I want to explore the story of my dad’s long and continued relationship with the sea and surfing. I will focus on how it has impacted his life and relationships as a whole, as well as my own life as his daughter.

This subject is important to me because it is essentially the reason I am here, because my parents met when my mum learned to surf and my dad was her instructor. For this reason, my whole family has been involved with the sport ever since and it affects my life every day.

I plan to ask my dad questions about how he started surfing, what draws him to it everyday, and how he feels about the sport. I will also use archived images from family albums from my dad’s life in Newquay as a young surfer and then from my parent’s history together.

I would like to present this project as a photobook because I feel this is the most professional way for me to present my work.

I think I will begin my study by collating old images from my parent’s history to allow me to gauge the kind of material I have available and perhaps inspire my later images.

This will relate to nostalgia as it will explore my own childhood, which was spent mostly in the sea, as well as my parent’s nostalgia of when they met.

The portraits I intend to take of my dad as a surfer will be in the environmental portraiture style, although I think they will be a mixture of candid and posed images. I will also be taking images of our garage, which is full to the brim with an extensive collection of surfboards and wetsuits which my dad is constantly adding to. I could also combine this with studio images of items I found at the beach and collected as a child. I have a lot of these kind of items so this would be fairly easy to do.

I will not be able to use the studio to photograph my dad so I will either photograph him in the house, out at the beach, in the garage, or at his work as a meteorologist.

I plan to present the archive images alongside the newer images to show the differences in my dad’s lifestyle since he was younger, but also to highlight the considerable similarities. I think this is interesting as surfing can often be viewed as something done by young people, especially when done multiple times a day, however my dad does not follow this pattern. As a 49 year old father, he often finds the time to go surfing more than once a day which is quite uncommon I think. His choice of shift work over a 9-5 means that he has the ability to support this lifestyle and always find time for his hobbies.

I will accompany my images with the questions I ask my dad and then the answers that he gives.

I do not think I will choose to manipulate my images, however I will be editing them to create a more professional look but as this is an exploration of character, I think a more authentic look is important.

Task

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.

Statement.

I plan to focus my personal study on the theme of memory. I would do this by showcasing my life throughout the years using meaningful objects and places. In order to break up the project into segments I will use birthday cards which will signify my age at that particular point which shows when these objects or places were most relevant in my life. This idea of looking back on memories and nostalgia is important to me since looking back to the past helps us to remember how we have grown, what and who helped to form us into who we are today. Another reason I believe that this study is important as it is also something that will be interesting for me to discover and learn more about myself, especially things that I no longer remember but people, such as my parents, do.

Another option/ idea which would be quite interesting to include would be to missing gaps in the book due to photos from my childhood being lost when we moved house. I could focus for my location images on recreating old photos or places I remember while using toys or sentimental items as my objects to photograph. Also, it would be interesting to slowly introduce colour into my images to represent how my memories become clearer the more recent they are. 

In my opinion, the best way to display my idea would be a mix between prints and a photobook. I think the photobook would be best to display the storyline of my project however having mounted prints for specific photos would also be effective to showcase my best images from the project. When photographing my objects, I would like to have them be the only thing in focus. To do this I would have a blank background with the object in the centre, to make the images more eye catching I think that I would use colour lighting. When photographing my landscapes, I would like to have them fill the page and show how the place made me feel through the use of changing the saturation. The style of my images will also likely be changing to show my emotions growing up, for example, when I’m young it would be more colourful in contrast to current day where it would be darker as a reference to how we lose a lot of our innocence of the world when growing up, similarly to what I plan to do for my landscape photos. 

DAY ONE:

DAY TWO:

GALLERY INSPIRATION:

EVALUATION OF FILM MAKING:

Overall I found the film project challenging. This project was my least favourite as I did not enjoy the software or the idea of creating a film with the images. This project was also heavy dependent on communicating with your group making sure everyone has everything they need; everyone needs to be organised. Premiere Pro was a new software I hadn’t used before and was slightly difficult to learn and first especially since it updated half way through the project.

What I found interesting in this project was seeing the process in which artist do in order to create a film. Looking at examples of short films like ‘La Jettee’ was intriguing as I enjoying watching the film without having an understanding with how much work is put into creating a film. I enjoyed creating the composition and deciding which images are interesting for the film.

What I found challenging in this project was linking the audio with the film making. The audio was a crucial element to out film which meant in needed to be perfectly placed in the film. However in order to do this meant good communication with Hannah, our audio editor. This project showed me the importance of organisation and communication with your peers. Ultimately in a next project like this the key element is to be organised and create and decide things that all your peers agree on.

THE APP USED TO EDIT OUR ELIZABETH CASTLE FILM; PREMIERE PRO.

The process in making the film was particularly difficult, I was using this software for the first time which meant I had to familiarise myself with the tools. Me being the creator of the film making was tasked with adding creating the composition of the images/videos, the visual aesthetic, adding fading to the images, and making sure the audio was in the right place. Firstly I added our original image into a sequenced that we liked which also flowed better with a narrative, in order to add some history aspect to our film. According to Hesmondhalgh’s cultural industries theory producers use existing material so the audience can relate and minimise risk when releasing a product.

In this image you are able to see the sequencing of videos and images. To create a smooth film I tried to add similar images as to what you could see in the videos, sort of like a visual conclusion in what you saw in the short video. Furthermore with the archive images I faded my original images into them to show the evolution and change you are able to see.

In this screenshot you are able to see a fade from one image to another. You can do this by slightly overlapping the two images and adding two key frames in the edge of each image. You are able to create different types of fades depending on how you position your images and the fade.

Here you are able to see the adjustment layer that is added on top of the sequence throughout the film. An adjustment layer, is an application of the same effect to a multitude of clips on your timeline. In the adjustment layer I added a black and white filter from the list of adobe filters, this was so the edited images and videos could have the same mood. However in order to make the archive images distinctive I added a different filter ‘Kodak Tobacco’ to create a more vintage old look. This filter had a gold/warm tone which seemed to look a bit like rustic paper used back in the day.

To edit the sound in my film I used Adobe Audition. The class was given a workshop by Sam to demonstrate how to use this application when editing and creating soundscapes for the film. Hannah Fernandes was our audio editor in our group.

THE APP USED TO EDIT OUR ELIZABETH CASTLE SOUNDS; ADOBE AUDIOTION.

FREE SOUND WEBSITES PROVIDED:

https://soundbible.com/

https://www.zapsplat.com/

https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/

Sam, the provider of the workshop, prepared us a folder of sound material that he gathered from the trip to Elizabeth Castle. Majority of the sounds Hannah worked with were taken from this folder, as our film group did not have the equipment to gather our own material. However, Hannah used the audio from one of the videos captured for the canon fire. Using Adobe Audition, she was able to make it louder and clearer so it could be heard in the film.

Hannah used Sam’s materials to create the soundscapes. Using the combination of sound effects, seagulls and the sea, to create an establishing background noise for the film. This was to help establish the setting and surroundings at the beginning of the film. Hannah was able to take other sound effects from this too, for example rifle firings.

This folder included some dialogue clips recorded on the trip. They consist of recordings of demonstrations and other staff character commands. Hannah distributed a selected few of these clips across my film. She did this because the focus of our film was supposed to aim for Tourism attractions which therefore linked to the history of the grounds.

Furthermore Hannah gathered more sound effects from the Media Drive to expand our sound collection for the film. This includes the backing music for the film, called ‘Café del Mar – Terrace Mix 2’. However, the clip weren’t long enough for the entirety of the film. So, using Adobe Audition, she removed parts of the clip that weren’t useful and disliked by the group and duplicated it in order to extend the backing track to fit the film.

THIS IS SHOWN IN THE BELOW SCREENSHOT:

This is Hannah’s folder which was created for all the sound effects that would be used in the film eg: backing music, and Adobe Audition edits Hannah created. This was useful as it allowed our entire sound material to be transferred to the film editor’s computer. This then allows the film editor, Alice, to add in the sound clips to our film as the finishing touches.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

BLOG POST CREATED BY HANNAH FERNANDES

By looking back at previous themes, I think ‘Home‘ would fit the best conceptually as my inspiration for the ‘Nostalgia’ project. This is because the project was centred around collecting objects from home which are significant and important to you. I plan on doing the same thing in my Nostalgia project, taking photos of objects which were important to me at different stages of my life.

Portraiture was my favourite area that has been covered during the photography course, I also believe it is my strongest work. The ‘Femininity vs. Masculinity‘ and ‘Identity‘ projects allowed me to take lots of portraits of my friends and family.

I believe these environmental portraits are some of my strongest images I’ve created. I really enjoyed this project and I think the results were successful. I took these while inspired for the identity and femininity/masculinity project. These express how I want most of the portraits and landscapes to look, almost like a documentary style.

These are some more portraits I took during the ‘Identity’ project in the studio.

Nostalgia is about a sentimentality for the past. It’s a sentimental yearning for return to a past period. The feeling of nostalgia is often triggered by a familiar smell, sound, or keepsake. For example; music, movies, places, or people.

Nostalgia is something that is both cosy and comforting but also deceptive and an illusion – explain how?

Nostalgia is something that is both cosy and comforting because when you experience it, you want to return to a past period of time where you experience something enjoyable which makes you happy. The act of remembering something gives you a moment of re-experiencing that moment which makes you happy, therefore creating a sense of comfort. However, it can also be deceptive and perhaps even an illusion because your memory is not always reliable. When recalling a memory, you may be forgetting some details or only remembering memories which bring you comfort or joy. We sometimes subconsciously supress memories which may be traumatic or unhappy. Therefore there is an element of illusion as you are only remembering aspects of the memory.

Mood-board

I have created a mood board below of inspiration for directions I could take in my photography for this nostalgia project. I’ve included images of objects, which may carry memories and be considered quite nostalgic. I’ve included places like swimming pools, cinemas, etc.

Mind Map

Our film is called ‘Occupied’.

https://jerseyedu-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/r/personal/a_jakubowska13_hautlieu_sch_je/Documents/Occupied.mp4?csf=1&web=1&e=sl76ZJ&nav=eyJyZWZlcnJhbEluZm8iOnsicmVmZXJyYWxBcHAiOiJTdHJlYW1XZWJBcHAiLCJyZWZlcnJhbFZpZXciOiJTaGFyZURpYWxvZy1MaW5rIiwicmVmZXJyYWxBcHBQbGF0Zm9ybSI6IldlYiIsInJlZmVycmFsTW9kZSI6InZpZXcifX0%3D