Observe, Seek and Challenge

Exam Paper- Pages 4 & 5

I highlighted quotes I believe are significant as well as adding my own notes about the ideas I have for my project. One of the quotes: ‘the human desire to seek and explore the unknown’ was in my eyes a perfect portrayal of the topic- since I would like my project to be a exploration of something that is different to my everyday life. Moreover, ‘the diversity, complexity and geometry of nature’ I found was also interesting, as it puts into perspective the many different layers of nature photography. Another quote ‘Artists frequently use metaphors in their work to disguise the messages; some are blatant some are obscure’, implies how the use of metaphors and indirectness is important in photography, since it what causes each project to be individual. The theme description also outlined many points of interest, such as nature, society and landscapes, which proved to be useful when developing my own ideas.

I thought of three main ideas for my project: stereotypes (specifically surrounding gender), abandoned (historical) locations and animals (specifically cats).

Stereotypes are one of the biggest flaws our are society and I think it would be interesting to create a project that challenges gender stereotypes and seeks out why and how they are created. I could take self portraits for this project- linking my work with artists such as Claude Cahun and Francesca Woodman. I would also link this with places- abandoned as Woodman tends to use as her background. I could create portraits as well as landscapes- the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum being a place I could focus on. Woodman focused on femininity as well as mental health, which could be something I could explore. I would use a slow a shutter speed to create blurry and multiple exposure photographs, in Woodman’s style.

Next, Jersey is a island with many different interesting places, that are very significant in relation to it’s history. It would be interesting to develop a project that investigates such places (like the war tunnels, the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum in St. Saviour, etc.) and challenge why their existence- why they were created but also closed, left, abandoned). A photographer which would inspire me for this theme is Matt Ememett- his portfolio Forgotten Heritage Photography being pictures of abandoned places- capturing their diverse beauty.

Lastly, my final idea would be about animals; their day to day survival, our impact on them. I would like to capture detailed, micro photographs of them that captures their beauty and the complexity of their life. A more specific idea would be to focus on cats (found around Jersey) and it would focus on how they view our world/ their point of view, how they observe, seek and challenge the world. I could include photographs of cats themselves as well as landscapes from low angles, exploring how cats physically see our island. I could create dreamy, detailed images- romanticising their life or I could take harsh images- perhaps in black and white, capturing the reality of their lives. Walter George Chandoha is a inspiration as throughout his career he photographed cats over and over again, capturing beautiful pictures of the animals. Jo Stephen takes beautiful, dreamlike landscape photos and he could be my inspiration for the style of my photographs. Another photographer, Ekin Küçük, created a project called Cat Fever which captures black and white pictures of cats in their natural environment (the streets of a busy city), capturing the harsh reality of cat’s lives.

Mind Maps

Moodboards

Observe

verb.

1. to notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant.
2. to make a remark.

synonyms

watch, study, view, look at, note, check, regard, survey, gaze at

etymology

• “to observe, watch over, follow” (10c.), from Latin observare
•  sense of “watch, perceive, notice” is from 1560s, via the notion of “see and note omens.”
• meaning “to say by way of remark” is from 1600s.

moodboard

Seek

verb.

1. to attempt to find (something).
2. to attempt or desire to obtain or achieve (something).
3. to ask for (something) from someone.

synonyms

search for, try to find, look for, look about for, look round for, look around for, cast about for, cast round for, cast around for, be on the lookout for, be after

etymology

• old English sēcan, of Germanic origin
• related to Dutch zieken and German suchen, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin sagire ‘perceive by scent’.
• from PIE *sag-yo-, from root *sag- “to track down, seek out”

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.
2. a call to prove or justify something.

verb.

1. to invite (someone) to engage in a contest.
2. to dispute the truth or validity of.

synonyms

noun.

dare, provocation, summons, confrontation with, dispute with, stand against, test of, opposition, disagreement with, questioning of, defiance, ultimatum

verb.

question, disagree with, object to, take exception to, confront, dispute, take issue with, protest against, call into question, demur about/against, dissent from, be a dissenter from

etymology

• Middle English (in the senses ‘accusation’ and ‘accuse’)
• from Old French chalenge (noun), chalenger (verb)
• from Latin calumnia ‘calumny’, calumniari ‘calumniate’

Mindmap

Moodboard

• Stereotypes (gender, race, age, religion, class)
• Authority (government, people in power, protests)
• Photography (compositions, lighting, camera settings)
• Myself (experiences, behaviours, ideas)

To challenge something is to rebel against it, something that is often done by a lot of photographers and artists. When I think of the word ‘rebel,’ I often think about activism against some form of authority, whether small or large. Artists often express rebellion through subliminal messages in their work, or bold messages such as through graffiti. The style of graffiti in itself represents youth culture, something I align with, and something that I could consider searching for and finding images of. In my own work, I see myself challenging other people’s opinions and views on certain groups of people, particularly youth, but also my own views, as they change and adapt through my own experiences. I’m keen on the idea of going against what others think, as I often trust my judgement the most – for better or worse – which could actually be an idea in itself for this project, going against who I am and what I do, although this may become too complicated. Alternatively, I’m also interested in directly challenging various stereotypes, instead of the natural subtlety that usually ends up in my work. Whatever I decide to challenge, I want to do it through juxtaposition, presenting both the ‘order and disorder’ of what I decide to shoot.

Nicholas Goodden is a photographer that has a unique way of presenting graffiti in his photographs, desaturating his images, but leaving the colours within the artwork he shoots as it bends with the landscape around it. It could be argued that as Goodden only takes images of the work, and doesn’t explicitly do it himself, he’s merely observing the work through the camera lens, although I feel that by photographing this, he almost provides a platform for the message of the artwork to spread further, which could be considered to aid and further challenge this. Personally, I find his use of limiting the saturation in his images to a specified area to create a focal point interesting, and feel that it shows a more unique, interesting part of the world that’s often looked over as more destructive, which I could recreate in my own work.

I could also challenge compositional standards of photography, through both the use of angles and technical aspects, which could leave for some interesting and unique final images. A key way that I would want to execute this would be through the use of angles and framing. I could take portrait images of people to where they’re just unnaturally off-centred in the image, even off to the edge completely, and play around with angles, such as extreme worm/bird’s eye. Regardless, this gives me the chance to experiment with different settings and what can work compositionally, without necessarily conforming to typical photography standards.

EXAM PAPER: PHOTOGRAPHY

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo24exam/wp-content/uploads/sites/76/2024/02/Edexcel-9PYO-EST-2024_redux-1-1.pdf

THE THEME: OBSERVE, SEEK, AND CHALLENGE

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, viewer, witness, eyewitness, bystander.

SEEK:

VERB

1. attempt to find (something):“they came here to seek shelter from biting winter winds
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”
3. ask for (something) from someone: “he sought help from the police
4. (SEEK SOMEONE/SOMETHING OUT)search for and find someone or something: “it’s his job to seek out new customers”

SYNONYMS: search for, try to find, look about for, pursue, try, attempt, endeavour, strive.

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”
2. a call to prove or justify something: “a challenge to the legality of the banning order”

SYNONYMS: dare, provocation, summons, opposition, defiance, ultimatum, confrontation.

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”
2. dispute the truth or validity of: “it is possible to challenge the report’s assumptions”

SYNONYMS: dare, question, confront, dispute

MOODBOARD AND MINDMAP:

The topic for our exam is Observe Seek and Challenge, due to this being a broad subject I have picked out some subject points that I could look at to be part of my project.

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.

We have received the brief for the 2024 exam project.

‘Observe, Seek, Challenge’

The exam board has issued resources to help us find some initial ideas. These can be found in the exam paper below. They explore the different interpretations of this brief across the art and photography world and give numerous artists to stimulate inspiration.

I created a mind map linking all my initial ideas. I enjoyed this process and I think that it has helped me to understand the brief a bit more deeply and find some less shallow inspiration.

I then created a mood board that established some more visual ideas, linking to the above mind map.

• Self-discovery (new/old experiences)
• Familiarity/comfort (places I often visit/stay)
• Community (parish meetings, events, church)

To “seek” is to look for something. To represent this aspect of the project, I want to try seeking self-discovery, familiarity, comfort, and community through different means. Self-discovery is more about experiences and how one responds to them, which could be expressed through uncomfortable imagery of different staged situations, and dramatised recreations.

I could seek familiarity and comfort through the concept of childhood nostalgia, which is a topic I’m familiar with from past projects, so I could look back on old photographers to develop on that work further, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson. I can portray concepts of community by photographing larger gatherings of people, such as for events or regular meetings, such as church on Sundays, etc., although I don’t feel as though this could have as much artistic value for my project.

About the theme

Observe – To observe is to notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant. The origin of the word observe comes from Latin, with ‘ob’ meaning towards and ‘servare’ meaning attend to or look at. Other similar words to observe are: watch, notice, detect, spot, perceive. On the other hand, words opposite to observe are words like: overlook, ignore, disregard.

Seek – To seek is to attempt to find (something). The origin of the word seek comes from the old English word ‘sēcan’ which means to look for something. Similar words include: pursue, strive, aim, aspire. Opposing words would be: neglecting, shunning, dismissing.

Challenge – To challenge is to prove or justify something. The origin of the word challenge comes from the middle English words ‘ kalange’ and ‘chalenge’ which means to accuse or claim. Similar words are: dare, obstacle, ultimatum, opposition, objection. Opposing words to challenge are: acceptance, obedience.

Exam Paper analysis

When analysing the theme, I highlighted specific areas that I though may be useful regarding my idea for my project.

Firstly, ‘the images were painted by firelight’ gave me the idea of incorporating elements into my work in order to create more interesting pieces. I think the elements would also act as a way to depict emotions without having any people present.

The quote that ‘artists frequently use metaphors in their work to disguise the messages’ helped to link into my idea of using certain things as metaphors, for example an idea would be to use different kinds of theatre masks as a symbolic refence to hiding you emotions when playing games.

Lastly, the idea of ‘war zones’ or ‘life and death’ can be showcased through games such as chess due to the tactical aspect behind them. I could potentially portray this through my use of lighting and the way the playing pieces are laid out.

Mind-map of ‘observe, seek and challenge’

Mood-board of ‘observe, seek and challenge’

Initial idea

My idea for this project is to focus on the theme of games and how we observe, seek and challenge through them. Majority of the time, the games we play challenge us as we try to reach or attain a certain goal. Challenges often come in the way of other players or obstacles we have to find ways around. What we seek while playing games is to win, and while most of the time there is no harm if we lose its almost as if we have an instinctual drive to want to come out on top. Finally, observation is key while playing games, whether that be observing your opponents expressions or the game itself, observation is key and is often how we end up creating strategies against them.

The games I plan to focus on are board games such as chess, checkers, cards etc. I would like to take photos of the games themselves as well as people playing the game. When taking my photographs of the games themselves I would be shooting them in different locations in order to show the viewer some sort of symbolism regarding the outcome or feeling of the game (water could be equal to losing.)

Mind-map of idea

Mood-board of idea

To introduce the project, I want to observe and find beauty within the mundane as a starting point before further developing it, as I want to share my focus with each word of the exam prompt as individual ideas. I could do this through street photography, although I feel it would work better to work with smaller areas for a composition, to appreciate smaller textures up close, similarly to the work of Rinko Kawauchi, who I could use as an inspiration and someone to study on as the project develops.

Other photographers that I’m interested in studying for this part of the project include Rolf Van Roojj, and Bart Koetsier. This is because they often act as simply an observer, not interacting or staging their surroundings, just capturing moments on the street as they see them.

For this project, I want to focus on the prompt as separate categories, as I feel that there’s more to explore with each individual word as opposed to the three of them together.

Observe:

• Watching (people, cars, moving objects)
• Change/growth (plants, developments, construction, landscape)

I could present the idea of “observe” through street photography, or even a time-lapse through a short film like Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982). I’m more interested in using street photography, as it’s something that I’m comfortable with, and I can gather a large number of images, although I also believe that it may feel too generic, whilst a time-lapse would be something new for me to learn. If not a film, I could create a large reel of photographs showing the development and growth of something. Alternatively, I could observe the change of Jersey’s landscape, using some of the photo archives at the Société Jersiaise and recreating some of their images in the modern day. I could also observe life through an anatomic perspective, similarly to the work of Suzie Fitzharris, using photoshop to create X-ray style imagery.

Seek:

• Self-discovery (new/old experiences)
• Familiarity/comfort (places I often visit/stay)
• Community (parish meetings, events, church)

To “seek” is to look for something. To represent this aspect of the project, I want to try seeking self-discovery, familiarity, comfort, and community through different means. Self-discovery is more about experiences and how one responds to them, which could be expressed through uncomfortable imagery of different staged situations, and dramatised recreations. I could seek familiarity and comfort through visiting places from my childhood, such as parks, playgrounds etc., although I would have to be careful around these areas as to not violate people’s privacy. A way around this, however, could be by visiting these places later in the day when they’re quiet or empty, or even at night, to contrast the familiarity of it.

Challenge:

• Stereotypes (gender, race, age, religion, class)
• Authority (government, people in power, protests)
• Photography (compositions, lighting, camera settings)
• Myself (experiences, behaviours, ideas)

To challenge something is to rebel against it, something that is often done by a lot of photographers and artists. When I think of the word ‘rebel,’ I often think about activism against some form of authority, whether small or large. Artists often express rebellion through subliminal messages in their work, or bold messages such as through graffiti. The style of graffiti in itself represents youth culture, something I align with, and something that I could consider searching for and finding images of. In my own work, I see myself challenging other people’s opinions and views on certain groups of people, particularly youth, but also my own views, as they change and adapt through my own experiences. I’m keen on the idea of going against what others think, as I often trust my judgement the most – for better or worse – which could actually be an idea in itself for this project, going against who I am and what I do, although this may be too complicated. Alternatively, I’m also interested in directly challenging various stereotypes, instead of the natural subtlety that usually ends up in my work. Whatever I decide to challenge, I want to do it through juxtaposition, presenting both the ‘order and disorder’ of what I decide to shoot.