OBSERVE

VERB

1. a person who watches or notices something.”to a casual observer, he was at peace.
2. a person who follows events closely and comments publicly on them.”some observers expect interest rates to rise”
3. a person posted in an official capacity to an area to monitor political or military events.”elections scrutinized by international observers”
   

SYNONYMS: spectator, onlooker, watcher, voyeur, looker-on, fly on the wall, viewer, witness, eyewitness, bystander, sightseer, commentator, onlooker, reporter, blogger, monitor.

SEEK

VERB

1. attempt to find (something):“they came here to seek shelter from biting winter winds”
   SIMILAR: look for, be on the lookout for, search for, try to find, look about for.
2. attempt or desire to obtain or achieve (something):“the new regime sought his extradition” · “her parents had never sought to interfere with her freedom”
   SIMILAR: pursue, go after, go for, try, attempt, endeavour, strive
3. ask for (something) from someone:“he sought help from the police”
   SIMILAR: ask for, request solicit, call on, invite, entre, beg for
4. (SEEK SOMEONE/SOMETHING OUT)search for and find someone or something:“it’s his job to seek out new customers”
   SIMILAR: discover, detect find (out), unearth, uncover, disinte

CHALLENGE

NOUN

1. a call to someone to participate in a competitive situation or fight to decide who is superior in terms of ability or strength:“he accepted the challenge”
   SIMILAR: dare, provocation, summons
2. a call to prove or justify something:“a challenge to the legality of the banning order”
   SIMILAR: opposition, defiance, ultimatum, confrontation with.

VERB

1. invite (someone) to engage in a contest:“he challenged one of my men to a duel” · “organizations challenged the government in by-elections”
   SIMILAR: dare, summon, invite,bid, throw down the gauntlet, to defy someone to do something
2. dispute the truth or validity of:“it is possible to challenge the report’s assumptions”
   SIMILAR: question, take exception to, confront, dispute, take issue with

Observe Seek and Challenge within photography

1. Observe: Observation is the foundation of photography. It’s about being mindful of your surroundings, noticing the interplay of light and shadow, shapes, colors, and textures. By keenly observing the world around you, you’ll start to see photographic opportunities everywhere, even in the seemingly mundane.
2. Seek: Seeking in photography involves actively looking for unique perspectives, interesting subjects, or moments that stand out. This might mean exploring new locations, experimenting with different techniques, or engaging with diverse communities. Seeking allows photographers to expand their visual repertoire and discover fresh ways of storytelling.
3. Challenge: Challenging oneself is crucial for growth as a photographer. This could mean pushing the limits of your technical skills, experimenting with unconventional compositions, or tackling complex themes and concepts. Embracing challenges fosters innovation and encourages photographers to evolve their style and vision.

By combining observation, seeking, and challenging oneself, photographers can cultivate a more profound connection with their craft and produce images that resonate on a deeper level with viewers.

I don’t think that this photoshoot was overly successful – my plan wasn’t really detailed enough and the camera settings have not been fully used to their advantage. I think that the best images are actually the ones of the plants as they reflect the work of the artist better. I would like to reattempt this shoot even if it is only for experimentation purposes.

I would want to explore adventure through the photographs as it response well to all : challenge, seek, observe. to me all these aspects are mostly seen when seeking for travel and exploration. To me specifically I see traveling having an impact on my future, therefore choosing to focus on a subject I know I will be passionate about photographing I hope will result in great outcomes.

I am planning to start by collecting archival images from my last summer, where I went for a trip with my 2 friends where we camped in another country with no plan, I will look for photographs taken in the past where I was exploring other cities, towns, countries etc. I then plan on a series of photoshoots where I will have a huge difference in my outcomes. Although I will have different outcomes, the theme of the photoshoots would be the same, most of the work will be outdoors and challenging me to get out and seek for adventure.

I will begin my study by diving into photo albums that include pictures of travel, I then want to plan a photoshoot revolving around rural landscapes and some urban. As I am limited to Jersey, I plan to explore jerseys some hidden some obvious points, and hopefully discover things that I can capture through the lens.

When it comes to photoshoots I will collect pictures of objects that carry sentimental value from the previous trips and hold memories. A lot of the photographs however I think will revolve around rural landscapes, where I can tap in into romanticism. However I also wish to photograph people, where I want to capture moments of people living, not posing, I want to capture the beauty and nature within people, to catch them is a natural settings. This means photographing subjects in motion, in the moment scenarios, instead of pre planned studio photoshoots. Meaning most of the pictures will be taken outside the images will be more documentary and observational, however I might have to stage a couple to get the desired look.

I will make sure to be very experimental with the images I create. Experimenting with different angels, ways of taking photographs, I want to especially explore underwater photography, or strive for an underwater photography effect. Other ways I will achieve interesting photographs could be through zooming in onto subject photographs not only from one distance.

Some of the images might be taken by different mediums of photography, this being shot on film, digital camera, or polaroid’s, I love film photography so I will try to use it the most when possible, but when it might not be possible I can always achieve a similar effect through image altering in photoshop or Lightroom. Depending on the format and how well the images compliment each other the sequence of them might change. I think adding in a more older look to the photographs will also enhance the meaning of them being documentary, taken in the past, reminiscing on the adventures etc.

When it comes to presenting my outcomes I am still unsure how I would present them exactly, however I know that I don’t want to make a photobook, instead I will look for other ways to display my outcomes.

Overall, the outcome I want to achieve will be to have a series of images that are of adventurous nature, images that are discovery and look fun. I want them to how travel and exploration through travel. I want to show that even in a restricted island it is still possible to find beauty and be adventurous regarding it’s size.

Mood-board

I have made another mood board which presents my focus in a narrowed down way. This revolving around the ideas of adventure, travel, discovery and freedom.

The outcomes vary from each other in the mood board as I don’t have a specific way of capturing my images just yet, but I know there are some elements I wish to in cooperate, these being portraits in natural scenes, landscapes of more rural landscapes as well as I want to explore challenging but effective photographic techniques, such as underwater, reflections, etc. Where it is also the camera that is adventurous.

I think exploring these themes relate to the title of the exam well , as I will constantly be observing life around me through documentary photography. The photographs themselves will have a meaning of seeking for adventure, exploring and finding. And the photographing process will be challenging to capture specific moments.

The title for this project is Observe, Seek and Challenge, I have attached bellow the exam paper. In this booklet there are useful tips on how to gain ideas for these themes.

Mind Map

Bellow I have created a mind-map of ideas from the main headings. these included similar words, but also relating words and subject ideas I can focus on.

Observe- The main ides that strike me when hearing observe is everything that surrounds us on a day-to-day life, things that are ordinary, because many people might see them but not observe them. For example when choosing the same route to school everyday after weeks there can still be subjects that become unnoticed. Therefore to me observing means paying attention to one thing thinking about it, analysing it, enjoying it, and having a response to it. Therefore to observe it is much more than just seeing. By observing we discover and fin new things, we become more creative and curious. When it comes to photography the camera lens acts as a lens to observe the worlds through, therefore photographs that respond to this the best are ones where life is being represented, for example moments that are captured by the camera, but also photographs of subjects that represent that the photographer looked for, meaning they discovered them, just like special moments/ special events. To this documentary photography responds to very well as to be able to capture moments through documentary photography, photographers have to constantly observe everything around them in order to focus their camera on a specific moment and subject.

Seek- The first words that come to my mind is to be wanting, to seek for something, this leads me into the category of goals or wishes, to be seeking a specific kind of future, if it is with family, a person, career. To seek is to want something this might be a specific feeling or person or item, place. This is why when it comes to photographic responses to this category, what comes to mind are portrait responses that show people striking to achieve something, to reach a goal. This as well as photographs that show emotions, because I feel that out of all 3 to seek is a very emotional world that could be shown through portrait photographs. There is also another interpretation of that word where more photographic responses showed up once searched for this word, which are of hide and seek, this links well with the idea of observing, and finding, as when kinds play hide and seek, they seek for people, to find them. This can be also interpreted with outcomes that are playful and adventurous, responding to the idea of hide & Seek.

Challenge- To challenge means to go against something, this could be a view or an opinion, it also means to do a task with difficulty, therefore this can be interpreted many ways as photographic responses could go in different directions, some showing challenging tasks that people or animals go through, sometimes willingly or sometimes not. A great example of this is the image Migrant Mother showing the struggles of a single mother in poverty with 3 kids, then some can be seen of animals in a wild doing best to survive. However what cant be discouraged is challenging tasks people willing like to put themselves through games, board games or video games, or stress at work, learning or other personal challenges. I thing the biggest one is one that majority of people can relate to, mental health, nearly every person struggles mentally with a task or just with personal issues. Therefore many photographs can show this, these need to capture human emotion. I think the ones that do that best are once again documentary photographs of protests, where raw human fatigue and distress can be seen, not in one but in a group of people. The other side of “challenge” as a topic could be taken literally onto the technical aspect of the photograph, a photograph which was hard to capture, this because of the subject being photographed being challenging or by the specific way of photographing that is challenging to the photographer, an example of this are Olympic and sport photography, where it’s challenging to capture the perfect moment as the person is in constant motion, therefore ensuring the right setting on a camera is essential, to know how to do that might also be challenging for the photographer. Depending on light, speed, etc.

Mood-Board

Bellow I have collected few of photographs that I believe respond well to the mind map above as well as the description of each word in the title.

After creating the mood-board I could see a certain theme that the photographs all lead to, this to me were of adventurous nature, documenting life, catching key moments and being very discovery and full of life behind them. This means that majority were documentary photographs. From this I will be able to narrow down my focus for the exam.

“Now the lack of diversity in photography and the position of women in our society is once again being considered; over the last 40 years, Nancy Honey has already walked the walk as a retrospective look over her 40-year career shows”

Nancy Honey

MOODBOARD:

Honey’s work is relevant to the exam theme Observe, Seek, and Challenge by ‘observing‘ the feminine stereotypes of woman in society. Honey portrays woman in her photography through the lens of her own experiences, therefore portraying it through the female gaze, trying to send a powerful message to society through empowering woman. She portrays the images of woman, through a female community and lens, trying to establish woman empowerment through her photography. In her project Woman to Woman Honey was ‘seeking‘ answers to her sexuality and desires. Therefore fitting with the exam requirements trying to explore the nature of her sexuality. She presented these images I a trip-tic showcasing portraits and abstract images, including parts of a woman’s body, woman applying makeup, and sexualising woman’s curves and intimate areas.

WHO IS NANCY HONEY?

Nancy Honey is a UK-based American documentary and portrait photographer. In her works she focuses on the lives of women, autobiographical, collaborative and documentary. She has been photographing for more than 40 years and has studied fine art, graphic design and photography in the United States and the United Kingdom. In her 40 years of photographing her images draw on her own experiences such as; motherhood, sexuality, power, and aging. In her photography work she records school girls, elderly, and model to explore the idea, what is it to be a woman, now and in this particular place? She was born in America in 1948, yet she began her career as a young mother in Britain, outside society’s usual centres of power, and inside a male dominated industry. Her project Woman to Woman Honey was driven by curiosity about her own sexuality, which may tie in with the representations of femininity in society and connecting with Judith Butlers Gender performativity theory. Butlers theory states that “gender proves to be performance— that is, constituting the identity it is purported to be.” Honey has also published five phonebooks, staring her most successful projects, for example; Woman to Woman, Entering the Masquerade, and 100 leading ladies.

Honey’s image from the collection ‘Apple of my Eye’ is starred in the 2000’s cover edition of TIME magazine. The front cover of the magazine has cover lines such as ‘why are girls growing up faster’ and ‘puberty’ which suggests this particular magazine is targeted for the adolescent girl, which may need support during these changes. Honey’s work significantly works with the cover lines provided as it shows it is ultimately going to be read by a large mass audience of girls which could be struggling and seek escapism within the form of time magazine. Furthermore Honeys work is ultimately targeted to the female population, or individuals who are struggling with their sexuality which reinforces this idea that many of her existing audience would read the magazine.

IMAGE ANALYSIS:

 

EMOTIONAL RESPONSE:

Looking at this image I can identify Honey’s sense of presenting femininity through stereotypes of sexuality, and how girls are stereotypically known to wear makeup. This idea of using a young girl connects with many of the young audience and creates the sense of a girl community. However, Honey also created the sense of nostalgia through the warm tones in the images, through the golden hour and the orange tone top, which also gives a sense of safe, girlhood society.

VISUAL/TECHNICAL – The information we see:

The lighting in the image is taken during the ‘golden hour’. The golden hour ‘is the period of time just after sunrise or just before sunset when the light is infused with red and gold tones’. The uses of the golden hour lighting brings a sense of warmth and nostalgic tone to the image. The shadow gives a sharp definition to the image highlighting the girls eyes, which is further reinforced with the action of her applying the mascara which leads our eyes through the image. The camera is positioned at eye level to the girl, which suggests this is a documentary genre of photography as the audiences eyes are drawn straight to the girl, giving the sense we are directly watching her and participating. By taking a picture of the girl doing her makeup, gives the sense the photograph is directed to the feminine audience which identify or older generations which would feel as sense of nostalgia. This community gives the sense Honey is trying to portray the idea of a young teenage girl ‘girlhood’.

CONCEPTUAL/CONTEXTUAL – The reasoning behind the image/Surrounding circumstance/information and knowledge

Honey was inspired to explore the project Woman to Woman as she was driven by curiosity to her own sexuality, and the ways it might – and might not be – tie in with the representation of femininity in present society, dominated by men. Honey worked in colour as she believed it displayed raw sexuality, she photographed women of all ages and all different ethnic backgrounds and body type to create a sense of inclusivity. Woman to Woman was published by Hexagon Editions in 1990, and toured the UK and Ireland as a solo show for two years.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

https://nancyhoney.com/about/#overlay-bio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Honey

Born 1972, Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer with a unique aesthetic and style as she captures intimate moments, using colours, textures, movement, light, and shapes to differentiate her photographs from others. Inspired by the Shinto religion as well as the works of Irving Penn, Kawauchi’s photographs capture ordinary moments with a profound almost hallucinatory perspective. Her work, particularly her book “Illuminance,” showcases her unique perspective and ability to capture the beauty in the ordinary and evoke a sense of wonder through her photographs.

“I want to capture the small miracles in everyday life that we often overlook.”

– Rinko Kawauchi

This quote reflects Kawauchi’s desire to highlight the beauty and significance of ordinary moments. Through her lens, she brings attention to the subtle details that often go unnoticed, allowing viewers to appreciate the magic in the mundane. People rarely appear in her images, which range in subject from city streets, flowers, and oceans, to a deer lying dead on the side of a road, she focuses her eye on scenes of a more mundane nature. She seems to take pictures from the perspective of a girl who spent too much time gazing out of the window at school, studying bugs on leaves or watching dandelions disperse in the wind.

Similarly, Kawauchi’s fascination with light and shadow is evident in her work. Her photographs often play with natural light and its effects on the subjects, creating a sense of ethereal and dreamlike atmosphere. By manipulating light, she emphasises the emotional and symbolic aspects of her subjects.

The title of Kawauchi’s book, “Illuminance,” suggests her intention to illuminate the hidden aspects of life. Her photographs capture fleeting moments of clarity and revelation, offering glimpses into the deeper meanings behind everyday experiences. Through her images, Kawauchi invites viewers to contemplate the feeling nature of life and the beauty that lies within it.

Here is a video where she explains her love for the “small mysteries of life”:

I walked through a small area in St. Peter’s valley, shooting images of different structures that were more or less abandoned, or have been almost reclaimed by nature. For this shoot, I wanted to focus on Kawauchi’s style of developing bright, low contrast images focusing on the natural forms of the plant life and animals around me.

After putting the images into Adobe Lightroom Classic, I started editing through which photographs I believed honed in on Kawauchi’s style the most.

These are my final six images from this shoot. I had a pretty similar approach to each photograph, and wanted to establish an idea of surrealism from reality through my colour palette.

For this first image, I immediately knew that I wanted to increase the intensity of the colour palette, particularly the yellows, without it becoming too overpowering or dominant.

I started by making adjustments using the tonal curves, increasing the output of the blacks in the point curve, to achieve a more muted, lower contrast in my composition, before adjusting the parametric curve, and increasing the lights to bring some more brightness to the image.

I also experimented with the colour channels, playing with red and blue with these photos to create more drama and make the natural colours of the plants a stronger focal point, which was particularly successful in the shot of the stream coming from the pipe, tinting the foam in the water a pinkish colour.

I then started colour grading, typically using a red or orange for the midtones, a deep blue for the shadows, and a red or green for the highlights, all of which were then adjusted using the blending slider to achieve the desired effect. To establish some contrast using lights and shadows, I used graduated filters where the light sources were present, playing with basic adjustments until I was left with a subtle, but more visually appealing gradient from light to dark across the whole piece. I repeated this by doing the opposite with the darks to contrast this, adding a slight vignette to bring it together.

For this photograph, I experimented with the calibration window to adjust the hues of the blues and greens, which ended up turning the leaves different shades of orange and blue.

Initially drawn into the world of abandoned photography, Matt became hooked on the fascinating back stories behind the locations he visited. Capturing and bringing these stories into peoples homes via his social channels has evolved into a seven year long project called ‘Forgotten Heritage’. Since he began he has photographed many diverse locations like abandoned farmsteads in the arctic circle, vast industrial remnants in northern Europe to crumbling villas and hospitals in Italy. The project has won several international photography awards to date and has been widely published.

Here is a mood board of Matt Emmett’s work. During his 3 year project he found himself trudging through debris, wading in water, spelunking in man-made caverns—all for the sake of creating images that celebrate the unique appeal of abandoned architecture.

The genre of Emmett’s work falls under documentary. He spent 3 years travelling around different countries recording the decaying, abandoned buildings as they have been left. His images inform people about the hidden corners of contemporary life that viewers weren’t aware of and haven’t come across.

This leads to why I chose to study Matt Emmett in relation to my project. Considering the themes ‘Observe, seek and challenge’ I think Emmett’s work comes underneath the theme of ‘Seek’ as he’s attempting to find these places to take photos of them and show to the world.

-For Emmett, traversing dangerous terrain is more than a matter of seeking thrills.

“These places that were once alive with sound and movement are now silent and still, but they are no less mesmerizing,” he says. “Immense and powerful beauty resides in forgotten places.”

Image analysis

I chose this image to analyse because I think it portrays the theme of ‘seek’ in many ways. The perspective in which the photo has been taken from implies Emmet is exploring the unknown, he is about to walk down the long tunnel path ahead seeking what is down there. This image is taken in natural lighting, the brightness of the image is coming from, what I’m guessing is, the sunlight seeping through the cracks of the broken ceiling. The image is saturated, yet decaying at the same time; green moss and plant life is growing over the rubble showing how nature is now taking over the area. This also proves this location has been abandoned as natural life is starting to grow and take over. This image is aesthetically pleasing to viewers, there is a dark vignette around the edges and the centre of the image (towards the end of the path) is very bright and amplified. Emmett has taken this photo carefully and has set up the composition of the image very precisely, edited or not, the midground of this image is also the brightest part of the image and this automatically creates a focal point in the image that’s going to catch a viewers eye. Raising questions such as, where is this? How did it end up like that? why has it been abandoned? Matt Emmett’s work has a mysterious feel to it as he seeks unknown locations . I am heavily inspired by Matt Emmett’s work, considering my chosen theme of the exam project, and I intend to create images of my own based around his work.

Born in the USA Michigan 1953 Casebere was a regular student at Minneapolis University studying arts and design, and graduated in 1976. This lead Casebere to building miniature sculptures in the form of odd structures and hallway types, which he would eventually start to photography in ways which looked almost imaginary and as if it was created by AI. He uses simple materials which you could find at home, and use them to create complex models.

Casebere subjects that he designs are a lot of modernised houses which float on water, but are subject to a dark or naturalist background which to him is a way of representing the worlds environment which to him is a problem at the moment because of humans. So his work like Thomas Demand represents an essence of political and problematic meaning which relates to a lot of people. His inspiration had started from the eastern Mediterranean in Spain with their architecture becoming an interesting starting point for him, with some of their simplified but complex structures standing out, his models grew into extremely familiar dream like subjects. But in an interview with uzomah ugwu and Casebere, he described in his early life the drive or expression to build theses sculptures through his view on the suburban architecture and his father. where he said, “It started with my personal experience of space in the suburbs and the anxiety, and fear, inside my home”, talking about how his father was an introverted man who was unpredictable when he was angry. And Casebere’s way of expressing himself he implies was through creating sculptures, but also the fear of his father/parents being very lenient on him practicing architecture.

I personally like his work because of how he lays out his sculptures and how he photographs them, its as if they work in unison together to create an aesthetic image with some type of familiarity to it. Specifically the consistent use of water in his images and how his lighting reflects against the water, and just creates a sense of confusion and mystery to his images. But also when he photographs the inside of his sculptures he uses a lot of patterns and shapes which with his lighting makes it look nostalgic in a way. His work links a lot to Liminal space because of how some of his sculptures include the inside of “areas” which would include a familiarity to how it looks but also how some of the environment of his work is something you might have seen before. His consistent use in water contextually does link the the environment but without this context creates this docile sensation, as if the subject is out at sea without anything or anyone else, or it presents the feeling of abandonment and destruction because of unknown reasons. I will respond to his work with attempting to create my own type of sculpture which will convey the same feelings as Casebere’s work does. My idea for this will involve a type of “birthday party” type environment which will look empty and messy, and I’ll use different lighting to experiment how the image will look, and attempt to include artificial water or even try physical water to make a more realistic effect.