Nostalgia, Femininity/ Masculinity/ Identity 

Home

‘Overall, this module was a new style to me and therefore quite challenging. I created a small number of images I am proud of but I don’t think that they are at all my best work as this was one of my first experiences with photographing objects, and often my intentions were not entirely clear to me when I set about taking and arranging my images. I am also aware that I did not really employ Photoshop to the best of my abilities as I was a bit out of touch with it and probably needed to use it a bit more often. I hoped that in my future projects I would be able to act with thorough forethought (in choice of objects, placing of objects, background, lighting etc.) and ensure that I took enough images on each photoshoot – as I think this was one of my biggest shortfalls in completing this project. I have included my favourite images in this Virtual Exhibition.’

The above is an adapted version of my final evaluation of the Home project – images that may inform my choices and inspire me in my personal study are below.

Romanticism

I enjoyed creating images for this project because I think that the beauty of the countryside and its emotional impact on us as people is something that can easily be emphasised through careful use of light and colour. I also really liked the work of the artists we looked at here. Images and artworks of the genre strike a certain chord in me as someone who grew up in the countryside and I think that the slightly sad, nostalgic effect of this is something shared by a lot of viewers, no matter their personal experiences. The work of Fay Godwin, Ansel Adams and Don McCullin was my favourite purely because their use of the camera as a tool through which to project and amplify the drama of the landscape is evident in each of their images respectively. I may well be inspired by my final outcomes to create a romantic element in my personal study, as I think my final results were very strong.

New Topographics

I like the images I took for this project because I think they all respond well to the brief of New Topographics because they all have a very muted and desolate tone. I also think that there is a lot of alignment between my images and those of the most famous artists of the movement. I was intrigued by their efforts to portray the damage inflicted on humans to the beauty of the landscape, and my interest was only heightened by the impact of context on my view of this work. The population boom of the 50s, and the consequent sprawl of suburbia across America, demonstrates exactly why artists like Robert Adams felt the need to document the endless array of buildings being repeated all over the country. My key and most inspiring images from this project are shown below.

Typologies

I did not produce many typologies but I do like the one shown below and I feel that this technique could be explored further in my personal study.

Anthropocene

I enjoyed the Anthropocene project because it gave a lot of opportunity to explore different avenues and approaches to the brief. I think that my final outcomes were very obvious in the message they were aiming to portray and therefore work effectively. I chose to present my final images as diptychs and this hence amplified the contrast I was attempting to display. In my final critique, I said this: ‘I think that my images are all really strong and I am happy with my editing choices. I think that all of the images that I put together do compliment and contrast each other in a productive manner. However, it was quite frustrating to not have been able to take as many strong and varied images as I would have liked; and I think perhaps a more clear framework in my head would have made this a little easier. On the other hand, I do still feel that the weather made things quite difficult during the week and this did invalidate a lot of my images that I actually took for the project. I think I did use the camera to the best of my abilities, but there is definitely more I could learn and settings I could utilise to take more interesting images… In conclusion, I enjoyed this project. Taking the time to research the different aspects of Anthropocene and its effects was really interesting and I feel that I have learnt a lot through doing so. I am proud of my outcomes, despite feeling that my idea was not as strong as it could have been, and I am aware that there is room for improvement in all areas of this kind of task for my future reference.’

Environmental Portraiture

I really enjoyed creating images for this project because I think the concept of Environmental Portraiture can produce some very personal and interesting material, depending on how one chooses to approach it. I think that I will be inspired to use this technique in my personal study, as the images I have already produced have been some of my strongest.

Studio Portraiture

I think that I need more practice with photographing in studio as I sometimes struggle with camera/light settings, however I have created some very strong images in the past which I may hope to use as inspiration for my personal study.

My original critique said this; ‘Overall, I am happy with my outcomes for this project as I feel that I was able to access a range of techniques and styles to build up a portfolio that will reflect my various talents in different fields of portraiture. I enjoy the more documentary style imagery and I feel like I was able to explore this on a few occasions over the past few weeks. Additionally, I was able to experiment with studio photography which was fairly new to me and I have created outcomes that I am proud of. I think that there were certainly improvements that could have been made across this project, and sometimes my plans were not executed as I would have liked, however I can say that I have also created work that was really successful.’

Saint Malo – Nostalgia

I think that the images I created in Saint Malo were strong and they certainly responded to the brief of Nostalgia, especially after editing to make them appear more reminiscent of older times. Thus, I think these images could provide inspiration for my personal study as this will also need to respond to the same brief.

Some of my favourite topics that I have done in the pat year and a half is predominantly portraiture focusing on identity, around masculinity and femininity and environmental portraiture.

For my first shoot on environmental portraiture i took it on film which I really enjoyed I love the process of film and taking photos on film as there is a certain nostalgic way the photos come out and the excitement you get as you don’t know the outcome of the photos till you get them developed, if I was to focus on this topic for my final piece I would like to incorporate film into it.

The shoot I did around femininity I really enjoyed working around and with my friends I feel like the outcomes of these photos show the a bong witch girls get with each other, which for me reflects my own friendship group as we are a close group there for making this topic relatable.

I enjoyed researching Justine Kurland and her work as I found it really inspiring for this shoot and found her work fascinating and I believe I could add some aspects of her work into my own.

For my final project I would like to incorporate these two themes as I think they go hand in hand with each other and would create a project which I would love and enjoy to create I believe I would be able to create a project where people would be able see themselves in and shows natural beauty.

‘Dearest Patricia’

Overall, I think our film turned out better than we expected because we introduced new ideas along the way. The creative process of making a film brought new ideas to mind, such as getting someone to read out the letter as extra audio. Not only did this add to the film, but gave context to why there was a letter scrolling, and the purpose of our film. With a cinematic genre, we made sure to film landscapes that matched the theme and were appealing to the eye.

Learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition was quite interesting and is another useful skill for the future. It wasn’t an easy process; there were moments when it felt long and challenging. However, with perseverance, we managed to create a final outcome that we’re proud of.

I don’t think I’ll be rushing to create another film for personal study anytime soon, but I’ve definitely gained a better understanding of what goes into making one. I found the process quite long and difficult, requiring a lot of time and effort to get things right. However, I have enjoyed learning the complexities of filmmaking and persevering to create a final outcome that worked. This experience has helped me see the creativity and teamwork involved in filmmaking.

Here is the link to our film:

Dearest Patricia

Hannah used Adobe Audition to edit our sounds. To create our audio, she used a mixture of sounds gathered from our Elizabeth Castle trip. She also used sounds Sam recorded who is an audio producer that helped us learn how to use Adobe Audition.

When selecting the sounds to incorporate into the multitrack, she carefully considered the visuals that would accompany them to ensure a harmonious match. For instance, for the sea image, she incorporated a seagull sound effect provided by Sam. Prior to integrating the sounds into the multitrack, she individually edited them on the ‘waveform.’ This editing stage allowed her to trim the audio, enhance its clarity, and apply effects like echo

She had to filter each sound to make sure they were ‘clean’. This involved removing and eliminating the background noises which she was able to do by using the ‘parametric equaliser’. Once she had edited each sound, she added them in to to the multitrack.

The process for editing the film and putting the clips in order so they could tell a story took quite a long time. I had never used Adobe Premier Pro before so it was a challenge to get to know the basics of editing. However, once I understood how the app worked, it became easier. I started off by selecting the best clips and images, considering the composition, mise-en-scene, lighting, focus, and stability of the image. Before I put still images into the app I had to size them in Lightroom Classic to fit the film size that Premiere requires. Once I had put all my clips and images in the order I wanted I edited the lighting and colour (shown in my previous blog post ‘EDITING STILL/ MOVING IMAGES FOR OUR FILM’). Some of the clips were shaky because they were hand held, so to fix this I used ‘warp stabiliser’ to analyse the video and make it more stable. I had to be careful with how much was on the cli, because too much would cause an unrealistic movement.

I then moved onto achieving putting the letter we chose from the Jersey Archives over the film.

Putting the letter over the film was challenging, but I figured out how to achieve it so it would scroll down the film.

I chose the starting point and marked it, then the finishing point on the ‘positioning’ section. I selected this for the amount of time I wanted the image on the screen, the shorter it was on the faster it would scroll so I lengthened the clip to make the scroll slower. I also had to keep in mind that the letter will be read out, so it had to scroll at reading pace.

After I got the speed right, and the first two pages of the letter that we chose in, I moved onto fading each clip into each other. I chose to do this after inserting the letter because the fades could effect how the opacity is presented. I used the basic fade by enlarging the clip, marking two points, and dragging the fade down.

For the Title I went into photoshop and cropped the letter to get ‘Dearest Patricia’. In Premier I put Blend Mode as ‘Multiply’ to remove the yellow background. I then used ‘dip to white/ black’ to fade it in and out.

For the end credits I used one of Premier’s premade designs to credit who directed, filmed sound, edited clips, sound and who was the voice of the letter.

Still Images: I wanted to make sure we had a variety of colour/ black and white images in our film to capture the colours and also represent the change from the past to the present. I made sure to give the black and white images a lot of depth because the letter is going to be scrolling over the images, so they needed to have a lot of darks and lights to stay distinct. I used Adobe Lightroom Classic to edit these.

The lighting was quite dull on the day due to the weather, so it was hard to edit the coloured images whilst keeping interesting tones. I added warmth to them because it complimented the grey sky and the colour of the castle.

I would say this image isn’t the best, due to the fact the infrastructure is in the background, juxtaposing to the story set in the 1940s that we are telling. I think I will crop it more for the film. This also gave me knowledge for next time, learning to try different angles to avoid this issue.

I like the light in these images. I wanted to keep them fairly natural because the sunlight caught on the rustic tones in the room, causing the image to look like it was set in the time of Elizabeth Castle’s peak.

Editing video

For editing the videos, I changed the settings to ‘colour’ to get basic editing tools. I tried to focus on attaining the right light and colour throughout the video.

I mainly focused on the ‘Basic correction’ to achieve this because I didn’t want the videos to look over edited. I was also aware that we would have the archived letter over the images, and needed them to be basic enough for the handwriting to be easily read.

THE APP USED TO EDIT OUR ELIZABETH CASTLE PICTURES; LIGHTROOM CLASSIC.

In this film we decided to create it black and white. This is so that the film could look more nostalgic and vintage. By creating this vintage look in the images we took at Elizabeth Castle they were able to fit with the aesthetic from the Jersey Archive images we received from Jersey Heritage. Our film was supposed to aim for Tourism attractions which therefore linked to the history of the grounds.

In the images we decided to created a dark atmosphere and vibe to the images, we achieved this decreasing the exposure and decreasing the blacks so we could have a darker mood. However we decided to give the image some dramatic look by contrasting the black and white tones, we further did this by increasing the white and decreasing the darks. Due to this there is a sharper contrast between the tones. To add a more dramatic effect to the images I added a slightly dark vignette around the image, however in order to create a natural aura to the image it was very minimal just enough to create some dimension to the image.

By developing this image in black and white it created a completely different visual look and emotion to the image. Black usually connotes darkness, death, and evil deeds this fits with the image as you are able to see soldiers about to fire from a canon. Which during that era was a deadly weapon that caused many soldiers from the oppositional group a painful death. Furthermore to darken the mood in the image I turned down the exposure to create a more depressed and deepen the mood already in the image. Furthermore I increase the white in order to increased the contrast in the soldiers outfits from the darkened background.

Continuing with the black and white filter I used a similar editing technique and in the image above in order to create a dark serious mood. This is to further support the sincere topic of gun firing, and some of the audience may be affected by this sort action eg post war, or family members in the army. In order to do this I decreased the saturation in order to create a dark mood and a sense of sad and ominous emotion for the viewers.

In this image you can see an establishing shot of the landscape in a hidden bit of the castle. This image was important to keep similar to the remaining images in order to keep the same mood through the film. The only different images that would stand out In the film would be the archival material provided by Jersey Heritage. This shot is one of the most important shots in the film as its shows the landscape and the area in which the movie is taking place, this shot therefore set the scene for the audience and creates an understanding of the environment.

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

This is a review and reflection on my past A level photography studies. Topics included are ones where I believe I showcased my best work.

Anthropocene

The Anthropocene Project

The Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to investigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth. The Anthropocene is an informal geologic chronological term that serves to mark the evidence and extent of human activities that have had a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems.

Rut Blees Luxemberg

Inspired by the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg (born 1967), a German-born British photographer. Her technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. She is a Tutor at the Royal College of Art. In 2020, Luxemburg was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bristol. Her work ranges from large-scale photographic prints, through public art works and operatic mise-en-scène. She mainly photographs at night, using long exposures which allow her to use the ambient light of the city . Her poetic images are recognisable through their contemplative, considered  and atmospheric tone.

I believe this project was a success as I was able to produce a series of meaningful images highlighting the excessive use of artificial lighting and its effect on the environment, similar to the objectives of the The Anthropocene Project.

Inspiration

Outcomes

Feminity vs Masculinity

The themes of ‘Feminity and Masculinity’ are a binary opposite – a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.

Masculinities and femininities refer to the social roles, behaviours, and meanings prescribed for men and women in any society at any time. Such normative gender ideologies must be distinguished from biological ‘sex,’ and must be understood to be plural as there is no single definition for all men and all women.

Doug Dubois

Doug DuBois is a photographer and professor at Syracuse University, known for his work that explores family dynamics, community, and the complexities of human relationships. His photographs are striking, often capturing intimate and emotional moments that reveal the depth of human experience.

Doug Dubois often explores themes of identity, masculinity, and family in his photography. In his series “All the Days and Nights,” he focuses on the relationship between a father and son, examining the complex dynamics of masculinity and power within the family structure. Through his images, he challenges traditional notions of masculinity and explores the emotional and psychological impact of societal expectations on men and boys.

Inspiration

Outcomes

Ansel Adams

American landscape photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams is best renowned for his black-and-white photographs of the American West. In order to ensure that all tonal values are represented in the photos, he co-founded Group f/64, a group of photographers who promoted “pure” photography. This style stressed tight focus and the utilization of the entire tonal range of a shot. Ansel Adams fought for environmental preservation, the establishment of national parks, and the preservation of the power of nature and its beautiful settings via the creation of a lasting legacy.

The Zone System

This zone system was created by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer. They developed this zone system to help photographers control their black and white images. It was also designed to provide structure for determining exposure, which ensured that the photographer could create a properly exposed image each time they took a photo. It was made to put the 11 zones into order of gradient. Each zone represents all of the different tones you would see in a black and white photo.

Inspiration

Outcomes

Mediums

Photography –

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was 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 pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment, which he later wrote a book about. He was influenced by Surrealism and began his career in film working with renowned French director, Jean Renoir as second assistant director. He was born on the 22nd of August, 1908 In Chanteloup-en-Brie, France and passed away on the 3rd of August, 2004 in Céreste, France.

The Decisive Moment

The Decisive Moment is a book by Henri Cartier-Bresson, a French photographer who is credited with pioneering modern photojournalism. The book is a collection of his best-known photographs, accompanied by his thoughts on photography and the creative process. The title refers to the idea that photography captures a single moment in time, and that the photographer’s job is to be in the right place at the right time to capture that moment.

Inspiration

Outcomes

Film –

Chris Marker

Chris Marker was a renowned French filmmaker, writer, and multimedia artist. He is known for his innovative and thought-provoking works, which often explored themes of memory, time, and political and social commentary. Marker’s films, such as “La Jetée” and “Sans Soleil,” pushed the boundaries of traditional filmmaking and incorporated elements of documentary, fiction, and experimental techniques. His use of voiceover narration, montage, and found footage created a unique cinematic language that captivated audiences. Marker’s contributions to the art world continue to inspire and challenge audiences to question the nature of reality and the power of images.

La Jetée

“La Jetée” is a renowned short film directed by Chris Marker. Released in 1962, it is composed almost entirely of still photographs, which creates a unique and mesmerizing visual style. Through its haunting imagery and poetic narration, “La Jetée” explores themes of memory, love, and the fragility of human existence. It has had a profound influence on experimental filmmaking and remains a captivating and thought-provoking cinematic experience. It tells of a post-nuclear was experiment in time travel by using a series of filmed photographs developed as a photomontage of varying pace, with limited narration and sound effects.

Inspiration

Outcome

Photographic skills/processes/techniques

– Film Techniques

Focus and Depth of Field

 The focus is used to direct and prioritise elements in a shot and therefore prioritise certain information. For example, it will determine who the audience should look at (even if we are not listening to them). It may switch our focus (known technically as a pull focus / rack focus / follow focus) between one element and another. Elements may not be people, but could be objects, spaces, shapes or colours, which may represent an idea, theme, belief.

Shot sizes, angles and movements

• High angle / Low angle / bulls-eye / birds eye / canted angle
• Tracking / Panning / Craning / Tilting / Hand held / Steadicam
• Establishing Shot / Long Shot / Medium Shot / Close-up / Big Close-Up / Extreme Close Up 
• Insert Shot

Continuity editing

Continuity editing can be seen as the opposite of montage editing as the main aim is to create a sense of realism or ‘believability’ known as verisimilitude and has it’s own structure of rules where shots are edited together at particular times or on particular shots. For example:

• match on action
• eye-line match
• graphic match
• sound bridge
• 30′ rule
• 180′ rule

Mise en scene

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.

Sound

Moving image depends on sound for much of its’ meaning. It is impossible to overstate how important a role audio plays in the film viewing experience. While it’s perfectly natural to be drawn to the visual side of film making, those striking visuals don’t hold the same weight without strong cinematic sound design to back them up. Whereas a painting is purely visual and a song can be purely aural, cinema combines sight and sound for a unified experience where one bolsters and elevates the other. 

What is sound design?

Sound design is how filmmakers flesh out the aural world of a film to enhance the mood, atmosphere, and/or tone. Sound design components include sound effects or SFX sound design, mixing, Foley sound design, dialogue, and music. Sound design is the final and most important element needed to create an immersive experience for the audience.

– Double/multi exposure

What is Multi Exposure?

A ‘multiple exposure’ is a type of photograph that is created by exposing the same frame of film to light more than once. Multiple exposures allow a photographer to superimpose one subject or scene over another on the same frame of a photograph. Think of the classic ghost photograph, often caused by forgetting to wind on an analogue camera between shots thus creating a ghostly multiple exposure image. Multiple exposures can also be created digitally, although this is done during post processing by overlaying multiple photography over each other. A sports sequence photograph can be seen as being another example of a multiple exposure.

Outcomes

– Lighting

Chiaroscuro Lighting

Rembrandt Lighting

Butterfly lighting

Rim Lighting

Aperture

Aperture refers to the opening of a lens diaphragm through which light passes. Photographers can manually control the aperture by switching to ‘A’ or ‘AV’ mode and then changing the f/stops using the dial on their camera It is generally written as numbers such as 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and 16. The lower the f/stop, the bigger the hole, meaning it lets more light into the picture and it is a larger aperture. The higher the f-number, the smaller the hole, meaning less light is let into the photo and the aperture is lower.

Depth of Field

Film link

Film evaluation

In conclusion I am happy with certain aspects of the film, such as the edited pictures and my role which was the sound design. For future reference I would feel best doing another film project on my own in comparison of working in a group of 3 as I feel like it wasn’t a great representation of all of my creative ideas and aspects that I could’ve explored on my own. Its defiantly a way of presenting my images that I will keep in mind for the future as once I came to terms with it, I did really enjoy producing the sound, but due to me only making one aspect of the film I think that I would struggle in upcoming projects producing the layout. If I could do this project again I would like to include videos to the film and not just still images as I feel that it would help capture the story behind the Castle as a whole while also fitting the dystopian scene and setting that we where trying to represent. Lastly I would of rather of tried to capture more of the history of the castle such as the world wars etc, rather than just focusing on one aspect which was the architecture. I am happy that we got to do this project as its another idea that I can incorporate into my final exam.