at Magnum’s heart since its inception. Founded in 1947 in the shadow of World War Two, the agency marked the alliance of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour, bound by their curiosity in photography and the world. Storytelling was central from the beginning. The show’s title playfully rifts off Capa’s famous saying: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.“ The quote evokes the idea of an intrepid documentarian, an image to which Magnum is bound despite not being entirely accurate then or now. “If you think about the photographic spectrum within Magnum, it’s always surprising that it’s still dominated by Robert Capa on one end, with frontline, photojournalistic work, and Cartier-Bresson on the other, with more formal concerns expressed in street photography,“ says Meiselas. “But, between those two, my male and female colleagues take more diverse approaches with their photography.“
Today’s collective remains an amorphous entity with a greatly expanded membership for whom Capa’s charge will mean many things. In the show’s context, one might interpret ‘close enough’ as remaining an ethos of sorts. But one with different connotations: relating to an intangible photographer-subject relationship, as opposed to the physical proximity of the camera. A sense of relationality snakes through the exhibition present within each project. It also emerges between the photographers themselves: three generations of women who belong, or have belonged, to the collective. As Meiselas reflects, “What has interested me as the bridge between the earlier culture of women in Magnum – Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Marilyn Silverstone, Martine Franck, and myself – and this new generation, is how they see the world differently. It’s not to say that there aren’t men within Magnum and outside our community who develop extended relationships like these. The show was not conceived to exclude men, but rather to be inclusive of women and allow them to reveal the kinds of connections that they have in their work as they interface in dialogue with each other.“
Susan Meiselas is joined by Olivia Arthur, Myriam Boulos, Sabiha Çimen, Cristina de Middel, Bieke Depoorter, Carolyn Drake, Nanna Heitmann, Hannah Price, Lua Ribeira, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Newsha Tavakolian. It would be impossible to do justice to the individual projects here, but to learn more from several of the participating artists, listen to discussions, co-produced by Magnum and British Journal of Photography, here.
‘I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied.’
Best known for her powerful portraits, Cameron’s photographs were highly innovative: intentionally out-of-focus and often including scratches, smudges and other traces of her process. In her lifetime, Cameron was criticised for her unconventional techniques, but also appreciated for the beauty of her compositions and her conviction that photography was an art form.
Julia Margaret began her photographic career at the age of 48 when she received her first camera as a gift from her daughter. She quickly and energetically devoted herself to the art of photography. Within two years Cameron had sold and given her photographs to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), which in 1868 granted her the use of two rooms as a portrait studio, effectively making her our first artist-in-residence.
The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London holds the largest collection of Julia Margaret Cameron’s work and has an excellent online catalogue of some of her most reveried portraits as well as a lot of detailed information about her life and work, including her methods of working
Cameron’s: working methods: Her mistakes were her successes
Cameron included imperfections in her photographs – streaks, swirls and even fingerprints – that other photographers would have rejected as technical flaws. Although criticised at the time, these imperfections can now be appreciated as ahead of their time. In her work Iolande and Floss, for example, swirls of collodion used during the photographic process merge with the swirls of drapery, enhancing the dreamy, ethereal quality of the image.
We don’t know if Cameron herself embraced these ‘flaws’ or if she simply tolerated them. We do know, however, that she sometimes scratched into her negatives to make corrections; printed from broken or damaged negatives and occasionally used multiple negatives to form a single picture, which tells us that she didn’t mind a certain level of visible imperfection, at the very least.
One of her most extreme examples of manipulating a negative can be seen in a portrait of Julia Jackson. Cameron scratched a picture into the background of this pious portrait of her niece, to create a hybrid photograph-drawing. The drawing of a draped figure in an architectural setting evokes religious art.
Julia Margaret Cameron exhibition: Arresting Beauty at Jeu de Paume, Paris
Pictorialism: An international movement comprised of loosely linked camera clubs and societies that sought to highlight the artistic possibilities of photography and argue that it was a fine art equal to painting, sculpture, and other traditional mediums. Active from the late 19th century to around 1914, the Pictorialists preferred romantic or idealized imagery, used soft focus, and framed or staged scenes according to the compositional principles of painting. In order to emphasize the artist’s hand and counter the argument that photography was an entirely mechanical medium, they often used labor-intensive darkroom processes to produce unique prints. Outside of the darkroom, they mounted international salons and exhibitions and published portfolios and journals, through which they further influenced how photography was discussed and regarded.
Justine Kurland:Girl Pictures Between 1997 and 2002, the photographer portrayed teenage girls as rebels, offering a radical vision of community against the masculine myth of the American landscape.
daisy chain 001
The North American frontier is an enduring symbol of romance, rebellion, escape, and freedom. At the same time, it’s a profoundly masculine myth—cowboys, outlaws, Beat poets. Photographer Justine Kurland reclaimed this space in her now-iconic series of images of teenage girls, taken between 1997 and 2002 on the road in the American wilderness. “I staged the girls as a standing army of teenaged runaways in resistance to patriarchal ideals,” says Kurland. She portrays the girls as fearless and free, tender and fierce. They hunt and explore, braid each other’s hair, and swim in sun-dappled watering holes—paying no mind to the camera (or the viewer). Their world is at once lawless and utopian, a frontier Eden in the wild spaces just outside of suburban infrastructure and ideas. Twenty years on, the series still resonates, published here in its entirety and including newly discovered, unpublished images.
candy tosspink tree leechesboy torture lovegolden fielddouble headed spit monstership wreckedguardian angel the wallsnow angel
Doug DuBois: My Last Days of Seventeen The title, “My last day at Seventeen,” was first uttered by Eirn while I was taking her photograph in her parents’ back garden on the eve of her 18th birthday. Although Eirn argues her remark was more properly phrased, “ it’s my last day as seventeen” the sentiment is the same: there is a time in everyone’s life where the freedom and promise of childhood are lost to the coming of age and experience. The process can be gradual or abrupt; it can begin at age 18, 12 or 40.
The photographs were made over a five year period in the town of Cobh, County Cork in Ireland. I came to Cobh at the invitation of the Sirius Arts Centre in the summer of 2009. Ireland had just begun its sharp decline from the boom years of the Celtic Tiger. I spent my days trying to ingratiate myself with contractors to gain access to building sites that lay abandoned throughout the Irish countryside. I got nowhere.
Doug DuBois image from book, My Last Days of Seventeen. 2015
Ewen Spencer:Young Love
In the year 2000, Spencer was commissioned by Graham Rounthwaite at British music,
fashion and culture magazine The Face to create a series focusing on youth clubs
across the United Kingdom. From Cornwall to Lancashire, Spencer photographed teens
goers as they drank, danced and fell in and out of love and lust.
Dana Lixenberg:Imperial Courts Imperial Courts, 1993-2015 is a project by photographer Dana Lixenberg about Imperial Courts, a social housing project in Watts, Los Angeles. The project contains work made over a period of 22 years and consists of a book, exhibition and web documentary. Look at the website which include all her photographs and video interviews.
Imperial Courts subtly addresses issues of inequality and injustice while avoiding stereotypical representation. Using multiple platforms, from silver gelatin prints, a carefully edited publication, video installation, and an online web documentary, the project serves as an evocative record of the passage of time in an underserved community. The power of Lixenberg’s work can be found in the intimacy, compassion and quiet confidence of her images, and of the individuals we meet through the series. Read interview here with Dana Lixenberg in the Guardian newspaper
Raymond Meeks: Halfstory Halflife Every summer, since as long as anyone in the area can remember, groups of teenage boys and girls have been congregating by a single-lane bridge that spans the tributaries of Bowery and Catskill Creeks in the Catskill Mountain region of New York. Just below it, in the wilderness, a waterfall drops sixty feet above a pond. Those daring enough to take the leap usually take a small run-up before flinging themselves off the precipice. Within the act of the jump and its timeless ritual lingers the last fleeting moments of youth, of endless summer days and reckless abandon. Beyond that, the unknown.
Known for his slow-burning chronicles of rural America, Raymond Meeks turns his attention to Furlong and its intrepid summer dwellers in his most recent book Halfstory Halflife. Sketching out his local area with a sensitive lyricism, Meeks observed its energy and atmosphere over the course of three years; the spectacle of the wait, the anticipation of the climb and the final leap into darkness, where time comes to a standstill as bodies are frozen in motion. These everyday experiences and rituals, simple and carefree in their nature, gain a weight and significance through the lens, as the bodies fall somewhere beyond the threshold of youth and into adulthood.
Read interview here on Lensculture with Raymond Meeks
Theo Gosselin: Sans Limites Deliberately cinematic, Gosselin’s photography reveals friends in the act of escaping from their regular lives into newly enticing and perilous modes of existence, ever in search of the persistent though elusive idea of freedom. The result of the photographer´s most recent road trips across the US, Spain, Scotland and native France, Sans Limites presents a significant evolution of Gosselin´s long term project; photography sur le motif (“of the object(s) or what the eye actually sees”) and his attempt to communicate the actual visual conditions seen at the time of the photographing.
At times, Gosselin´s work approaches something akin to poésie bucolique; his photographs representing modern day pastoral landscapes that resemble 21st century equivalents of Poussin’s Et in Arcadia ego, Manet’s Déjeuner sur L’herbe or Cézanne’s Les Grandes Baigneuses. At other times, his images capture moments more resonant of Bacchanalian scenes painted by Titian, Rubens or Levêque.
Jim Goldberg:Raised By Wolves. The personal story behind the making and the legacy of Goldberg’s seminal work about marginalized youth, which occupies the liminal space between documentary and narrative fiction.
Often considered Goldberg’s seminal project, Raised by Wolves combines ten years of original photographs, text, and other illustrative elements (home movie stills, snapshots, drawings, diary entries, and images of discarded belongings) to document the lives of runaway teenagers in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The book quickly became a classic in the photobook canon and, thus, the original is essentially unavailable.
Read article here in the Guardian and a thorough insight here on Magnum Photos. For more Theory and Practice, read here
USA. San Francisco. 1986. “Echo Waiting (Polk and Sutter).”USA. San Francisco . 1989. Dave and Cookie jonesin’. Coming down off of drugs.USA. Hollywood, California. 1989. “I’m Dave.”
Jim Goldberg: Rich and Poor The photographs in this book constitute a shocking and gripping portrait of contemporary America. Jim Goldberg’s photographs of rich and poor people, with the subjects’ own handwritten comments about themselves on the prints, give us an inside look at the American dream at both ends of the social scale.His pictures reveal his subjects’ innermost fears and aspirations, their perceptions and illusions about themselves, with a frankness that makes the portraits as engrossing as they are disturbing.
USA. San Francisco. 1983. “We look like ordinary people! We have a terrible life.”
Jen Davis has spent eleven years working on a series of self-portrait ’s dealing with issues regarding beauty, identity, and body image. Her poignant and beautifully articulated photographs have recently been published Kehrer Verlag in a monograph titled, Eleven Years.For over a decade Jen has bravely turned the camera on herself revealing a journey of self analysis and self awareness that while very personal, it incredibly universal. Her work reflected a mastery of light and color.
Photobooks to study where a theme or narrative is explored in subtle vairiations
In 2001, Rinko Kawauchi published three astonishing photobooks simultaneously—Utatane, Hanabi, andHanako—establishing herself as one of the most innovative newcomers to contemporary photography. Other notable monographs include Aila (2004), The Eyes, the Ear (2005), and Semear (2007). Now, ten years after her precipitous entry onto the international stage, Aperture has published Illuminance, the first volume of Kawauchi’s work to be published outside of Japan. Kawauchi’s work has frequently been lauded for its nuanced palette and offhand compositional mastery, as well as its ability to incite wonder via careful attention to tiny gestures and the incidental details of her everyday environment. In Illuminance, Kawauchi continues her exploration of the extraordinary in the mundane, drawn to the fundamental cycles of life and the seemingly inadvertent, fractal-like organization of the natural world into formal patterns.
Sophie Calle: The Address Book In the early nineteen-eighties, the French artist Sophie Calle, who is known for projects that involve immersing herself in the lives of strangers or allowing strangers a view of her own life, found an address book on the street in Paris. Before mailing it back to its owner—a filmmaker called Pierre D.—she photocopied the contents and then proceeded to call each person listed in it to ask questions about him. “I will try to discover who he is without ever meeting him, and I will try to produce a portrait of him over an undetermined length of time that will depend on the willingness of his friends to talk about him—and on the turns taken by the events,” she wrote. She turned her encounters into short pieces, which were published almost daily over the course of a month in the newspaper Libération. When Pierre D. discovered what Calle was doing, he threatened to sue her for invasion of privacy, and she agreed not to re-publish the work until after his death. Siglio Press has just brought out the project—consisting of Calle’s writings and accompanying photographs—as a book, giving readers the chance to peer, along with Calle, into the touchingly elusive figure at the center of her investigations.
W. Eugene Smith: photoessay – classical storytelling Although he was only a member of Magnum for four years between 1955 and 58, acclaimed photographer W. Eugene Smith had a lasting impact on both the agency and photojournalism in general. Smith compared his mode of working to that of a playwright; the powerful narrative structures of his photo essays set a new benchmark for the genre. His series, The Country Doctor, shot on assignment for Life Magazine in 1948, documents the everyday life of Dr Ernest Guy Ceriani, a GP tasked with providing 24-hour medical care to over 2,000 people in the small town of Kremmling, in the Rocky Mountains. The story was important at the time for drawing attention to the national shortage of country doctors and the impact of this on remote communities. Today the photoessay is widely regarded as representing a definitive moment in the history of photojournalism.
Anders Petersen: Café Lehmitz, a beer joint at the Reeperbahn, was a meeting point for many who worked in Hamburg’s red-light district: prostitutes, pimps, transvestites, workers, and petty criminals. Anders Petersen was 18 years old when he first visited Hamburg in 1962, chanced upon Café Lehmitz, and established friends that made an impact on his life. In 1968 he returned to Lehmitz, found new regulars , renewed contact and began to take pictures. His photographs, which we first published in book form in 1978, have become classics of their genre. Their candidness and authenticity continue to move the viewer. The solidarity evident in them prevents voyeurism or false pity arising vis-á-vis a milieu generally referred to as asocial. The other world of Café Lehmitz, which no longer exists in this form, becomes visible as a lively community with its own self-image and dignity.
Read article here in The Guardian where Anders Petersen talks bout his famous photobook
PEOPLE and PORTRAITURE
A simple and direct approach to portrait photography can be very powerful. August Sander is a very influential photographer who made hundred of portraits of citizens in Cologne (Germany) where he lived and worked all his life. People of the 20th Century presents the fullest expression of Sander’s lifelong work: an endeavor to amass an archive of twentieth-century humanity through a cross-section of German culture. Here is a link to the entire set of images (619 in total) that he classified into 7 groups, The Farmer, The Skilled Tradesman, The Woman, Classes and Professions, The Artists, The City and The Last People.
The FarmerThe Painter’s WifeThe PastrycookThe Young FarmersThe BricklayerMother & DaughterThe Married CoupleThe Catholic PriestThe IndustrialistThe PainterThe Girl in FairgroundThe Student
Sander photographed subjects from all walks of life, capturing bankers and boxers, soldiers and circus performers, farmers and families, to create a catalog of the German people, arranged by their profession, gender, and social status. First imagined in the 1920s, he pursued the project for more than fifty years during a politically charged and rapidly changing time, fraught by two world wars and the devastating repercussions of Nazism. Sander never finished the seven-volume, forty-nine portfolio magnum opus, continually refining and shaping it to convey an understanding of the world in which he lived. The photographs, remarkable for their unflinching realism and deft analysis of character, provide a powerful social mirror of Germany between the wars and form one of the most influential achievements of the twentieth century.
The influence of August Sander’s series of portraits was a major influence (incl. Karl Blossfeldt’s studeis of plants and Albert Renger-Patszh images of German industry) on Bernd and Hilla Becher developing the concept of Typology – see more examples of this under ideas for Place / Landscape. Watch shirt film here where renowned German fashion and portrait photographer Jürgen Teller discusses Sander’s work
Environmental portraits: Sander mainly made formal and environmental portraits, often photographing his subject frontally using a deadpan approach meeting the gaze of the camera in a direct and straight forward manner. For more ideas and suggestions of activities around environmental portraits – see link here to Yr 12 task that you explored last year.
Key features to consider with formal/ environmental portraiture:
Locations: inside and outside
Environment: choose a location or setting that can add context to your portrait > tell a story about the sitter, eg. lifestyle, social class, gender etc.
Framing: full length body / three quarter length / half body < angle > low angle / deadpan / canted angle
Lens: standard lens (50mm) / wide-angle lens (35mm)
Camera setting: Aperture priority f/5.6 – f/8 – camera will adjust shutter speed automatically. < camera shake > minimum 1/60 sec, otherwise increase ISO to allow for faster shutter speeds. < ISO > outside 100-400 ISO / inside 400-1600 ISO < White balance > outside daylight / inside either daylight or tungsten/ tube light – depending on light conditions. If in doubt, choose AUTO.
Lighting: Use natural light where possible and direction of light from the side/ 45 degree angle. < Inside > use window light where possible < Outside > be aware of the position of the sun and harsh shadows, better to shoot in overcast weather as clouds acts as soft box and diffuses the light. < Avoid frontal and back light.>
Pose: formal (posed) / informal (natural, un-posed) /neutral pose and facial expression / no smiles
Gaze: eye contact / engagement with the camera
Props: Consider using objects, such as personal items, tools of the trade etc. that can add further context to the portrait and ‘story’ about the subject. Hands can act as props and add real value to a portrait – be creative!
Here are others suggestions of photographers influenced by August Sander and the deadpan approach to portraiture where the sitter is presented in a simple manner often using minimal gestures, pose, expression, props, location and lighting.
Gillian Wearing as Claude Cahun holding a mask of her face, 2012
Alec Soth: For over two decades, Alec Soth’s images – of disenchanted youth, religious fervour and rural poverty – have come to define our image of contemporary America. In a recent book, I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, sees him bring his distinctive eye away from the great outdoors and into the privacy of the bedroom, photographing friends and acquaintances in a project that explores how we as humans connect with one another.
“When I started again I didn’t want to do a big American project, a complicated narrative and all this stuff coming together,” he explains. “I just wanted to be a photographer. I really wanted to strip everything down to just being in a room with another person. I wanted to get away from this feeling of exploitation and all those ethical quandaries you have to work out on the fly.”
See also his other long-term projects, Sleeping By the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, Songbook – all conceived and published as photobooks.
Alec Both:Broken Manual In Alec Soth’s Broken Manual (2006–10) he documents men living off the grid. His atmospheric images, both colour and black and white, are of monks, survivalists, hermits and runaways who all have in common the need to disappear in America.
On his website you can read and study his work more in detail, including several video podcasts, such as Pictures & Words, Real Time vs Storytime where Soth talks about the art of photography, storytelling and photobook making.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qzi9bF3lqgY?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&On portraiture and photographic storytelling
https://www.youtube.com/embed/cks_13JE3iw?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&Alec Soth tells the story of Charles — a subject he encountered during the making of his celebrated body of work “Sleeping by the Mississippi.”
Richard Avedon: When renowned New York City fashion and portrait photographer Richard Avedon agreed in late 1978 to take on a commission from the Carter to create a portrait of the American West through its people, he was filled with uncertainty about whether the project would succeed. The following spring he went to the Rattlesnake Round-Up in Sweetwater, Texas. That weekend he created six evocative portraits that would set the tone and bar for five more years of photographing. In these sittings, he discovered people who conveyed through their faces, clothes, and postures not merely hard living but the full embrace of existence. Read article here
https://www.youtube.com/embed/jd-gMm3ngtY?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&Director Helen Whitney and photographer Richard Avedon share their experiences collaborating on a documentary, “Richard Avedon: Darkness & Light,” about Avedon’s life and career.
Matthew Finn: When artists find inspiration in a muse, it’s usually a wife or a lover – but for photographer Matthew Finn it has always been his mother. Read article here in The Guardian where Finn talks about photographing his mother over a 30 year period.
Over a thirty year period, from 1987 onwards, Matthew Finn collaborated with his mother, Jean, to document her everyday life through a series of portraits taken in her home in Leeds. This is a record of the ordinary, of a daily routine with which we are all familiar. It is also a record of the gradual shift from middle age to old age, and, in Jean’s case, to the onset of mixed dementia and a move from the family home into residential care. It is a poignant body of work, filled with warmth yet conscious of the fragility of life. Quiet domestic interiors act as a stage for life’s everyday details, and though the focus is on the individual the bond between mother and son is a powerful constant, even as the balance of that relationship begins to change.
Jitka Hanzlová: is a Czech artist who lives and works in Essen, Germany produced a series of photographs, entitled ‘Female’, showing a compilation of approximately 50 portraits of women of various ages. The series was created between 1997 and 2000 and shows a multifaceted portrait of contemporary female identity.
In her photographs Jitka Hanzlová percieves everyday and incidental events. For this series she photographed women she met on her various travels to European and American cities. The images often arose spontaneously at the place of the meeting, or by appointment the next day. The women are portrayed as individuals with specific irregularities and facial features, which do not allow for stereotypical classification. The people we meet in these portraits are anonymous. In most cases the title only mentions their first name, in some instances even this has been left out. The identity, the profession and the living conditions of these models remain unknown to us. Even when Hanzlová seemingly reveals some biographical details about the subjects she observes, her images never become voyeuristic. On the contrary, as an artist she has the utmost respect for the women she portrays and cautiously tries to capture their self-assertion on film. Though the emphasis is on the women, they are always related to mostly urban surroundings, its colours and atmospheres. Subject and background interact directly. This synthesis gives each of Hanzlová’s photographs a unique expression.
Roni Horn: A girl’s luminous face rises again and again from the hot springs of Iceland. Watch the slight changes of her expression. Observe closely the face’s opaque surface that will not yield the soul. An enigma without solution. You know nothing about her. All you can see are her ever shifting moods and the water. It’s always the same face and yet never alike. Like the weather. Always changing and beyond meaning. A surface that invites you to project your own desires, thoughts, and dreams; and yet it will always resist the power of your gaze. Like the sky, the clouds, the rain.
‘These photographs were taken in July and August of 1994. For a six-week period I traveled with Margrét throughout Iceland. Using the naturally heated waters that are commonplace there, we went from pool to pool.’
https://www.youtube.com/embed/HEOV8kbio7A?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&Horn’s first photographic installation, You Are The Weather (1994-1996), a photographic cycle featuring 100 close-up shots of the same woman, Margret,[17] in a variety of Icelandic geothermal pools, deals with the enigma of identity captured through a series of facial expressions dictated by imperceptible weather changes.
Photo-shoot > Suggested activities Produce a series of portraits (full-body/ half-body) of your family members/ or friendship group using deadpan approach (straight-on) meeting the gaze of the camera in a direct manner. Make a variation and produce a second series of headshots/ profile shots from the side and a third set where you get up-close and frame only parts or areas of a face. You can follow instructions and guidelines here from previous headshot task from Yr 12.
PHOTOGRAPHY & GENDER PERFORMING IDENTITIES > ACTING OUT > MASQUAREDE
Claude Cahunplay with gender identities. Born Lucy Schwob, Claude Cahun was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer. She is best known for her self-portraits in which she assumes a variety of personas, including dandy, weight lifter, aviator, and doll.
In this image, Cahun has shaved her head and is dressed in men’s clothing. She once explained: “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”1 (Claude Cahun, Disavowals, London 2007, p.183)
Cahun was friends with many Surrealist artists and writers; André Breton once called her “one of the most curious spirits of our time.”2(See Guardian article below by Gavin James Bower, “Claude Cahun: Finding a Lost Great,)
While many male Surrealists depicted women as objects of male desire, Cahun staged images of herself that challenge the idea of the politics of gender. Cahun was championing the idea of gender fluidity way before the hashtags of today. She was exploring her identity, not defining it. Her self-portraits often interrogates space, such as domestic interiors and Jersey landscapes using rock crevasses and granite gate posts.
I Extend My Arms 1931 or 1932 Claude Cahun 1894-1954
The Jersey Heritage Trust collection represents the largest repository of the artistic work of Cahun who moved to the Jersey in 1937 with her stepsister and lover Marcel Moore. She was imprisoned and sentenced to death in 1944 for activities in the resistance during the Occupation. However, Cahun survived and she was almost forgotten until the late 1980s, and much of her and Moore’s work was destroyed by the Nazis, who requisitioned their home. CaHun died in 1954 of ill health (some contribute this to her time in German captivity) and Moore killed herself in 1972. They are both buried together in St Brelade’s churchyard.
For further feminist theory and context read the following essay: Amelia Jones: The “Eternal Return”: Self-Portrait Photography as Technology of Embodiment – pdf Jones_Eternal Return
In 2017 the National Portrait Gallery in London brough the work of Claude Cahun and Gillian Wearing together for the first time. Slipping between genders and personae in their photographic self-images, Wearing and Cahun become others while inventing themselves. “We were born in different times, we have different concerns, and we come from different backgrounds. She didn’t know me, yet I know her,” Wearing says, paying homage to Cahun and acknowledging her presence. The bigger question the exhibition might ask is less how we construct identities for ourselves than what is this thing called presence?
Behind a mask, Wearing is being Cahun. Previously she has re-enacted photographs of Andy Warhol in drag, the young Diane Arbus with a camera, Robert Mapplethorpe with a skull-topped cane, hard-bitten New York crime photographer Weegee wreathed in cigar-smoke. Among these doubles, you know Wearing is in the frame somewhere, under the silicon mask and the prosthetics, the wigs and makeup and the lighting. Going through her own family albums, she has become her own mother and her father. It is a surprise she has never got lost in this hall of time-slipping mirrors, among her own self-images and the faces she has adopted. Wearing has got others to play her game, too – substituting their own adult voices with those of a child, putting on disguises while confessing their secrets on video.
Cahun has been described as a Cindy Sherman before her time. Wearing’s art undoubtedly owes something to Sherman – just as Sherman herself is indebted to artist Suzy Lake. Looking back at Cahun, Wearing is both tracing artistic influence, and paying homage to it, teasing out threads in a web of relationships crossing generations.
Film Stills (1977-1980)
Cindy Sherman works play with female stereotypes. Masquerading as a myriad of characters, Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954) invents personas and tableaus that examine the construction of identity, the nature of representation, and the artifice of photography. To create her images, she assumes the multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl, a blond bombshell, a fashion victim, a clown, or a society lady of a certain age, for over thirty-five years this relentlessly adventurous artist has created an eloquent and provocative body of work that resonates deeply in our visual culture.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/tiszC33puc0?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&Cindy Sherman reveals how dressing up in character began as a kind of performance and evolved into her earliest photographic series such as “Bus Riders” (1976), “Untitled Film Stills” (1977-1980), and the untitled rear screen projections (1980).
For an overview of Sherman’s incredible oeuvre see Museum Of Modern Art’s dedicated site made at a major survey exhibition of her work in 2012.
This exhibition surveys Sherman’s career, from her early experiments as a student in Buffalo in the mid-1970s to a recent large-scale photographic mural, presented here for the first time in the United States. Included are some of the artist’s groundbreaking works—the complete “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80) and centerfolds (1981), plus the celebrated history portraits (1988–90)—and examples from her most important series, from her fashion work of the early 1980s to the break-through sex pictures of 1992 to her monumental 2008 society portraits.
Sherman works in series, and each of her bodies of work is self-contained and internally coherent; yet there are themes that have recurred throughout her career. The exhibition showcases the artist’s individual series and also presents works grouped thematically around such common threads as cinema and performance; horror and the grotesque; myth, carnival, and fairy tales; and gender and class identity.
Clare Rae came to Jersey in 2017 and made a series of work, Never Standing on two Feet in response to Claude Cahun
Find more images and information here on Clare Rae’s website.
Exhibited in Entre Nous: Claude Cahun and Clare Rae at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Australia 22 March – 6 May 2018, and subsequently at CCA Galleries in Jersey, UK, 7–28 September 2018.
Narrative photography, also referred to as Tableaux photography often have an element of performing for the camera. See artists such as, Duane Michaels, Tom Hunter, Anna Gaskell, Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson, Philip- Lorca diCorcia, Justine Kurland, Sam Taylor Johnson (former Sam Taylor-Wood), Hannah Starkey, Tracy Moffatt, Vibeke Tandberg. Read also page 26 in exam booklet that lists other artists, Sandy Skoglund, Carrie Mae Weems, Deana Lawson and Laurie Simmons who are using photography to create complex narratives using staged events and artificial set ups. The historical context of this type of photography is Pictorialism – make sure you reference this in your research and provide examples from this period of photographic history and experimentation.
Duane Michaels: photo-stories eg. The Bogeyman, The Spirit Leaves the Body. A self-taught photographer, Duane Michals broke away from established traditions of the medium during the 1960s. His messages and poems inscribed on the photographs, and his visual stories created through multiple images, defied the principles of the reigning practitioners of the form. Indeed, Michals considers himself as much a storyteller as a photographer.
Tom Hunter: Headlines, Life and Death in Hackney Since 1997, Tom Hunter has turned his camera on his surrounding neighbourhood of Hackney, showing empathy without being polemic. He is known for a remarkable blend of political commentary, history of art and the technicalities of photography. Working to create photographs that are the result of an exaggerated link between newspaper headlines, paintings from The National Gallery’s permanent collection and Hackney lifestyle, Hunter often seems to ask more questions than he can answer visually.
Read more here about Tom Hunter’s work in The Guardian
Anna Gaskell crafts foreboding photographic tableaux of preadolescent girls that reference children’s games, literature, and psychology. She is interested in isolating dramatic moments from larger plots such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, visible in two series: Wonder (1996–97) and Override (1997). In Gaskell’s style of “narrative photography,” of which Cindy Sherman is a pioneer, the image is carefully planned and staged; the scene presented is “artificial” in that it exists only to be photographed. While this may be similar to the process of filmmaking, there is an important difference. Gaskell’s photographs are not tied together by a linear thread; it is as though their events all take place simultaneously, in an ever-present. Each image’s “before” and “after” are lost, allowing possible interpretations to multiply. In untitled #9of the wonder series, a wet bar of soap has been dragged along a wooden floor. In untitled #17 it appears again, forced into a girl’s mouth, with no explanation of how or why. This suspension of time and causality lends Gaskell’s images a remarkable ambiguity that she uses to evoke a vivid and dreamlike world.
Anna Gaskell
Jeff Wall
Gregory Crewdson
Philip-Lorca diCorcia
Sam Taylor-Johnson
Tracy Moffat
Untitled – May 1997 1997 Hannah Starkey born 1971
Vibeke Tandberg
SHAN O’DONNELL
Here is a link to her website, a short biography below and examples of key works:
I am an artist born in Jersey, Channel Islands. Currently based in Cardiff, Wales my practice explores themes around the gendered experience with a focus on femininity and masculinity as gendered traits. Through deep research and a sociological approach my work explores the self and identity.
My fascination lies with questioning society and challenging traditional views of gender through my work. My work is informed by my personal experience and through interviewing specific demographics to help gage a sociological understanding of how gender is viewed or challenged within mainstream society.
MASCULINITIES: LIBERATION THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY
MASCULINITIES: LIBERATION THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY Through the medium of film and photography, this major exhibition considers how masculinity has been coded, performed, and socially constructed from the 1960s to the present day. Examining depictions of masculinity from behind the lens, the exhibition brings together over 300 works by over 50 pioneering international artists, photographers and filmmakers such as Richard Avedon, Peter Hujar, Isaac Julien, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Robert Mapplethorpe, Annette Messager and Catherine Opie to show how photography and film have been central to the way masculinities are imagined and understood in contemporary culture. The show also highlightslesser-known and younger artists – some of whom have never exhibited in the UK – including Cassils, Sam Contis, George Dureau, Elle Pérez, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Hank Willis Thomas, Karlheinz Weinberger and Marianne Wex amongst many others. Masculinities: Liberation through Photography is part of the Barbican’s 2020 season, Inside Out, which explores the relationship between our inner lives and creativity.
In the wake of #MeToo the image of masculinity has come into sharper focus, with ideas of toxic and fragile masculinity permeating today’s society. This exhibition charts the often complex and sometimes contradictory representations of masculinities, and how they have developed and evolved over time. Touching on themes including power, patriarchy, queer identity, female perceptions of men, hypermasculine stereotypes, tenderness and the family, the exhibition shows how central photography and film have been to the way masculinities are imagined and understood in contemporary culture.
Here is a downloadable teaching resource that includes information, activities and tasks that will help you develop ideas.
Sam Contis: Deep Springs
List some from Windows & Mirrors > historical Contemporary – see old blog posts on family/ community/ documentary/ tableaux
Trish Morissey, Claude Cahun
Windows & Mirrors Windows: Dave Heath, Danny Lyon, Mark Cohen, George Tice, Joseph Dankowski, Paul Caponigro, Richard Misrach, John Divola, Lewis Baltz, Mirrors: Duane Michals, Robert Heinecken, Ralps Gibson Robert Rauschenberg, Lucas Samares, Emmet Gowin, Robert Mapplethorpe
Surrealism: Jerry N Uelsmann
Alec Soth: Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara – see 2016 blog for video + intyer
FILMMAKERS / CINEMA
Have a look at the many references to video art, avantgarde cinema and experimental filmmaking listed in these blogposts below
The syllabus states clearly that you have to be aware of some of the methods employed by critics and historians within the history of art and photography.
To demonstrate your knowledge and understanding you will have to write a paragraph in your essay providing historical context about your chosen artists/ photographers and how their work and practice is linked to a specific period of photographic history, art movement/ ism or theory.
For this task you need to select an art movement and ism that is relevant to your Personal Study.
Pictorialism
Realism / Straight Photography
Modernism
Post-modernism
Follow these instructions:
1. Start by watching the films below, study PPT presentations and read articles here which will provide you with an overview.
2. Copy the text from the sheet here and produce a blog post with the information needed for each art movement as basic knowledge from which to develop your study further.
3. Choose one of the art movements/ isms relevant to your Personal Study and write 500 words which would form the basis of paragraph 1 in your essay on Historical/ theoretical context and publish on blog.
Homework Task Produce a photographic response to Art Movement/ Isms Deadline: Mon 18 Dec
Make a creative response to your research and analysis of an art movement/ ism that is relevant to your personal study project. This could be a new photo-shoot or re-working images/ material already made. Aim to produce at least 3 different creative outcomes and produce a blog post with your responses and an evaluation.
RESOURCES >ARCHIVES
Archives can be a rich source for finding starting points on your creative journey. This will strengthen your research and lead towards discoveries about the past that will inform the way you interpret the present and anticipate the future. During this term we had planned for us to visit two public archives, first the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive which contains over 100,000 items dating from the mid-1840s to the present day and is the principal Jersey collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century photography. The second was Jersey Archive that has collected over 300,000 archival records and is the island’s national repository holding archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses and individuals, including important photographic collections such as Jersey Evening Post and many of the iconic images of Surrealist artist and activist, Claude Cahun, who we will be studying in depth as part of the theme REBELLION. However, due to current restrictions on school trips we will instead explore their archives and resources online and postpone visiting the institutions.
‘island’ – a piece of land completely surrounded by water
Before we continue, let’s consider more closely what the concept of islandness is. As ontology is concerned with the nature of being, islandness could be defined, or described as:
The property of being or belonging to an island, especially insofar as it affects society and culture.
Or put more simply: A focus on islands and island communities.
If we consider this more carefully, we think of islandness within the context of:
Island characteristics
A sense of place and identity
Isolation vs connectedness
Insularity– (geographical, cultural, political, social and economic constraints)
ISLAND IDENTITY
What makes Jersey special and why does that matter? These two simple-sounding questions underpin the creation of a new ISLAND IDENTITY project led by Deputy Carolyn Labey, Deputy of Grouville, Assistant Chief Minister and Minister for International Development.
RATIONALE: Our national Identity – how we see ourselves and how others see us – matters a great deal. In Jersey, our ability to work together, care for each other, grow our economy and look after our environment depends on us being bound to each other by more than a shared geography and set of rules. Whatever our backgrounds or occupations, we can benefit from a shared sense of belonging and a shared understanding of what it means to be Jersey.
The ISLAND IDENTITY project has produced a website and a report that has identified distinctive qualities of island life in Jersey. You may wish to explore one of those key themes more in-depth as a concept for your project. They are:
Constitution & Citizenship Communities International Economy Education & Sport Heritage, Culture & the Arts Environment
RESEARCH: Produce a poster that reflects on one of the key areas listed above.
1. What makes Jersey special and why does it matter to you? 2. What does it mean to be ‘Jersey’, now and in the future? 3. What can we all do to solidify a cohesive and positive Island identity? 4. Are there barriers to a positive and inclusive Island identity? (What requires a greater focus and what is being missed?)
Consider ways you could explore the topic through photography and/or film.
Develop a concept and provide a number of creative starting points for a project.
Poster must be visually stimulating using a combination of images, graphics and text.
Present your poster and ideas in class by Fri 19 Nov.
Publish poster on the blog and write an evaluation by Mon 22 Nov.
CONSIDER Island Identity: Jersey’s geological sites of special interest and its natural landscape, Medieval architecture and castles, Neolithic structures and archaeology, German fortifications, influence of Norman culture and language; ie. cultural festivals/ social rituals/ Jérriais speakers/ place names, agricultural heritage; Jersey cow, Royal potato, cider making, knitting, maritime history; privateering, North Atlantic cod-fisheries, worldwide merchant trade, ship building, International Finance Centre; tax heaven, Tourism; a Victorian seaside retreat, 1960s, 70s and 80s heyday of mass tourism, Current housing crisis and cost of living, Environmental protection and sustainable living, Future issues for young people of Jersey???
Illustrate it with images where appropriate and include hyperlinks to resources and any references that may help you to develop your ideas further.
The brief is to show JERSEY through your eyes as students of photography. Reviewing your past projects, moodboard and mindmap write 250-500 words where you consider the following:
What makes you feel nostalgic about Jersey, or where you live?
What are the distinct qualities of island life?
A sense of place and identity
Explore the notion of the ‘Jersey way’ or ‘Jersey-ness’.
What makes a person’s identity? Identity is simply defined as the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is. Elements or characteristics of identity would include race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical attributes, personality, political affiliations, religious beliefs, professional identities, and so on.
What does the word “identity” mean to you? Identity is about positive traits; it also can be negative traits. It’s a combination of things that you do; it’s your talents, it’s your strengths, it’s your passions, it’s what you love, it’s what you care about.
JERSEY – A CROWN DEPENDENCY
RESEARCH > Explore why Jersey is a Crown Dependency. Produce a blog post with text and images (incl video links) that illustrates your understanding of Jersey constitutional relationship with the UK.
The Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown dependency, which means that it is not part of the UK but is rather a self-governing possession of the British Crown. However, the UK Government is constitutionally responsible for its defense and international representation.
TASK: Choose one binary opposite below that is linked with the theme of ‘islandness’ and Jersey’s constitutional relationship with the UK and produce a set of 3 images that illustrates each word.
inwards vs outward
negative vs positive
closure vs openness
isolation vs connectedness
autonomy vs dependence
Week 14: 11 – 17 Dec Theory & Practice: Art Movements & Isms HOMEWORK: Photographic response Deadline Wed 14 Dec complete the following blogposts
Week 15 + XMAS: 18 Dec – 4 Jan Essay: Academic study skills Book/Film: Plan 3 photoshoots for Xmas
ESSAY
Mon: Literary sources:
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:
Use quotes to support or disprove your argument
Use quotes to show evidence of reading
Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.
TUE: Essay Question
Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
Wed: Essay Plan Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure
Essay question:
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian where appropriate.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
BOOK/ FILM
Thurs: Plan Photo-shoots
Produce a blog post with a detailed plan of at least 3-4 photoshoots that you intend on doing in response to your Personal Study in the next 3-4 weeks – including Christmas break. Follow these instructions: what, why, how, when, where?
RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic response to your Personal Study and bring images from new photo-shoots to lessons: READING: Key texts (interviews, reviews, articles etc.) about your subject, photo-history and chosen artists in preparation of writing your essay in January.
Use this simplified list to check that you are on task. Every item on the list represents one piece of work = one blog post. It is your responsibility as an A-level student to make sure that you complete and publish appropriate blog posts each week.
AUTUMN TERM
WEEK 1: 5 – 10 Sept 1. Zine: Narrative & Story 2. Zine: Research & Analysis
In the final year of your A-level photography studies the focus is on narrative and visual storytelling. We will be continuing to explore the theme of NOSTALGIA and build on your knowledge and understanding of how to combine images and text in creating picture stories. In your development as a photography student we encourage you to engage with both traditional methods of image-making using your eye and camera, as well as utilising creative potential of new technology and tools such as generative AI.
In the first half of the term everyone will explore a set of collective/ creative tasks that will act as triggers and creative starting points in the second half where you will be exploring the theme more in-depth as part of your Personal Study unit which will lead you towards your final major outcome making a photobook, or film and writing an essay.
However, before that you will learn about different ways you can be a visual storyteller experimenting with making photo-zines in Adobe InDesign and a short film using Adobe Premier. Other new software that you will be learning is audio software exploring the creative potential and possibilities of sound, that will be supported in a series of workshops by sound designer, Sam Hills (ex-Hautlieu student).
Week 1: 5-10 Sept NARRATIVE & SEQUENCING Complete the following blog posts
Your first creative assignment is to produce a 16 page photo-zine in InDesign based around images from St Malo and any AI generated material.
A selection of zines from 2020 when students were exploring Jersey Occupation history.
NARRATIVE & STORY
NARRATIVE is essentially the way a story is told. For example you can tell different narratives of the same story. It is a very subjective process and there is no right or wrong. Whether or not your photographic story is any good is another matter.
Narrative is constructed when you begin to create relationships between images (and/or text) and present more than two images together. Your selection of images (editing) and the order of how these images appear on the pages (sequencing) contributes significantly to the construction of the narrative. So too, does the structure and design of the photo-zine. However, it is essential that you identity what your story is first before considering how you wish to tell it.
In order for you to understand better how narrative works in photography let’s consider the differences between narrative and story when making a photo-zine. For a more in-depth understanding of NARRATIVE and PHOTOGRAPHY go to blog post below.
Once you have considered the points made between the differences in narrative and story and thought about what story you want to tell from your St Malo shoot, write the following:
STORY:What is your story? Describe in:
3 words
A sentence
A paragraph
NARRATIVE:How will you tell your story?
Images > St Malo street photographs and AI generated images in relation to theme of NOSTALGIA…
Archives > Old photos of St Malo or any found/ stock imagery…
Texts > Typography, words, street signs, graffiti..
EDITING & SEQUENCING
EDITING: You may have to revisit your selected images that you used in producing page-spreads. For the zine-design you need a set of 12-16 images that are edited and standardised as either colour or B&W images, or a combination of the both. You may want to consider your final selection with reference to how individual pictures relate and tell a story according to the construction of a traditional picture-story.
Produce a blog post with evidence of your final selection of 12-16 images and write a short evaluation reflecting on what story you are trying to communicate.
SEQUENCING: Print your final set of 12-16 images as small work prints using print Microsoft wizard (4 images per page, 9x13cm). Cut images using guillotine and layout on table and begin to sequence them to construct a narrative. Produce a 16 page zine mock and past images into using masking tape. Consider the following:
Think about your theme or story. Think about start, middle and end images.
Which images are major (establishing shots, full page, double page), and minor (portrait, detail shots, small images, multiple images on the page etc.)
Think about visual relationship between images and their juxtaposition e.g colour, shapes, subject, repetition, landscape, portrait, objects, details etc.
What happens or changes over the series of images?
Are you using your best images?
Include archival images/ found images of St Malo – if appropriate.
COLOUR – SHAPESSHAPES – GEOMETRYREPETITIONOBJECT – PORTRAITTypography and graphic elements
Week 2: 11 – 17 Sept DESIGN & LAYOUT Complete the following blog posts
RESEARCH > ANALYSIS
Research zines and newspaper design made by artists and photographer that will provide visual stimulus for your page design. Produce a mood board and consider the following in your analysis:
Café Royal Books is a small independent publisher of photography photobooks or zines, and sometimes drawing, solely run by Craig Atkinson and based in Southport, England. Café Royal Books produces small-run publications predominantly documenting social, historical and architectural change, often in Britain, using both new work and photographs from archives. It has been operating since 2005 and by mid 2014 had published about 200 books and zines and they are held in major public collections
Editions Bessard is a paris-based independent publishing house created by pierre bessard in 2011. Focusing on working with artists, writers and curators to realise intellectually challenging projects in book form.
The new imprint Éditions Emile is named in honour of Emile F. Guiton, the founding father of the The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive. The first set of publications is a series of small photo-zines comprising of 48 pages with an average of 30-40 images and a short text providing further context. With plans to publish three editions annually, each issue of ED.EM. will take a fresh look at a specific collection within the archive, by pairing it with either another collection or contemporary work, in order to re-contextualise the images, keeping the collections active and relevant for new audiences both in the island and beyond.
DEVELOPING > Show variation of design
Create 2-3 examples of alternative layouts for your photo-zine using Adobe InDesign and complete a visual blog post that clearly shows your decision making and design process using screen-prints.
Make sure you annotate!
See examples of previous students blog charting his zine design process, here.
Print, fold and bind final photo-zine and hand in for assessment.
Write an overall final evaluation (250-300 words) that explain in some detail how successfully you explored narrative as part of NOSTALGIA producing magazine page-spreads and photo-zines using both traditional eye/ camera and new technology such as generative AI. Consider the following:
Did you realise your intentions?
What did you learn?
Zine/ page-spreads; including any contextual references, links and inspiration between your final design and theme, incl artists references.
Week 3: 18 – 24 Sept RESEARCH & PLANNING Film: Elizabeth Castle Complete the following blog posts
NOSTALGIA is often linked with the past and Jersey is an island obsessed with its unique history and heritage. The site of Elizabeth Castle is such an example, and it offers up many creative possibilities for constructing a photographic story based on historical research and new recorded material, such as still-images, moving images and sound. Your task in the next four weeks is to produce a short film of 2-3 minutes based on a narrative that you have constructed from over a 1000 years of rich history of Elizabeth Castle or in Jerriais, Lé Châté Lîzabé.
Your film will be a visual feast made of footage from a combination of still-images and/ or moving images (video). Part of your creative challenge is developing a sound scape made from original audio recordings on site. For the film production you can choose to work alone or in a group of 2-3 students.
This element of the film will be supported by a series of workshops by Sam Hills, a Hautlieu alumni and sound designer who completed a degree in Audio & Music Production at Buckinghamshire New University in 2020. He will be assisting us on location at Elizabeth Castle on Wed 27 September and also come into school/ classroom and deliver/ assist with editing your audio in post-production and help developing your sound scape.
Here a few students films from the past…
Micah de Gruchy, Jesus is greater than Lockdown, 2021
Chloe Best, Recovery Through a Looking Glass, 2021 – winner of Guernsey Photography Festival Student Award 2021
TASK:Produce a number of appropriate blog posts.
1. RESEARCH: Elizabeth Castle and decide which particular aspects of its 1000 year history you wish to make into a short film of 3-5 mins – see below. Gather together research material, such as images, maps, documents, links to online sources and write a short synopsis of 300-500 words.
– Hermitage where St Helier is thought to have lived around 550 AD and a priory with about 6 monks. – 16th century fortress against French invaders. – Home to Royal exile Charles II during English civil war. – Construction of a two-story barracks hospital in the early 19th century. – Nazi occupation in 1940-45 where 100 German soldiers lived in Elizabeth Castle – Construction work on bunkers carried out by forced workers from Russia and other countries. – Post-war tourist attraction, current site of Jersey Heritage and living history.
2. VISUALS: Produce a mood-board of images that will inspire your visual language, style and aesthetic of your film. That can include found images of Elizabeth Castle and any other visual material, such as still-images from other filmmakers and films. See film,La Jétte by Chris Marker below.
3. STORYBOARD/ SHOT LIST: Develop a storyboard or a shot list that provides you with a clear plan ahead of how you wish to make your 3-5 mins film, including shot sizes, camera angles, movement, lighting, individual scenes and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.
A storyboard or shot list is a graphic layout that sequences illustrations and images with the purpose of visually telling a story. Filmmakers and video creators use storyboards to transfer ideas from their mind to the screen. Creating an effective story board takes skill, but you can learn from storyboard examples to gain some pro tips. Read more here about differences between Storyboard and Shot list. See more examples of story boards here.
Storyboard from film: There will be blood, Martin ScorseseStoryboard
Camera movement – read more here In a storyboard, each shot will have a small section for brief text description. In this description, clarify what camera movement will be used in the shot.
Mise en scene plays a huge role in communicating the tone of a story — but what is mise en scene? In classical terms, mise en scene is the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play or film. Today, mise en scene is regarded as all of the elements that go into any single shot of a production. Click below to learn more about mise-en-scene
Four of the most important aspects of mise en scene are: sets, props, costume/hair/makeup, and lighting. Here are examples from filmmakers Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson on how to apply color to these four aspects.
4. SOUND: Develop a sound design of audio files from various sources, such as original recordings from site at Elizabeth Castle (ambient sounds, directional sounds), sound FX, sound archives, Foley sounds recreated in the Hautlieu recording studio and other audio elements such as interviews, narration and spoken words, singing and music scores.
5. SCRIPT: Write a short script that provides a narrative of your film. This can include historical research and be constructed as a dialogue or narration to be recorded as a potential voice-over r in studio
6. ARCHIVE: The film must include archival material, ie. images, footage, maps, documents relevant to your film narrative and historical research – use online catalogues from Société Jersiase or Jersey Archive.
7. PRODUCTION: Assign roles and responsibilities within your group, such as producer, DP (director of photography), sound recorder, editor etc.
RESOURCES
Jersey – Steeped in history and laced with cliffside walking trails, welcome to the largest of the Channel Islands. Don’t miss the top spots to check out in Jersey. If you’re looking for history, adventure, incredible food, and total relaxation, Jersey weaves it all together into something truly magical. It’s not quite British and it’s not quite French, but Jersey is 100% unique.
If you’re looking for an idyllic island escape Jersey might just be the perfect destination for you. This small island located in the English Channel boasts stunning natural beauty, rich history, and a diverse range of attractions and activities. In this YouTube video, we’ll take you through the top 10 places to visit in Jersey. With this comprehensive guide, you’ll be inspired to visit Jersey and experience its unique charm for yourself.
Elizabeth Castle – A fortress just off the coast of Jersey to explore 400 years of history – built on a tidal Island in St Aubin’s Bay and dating from the 16th century onwards. Learn more here by visiting Jersey Heritage or Wikipedia
To reach the Castle and begin your adventure, walk along the causeway or take the amphibious Castle Ferry. Spend your day exploring this sprawling 15-acre fortress: climb the battlements dating back to the time Sir Walter Raleigh was Governor of Jersey; explore the grounds that gave refuge to King Charles II during the English Civil War; uncover the story of the Castle during the German Occupation in World War II; then discover the oldest part of this site, The Hermitage, where Saint Helier is thought to have lived around 550 A.D.
Step back in time to 1781 and meet the Castle Gunner who will tell you his story of the Battle of Jersey, but be prepared to be drafted into the Midday Parade and witness the firing of the musket and cannon.
Jersey Heritage is currently restoring parts of the Castle to bring them back into public use and you’ll see scaffolding around two important, historic buildings – the Georgian Military Hospital and the Officers’ Quarters.
This work is essential to secure the Castle’s future and you can find out more about what’s in store for the buildings here. For a detailed conservation plan of Elizabeth Castle done in 2005, click here
Charles II – Living historyMaster Gunner
The Master Gunner will ensure that your backs are straight, your chins are high, and bellies are tucked-in as you stand to attention for the Midday Parade on the expanse of the Castle’s Parade Ground. Delight in the storytelling of the Gunner, who will enlighten you into the tales and mysteries of bygone times at the Castle, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the Battle of Jersey in 1781. Then finally prepare yourself for the resounding bang of the signal gun and flintlock musket.
Read more on a Blog here about Elizabeth Castle or on Wikipedia here
The Historic Environment Record is a rich, publicly-accessible source of information about Jersey’s historic buildings, archaeological sites and finds spanning more than 250,000 years of human endeavour. New information is being added to the site all the time. Go to site here to learn more
The HER is also accessible in person. It is based at the Jersey Archive, the Island’s national repository of archival material and a key location for all reports on archaeological work and historic building recording carried out on the Island. This resource is available to a wide range of individuals, researchers, students and archaeologists. Jersey Heritage cares for the Island’s collections of archaeology, archives, art and social history, holding over 750,000 objects and documents.
Week 4: 25 Sept – 1 Oct RECORDING > FILM: Elizabeth Castle Complete the following blog posts
Mon-Tue > Chris Marker: La Jétte (1962)
Chris Marker, (1921-2012) was a French filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor and multi-media artist who has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. Marker’s La Jetée is one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made, a tale of time travel. What makes the film interesting for the purposes of this discussion, is that while in editing terms it uses the language of cinema to construct its narrative effect, it is composed entirely of still images showing imagesfrom the featureless dark of the underground caverns of future Paris, to the intensely detailed views across the ruined city, and the juxtaposition of destroyed buildings with the spire of the Eiffel Tower. You can read more here about the meaning of the film and watch the full version (29 mins) of the film here.
FILM AND NARRATIVE: Click here to learn more about conventions in film making and narrative theory with reference to the camera/ cinematography, sound and editing moving images.
Wed 29 Sept and Wed 4 Oct – school trip Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive and Elizabeth Castle
Location: 08:45: Meet at Société Jersiaise, 7 Pier Road, St Helier ready for 09:00 start. Students make their own way and must bring own camera, (with card and fully charged batteries), good footwear, appropriate clothing and provisions for lunch.
Activities: WED 29 Sept 09:00 – 9:30: Presentation by photo-archivist Patrick Cahill about relevance of photo-archive showing examples of objects from the collection with reference to early photographic experiments as an introduction to the history and origin of photography. 09:30 – 11:00:Task 1: Students study literature from Lord Coutanche library about the history of Elizabeth Castle and make notes of relevant bits of text, quotes, and references they can use in developing their film script and narrative Task 2: In groups students will work with set of images of Elizabeth Castle from different collections and construct a visual narrative through sequencing. Each group present. 11:00-12:00: Visit to exhibition: No Place Like Home
WED 4 OCT 11:15: Meet at West Park, St Helier where Duck vehicles is that will take us to Elizabeth Castle 12:00-13:30: Divide students into two groups Group A: Sound recording workshop led by Sam Hills. Students will learn practical skills in recording sound using Digi recorders and variety of different microphones. Group B: Students will be recording visuals, both stills-images and video footage relevant for their film 13:30-14:00: Lunch 14:00-15:30: Swap groups 15:30: Make our way from Elizabeth Castle to St Helier Students make their own way home
This unit requires you to produce an appropriate number of blog posts which charts you project from start to finish including research, planning, analysis, recording, experimentation, evaluation, and presentation of creative outcomes.
HOMEWORK TASK Essay: How are archives a repository of knowledge? DEADLINE: TUE 17 OCT
To show knowledge and understanding of your experience day at the Société Jersiaise Photo-Archive you need to write an essay. Follow link and instructions here:
Week 5-6-7: 2 – 20 Oct EDITING > DEVELOPING > PRESENTING > FILM Complete the following blog posts
Organisation: Create new folder FILM on local VideoData drive on your computer. Download files from from camera card into:
Save still images into a sub-folder: STILLS Save video clips into a sub-folder: VIDEO Save audio files into a sub-folder: AUDIO
Still-images: Import still-images into Lightroom and create a collection Elizabeth Castle under project folder: NOSTALGIA. Edit and adjust images and export as high-res jpgs ready for import into Adobe Premiere
Moving-images: Import video clips into Adobe Premier and edit on the timeline. Show experimentation with cuts/ transitions/ duration. Adjust exposure, colour grading profiling….
SOUND WORKSHOP: Sam Hills Go to this folder for shared audio files: M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\NOSTALGIA\Audio files
Sound: Import audio files into Adobe Audition and edit on the timeline. Show experimentation with mixing audio files using…
Here is access to Sound Effect archives:
Hautlieu Media department: M:\Radio\Departments\Media\Students\Sound FX
Archives: You can find relevant material, such as images, maps and documents your visit to SJ Photo-Archive here, that you may wish to use in your film.
FILM EDITING Mise-en-scene > link to make blog post: Film Editing or MM’s old resources
Title and credits: Consider typography/ graphics/ styles etc. For more creative possibilities make title page in Photoshop (format: 1920 x 1080 pixels) and import as a high-res JPEG file into your project folder on the local: VideoData drive.
Export: Export film as mp4 file and upload to Youtube account and embed on Blog. Follow these steps:
In Premier: Click on Sequence > Render IN/OUT
File > Export > Media
Export Settings: Format H.264
Output Name: use title of your film and save to V:Data drive
Click Export at bottom
Using Microsoft Stream: Open up Office 365
Go to All Apps and select Stream
Create > Upload Video
Browse to upload your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description, choose thumbnail and publish
My Content > Videos > embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
In Youtube: Set up an account at home (www.youtube.com)
Click Create (top right corner) > Upload video
Select file > your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description and choose thumbnail
Once uploaded, embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
EVALUATING: Write an evaluation on the blog that reflects on you artistic intentions, film-editing process and collaborating as a group. Include screen-prints from Premiere and a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of the shooting and production.
DEADLINE: Wed 18 Oct SCREENING: Thurs 19 Oct and Fri 20 Oct (with popcorn) Prepare a short presentation of your film with Q&A.
DO NOT USE WHAT IS BELOW THIS DIVIDING LINE
Week 8: 23 – 27 Oct PRINTING > PRESENTING Complete the following blog posts
Mount up any prints
FINAL PRINTS IN WEEK 8: 23-27 OCT H-TERM: 28 OCT – 5 NOV WEEK 9: 6-12 NOV
THEME: NOSTALGIA – use in PS
Based on the theme of NOSTALGIA plan a series of relevant photoshoots (at least 3-5) in the next couple of weeks that provide you with new visual material/ images for a 2-3 minute short film.
PERSONAL STUDY: In this unit/ module it is paramount that you explore the theme of Nostalgia in a personal and unique manner linked to childhood memories.
PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT
use together with photo-assignment on 3 images that are real and 3 that are staged + make a link to Windows and Mirrors > CONTEXT: For further understanding and context of the historical, conceptual and aesthetic differences between documentary practice and tableaux photography click on the links below and read the following chapters.
Thurs-Fri > Based on the theme of NOSTALGIA plan a series of relevant photoshoots and produce 3 images that are documenting reality and another 3 images that are staging reality. Use either camera or AI technology, or a combination at free will. The focus here is on creativity and experimentation, for example:
Revisit the sites of your childhood experiences – the places you played, argued, got hurt, felt loved. Photograph these places, carefully selecting your point of view and composition. What will you include? What will you leave out? How will you present these images to the viewer? With or without accompanying text? In a grid or a linear sequence? In a book, slideshow or on the wall? What difference do these decisions make to the meaning of your images?
You could choose sites or locations which triggers childhood memories, for example beaches/ castles/ heritage sites/ bunkers/ home/ gardens/ family gatherings/ playing or hanging out with friends. Some of these sites could be Jersey landmarks, such as Corbiere Lighthouse, Gronez Castle, Mt Orgueil, Elizabeth Castle, Fort Regent, St Ouen’s Bay, L’Etacq, St Brelade beach, Plemont, Ann Port, Rozel Bay, Bouley Bay, Bone Nuit, Gorey Pier, St Helier harbour, People’s Park, Jersey Zoo etc.
DOCUMENTARY vs STAGED PHOTOGRAPHY
When we begin to make work in response to REBELLION in the second half of this autumn term we will be experimenting with a different way to construct narrative using a staged approach to photography within the tradition of tableaux, as well as creating a series of self-portraits.
All texts from Bate, David (2016), Art Photography. London: Tate Publishing
Documentary vs Staged Photography If we examine documentary truth (camera as witness) versus a staged photograph (tableaux photography) all sorts of questions arise that are pertinent to consider as an image maker. Remember our discussion we had at the beginning of September when we began module of Documentary and Narrative. We discussed a set of images submitted at the World Press Photo competition on 2015.
Link to article about controversial images made by Giovanni Trioli at this years World Press Photo context
Since then the debate surrounding what constitutes ‘documentary’, ‘truth’, ‘veracity’ and how much manipulation is accepted has raged within various bodies representing documentary photography and photojournalism.
Read here the new Code of Ethics, revised rules and detailed guidance to ensure ‘truth’ of entries for the WPP contest 2016 by its Managing Director, Lars Boering. Read further interview with Boering here in an article in the BJP
Mon: CONTEXTUAL STUDY > Documentary vs Tableaux (staged photography) > 1 blog post. Describe the genres of documentary photography and tableaux photography and highlight the differences/ similarities in the approach of the image-making process. For example: What do we mean by a photograph that is ‘documentary’ in style. How does a staged tableaux image construct a narrative different from documentary photography?
RESOURCES > First, Look through both these PPTs to get a basic understanding documentary photography and tableaux photography.
Jeff Wall, Insomnia, 1994, Transparency in lightbox, 172,2 x 213,5 cm
To develop a deeper understanding, read these two texts by David Bate from his book, Art Photography (2016) Tate Publishing. Include images to illustrate both genres of photography and show evidence of reading by including direct quotes from sources and referencing using Harvard system.
EXTRA READING: For a contemporary perspective on documentary practice read photographer, Max Pincher’s Interview: On Speculative Documentary To read this interview you must access it online from home as it is blocked the internet filter in school.
Bright S. (2005) ‘ Narrative‘ in Art Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson
ARCHIVES
Archives can be a rich source for finding starting points on your creative journey. This will strengthen your research and lead towards discoveries about the past that will inform the way you interpret the present and anticipate the future. During this term we had planned for us to visit two public archives, first the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive which contains over 100,000 items dating from the mid-1840s to the present day and is the principal Jersey collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century photography. The second was Jersey Archive that has collected over 300,000 archival records and is the island’s national repository holding archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses and individuals, including important photographic collections such as Jersey Evening Post and many of the iconic images of Surrealist artist and activist, Claude Cahun, who we will be studying in depth as part of the theme REBELLION. However, due to current restrictions on school trips we will instead explore their archives and resources online and postpone visiting the institutions.
In the first four weeks we will be exploring the theme of LOVE and your task is to produce a 16 page photo-zine based on A LOVE STORY. What and whose love story you wish to tell in a series of images is entirely up to you. It could be based around a love story in your family. For example, your grandparents, parents, siblings or other relatives, such as distant uncles, aunties, cousins whose stories about love (both finding it and loosing it) that you may have been told around dinner tables or family gatherings. Stories that might be true or false, or based on facts that over time has been fictionalised and become family lore or myth.
Love can also be found among friends or take inspiration from personal experiences of teenage love. A love story could also be about unrequited love, or falling out of love with someone. However, a love story does not have to include romance. People love each other without desiring. It could be felt beyond the physical to include a spiritual connection. Some people talk about having found a soul mate. What does this actually mean? How could you translate this into a visual narrative and begin to make photographic responses?
A love story could also be about someone ‘loving’ one particular thing or aspects of their life, such as a love for an animal, hobby, sport or nature.
In this module we will study how different narrative structures can be used to tell stories in pictures from looking at photography, cinema and literature in photo-essays, film and books. We will consider narrative within a documentary approach where observation is key in representing reality, albeit we will look at both visual styles within traditional photojournalism as well as contemporary photography which employs a more poetic visual language that straddles the borders between objectivity and subjectivity, fact and fiction.
For each introduction to the themes of LOVE & REBELLION there will be two photo-assignments for you to complete independently in your own time outside of lessons. This is partly to train your eye, improve camera skills and to encourage you to make images and photographic responses on a weekly basis. This is vital in your development as a photography student and essential for your final year of A-Level Photography which will require you to work on projects over a much longer period. The programme of study is designed with specific tasks to be completed in lessons as well outside of the classroom. The expectations of a A-level student at Hautlieu School is 5 hours of independent study at home per subject each week.
We will encourage you to achieve the highest possible marks, but this will entail a sense of discipline and effort on your part. We want you to produce original work of high quality and maturity that can be awarded top grades. Historically, photography students at Hautlieu School have acquired a reputation for making work beyond the confines of Edexcel syllabus and their work have been recognised both locally and internationally through exhibitions, competitions and publications. For example, in the last couple of years we have produced two separate newspaper supplements, FUTURE OF ST HELIER and LIBERATION & OCCUPATION both published and distributed in the Jersey Evening Post. If funding can be found it is our hope that we would be able to produce yet another newspaper and successfully complete a trilogy.
Hoarding display at Trenton Square on the Esplanade with students work from the Future of St Helier newspaper.
PLANNER
Download LOVE & REBELLION PLANNER and use it weekly to help you with monitoring and tracking your own progress
PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 1: A portrait of someone you love Environmental Portrait Candid portrait
DEADLINE: Mon 14 Sept
ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT: A formal portrait with emphasis on environment and setting of the model that may suggest the person’s social, economic, cultural background.
Week 1-4: 6-28 Sept Practice: Still-life, 3D Photo-sculpture and Installation Theory: History of Still-life as a genre in art DEADLINE: Wed 28 Sept EXHIBITION: MY ROCK Link Gallery 1- 9 Oct, Jersey Museum
Week 1: 7-13 Sept Complete Zine making on migrant communities
Before we begin our next creative phase we need to complete our 16-page zine. Follow these instructions and complete the following blog posts:
Images > new photographic responses, photo-shoots
Archives > old photos from family albums, iPhone images from family photo-albums, camera phone, SJ photo-archive, found imagery…
Texts > letters, documents, poems, text messages
DESIGN & LAYOUT
RESEARCH > ANALYSIS: Research zines and newspaper design made by artists and photographer that will provide visual stimulus for your page design. Produce a mood board and consider the following in your analysis:
Create 2-3 examples of alternative layouts for your photo-zine using Adobe InDesign and complete a visual blog post that clearly shows your decision making and design process using screen-prints.
Make sure you annotate!
See examples of previous students blog charting his zine design process, here.
Print, fold and bind final photo-zine and hand in for assessment.
Write an overall final evaluation (250-300 words) that explain in some detail how successfully you explored the first part of the IDENTITY & COMMUNITY project. Consider the following:
Did you realise your intentions?
What did you learn?
Zine; including any contextual references, links and inspiration between your final design and theme, incl artists references.
Before we begin our next creative phase we need to make sure you have chosen your best photo-collage/ joiner and saved in this folder below for our upcoming exhibition at the Link Gallery, Jersey Museum. Deadline Fri 16 Sept. M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\PRINTING – JOINER\A3
PERSONAL STUDY: NOSTALGIA
Our focus this term is narrative and story telling in photography – see old blog for copy We will continue to explore the theme of NOSTALGIA with a specific focus on childhood memories.
This is linked to family history and research – see my blog copy on that
Windows and mirrors
extend zine-making into creative versions – see Lewis Bush guide Moving image: make an animated giff and 2-3 mins film Sound recording workshop by Sam Hills – linked to visit to SJPA or SJPA + zine making – must include archival material – family!! (see your old blog post on HOME photo-assignments = environmental portrait etc Site visit (Elizabeth Castle) + sound recording workshop with Sam
EXTRA
Week 7: 12 – 18 Oct INSPIRATIONS & INFLUENCES Complete the following blog posts
RESEARCH > ANALYSIS
THEORY & CONTEXT: Write 300-500 words expressing your view on identity politics and culture wars. How does it impact society? Describe some of the positive aspects on groups harnessing their shared identity and political views as well some of the dangers of tribalism dividing communities. Provide examples both for and against, reference sources used and include images. Try and frame the debate both within a global and local perspective.
PROTESTS & MOVEMENTS: Research political activism of the Suffragettes as well as the artistic movement of Dadaism. Describe each of their political ideologies and analyse what role photography played and how it was used as a propaganda tool. Make references to contemporary activism and movements, such as FEMEN, #meToo, BLM etc.
ARTISTS REFERENCES: A comparative study between Claude Cahun and a contemporary photographer. Analyse, describe and discuss similarities and/or differences between key examples of their work on political activism and gender identities. Follow these steps:
1.Produce a mood board with a selection of images and write an overview of their work, style and approach to self-portraiture.
2.Select at least one image and/or video from each artists and analyse in depth using methodology of TECHNICAL>VISUAL>CONTEXTUAL>CONCEPTUAL
3.Incorporate quotes and comments from the artists themselves or others (art critics, art historians, curators, writers, journalists etc) using a variety of sources such as Youtube, online articles, reviews, text, books.
4.Make sure you reference sources and embed links to the above sources in your blog post.
5.Plan a photographic response that links with your 90 SEC FILM ASSIGNMENT
Week 8: 19 – 25 Oct PLANNING & SPECIFICATION Complete the following blog posts
PLANNING > PITCHING: 90 SEC FILM: A moving-image response in relation to the theme of REBELLION engaging with politics that are based on art, identity or culture.
• In groups of 2/3 students present idea and concept for your 90 sec film as a poster and manifesto.
• You have 30 mins to put together your poster and will have 30 seconds to present and pitch your idea to the class. Use Photoshop to design your poster and publish on the blog as a JPEG.
• Photo-game: You must use 3 words from ‘throwing the dice’ and incorporate into your manifesto and use those concepts as creative starting points for making your film.
INTENTIONS: including 3 dice words from photo-game
VISUALS: how the film will look – incl. inspirations from artists, film makers, movements etc
SOUND: consider audio, such as interviews, ambient sound, sound effects, music
TITLE: possible titles of film
ROLES: producer, photographer, editor
How to write a manifesto? Read more here A manifesto is a statement where you can share your… – Intentions (what you intend to do) – Opinions (what you believe, your stance on a particular topic) – Vision (the type of world that you dream about and wish to create.
STORYBOARD: Develop the above manifesto into a storyboard that provides you with a clear plan ahead of how you wish to make your 90 sec film, incl. individual scenes, shot sizes and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.
Week 9-10: 26 Oct – 13 Nov (incl H-TERM) RECORDING > EDITING Complete the following blog posts
RECORDING > H-TERM: Plan and complete principal shoot following your storyboard during h-term. Make sure you take a few images behind the scenes of the production and are using the right equipment; camera, sound recorder, tripod etc.
EDITING > FILM PRODUCTION Still-images: Edit and adjust using Lightroom and export as high-res jpgs ready for import into Premiere
Moving-images & Sound: Upload clips into Premier and edit on the timeline. Show experimentation with cuts/ transitions/ duration etc.
Title and credits: Consider typography/ graphics/ styles etc. For more creative possibilities make title page in Photoshop (format: 1280 x 720 pixels) and import as a Psd file into your project folder on the V-Data drive.
Export film as mp4 file and uploads to Youtube account and embed on Blog. Follow these steps:
In Premier: Click on Sequence > Render IN/OUT
File > Export > Media
Export Settings: Format H.264
Output Name: use title of your film and save to V:Data drive
Click Export at bottom
Using Microsoft Stream: Open up Office 365
Go to All Apps and select Stream
Create > Upload Video
Browse to upload your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description, choose thumbnail and publish
My Content > Videos > embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
In Youtube: Set up an account at home (www.youtube.com)
Click Create (top right corner) > Upload video
Select file > your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description and choose thumbnail
Once uploaded, embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
Job done!
EVALUATING > SCREENING: Write an evaluation on the blog that reflects on you artistic intentions, film-editing process and collaborating as a group. Include screen-prints from Premiere and a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of the shooting/ production.
DEADLINE: Fri 13 Nov SCREENING: Mon 16 Nov (with popcorn) Prepare a short presentation of your film with Q
MY FAMILY: Explore your own private archives such as photo-albums, home movies, diaries, letters, birth-certificates, boxes, objects, mobile devices, online/ social media platforms and make a blog post with a selection of material that can be used for further development and experimentation using a variety of re-staging or montage techniques .
Archives can be a rich source for finding starting points on your creative journey. This will strengthen your research and lead towards discoveries about the past that will inform the way you interpret the present and anticipate the future. See more Public/ Private Archives
For example, you can focus on the life on one parent, grand-parent, family relative, or your own childhood and upbringing. Ask other family members (parents, grand-parents, aunties, uncles) if you can look through their photo-albums too etc.
Family photo-albumsDigital images stored on mobile phones, uploaded on social media etc.
TASKS STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE:
Either scan or re-photograph archival material so that it is digitised and ready for use on the blog and further experimentation.
Plan at least one photo-shoot and make a set of images that respond to your archival research. This can be re-staging old photos or make a similar set of images, eg. portraits of family members and how they have changed over the years, or snapshots of social and family gatherings.
Choose one of your images which relates to the theme of family (e.g. archive, family album, or new image you have made) and destroy the same image in 5 different ways using both analogue and digital method techniques. Eg. Reprint old and new photos and combine using scissors/ tearing and glue/ tape. In Photoshop use a variety of creative tools to cut and paste fragments of images to create composites.
Produce appropriate blogposts with both family research, archival material and new photographic responses and experiments.
Extension: Choose a second image and destroy it in 5 new or other ways.
cofUnder Oath, 2017
Jonny Briggs: In search of lost parts of my childhood I try to think outside the reality I was socialised into and create new ones with my parents and self. Through these I use photography to explore my relationship with deception, the constructed reality of the family, and question the boundaries between my parents and I, between child/adult, self/other, nature/culture, real/fake in attempt to revive my unconditioned self, beyond the family bubble. Although easily assumed to be photoshopped or faked, upon closer inspection the images are often realised to be more real than first expected. Involving staged installations, the cartoonesque and the performative, I look back to my younger self and attempt to re-capture childhood nature through my assuming adult eyes.
Thomas Sauvin and Kensuke Koike: ‘No More, No Less’ In 2015, French artist Thomas Sauvin acquired an album produced in the early 1980s by an unknown Shanghai University photography student. This volume was given a second life through the expert hands of Kensuke Koike, a Japanese artist based in Venice whose practice combines collage and found photography. The series, “No More, No Less”, born from the encounter between Koike and Sauvin, includes new silver prints made from the album’s original negatives. These prints were then submitted to Koike’s sharp imagination, who, with a simple blade and adhesive tape, deconstructs and reinvents the images. However, these purely manual interventions all respect one single formal rule: nothing is removed, nothing is added, “No More, No Less”. In such a context that blends freedom and constraint, Koike and Sauvin meticulously explore the possibilities of an image only made up of itself.
Veronica GesickaTraces presents a selection of photomontages created by Weronika Gęsicka on the basis of American stock photographs from the 1950s and 1960s. Family scenes, holiday memories, everyday life – all of that suspended somewhere between truth and fiction. The images, modified by Gęsicka in various ways, are wrapped in a new context: our memories of the people and situations are transformed and blur gradually. Humorous as they may seem, Gęsicka’s works are a comment on such fundamental matters as identity, self-consciousness, relationships, imperfection.
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.
His ‘Dark Star’ series turns publicity portraits into cut-out silhouettes, creating an ambiguous presence in the place of the absent celebrity. Stezaker’s way of giving old images a new context reaches its height in the found images of his Third Person Archive: the artist has removed delicate, haunting figures from the margins of obsolete travel illustrations. Presented as images on their own, they now take the centre stage of our attention
There are different ways artists and photographers have explored their own, or other families in their work as visual storytellers. Some explore family using a documentary approach to storytelling, others construct or stage images that may reflect on their childhood, memories, or significant events drawing inspiration from family archives/ photo albums and often incorporating vernacular images into the narrative and presenting the work as a photobook.
Rita Puig-Serra Costa (Where Mimosa Bloom) vs Laia Abril (The Epilogue)> artists exploring personal issues > vernacular vs archival > inside vs outside
Rita Puig-Serra Coasta, Where Mimosa BloomLaia Abril, The Epiloque
Carole Benitah (Photo Souvenirs) vs Diane Markosian (Inventing My Father) > family > identity > memory > absence > trauma
Carole Benitah, Photo-SouvenirsThis is the closet thing I had to an image of my father. A cut out of him in my mother’s photo album.
Ugne Henriko (Mother and Daughter) vs Irina Werning or Chino Otsuka > re-staging images > re-enacting memories
In this project we will explore the theme of NOSTALGIA and respond to a number of different creative tasks, such as classic street photography on a trip to St Malo and produce a set images using AI (Artificial Intelligence) in response to the exhibition, PLAYTIME by Will Lakeman.
A FORT REGENT INSPIRED ART EXHIBITION RECREATING THE STRANGE HOLD CHILDHOOD SPACES HAVE ON ADULT MEMORIES
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 can be triggered by many things, such as music, movies, places, or people. Nostalgia can have positive effects on mood, social connectedness, self-esteem, and meaning in life.
Theoretically, the project will explore photography’s fraught relationship with truth looking at seminal images from the history of photography that ‘lied’ and compare with how new technology such as AI generating digital images will potentially alter our perception of reality. This debate will also include discussing the ethics of AI technology, as a force for good that will benefit humanity and its potential dangers, and how it will impact our society as a whole in the future.
‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton warns of dangers of chatbots, quits Google | Newshub
Outcomes: a set of classic street photographs and images generated by using AI Essay: Photography and Truth: Can a photograph lie? Presentation: A3 double-page magazine spread and 16 page photo-zine with essay
What is artificial intelligence (AI)?
” It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.”
Artificial intelligence (AI), is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience. Since the development of the digital computer in the 1940s, it has been demonstrated that computers can be programmed to carry out very complex tasks—as, for example, discovering proofs for mathematical theorems or playing chess—with great proficiency. Still, despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are as yet no programs that can match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some programs have attained the performance levels of human experts and professionals in performing certain specific tasks, so that artificial intelligence in this limited sense is found in applications as diverse as medical diagnosis, computer search engines, voice or handwriting recognition and now generating content by text prompting producing images, music and films.
The birth of the artificial intelligence conversation was denoted by Alan Turing’s seminal work, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” , which was published in 1950. In this paper, Turing, often referred to as the “father of computer science”, asks the following question, “Can machines think?” From there, he offers a test, now famously known as the “Turing Test”, where a human interrogator would try to distinguish between a computer and human text response. While this test has undergone much scrutiny since its publish, it remains an important part of the history of AI as well as an ongoing concept within philosophy as it utilizes ideas around linguistics.
At its simplest form, artificial intelligence is a field, which combines computer science and robust datasets, to enable problem-solving. It also encompasses sub-fields of machine learning and deep learning, which are frequently mentioned in conjunction with artificial intelligence. These disciplines are comprised of AI algorithms which seek to create expert systems which make predictions or classifications based on input data.
Over the years, artificial intelligence has gone through many cycles of hype, but even to skeptics, the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT seems to mark a turning point. The last time generative AI loomed this large, the breakthroughs were in computer vision, but now the leap forward is in natural language processing. And it’s not just language: Generative models can also learn the grammar of software code, molecules, natural images, and a variety of other data types.
The applications for this technology are growing every day, and we’re just starting to explore the possibilities. But as the hype around the use of AI in business takes off, conversations around ethics become critically important. To read more on where IBM stands within the conversation around AI ethics, read more here.
More information about AI can be found here on IBM or see RESOURCES below.
PLANNER: Blogposts to make
WEEK 1: 5 – 11 June Visit and review exhibition ‘PLAYTIME’ by Will Lakeman
Mon 5 June: EXHIBITION > group Yr 12B meet at Capital House 14:00. Tue 6 June: EXHIBITION > group Yr 12A meet at Capital House 14:00.
Wed: ANALYSIS > review the exhibition and write 500 words incorporating knowledge and understanding from talk by Will Lakeman > 1 blogpost
Writing frame: How does the exhibition make you consider the theme of Nostalgia? How has childhood memories inspired the imagery? Describe photographic techniques used, including AI in the image-making process. In what way are AI images a representation of dreams? Choose one image and analyse in more detail, considering form, concept and aesthetics. Make a final value added judgement on the exhibition as a whole, ie. do you like/ dislike it – provide examples for or against. Would you recommend it to others? If so, why? Include illustration such as installation images from the exhibition. Include also at least one quote from Will Lakeman’s talk or associated publicity material and provide a comment.
See RESOURCES below for more context about Will Lakeman and the exhibition ‘Playtime’. Read also interview here in the Bailiwick Express and a previous review/ publicity of an earlier pop-up exhibition at ArtHouse Jersey’s Greve de Lecq Barracks here.
Homework: Deadline 14 June
RESOURCES – PLAYTIME by Will Lakeman
A FORT REGENT INSPIRED ART EXHIBITION RECREATING THE STRANGE HOLD CHILDHOOD SPACES HAVE ON ADULT MEMORIES
The work in this exciting exhibition recreates the strange hold that childhood spaces have on our adult memories, all centred around the Jersey childhood mecca of old Fort Regent.
Lakeman is a photographer who has nurtured an obsessive interest in ‘the Fort’, and has spent his adult life revisiting weird dreams of this iconic building and its heyday in the early 1990s. With the works accompanied by a custom soundscape, smell and touch, Playtime encourages visitors to revisit their own dreams. The exhibition opens with a special preview evening on Wednesday 24 May between 5.30pm and 7pm and runs through until Sunday 2 July 2023.
If you were ever a visitor to Pluto’s Playtime, spun around the roller disco on your Bauers, felt bilious on the pirate ship or slunk around in the shadows of the Exploratorium, this exhibition is without question for you. In a broader sense though, this exhibition is about nostalgia and how it is not always reliable. You can’t photograph a place that has long ceased to exist, so Will Lakeman has responded by using photo manipulation, collage and new technologies of artificial intelligence to recreate the Fort as he remembers it, not as it ever really was. The resulting images try to evoke the odd, fantastical memories we carry of childhoods everywhere.
Artist Will Lakeman said of the upcoming exhibition “I’m really excited for people to see this show, which I now realise I’ve been trying to make for most of my adult life. I have a really intense interest in a specific era of Fort Regent’s history – the funfair and swimming pool – but I have hardly any photos of myself there. I had to try and recreate my memories, and the more I tried the stranger the results became. The show involves photographs, reconstructions made with Artificial Intelligence, a soundscape, found objects and even some smells. Although it’s rooted in “the Fort” I tried to capture something universal in the experience of being a child, beyond excited to go to the leisure centre. I hope it says something to everybody.
“Everyone has the potential to make art that is meaningful to them. Anyone can be a good photographer, you do not need expensive gear, you just need to care. AI is the next thing that will become democratic. I would love to see other people’s weird dreams.”
Will Lakeman: ‘Through my work I try and communicate something of the weird, vivid sensations of my dreams and nightmares. I dream inside a world of intense colour and strange symbolism, but I also daydream in my waking hours as I drift around the place. I also experience synaesthetic hallucinations where my sensed become confused.
As a photographer I’m mainly inspired by cinema, especially the work of David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Stanley Kubrick. I also love the writing of Philip K Dick and Kazuo Ishiguro. Photographers I enjoy include Todd Hido and Greg Girard.’
David Lynch’s films: Twin Peaks (…), Eraserhead (..) and Mulholland Drive (…)
Read an interview with Will in Bailiwick Express here – see exerts below.
From ghostly pictures taken at night to eerie images of the Fort recreated by artificial intelligence, Will Lakeman has shared how dream and nostalgia inspire his work.
Pictured: Will says he didn’t take a single good photograph until he was 24.
“I did not take a single good photograph until I was 24,” he said. “I spent 24 years taking pictures that were not very interesting. It was not until I took one where I had an emotional experience that they started getting better. The first photo I took that I was really happy with was one of the Esplanade car park.”
As he started working at night, Will began working with nocturnal images, a series of which went on display at Private & Public Gallery in 2019. Those were partly inspired by his synesthetic hallucinations during which he can “taste colours and feel sounds.”
“I would try and get the sort of sense you get when you see something in a dream, bigger and clearer and more colourful,” Will explained.
Using artificial intelligence, Will has been manipulating images of Fort Regent based on his own dreams of the place.
Dreams and nostalgia are two big influences in Will’s work and both combine in his latest project. Using artificial intelligence, he has been manipulating images of Fort Regent based on his own dreams of the place.
Will had been wanting to focus on the Fort for a while but couldn’t find a way into it until he stumbled upon AI. His efforts have somewhat been stumped by the lack of pictures of the Fort, an appeal for images has not yielded much results so far, so Will has been creating his own collages and using pictures of the Fort as it is now, as well as the small number of archive images he has been able to find.
“I grew up here and I spent a lot of time there like many people,” Will said. “I am interested a lot about nostalgia, when people talk about what life was, they are not talking about reality but what their memory is.
Will wants his images to be “spooky, very colourful and weird”.
“I am interested in making those images, but I also understand that it is not reality and that you cannot go back there. I try to make them spooky, very colourful and weird, because even in a nice dream, there’s always something that happens that is a little bit weird. I wanted to try and capture that in an image, to make people remember and think about their own dreams.”
The process to create one image is a lengthy and somewhat fortuitous one. Will has to ‘feed’ the AI source images as well as instructions drawn from his dream diary until he “stumbles” upon something that looks right.
“The AI understands words and sentences but not in the same way as humans do,” he explained. “It’s like a painting where someone is throwing paint at the canvas rather than using a brush.
“Sometimes it’s really frustrating, you just do it over and over again and it looks nothing like you hoped it would, and then suddenly it looks exactly like it did in your dream.”
“It’s like a painting where someone is throwing paint at the canvas rather than using a brush,” Will said about the process.
The image comes out the size of a postage stamp so once Will is happy with it, he then has to make it “bigger and bigger”, adding elements as he goes, which he says can be quite “time consuming”.
While it’s an unusual process that Will says does not resemble any other type of creative process, he believes more artists will turn to AI in the future.
“Everyone has the potential to make art that is meaningful to them. Anyone can be a good photographer, you do not need expensive gear, you just need to care. AI is the next thing that will become democratic. I would love to see other people’s weird dreams.”
This article first appeared in the Dec/Jan edition of Connect magazine 2022, which you can read full version here.
THEME: NOSTALGIA
Thurs-Fri: RESEARCH > explore theme of NOSTALGIA and produce a mindmap and moodboard > 1 blog post.
Nostalgia is something that is both cosy and comforting but also deceptive and an illusion – explain how? Think about your own childhood memories of growing up in Jersey (or elsewhere). Are there specific moments that you treasure, or rather not want to remember? Think about what triggers the feeling of nostalgia, for example music, movies, places, or people. See below for more definition and ideas around theme of nostalgia.
“I am interested a lot about nostalgia, when people talk about what life was, they are not talking about reality but what their memory is.” Will Lakeman
Wikipedia definition of Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word nostalgia is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “sorrow” or “despair”, and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Described as a medical condition—a form of melancholy—in the Early Modern period, it became an important trope in Romanticism.
Nostalgia is associated with a longing for the past, its personalities, possibilities, and events, especially the “good ol’ days” or a “warm childhood”. There is a predisposition, caused by cognitive biases such as rosy retrospection, for people to view the past more favourably and future more negatively. When applied to one’s beliefs about a society or institution, this is called declinism, which has been described as “a trick of the mind” and as “an emotional strategy, something comforting to snuggle up to when the present day seems intolerably bleak.”
The scientific literature on nostalgia usually refers to nostalgia regarding one’s personal life and has mainly studied the effects of nostalgia as induced during these studies. Emotion is a strong evoker of nostalgia due to the processing of these stimuli first passing through the amygdala, the emotional seat of the brain. These recollections of one’s past are usually important events, people one cares about, and places where one has spent time. Cultural phenomena such as music, movies, television shows, and video games, as well as natural phenomena such as weather and environment can also be strong triggers of nostalgia.
WEEK 2: 12 – 18 June St Malo Trip and Street Photography
Mon: THEORY & CONTEXT > Henri Cartier-Bresson and the ‘decisive moment’ > 1 blog post, publish by Mon 19 June
Tue: RESEARCH & PLANNING > research your trip to St Malo and produce a moodboard of images of street photography exploring ‘the decisive moment’ > 1 blog post
“Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), a French photographer who is considered to be one of the fathers of photojournalism and masters of candid photography. He sought to capture the ‘everyday’ in his photographs and took great interest in recording human activity. He wrote,
“For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning’ to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.”
As a reporter and co-founder of the Magnum photography agency, Cartier-Bresson accepted his responsibility to supply information to a world in a hurry. He documented the liberation of Paris, the collapse of the Nationalist regime in China, Gandhi’s funeral and the partitioning of Berlin. Cartier-Bresson helped develop the street photography style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed. He was influenced by Surrealism and began his career in film working with renowned French director, Jean Renoir as second assistant director to films such as La vie est à nous (1936) and Une partie de campagne (1936), and La Règle du Jeu (1939 – considered one of the most influential films in 20th century.
The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Images à la sauvette (The Decisive Moment), 1952
The Decisive Moment, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s influential publication, is widely considered to be one of the most important photobooks of the twentieth century. Pioneering for its emphasis on the photograph itself as a unique narrative form, The Decisive Moment was described by Robert Capa as “a Bible for photographers.” Originally titled Images à la Sauvette (“images on the run”) in the French, the book was published in English with a new title, The Decisive Moment, which unintentionally imposed the motto which would define Cartier-Bresson’s work. The exhibition details how the decisions made by the collaborators in this major project—including Cartier-Bresson, French art publisher Tériade, American publisher Simon & Schuster, and Henri Matisse, who designed the book’s cover—have shaped our understanding of Cartier-Bresson’s photographs.
Task: Describe Henri Cartier-Bresson’s theory of the decisive moment using direct quotes from his own text. Include images of his work that illustrates the theory and choose one for detailed analysis of its form (what it looks like), composition (how it is arranged) and capturing a moment (essence of movement) . The decisive moment is particularly concerned with the overall structure and composition of the photograph, such as shapes, geometry, patterns and movement. Comment on these elements as well as other formal elements such as:
The seven formal elements are commonly known as:
– Line – Shape & Form – Pattern – Tone – Colour – Texture – Space
Also make use of other specialist photography vocabulary such as, rule of third, depth of field – see visual matrix below.
Wed 14 June: PRACTICE & RECORDING > St Malo photoshoot (250-400 images)
“Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”
Walker Evans, ca. 1960 from Afterword in Many Are Called, a photobook featuring Evans’ snapshots of subway riders in New York.
Street Photography:the impulse to take candid pictures in the stream of everyday life. Street photography is a form of documentary but it is decidedly not reportage and rarely simply tells a story. Sometimes a street photographer captures something truly unusual – an extraordinary face, an accident, or a crime in the making. But more often a good street photograph is remarkable because it makes something very ordinary seem extraordinary.
Flaneur: The street photographer is the archetypal flaneur, an urban type popularised by the French poet Charles Baudelaire in the mid-nineteenth century, around the same time that photography itself came into popular circulation. Baudelaire defined the flaneur as ‘a botanist of the sidewalk’ an apt description for most of street photographers. Read more here
Technology: The Leica handheld camera, commercially available as of 1924, was the ticket to allowing a photographer to be on the move, as well as to capturing movement. A 35-mm film camera, the Leica had a wide aperture that required a short exposure time, especially for pictures taken outdoors, and it could advance quickly, which allowed the photographer to take numerous pictures of a subject in quick succession. Read more here on the history of the Leica camera
The Leica became the camera of choice in the 1930s for photographers such as André Kertész, Ilse Bing, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and others, all of whom worked primarily in Europe. Those photographers did not call themselves street photographers even if some of their subject matter fit the genre’s current definition, but instead they identified themselves as photojournalists, fashion photographers (many worked for magazines), or simply as experimenters with a new medium. The Leica continued to be the go-to device for photographers after World War II, especially for New York City photographers such as Roy DeCarava, Lisette Model, William Klein, and Helen Levitt. Robert Frank, who is best known for his book The Americans (1959) and was the leading influence on street photographers of the succeeding generation, documented culture throughout the United States and in Europe. Street photography took off in Mexico as well, with Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide. Paris had Robert Doisneau, Czechoslovakia had Josef Koudelka, and London had Bill Brandt.
An exclusive interview with photographer William Klein and a first-ever glimpse behind the scenes at his Paris studio.
Hunting for characters on the Streets of New York City with Magnum Photographer Bruce Gilden.
A preview of the exhibition Diane Arbus: In The Beginning, on view at The Met Breuer from July 12 through November 27, 2016.
Finding Vivian Maier Official US Theatrical Trailer #1 (2013) – Photography Documentary HD
In this episode, I try to take photos like Vivian Maier.
Photo-assignment: St Malo and decisive moments
American street photographer Gary Winogrand famously said that, ‘I photograph things to see what they look like photographed.’
Using Cartier-Bresson’s theory of ‘the decisive moment’ try and capture images where the overall composition and visual elements are combined with an essence of movement. Find a location or spot that works as a compositional structure and anticipate or wait for something to happen within the photographic frame, eg. movement of people, a passer-by, or a dog, or some other fleeting moment of street life. Consider the following:
SUBJECT MATTER/ CAPTURING A MOMENT> people and humanity, theatre of everyday life, poetics of streets, comic absurdities and humour, small acts of kindness, scenes of unexpected beauty, ordinary moments, visual pun and humour, gestures and poses, faces and crowds.
LOCATIONS & PLACES > inside the walls and on the ramparts, back alleys and sidewalks, beaches and coastal promenades, parks and public spaces, cafes and shops, street corners and intersections, signs and advertising, facades and architecture.
POINTS OF VIEW > low/ high/ canted angles, deadpan approach, light and shadows, intensity of colour, reflections in shop windows, shoot through glass, frame within a frame, focusing and un-focusing, up-close and details, shallow depth of field, artful and funny juxtapositions, geometry and space, lines and form, textures and patterns, signs and shop windows, advertising and graphics, reflections and mirrors.
APPROACH > capturing decisive moments, candid portraits, informal snapshots, inobtrusive observations (Cartier-Bresson style), interactive and confrontational (William Klein approach), spontaneous and subconscious reactions, poetic possibilities, inquisitive mind and roaming eye, looking and prying, shoot from the hip, serendipity and good luck.
CAMERA HANDLING >Lenses (focal length): use wide (18-35mm) to standard lenses (50mm). Focusing: automatic or manual – whatever you prefer. Exposure mode: S or T mode – (shutter-speed priority). Shutter-speeds: experiment with fast (1/125-1/500) and slow shutter-speeds (1/15-1/60). ISO: 100 (sunny weather), 200-400 (overcast ), 800-3200 ISO (inside or evening/ night). White Balance: auto
For further inspiration see the work of historical and contemporary street photographers below. Or, for a comprehensive Powerpoint presentation with many examples of street photographers, styles and approaches – go to folder here:
WEEK 3: 19 – 25 June AI workshop with Will Lakeman
Mon 19 June: WORKSHOP > Group Yr 12B (2 hours Pd 4 + Pd 5) Tue 20 June: WORKSHOP > Group Yr 12A (2 hours Pd 4 + Pd 5) Workshops led by Will Lakeman on use of AI and ethics in generating images and digital content using software, such as Photoshop AI and DreamStudio.
Wed-Fri: EXPERIMENTING > Using your images from St Malo as inspiration produce a variety of AI generated images (at least 10 variants) using Photoshop AI, DreamStudio or Midjourney. Explore your experiences in St Malo and generate AI images inspired by street photography and Cartier-Bresson’s theory around the decisive moment. Either ‘train’ AI on your original images or recreate street photographs using relevant text prompts linked to your photo-assignment last week – see above. Use key terminology, such as specific words and phrases linked to subject matter, capturing moment, locations & places, points of view, approaches, composition and formal analysis, camera handling and techniques.
Show creative process using a combination of screen grabs and annotation > 1 blog post
AI Image generating software: DreamStudio, Midjourney, DALL-E 2, Dream by Wombo, Craiyon and new version of Photoshop with AI
Photoshop AI (beta version)
Introduction from Adobe to Photoshop AI: Nearly three and a half decades since we first brought Photoshop to the world, we’re writing a new chapter in our history with the integration of Generative AI and Adobe Firefly into Photoshop. Today we deliver an incredible new capability into creators’ hands that empowers them to work at the speed of their imagination while fundamentally transforming the experience into something more natural, intuitive and powerful.
Generative Fill – Adobe Photoshop Quickly create, add to, remove or replace images right in Adobe Photoshop with simple text prompts powered by Adobe Firefly generative AI.
Learn the basics of Generative Fill that is now integrated into the Beta version of Adobe Photoshop. This technology allows you to write simple text prompts to enhance your own images directly in Photoshop.
What’s new in Photoshop
The new features introduced to Photoshop are designed to accelerate everyday creative workflows, streamline complex tasks, and reduce clicks.
Adjustment Presets
Adjustment Presets are filters that speed up complex tasks by enabling you to preview and change the appearance of images in just a few steps to achieve a distinctive look and feel, instantly.
There are 32 new presets in the Adjustments panel that you can hover over to see what your image would look like with each preset applied before selecting it. Once a preset is selected, it can be further refined by editing the automatically created adjustment layers in the layers panel.
The Remove Tool is an AI-powered feature that enables you to replace an unwanted object by simply brushing over it, preserving the integrity of nearby objects and providing an uninterrupted transition on complex and varied backgrounds.
The Remove Tool is particularly powerful when removing larger objects and matching the smooth focus shift across the image. For example, the tool can remove an entire building or car from an alpine landscape image while seamlessly maintaining the fidelity of the progression from meadow to mountains.
Use the Remove tool for:
Big objects
An object near other objects
An object on a varied-focus background
An object with structure behind it (think lines, like a fence or horizon)
The Contextual Task Bar is an on-screen menu that recommends the most relevant next steps in several key workflows, reducing the number of clicks required to complete a project, and making the most common actions more easily accessible.
For example, when an object is selected, the Contextual Task Bar appears below your selection and suggests actions for selection refinement that you might want to use next, such as Select and Mask, Feather, Invert, Create Adjustment Layer, Fill Selection, or generate something with the new Generative Fill capabilities.
The revolutionary and magical new suite of AI-powered capabilities grounded in your innate creativity, enabling you to add, extend, or remove content from your images non-destructively using simple text prompts. You can achieve realistic results that will surprise, delight, and astound you in seconds.
Click here for a tutorial on how to use Generative Fill
Neural Filter
Neural Filters is a new workspace in Photoshop with a library of filters that dramatically reduces difficult workflows to just a few clicks using machine learning powered by Adobe Sensei. Neural Filters is a tool that empowers you to try non-destructive, generative filters and explore creative ideas in seconds. Neural Filters helps you improve your images by generating new contextual pixels that are not actually present in your original image.
Click here for a tutorial on how to use Generative Fill
Gradients update
The Gradients feature has been significantly improved, and the workflow has been expedited.
The feature enables you to create gradients in just a few steps and now includes new on-canvas controls which help you have precise controls over many aspects of the gradient in real-time. A live preview that’s created automatically shows you instantly how the changes you make affect your image.
You can now also make non-destructive edits to your gradients, which means you can go back and make changes to your gradient without permanently altering your original image.
A general tip from Will Lakeman on Photoshop is just to get familiar with Layers, Selections, Masking, and Groups. Almost every complex task just involves being better at these and most problems proceed from small misunderstandings in them. There are free videos explaining any of these, for people who want targeted learning there is a short video on every tool available on Phlearn. The site will try and get you to pay for Premium Content, but there’s loads of free stuff.
For example, these are all free/quick, the presenter is great, and most contain free sample files to practice on.You can teach yourself a good standard of Photoshop just by following along. Click here for tutorials.
DreamStudio
Tutorial as we explore the amazing capabilities of DreamStudio, from creating realistic portraits to coming up with prompts and structuring your work for maximum impact,
Follow more advanced tutorial hereExplore AI artist: Rune S Nielsen site here
Some experiments with realistic portraits. Image credits: created with Midjourney V5 by CineDScreenshot from the Midjourney Bot on Discord, highlighting the correct use of the “v 5” parameterThe result of requesting an image in the style of Vincent van Gogh. Image credit: created with Midjourney V5 by CineDOn the left: the old output from V4. On the right: the result of the same prompt in the new V5. Image credits: created with Midjourney by CineDAn example of a picture generated in Cinemascope by adding “–ar 21:9” to the prompt. Image credit: created with Midjourney V5 by CineD
DALL-E and DALL-E 2 are deep learning models developed by OpenAI to generate digital images from natural language descriptions, called “prompts”. DALL-E was revealed by OpenAI in a blog post in January 2021, and uses a version of GPT-3 modified to generate images. In April 2022, OpenAI announced DALL-E 2, a successor designed to generate more realistic images at higher resolutions that “can combine concepts, attributes, and styles”.
For inspiration and ideas – see RESOURCES below of artists using AI
Nostalgia and AI
Deep Nostalgia, a new service from the genealogy site MyHeritage that animates old family photos, has gone viral on social media, in another example of how AI-based image manipulation is becoming increasingly mainstream. Read a review here and another article by Gadgetflow
Further Inspirations > Experimentation > Development
planet.ai. Artwork created by artificial intelligence. Subscribe here on Youtube to see examples of work or follow here on Instagram. They also sell prompts for Midjourney – see here for more details.
Planet AI: Asking AI to Draw Famous People as Babies!
AI generated pictures of Coronation after party. Check out Charles!!!
Phillip Toledano believes that a photograph should be like an unfinished sentence. Born in London, he lives and works in New York City, where after a decade as an advertising art director, he returned to his true passion, photography. Below are some recent images he has created using Midjourney that were shared in Instagram.
mrtoledano Political art usually works in two ways -either it points outwards, to support and encourage people to rise up, or it points inwards, at a political figure, to ridicule, to weaken, to enrage-that’s that’s hopefully the point of this particular series. Two of trumps (many) characteristics are his misogyny and his obsession with projecting strength -these images make him become his fears
If you look at images of trump, you begin to notice just how many emotions he seems to be missing-there’s plenty of him looking angry, or petulant, or stern, and then there’s what passes for a smile. But real laughter? sadness? Concern ? Joy? Completely and strangely absent – the only option is to create them with ai. Midjourney
Trump is so hyper masculine, so extraordinarily misogynistic, it made me wonder. This is an exploration of what might be his deepest fear-to become what he despises the most
One of the things I find utterly fascinating about Donald Trump is the carefully curated tough guy image he’s crafted over the years -there’s something interesting in piercing that hyper -masculine bubble and showing the world the softer side of Donald
mrtoledano For the final act of the trump series, let’s think about who donald trump would be if he didn’t have his fathers money. If he hadn’t had a gilded life of privilege handed to him. What if he was just Donny from queens ? What would his life look like? What would he be doing ?
Philip Toledano: I’ve noticed a lot of work uses ai to recreate photography as it is now-some sort of reflection of reality -but what’s utterly intriguing is that AI has its own voice. For instance, this image of the two men fighting I would argue is much more interesting than the one I posted yesterday (can you see what’s different ?) because (metaphorically) I allowed ai to have a say -now this image asks more questions (which is ALWAYS a good thing in art)
I’m also surprised to see how it handles the animal images I’ve been doing -especially the monkeys and apes-the images have such emotion in them -and finally, I’m very much enjoying the way in which you can abstract the human form …
From his series, another America …
Photos courtesy of the latest version of Midjourney, an AI program which generates realistic deepfakes – Copyright Reddit – Twitter. Read article here
AI-created images of Donald Trump, shared by @EliotHiggins’s account. – Twitter – Midjourney
AI-created images of Donald Trump, shared by @EliotHiggins’s account. – Twitter – Midjourney
David Fathi: False image generated by photographer David Fathi via Midjourney showing Emmanuel Macron in contact with police officers. Credit: David Fathi / Midjourney
The Machine Seems to need a Ghost (but the ghost cannot quite make itself at home in the machine) is a work in progress currently composed of three typologies that explore all these questions around the keywords of feedback loop, hauntology, meta, etc., as a neural network of linked ideas and images:
OpenWalls Arles Vol. 4: TRUTH
The prompt for this year’s theme was French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue’s line that photography is “catching a moment which is passing, and which is true.” The aim of OpenWalls 2023 is to challenge Lartigue’s notion in a modern context – to not only interrogate the idea of truth in a post-truth age, but to insist upon photographic authority as collaborative, considering multiple truths from across the six continents from which the winning images are taken.
Emmaline Zanelli. OpenWalls Arles Single image winner
My goal is not to uncover a single objective truth, but rather to explore the many subjective layers of a truth that are personal and relevant to the persons I am photographing
– Julia Gunther – OpenWalls Arles Single Image Winner
Guillaume FlandrePart of the ProblemHeather Agyepong,Too Many Blackamoors (#4)Jesse Glazzard First BathJulia Gunther, OpenWalls Arles 2023 Single Image Winner – Eunice
Ultimately, the winning image of this edition of OpenWalls projects demonstrate that truth can be wielded to empower an endless range of human impulses, whether preservation, rebellion, remembrance or imagination. Truth’s flexibility might be the most valuable legacy of the supposedly post-truth age.
WEEK 4: 26 June – 2 July ESSAY: Photography and Truth: Can a photograph lie? DEADLINE: Mon 10 July
Can a photograph lie?
Robert Capa, Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936
Are all photographs reliable?
Joe Rosenthal, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945
A photograph is a certain delivery of facts?
Jeff Wall, Mimic, 1982
Claims of truth that most people take for granted?
Tom Hunter, Woman Reading a Possession Order, 1997, after Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window, 1647-49
You often hear a photographer saying: ‘the camera was there and recorded what I saw’.
A common phrase is to ‘shed light on a situation’ meaning to find out the truth.
‘A picture tells a 1000 words‘, is another aphorism that imply images are more reliable.
Picasso famously said: ‘We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth.’
Magritte’s painting La Trahison des Images in which he painted a picture of a pipe with the words ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ (This is not a pipe) goes some way towards an explanation.
Documentary photography’s central moral associations are:
depicting truth
recording life as it is
camera as a witness.
The photograph as evidence
Since its ‘invention’ in the 1830s, photographs have been used as sources of evidence. The direct (indexical) relationship between the sun’s rays and the resulting image makes photographs seem reliable as sources of information. No wonder that photography was enthusiastically embraced by organisations like the police who began to use photographs as sources of legal proof. And yet, from the beginning, artists working with photography began to create images which relied on the manipulation of their photographs using techniques like combination printing, undermining their evidential status. Photographs are very persuasive since they look so much like the things photographed. As Susan Sontag has pointed out, when we hear about something happening but doubt its occurrence, we tend to believe it to be true when shown a photograph of it. However, she also describes the way that photographs are peculiar in the type of evidence they provide:
The photographer was thought to be an acute but non-interfering observer – a scribe, not a poet. But as people quickly discovered that nobody takes the same picture of the same thing, the supposition that cameras furnish an impersonal, objective image yielded to the fact that photographs are evidence not only of what’s there but of what an individual sees, not just a record but an evaluation of the world. It became clear that there was not just a simple activity called seeing (recorded by, aided by cameras) but ‘photographic seeing’, which was both a new way for people to see and a new activity for them to perform. – Susan Sontag from On Photography
Some initial questions:
What can photographs be evidence of?
How many types of photographic evidence can you list?
Which of your official documents include a photograph of you?
Why are photographs considered, in some legal circumstances, to be a reliable source of evidence?
How reliable is your Instagram feed or family photo album as a record of your life?
The exhibition featured a wide range of photographs from fields such as medicine, conflict, engineering, astronomy and crime. Originally used as evidence of something, torn from their original context and hung on a gallery wall, the photographs could be appreciated for their aesthetic qualities and artistry.
This was further emphasised by the exhibition hang which drew attention to the formal similarities between some of the photographs:
A limited edition of 200 catalogues were produced to mark the show, again conferring on the photographs the status of art object:
Part of the fascination with all photography is that the medium is firmly grounded in the documentary tradition. It has been used as a record of crime scenes, zoological specimens, lunar and space exploration, phrenology, fashion and importantly, art and science. It has been used as ‘proof’ of simple things such as family holidays and equally of atrocities taking place on the global stage. Any contemporary artist using photography has to accept the evidential language embedded in the medium. — Michael Hoppen Gallery website
Do you know what London really looks like? Take our quiz and see if AI can fool you
After an image of the Pope fooled the internet, test yourself and see if you’re still one step ahead of artificial intelligence. Click here
TASKS: Produce a number of blog posts that show evidence of the following
Mon-Tue: ESSAY > Write a 1000-1500 word comparative essay on photography’s association with truth using both historical and contemporary images as examples.
The essay question (hypothesis), Photography and Truth: Can a photography lie? is designed to explore the idea of photographs as forms of evidence. Of course this is relevant to all photographs. To what extent can any photograph be relied upon to tell us the truth? With new technology, such as generative AI that produce content from images and texts that already exist on the internet, it also raises questions about originality, appropriation and authorship. These issues are central to contemporary artistic and photographic practice and students should be alert to them. Is the photographer always the one who presses the shutter? Does it matter?
DEADLINE: MON 10 July
Follow these instructions:
Select two images that have manipulated truth, one historical using camera technology, one contemporary using AI technology as examples to use in your essay
Research history, theory and context of both images thoroughly and make notes.
Read several sources (both online and on paper) to acquire sufficient knowledge and understanding
Provide a critical perspective by referencing different points of view from sources.
Select at least 2 quotes per image from sources you have read that is relevant to your essay question.
Use Harvard System of Referencing and provide a bibliography
Use key terminology specific to art and photography from the matrix/ sheet below.
Essay plan – use as a guideline
Hypothesis:Photography and Truth: Can a photograph lie?
Opening quote: to set the scene choose an appropriate quote from key texts or source that you have read and understood. Or select something Will Lakeman said in class discussion around ethics using AI in photography.
Introduction (250 words): Describe how photography from its invention as a new technology in 1839 was viewed as a threat to traditional artforms such as painting and drawing. Provide an overview of why photography (like all other art forms) is an illusion and a representation of reality (reflect on your essay earlier on the Origin of Photography). Explain what AI is as a new technology, and how it is already part of lives, give examples (Google, speech recognition, generative AI etc). Discuss both human and societal benefits and potential dangers of AI, again use examples such as Geoffrey Linton resigning from Google to bring awareness, or Sam Altman’s (CEO of OpenAI) being questioned by USA congress. Select one quote by either Linton or Altman and comment (either for or against). Introduce the two images that you have chosen as examples of the above.
Paragraph 1 (250-500 words): Describe how photography in the past (before the digital age) could be manipulated, both in-camera and in the darkroom (eg. reflect on Pictorialism’s use of chemicals and scratching surfaces in distorting images and earlier masking/ collaging technique sin the darkroom.) Provide an example of an image (see case studies below) from history of photography where the truth was distorted. Describe circumstances, context, different points of view and new discoveries or theories around the origin or meaning of your chosen image. Use either direct quote, paraphrasing or summary from sources and comment (for or against). Make sure you provide your own interpretation of the image too.
Paragraph 2 (250 -500 words): Describe how photography now since the digital age has been altering the truth from faking images in-camera to using image manipulation software, such as Photoshop. Provide an example of an image (see case studies below) produced using artificial intelligence that looks ‘real’, but are in fact a digital construct. Provide analysis of how generative AI such as DreamStudio, Midjourney or DALL E 2 has increased our ability to create new images that has no relationship with either photography or the truth. Use same formula as above and use either direct quote, paraphrasing or summary from sources and comment (for or against). Make sure you provide your own interpretation of the image too.
Conclusion (250 words): Refer back to the essay question and write a conclusion where you summarise in your own words both similarities and differences between your two image examples. For example, compare and contrast how historical images in the past and digital images made today, using new technology such as AI, have altered reality and distorted truth. Conclude with a statement on how you envisage the future of photography and AI image-making might change our perception of reality, and attitude towards truth.
Bibliography: List all the sources that you have identified in alphabetical order. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources e.g. websites/online sources, Youtube/ DVD/TV.
Quotes and referencing: You MUST reference some of the sources that you have used either by incorporating direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, or historical fact.
Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.
CASE STUDIES
Explore case studies where images have ‘lied’ and truth has been manipulated, distorted, staged or altered. Choose two images – one historical and one contemporary – for your essay from case studies listed below that questions the notion of truth regarding the photographic image and its relationship with reality and explain why.
Case Study 1: Roger Fenton, Valley of the Shadow of Death, April 23, 1855
Case Study 2: Robert Capa, Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936
Vu magazine, Sept. 23, 1936. Robert Capa’s Spanish Civil War coverage with the “Falling Soldier” photograph
Case Study 3: Joe Rosenthal, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945
Joe Rosenthal’s original caption: “Atop 550-foot Suribachi Yama, the volcano at the southwest tip of Iwo Jima, Marines of the Second Battalion, 28th Regiment, Fifth Division, hoist the Stars and Stripes, signalling the capture of this key position.”
Case Study 4: Steve McCurry, Taj Mahal and train in Agra, 1983.
The images of renowned photographer Steve McCurry, who made the famous and iconic image of an Afghan girl for a front cover of National Geography has recently been criticized for making ‘too perfect pictures’ which not only are boring but reinforces a particular idea or stereotype of the exotic other.
Read this article by Teju Cole in the New York Times Magazine which compares McCurry’s representation of India with a native photographer, Raghubir Singh who worked from the late ’60s until his untimely death in 1999, traveling all over India to create a series of powerful books about his homeland.
Read this artcicle on Petapixel in In defense of Steve McCurry’s images
What is your view? Back it up with references to articles read and include quotes for or against.
Reference to Coldplay’s new video also highlight the idea of cultural appropriation that harks back to Britain’s colonial rule and exploitation of the Orient.
Case Study 5 > Jeff Wall, Approach, 2014.
Jeff Wall is a Canadian artists known for his large scale tableaux image presented in light-boxes. Today, most of his images resemble reportage and, as such, are likely to incense his detractors, who claim he’s not a “true” photographer. His most contentious new work, called Approach, shows a homeless woman standing by a makeshift cardboard shelter in which we spy the foot of what could be a sleeping vagrant. Wall tells me it was shot under an actual freeway where the homeless congregate and that “it took a month to make, working hands-on” – but he won’t divulge just how staged it is. Is this an actual homeless woman, or an actor? Is the shelter real, or was it built by Wall’s team of assistants to resemble one?
Re-creating images from memory is crucial to Wall’s practice – perhaps because it flies in the face of the tradition of photography as an act of instant witnessing.
“Something lingers in me until I have to remake it from memory to capture why it fascinates me,” he says. “Not photographing gives me imaginative freedom that is crucial to the making of art. That, in fact, is what art is about – the freedom to do what we want.”
In terms of truth or communicating an idea that make references to a real social problem such as homelessness, does it matter if the image is staged or not? Where does authenticity come into the picture?
Jeff Wall exhibition with his trademark images presented in lightboxes.
Case Study 6 > Boris Eldagsen. The Electrician, from the series PSEUDOMNESIA, 2022. Credit: Boris Eldagsen/Co-created with DALLE2/Courtesy of Photo Edition Berlin.
AI-generated image wins photography award, but artist turns it down
Artist wins photo award with AI generated image, sparking debate | DW News
Berlin-based photographer Boris Eldagsen rejected the recognition from Sony World Photography Awards, saying that artificial intelligence (AI) images and photography should not compete with each other in similar contests. In a statement published on his website, Erdagsen said that he applied to the competition “as a cheeky monkey” to find out if such events are prepared to handle AI-generated content. The photographer also urged for debate on the role of AI in photography. “We, the photo world, need an open discussion. A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not,” wrote Eldagsen.
Read Boris Eldgasen’s own comments om his website here, where you will also find hyperlinks to many articles and interviews given about the image and his refusal to accept the Sony World Photography Awards 2023.
Boris Eldagsen has accused the Sony World Photograph Awards of failing to distinguish between a photograph and a DALL-E 2-created image, while the organisers condemn a ‘deliberate attempt at misleading us’
The German artist caused uproar this week when he revealed the shot that won a prestigious award wasn’t what it seemed. But, he insists, AI isn’t about sidelining humans – it’s about liberating artists
Boris Eldagsen submitted an artificial-intelligence-generated image to a photography contest as a “cheeky monkey” and sparked a debate about AI’s place in the art world
Artificial-intelligence-powered image-generating systems are making fake photographs so hard to detect that we need AI to catch them.
Case Study 7: David Fathi> False image generated by AI using Midjourney showing Emmanuel Macron in contact with police officers and taking to the streets to protest against the retirement age reform in France.
‘Generative artificial intelligence and machine learning are rapidly advancing. Anyone can use image generation tools to create without needing specific technical or artistic skills. The images generated by these tools challenge the notions of work and creator, as if they were algorithmic ready-mades. Like Marcel Duchamp’s urinal, bottle rack or snow shovel, they are products of mechanization and automation (industrial for Duchamp, digital for these new creations) and displayed in an art gallery. The artist does not have to paint, photograph or sculpt; his choices and decisions shape the work. The algorithm draws from a huge database of images that mirror our world without replicating it accurately. The generated images look more and more realistic and close to reality but also act as a distorting mirror, exaggerating all the stereotypes and biases of our visual culture.
We are at a turning point where human production has not yet been contaminated by artificial production. However this will soon change as the tools themselves use their own creations as input. Gradually the feedback loop, an endless cycle where culture ceaselessly refers to itself, will come to dominate the database, risking getting stuck in nostalgia for the past and trapped in a closed , meta-stable, system. Duchamp’s ghost still haunts us, an unavoidable reference in the history of contemporary art, often quoted, copied or parodied by generations of artists that followed. He became an art cliché despite himself. Duchamp himself described his own art as “meta-irony” to describe his art – a form of critical distance holding its own questioning.
Artificial intelligence raises ethical, artistic and social questions that are only an acceleration of the same questions that have followed the inventions of printing, photography, computer or the internet. The growing automation only makes it harder to escape our current system and the “meta” has become a refuge. This constant self-reference, reflexivity, circularity of our art, our technologies, our culture is becoming a trap where the past’s ghosts still haunt our present thinking.’
Case Study 8: Philip Toledano > Trump as a poor man
Philip Toledano: (mrtoledano) For the final act of the trump series, let’s think about who donald trump would be if he didn’t have his fathers money. If he hadn’t had a gilded life of privilege handed to him. What if he was just Donny from Queens ? What would his life look like? What would he be doing ?
Philip Toledano: I’ve noticed a lot of work uses ai to recreate photography as it is now-some sort of reflection of reality -but what’s utterly intriguing is that AI has its own voice. For instance, this image of the two men fighting I would argue is much more interesting than the one I posted yesterday (can you see what’s different ?) because (metaphorically) I allowed ai to have a say -now this image asks more questions (which is ALWAYS a good thing in art)
READING > REFERENCES > SOURCES
Below are some background text on some of the topics of discussion, such as truth, ethics, realism, representation and genres of documentary photography and staged photography (tableaux). Reading a couple of these texts would provide you with the background knowledge and understanding that is required for you write a critical essay on the topic around photography and truth. It is your own responsibility to research relevant information and context around the two images that you have chosen from case studies above.
Documentary > Truth > Realism > Ethics > Representation
Artificial Intelligence > Ethics > Regulation > Media – current debates
In March, some prominent figures in tech signed a letter calling for artificial intelligence labs to stop the training of the most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.” The letter, published by the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit backed by Elon Musk, came just two weeks after OpenAI announced GPT-4, an even more powerful version of the technology that powers ChatGPT. In early tests and a company demo, GPT-4 was used to draft lawsuits, pass standardized exams and build a working website from a hand-drawn sketch.
Lets watch this interview on CNN with Dr Geoffrey Hinton who says ‘AI could kill humans and there might be no way of stopping it.’. The man often touted as the godfather of AI quit Google, citing concerns over the flood of misinformation, the possibility for AI to upend the job market, and the “existential risk” posed by the creation of a true digital intelligence. For more context read articles in The Guardian and NYT (New York Times) too
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
AI Principles
The Asilomar AI Principles, coordinated by The Future of Life Institute (FLI) and developed at the Beneficial AI 2017 conference, are one of the earliest and most influential sets of AI governance principles. Read all principles listed, especially those linked with Ethics and Values.
The University of Florida hosted a panel on ethics in artificial intelligence on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, with faculty members exploring the important role of ethics as scientists race toward increasingly sophisticated AI technologies. UF faculty members Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Duncan Purves, Tina Tallon and Sanethia Thomas participated in the online panel, which explored various topics related to the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, including algorithmic bias, ChatGPT and the social impact of AI on different communities.
Josh Kline on the unfolding disasters of climate change and AI
Artforum editor in chief David Velasco visits Josh Kline at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art to discuss “Project for a New American Century,” his first institutional survey in the US. Kline, whose work graces the cover of the April issue, reflects on his world-building art, the unfolding disasters of climate change and AI, and why he still sees the future as a place of hope. In the April issue: Colby Colby Chamberlain on the art of Josh Kline.
This week you have some time to catch up with work not completed, such as:
Editing images from St Malo, select your best 10-12 shots and evaluate > 1 blog post
Produce a set 10 AI generated images / variations using text prompts > 1 blog post with annotation
Compare camera-based images with AI generated images > 1 blog post
Inspirations: Case Study 2 on artist(s) using AI as part of their image-making process > 1 blog post
Review, improve or complete any outstanding research, analytical/ contextual blog posts on Henri Cartier-Bresson and the decisive moment > 1 blog post
Complete essay > deadline Mon 10 July
If all above is completed, begin research task below collecting a variety of picture-stories as inspiration for your page-spread design.
WEEK 6 – 7:10 – 21 July Picture story: design a page spread
Make A3 page spreads based on images made in-camera (analogue/ observational) and/or AI generated images (digital/ constructed). Follow the steps below:
1. Research Picture-Stories: Produce a mood board of newspaper layouts and magazine style picture stories. For reference use look at local stories from the JEP as well as international stories from magazine supplements in UK broadsheets newspaper ( e.g. The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Telegraphs, Financial Times etc). Look at also at digital picture stories from the internet (see photo-agency websites: Lensculture, Magnum Photos, World Press Photo, AgenceVU, Panos Pictures. Alec Soth’s LBM Dispatch
Find picture-stories here in this folder: M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\NOSTALGIA\Picture-stories
2. Analysis and deconstruction: Look at the layout of pictures and analyse how individual pictures relate and tell a story according to the construction of a traditional picture-story. Identify what types of pictures are more important than others e.g. which are major (establishing shots) or minor pictures (detail, relationship shot), and which types of portraits are used (formal, informal, environmental and person at work) see Powerpoint: A Traditional Picture Story below for further guidance. Analyse also the use of headline, text and captions to convey and construct a particular meaning or point of view.
3. Headline, text, captions: Think of a creative title and write a selection of headlines that tell your story. Write also an introduction/ abstract that provide further context for your pictures story. Also write captions for each picture: who, what, where, when and put into a new post
4. A3 Page-Spread Designs: Produce at least two different designs/ picture-stories from your photographs. Class tutorial on page design using InDesign. Be creative in your layout and experiment with different ways to communicate your message by clever cropping, sequencing, juxta-positioning, typography, use of graphics etc. Think of catchy headline and also write a short text (50-100 words) and captions for images. Start with a rough sketch of how the page might work and begin to lay out pictures, major and minors.
a) Design a traditional newspaper layout b) Design a magazine double-page spread
5. Experimentation: Edit your final layout and designs – make sure you show experimentation in your blog of different design and layout ideas combining images, graphics and typography in a personal and creative manner. Produce at least 3 versions of each design
6. Evaluation: Reflect on your final design ideas and explain in some detail how well you realised your intentions and reflect on what you learned/ What could you improve? How?
7. Presentation: Print, mount and present final designs and any other final outcomes, such your best 3-5 images and present as final print.
History of artificial intelligence: Key dates and names
The idea of ‘a machine that thinks’ dates back to ancient Greece. But since the advent of electronic computing (and relative to some of the topics discussed in this article) important events and milestones in the evolution of artificial intelligence include the following:
1950: Alan Turing publishes Computing Machinery and Intelligence. In the paper, Turing—famous for breaking the Nazi’s ENIGMA code during WWII—proposes to answer the question ‘can machines think?’ and introduces the Turing Test to determine if a computer can demonstrate the same intelligence (or the results of the same intelligence) as a human. The value of the Turing test has been debated ever since.
1956: John McCarthy coins the term ‘artificial intelligence’ at the first-ever AI conference at Dartmouth College. (McCarthy would go on to invent the Lisp language.) Later that year, Allen Newell, J.C. Shaw, and Herbert Simon create the Logic Theorist, the first-ever running AI software program.
1967: Frank Rosenblatt builds the Mark 1 Perceptron, the first computer based on a neural network that ‘learned’ though trial and error. Just a year later, Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert publish a book titled Perceptrons, which becomes both the landmark work on neural networks and, at least for a while, an argument against future neural network research projects.
1980s: Neural networks which use a backpropagation algorithm to train itself become widely used in AI applications.
1997: IBM’s Deep Blue beats then world chess champion Garry Kasparov, in a chess match (and rematch).
2011: IBM Watson beats champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter at Jeopardy!
2015: Baidu’s Minwa supercomputer uses a special kind of deep neural network called a convolutional neural network to identify and categorize images with a higher rate of accuracy than the average human.
2016: DeepMind’s AlphaGo program, powered by a deep neural network, beats Lee Sodol, the world champion Go player, in a five-game match. The victory is significant given the huge number of possible moves as the game progresses (over 14.5 trillion after just four moves!). Later, Google purchased DeepMind for a reported USD 400 million.
2023: A rise in large language models, or LLMs, such as ChatGPT, and image-generating software, such as DALL-E2 and Midjourney create an enormous change in performance of AI and its potential to drive enterprise value. With these new generative AI practices, deep-learning models can be pre-trained on vast amounts of raw, unlabeled data.
Types of artificial intelligence—weak AI vs. strong AI
More information about AI can be found here on IBM
Weak AI—also called Narrow AI or Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)—is AI trained and focused to perform specific tasks. Weak AI drives most of the AI that surrounds us today. ‘Narrow’ might be a more accurate descriptor for this type of AI as it is anything but weak; it enables some very robust applications, such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, IBM Watson, and autonomous vehicles.
Strong AI is made up of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). Artificial general intelligence (AGI), or general AI, is a theoretical form of AI where a machine would have an intelligence equaled to humans; it would have a self-aware consciousness that has the ability to solve problems, learn, and plan for the future. Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)—also known as superintelligence—would surpass the intelligence and ability of the human brain. While strong AI is still entirely theoretical with no practical examples in use today, that doesn’t mean AI researchers aren’t also exploring its development. In the meantime, the best examples of ASI might be from science fiction, such as HAL, the superhuman, rogue computer assistant in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Deep learning vs. machine learning
Since deep learning and machine learning tend to be used interchangeably, it’s worth noting the nuances between the two. As mentioned above, both deep learning and machine learning are sub-fields of artificial intelligence, and deep learning is actually a sub-field of machine learning.
Deep learning is actually comprised of neural networks. “Deep” in deep learning refers to a neural network comprised of more than three layers—which would be inclusive of the inputs and the output—can be considered a deep learning algorithm. This is generally represented using the diagram below.
The way in which deep learning and machine learning differ is in how each algorithm learns. Deep learning automates much of the feature extraction piece of the process, eliminating some of the manual human intervention required and enabling the use of larger data sets. You can think of deep learning as “scalable machine learning” as Lex Fridman noted in same MIT lecture from above. Classical, or “non-deep”, machine learning is more dependent on human intervention to learn. Human experts determine the hierarchy of features to understand the differences between data inputs, usually requiring more structured data to learn.
“Deep” machine learning can leverage labeled datasets, also known as supervised learning, to inform its algorithm, but it doesn’t necessarily require a labeled dataset. It can ingest unstructured data in its raw form (e.g. text, images), and it can automatically determine the hierarchy of features which distinguish different categories of data from one another. Unlike machine learning, it doesn’t require human intervention to process data, allowing us to scale machine learning in more interesting ways.
There are numerous, real-world applications of AI systems today. Below are some of the most common use cases:
Speech recognition: It is also known as automatic speech recognition (ASR), computer speech recognition, or speech-to-text, and it is a capability which uses natural language processing (NLP) to process human speech into a written format. Many mobile devices incorporate speech recognition into their systems to conduct voice search—e.g. Siri—or provide more accessibility around texting.
Customer service: Online virtual agents are replacing human agents along the customer journey. They answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) around topics, like shipping, or provide personalized advice, cross-selling products or suggesting sizes for users, changing the way we think about customer engagement across websites and social media platforms. Examples include messaging bots on e-commerce sites with virtual agents, messaging apps, such as Slack and Facebook Messenger, and tasks usually done by virtual assistants and voice assistants.
Computer vision: This AI technology enables computers and systems to derive meaningful information from digital images, videos and other visual inputs, and based on those inputs, it can take action. This ability to provide recommendations distinguishes it from image recognition tasks. Powered by convolutional neural networks, computer vision has applications within photo tagging in social media, radiology imaging in healthcare, and self-driving cars within the automotive industry.
Recommendation engines: Using past consumption behavior data, AI algorithms can help to discover data trends that can be used to develop more effective cross-selling strategies. This is used to make relevant add-on recommendations to customers during the checkout process for online retailers.
Automated stock trading: Designed to optimize stock portfolios, AI-driven high-frequency trading platforms make thousands or even millions of trades per day without human intervention.
The rise of generative AI models
Generative AI refers to deep-learning models that can take raw data — say, all of Wikipedia or the collected works of Rembrandt — and “learn” to generate statistically probable outputs when prompted. At a high level, generative models encode a simplified representation of their training data and draw from it to create a new work that’s similar, but not identical, to the original data.
Generative models have been used for years in statistics to analyze numerical data. The rise of deep learning, however, made it possible to extend them to images, speech, and other complex data types. Early examples of models, like GPT-3, BERT, or DALL-E 2, have shown what’s possible. The future is models that are trained on a broad set of unlabelled data that can be used for different tasks, with minimal fine-tuning. Systems that execute specific tasks in a single domain are giving way to broad AI that learns more generally and works across domains and problems. Foundation models, trained on large, unlabelled datasets and fine-tuned for an array of applications, are driving this shift.
WEEK 2:STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – further inspirations ‘THE DECISIVE MOMENT’
Today with the growth of social media and online content street photography is having a renaissance. Explore the work of contemporary street photographers listed below or go to online street photography collective, In-Public, Christophe Agou, Arif Asci, Niels Jorgensen, Peter Funch, Polly Braden, Maciej Dakowicz (Cardiff at Night), George Georgiou, Bruce Gilden, Martin Parr, Joel Meyerowitz, Raghu Rai, Michael Wolf, Thierry Girard, Sigfried Hansen. Richard Kalvar, Osuma Kanemura. Martin Kollar, Jens Olof Lasthein, Frederic Lezmi, Jesse Marlow, Gus Powell,, Ying Tang, Mimi Mollica, Trent Parke, Mark Alor Powell, Bruno Quinquet (Salaryman), Paul Russell, Matt Stuart, Alexey Titarenko, Nick Turpin, Alex Webb, Amani Willett, Wolfgang Zurborn.
Thurs-Fri: DEVELOPING > Edit images in Lightroom and produce blogpost with selection of best images and evaluation. – Edit images in Lightroom showing selection of best images and write an evaluation > 1 blog post
EXTRA: History of Street Photography and concept of the ‘flaneur’. Guy Debord and psycho-geography.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), a French photographer who is considered to be one of the fathers of photojournalism and masters of candid photography. He sought to capture the ‘everyday’ in his photographs and took great interest in recording human activity. He wrote,
“For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning’ to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.”
As a reporter and co-founder of the Magnum photography agency, Cartier-Bresson accepted his responsibility to supply information to a world in a hurry. He documented the liberation of Paris, the collapse of the Nationalist regime in China, Gandhi’s funeral and the partitioning of Berlin. Cartier-Bresson helped develop the street photography style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed. He was influenced by Surrealism and began his career in film working with renowned French director, Jean Renoir as second assistant director to films such as La vie est à nous (1936) and Une partie de campagne (1936), and La Règle du Jeu (1939 – considered one of the most influential films in 20th century.
The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression… In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotif.
The Decisive Moment, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s influential publication, is widely considered to be one of the most important photobooks of the twentieth century. Pioneering for its emphasis on the photograph itself as a unique narrative form, The Decisive Moment was described by Robert Capa as “a Bible for photographers.” Originally titled Images à la Sauvette (“images on the run”) in the French, the book was published in English with a new title, The Decisive Moment, which unintentionally imposed the motto which would define Cartier-Bresson’s work. The exhibition details how the decisions made by the collaborators in this major project—including Cartier-Bresson, French art publisher Tériade, American publisher Simon & Schuster, and Henri Matisse, who designed the book’s cover—have shaped our understanding of Cartier-Bresson’s photographs.
If a photograph is to communicate its subject in all its intensity, the relationship of form must be rigorously established. Photography implies the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things. What the eye does is to find and focus on the particular subject within the mass of reality… In a photograph, composition is the result of a simultaneous coalition, the organic coordination of elements seen by the eye. One does not add composition as though it were an afterthought superimposed on the basic subject material, since it is impossible to separate content from form. Composition must have its own inevitability about it.
But inside movement there is one moment at which the elements in motion are in balance. Photography must seize upon this moment and hold immobile the equilibrium of it. (my emphasis)
A Dynamic Situation in a Single Image
Early in the book, he articulates his ambition to capture the essence of a dynamic situation in a single image — the source of the misuse of “a decisive moment” —
I prowled the streets all day, feeling very strung-up and ready to pounce, determined to “trap” life — to preserve life in the act of living. Above all, I craved to seize, in the confines of one single photograph, the whole essence of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.
On Finding Subject Matter
Cartier-Bresson makes the case that many others have made — that there is no end of possible subject matter (and as Elliott Erwitt said years later, that photography is less about the object and more about how you see it.)
Cartier-Bresson says “There is subject in all that takes place in the world…” and “In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject.” He continues “Subject does not consist of a collection of facts…” which speaks to the distinction between photographing objects vs. moments. “There are thousands of ways to distill the essence of something that captivates us.”
approach – see old ppt + task sheet for ST Helier shoots – David Sheppard book + shoot from the hip book + old picture stories
Snapshot photography vs candid photography
New technology: Leica 35mm camera
-Prep for St Malo trip Henri Cartier-Bresson and ‘the decisive moment’ Nick Waplington and the indecisive moment https://www.photopedagogy.com/the-indecisive-moment.html observational vs confrontational HCB vs William Klein (Bruce Gilden) Vivian Mayer
list useful quotes
Roland Barthes: punctum/ studium
WEEK 3: AI WORKSHOP with WILL LAKEMAN
AI image generators: Large Language Models (LLM) Open AI: Dall-E 2 DeepMind: Midjourney Dreamstudio
EXTRA – for Sept
Mon: Lesson 1 Theory: What is documentary photography vs staged photography – discuss in class – see my old blog post and PPT Practice/ Photo-assignment: make one image which is documenting reality and one which is staging reality
Use Will Lakeman’s images from Playtime as an example of an artist drawing inspiration from lived experiences and memories to create new images using AI technology
and record two focused photo-shoots in Jersey based on Nostalgia – choose sites/ locations which triggers childhood memories – beaches/ castles/ heritage sites/ bunkers/ home/ gardens/ family Jersey landmarks, such as Corbiere Lighthouse, Gronez Castle, etc etc. Decide how you are going to make the photograph, ie. a documentary approach or staging it/ an event.
INSPIRATIONS – ARTISTS REFERENCES AI and truth – other photographers David Fathi and Emanuel Macron Philip Toledano and Donald Trump …King Charles III
Photo-archive visit? tourism/ nostalgia > Sept?
2. PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT: Make one image which is documenting reality and one which is staging reality. Evaluate and describe differences and similarities. Photo-assignment: make one image which is documenting reality and one which is staging reality. Evaluate and describe differences and similarities.
1. ANALYSIS: Choose one image from case studies listed below that questions the notion of truth regarding the photographic image and its relationship with reality and explain why.
Follow this method of analysis: TECHNICAL > VISUAL > CONTEXTUAL > CONCEPTUAL.
Theory: Explore case studies where images have ‘lied’ and truth has been manipulated/ distorted – altering reality / staging photographs Case Study 1: Roger Fenton and Jim Rosenthal Case Study 2: Steve McCurry – Case Study 3: David Fathi (Macron), Philip Toledano (Trump) Start Digital/ Neil Mason (King Charles – Midjourney)
Wed: Lesson 3 – Truth or Lies: Can a photograph lie? – use Will’s workshop as starting point for discussion around ethics etc. – set essay at that same time
TASKS 1. ANALYSIS: Choose one image from case studies listed above that questions the notion of truth regarding the photographic image and its relationship with reality and explain why. Follow this method of analysis: TECHNICAL > VISUAL > CONTEXTUAL > CONCEPTUAL.
Documentary vs Staged Photography If we examine documentary truth (camera as witness) versus a staged photograph (tableaux photography) all sorts of questions arise that are pertinent to consider as an image maker. Remember our discussion we had at the beginning of September when we began module of Documentary and Narrative. We discussed a set of images submitted at the World Press Photo competition on 2015.
Link to article about controversial images made by Giovanni Trioli at this years World Press Photo context
Since then the debate surrounding what constitutes ‘documentary’, ‘truth’, ‘veracity’ and how much manipulation is accepted has raged within various bodies representing documentary photography and photojournalism.
Read here the new Code of Ethics, revised rules and detailed guidance to ensure ‘truth’ of entries for the WPP contest 2016 by its Managing Director, Lars Boering. Read further interview with Boering here in an article in the BJP
Mon: CONTEXTUAL STUDY > Documentary vs Tableaux (staged photography) > 1 blog post. Describe the genres of documentary photography and tableaux photography and highlight the differences/ similarities in the approach of the image-making process. For example: What do we mean by a photograph that is ‘documentary’ in style. How does a staged tableaux image construct a narrative different from documentary photography?
RESOURCES > First, Look through both these PPTs to get a basic understanding documentary photography and tableaux photography.
Jeff Wall, Insomnia, 1994, Transparency in lightbox, 172,2 x 213,5 cm
To develop a deeper understanding, read these two texts by David Bate from his book, Art Photography (2016) Tate Publishing. Include images to illustrate both genres of photography and show evidence of reading by including direct quotes from sources and referencing using Harvard system.
EXTRA READING: For a contemporary perspective on documentary practice read photographer, Max Pincher’s Interview: On Speculative Documentary To read this interview you must access it online from home as it is blocked the internet filter in school.
Mitch Epstein ‘Family Business
