By having my final images selected it makes it easy for me to place and move the images around the book. I choose to use the standard landscape layout as I have a mixture of landscape and portrait images. By having it landscape I can create a two page spread, as some of my best images are landscape meaning that I can display them bigger than some of my other images. I have also chosen to not have the same layout all the way through, this helps to create an ecliptic look with no uniform as some pages have a full bleed whereas others have a boarder around them. The way in which I have chosen to order the images almost as if it is telling a story, trying to match similar images and colours on the page. The way images are laid out helps to create different kinds of moods and feeling throughout the book. The image I have chosen for my front cover allows for me to have space for a title and my name.
From this shoot I only got a few images which I could use for my final images. The light didn’t go to plan as it was very dull lighting, so I changed them into black and white. This also helped tie the images in with my other shoots with black and white images. As a set I think these images work nicely together.
On this shoot I went to the top of Boyle Bay in the the forest where there are small fort towers. I tried to capture the trees and forest in the back of the images. I positioned my model in different areas of the forest to start to create a story and composition.
Image Selection
By selecting my best images it gives me a better view of which images go well together as a composition. Changing and adjusting the lighting and exposure of the images helps to create more of a feel/mood to the images.
How do Justine Kurland and Theo Gosselin show freedom in their work?
‘To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed’
From their inspiration I will explore the theme of teenage life and ‘girlhood’ and explore the idea of feminism. By doing this it will show how teenage years change and develop. Exploring and experiencing new things, ideas and experiences. By further exploring ‘girl pictures’ by Justine Kurland and the photos of Theo Gosselin. The photos allow us to link to the theme of nostalgia, these years of our lives being the formative years, which help shape our future and we will always be remembered, for good reasons or bad reasons, for the rest of our lives. So by capturing these moments, people may be able to relate to their own emotions, experiences and thoughts. After viewing Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographic studies in Paris I researched modern, equivalent artists who reflected the theme of freedom in their work. The two photographers who stood out are Justine Kurland and Theo Gosselin.
Julia Margaret Cameron
Justine Kurland’s take on the classic American tale of the runaway takes us on a wild ride of freedom, memorializing the fleeting moments of adolescence and its fearless protagonists. Kurland was born in Warsaw, New York. Her mother sold costumes at Renaissance fairs, so Kurland and her sister lived a somewhat nomadic lifestyle. At 15, Kurland ran away to Manhattan, moved in with a sympathetic aunt, and concentrated on becoming an artist. She earned her M.F.A. from Yale University in 1998. The following year, Kurland exhibited in the group show Another Girl, Another Planet, which critics considered a preview of a new generation of talented and innovative female photographers. Both Kurland’s childhood adventures and her current experiences influence her working style and subject matter. She now spends much of her time on the road, scouting locations for photographs and recruiting models. While her earlier photographs of schoolgirls were inspired by her own experience as a runaway, the birth of her son Casper in 2004 shifted her focus to pregnant women and mothers. Kurland also attributes her more recent photographs of trains and train stowaways to Casper’s love of those vehicles.
Kurland talked about her inspirations in an article she said “I’m always thinking about painting: nineteenth-century English picturesque landscapes and the utopian ideal, genre paintings and also Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographs. I started going to museums at an early age, but my imagery is equally influenced by illustrations from the fairy tales I read as a child.” By taking inspiration from Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography of famous Victorian women and interpreting this idea of being able to be a girl and be free to do whatever, it creates a story which many people will be able to relate to. The staging is key here, and creating painting-like images is a form of pictorialism. They are carefully crafted, but look like spontaneous encounters at first glance.
Kurland captures a snapshot of a moment in time which looks Utopian but by further research and questioning of the subjects, fault lines would appear. The life looks idyllic and appealing but would reality be as free from care? In the image above we can see barefoot girls emerging from a stark concrete building and wading through a rocky stream. It is an image of freedom but at the same time they look mystified as if they have just come from an evil place. These girls look as if they have a strong ‘sisterhood’ and will always have each others backs. They are adolescent girls who can be free from everyday commitments and the usual worries of adulthood. They are at an age where they can go off for the day without parents or guardians worrying about their whereabouts, as they are all together and therefore safe. It feels that in this image Kurland is trying to revisit her own youthful experience of freedom. To wear what you want, to go barefoot, wade through streams, explore strange places, be with friends and have little worldly care thinking only of the present.
Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass
Edouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass has a fairly similar subject and composition to Kurland’s image above. The painting was from 1862 shows that women seem free to be naked whereas the men are fully clothed. In Kurland’s image the girl is preparing to undress and go into the water and the boy is fully clothed. Even though these images are over one hundred years in difference they still show a similarities in the messages the images are trying to portray. There is a sense of abandonment, freedom, joy and discovery in both.
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. Born near Le Havre in Normandy in 1990, Théo Gosselin grew up with the sea, the wind, the forest, and the sound of electric guitars, echoing in the deserted streets of this grey city from the north of France. Passionate about drawing, music, and cinema, he chose a path through the art school, and graduated in 2012 as a graphic designer in Amiens. He started photography around 2007, and it Became his reason to live. He loves to capture the simple life, love, good and bad moments, his friends and his adventures. Eternal traveller, Europe and USA and share his way of life with the people He loves ; because the truth is in wide open spaces and in the heart of the characters that meet along the way.
Gosselin captures this image with the sun beaming through the car just before the sun is about to set. This creates a warm light but also a warm feeling to the image, a feeling of relaxation and freedom. He goes along with his friends capturing moments of their adventures as a group while also living the same life as them but behind the camera. The woman in the image seems to have no worries about where she has to be or what she is doing. He portrays this idea of freedom through the story that they have each other and their campervan with no plan in mind. However from this image can we actually see if this woman is actually happy with the life they are living? Some people may say that his images are a glamorised version of what reality is. They are not staged, say Gosselin…but carefully lit, composed and sequenced.
Justine Kurland and Theo Gosselin both show clear themes of freedom in their work. Their ideas of freedom are similar as they both explore the fact that the people in the images don’t have a care in the world for living a ‘normal life’. Kurland captures moments of self expression and liberation. Focusing on subcultures and marginalized groups, showcasing individuals who defy social norms and embrace their own sense of freedom. Her images convey a sense of adventure, empowerment and personal autonomy, inviting the viewers to question her own notions of freedom. Some may say that her work is an exaggerated idea of feminism and that it dose not show the real reality of ‘girlhood’. Theo Gosselins work also expresses freedom, he captures intimate and raw moments of youth and adventure, in a natural setting. His images evoke a sense of carefree abandon and celebrating living in the moment. His models/ friends are often engaging in activities which also defy social norms, embracing their own unique paths and finding freedom in their choses. He invites the audience to explore the world and find their own sense of freedom in whatever way they want to. The lives are fleeting, but the images are permanent and resonate with our inner wildness.
Bibliography
Bengal, R.(2020). ‘The Jeremys’ in Justine Kurland: Girl Pictures. New York: Aperture Foundation
Justine Kurland’s take on the classic American tale of the runaway takes us on a wild ride of freedom, memorializing the fleeting moments of adolescence and its fearless protagonists.
Kurland was born in Warsaw, New York. Her mother sold costumes at Renaissance fairs, so Kurland and her sister lived a somewhat nomadic lifestyle. At 15, Kurland ran away to Manhattan, moved in with a sympathetic aunt, and concentrated on becoming an artist.
She earned her M.F.A. from Yale University in 1998. The following year, Kurland exhibited in the group show Another Girl, Another Planet, which critics considered a preview of a new generation of talented and innovative female photographers.
Both Kurland’s childhood adventures and her current experiences influence her working style and subject matter. She now spends much of her time on the road, scouting locations for photographs and recruiting models.
While her earlier photographs of schoolgirls were inspired by her own experience as a runaway, the birth of her son Casper in 2004 shifted her focus to pregnant women and mothers. Kurland also attributes her more recent photographs of trains and train stowaways to Casper’s love of those vehicles.
This kind of ironic playfulness repeats itself over and over again in this book. Even the title, Girl Pictures, embossed onto the powder pink cover feels vaguely tongue-in-cheek. It sounds dirty or patronizing. Just one letter shy of girly pictures, the title of this book is akin to categories like “chick lit” or “chick flicks.” I can almost hear someone critiquing these photographs as just a bunch of “girl pictures.” It makes me think of that image with the girl’s hands over the boy’s eyes again. What if rather than removing his perspective, you just take it directly from him? The title feels this way to me, like something stolen back.
“There’s something political about creating a world that you want to exist“
Image analysis
In this image the light is dull and reminds me of autumn time. This is because of the colours of the leaves and clothing the people are wearing. The focal point of the image would be the woman circled she is about to get into the water. The image shows a group of friends about to get into the water. The layout of the people in the image creates layers and as if the woman getting into the water is the main girl in the group as people are looking up to her.
By taking inspiration from Kurland and further developing my past images I will try to create a story which people can understand and relate to.
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.
Born near Le Havre in Normandy in 1990, Théo Gosselin grew up with the sea, the wind, the forest, and the sound of electric guitars, echoing in the deserted streets of this grey city from the north of France. Passionate about drawing, music, and cinema, he chose a path through the art school, and graduated in 2012 as a graphic designer in Amiens. He started photography around 2007, and it Became his reason to live. He loves to capture the simple life, love, good and bad moments, his friends and his adventures. Eternal traveler, Europe and USA and share his way of life with the people He loves ; because the truth is in wide open spaces and in the heart of the characters that meet along the way.
This image shows how groups of friends escape the reality of their regular lives.
The subjects in Théo Gosselin’s images are friends rather than models, and the situations are not mythic constructions but glimpses of an underground lifestyle in a post-9/11 and post-AIDS world in which social media has blurred the boundaries between public and private, and between being documented and simply being.
