Observe, seek and challenge

Observe

-Notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant

Seek

-Attempt to find something, the desire to obtain or achieve (something).

Challenge

-A call to prove or justify something, to dispute the truth or validity of.

Exam paper pages 4&5

I read through this article and underlined quotes of information I thought was interesting and useful. This includes ideas for the theme of our project but also artists who I want to look into. The route of my idea started from the starting quote I picked out from this article. ‘The human desire to seek and explore the unknown has driven artists to look for fresh inspiration’. The words ‘explore the unknown’ instantly made me think of abandoned buildings, prehistoric places in Jersey, stone circles ect.

The theme of ‘seek’ has interested me the most as I feel there’s a lot of topics to explore under it, for example, religion, unknown places, childhood, caves, street art/ murals and so on. I think the main topics of my project will be abandoned buildings, showing how nature has taken over forgotten/rundown places and possibly secret locations that are less known, although this might be hard in Jersey as it’s a small island and most places have been explored. However, I am going to experiment with this and see what I come up with.

Mind map

I created a Mind map with a range of ideas on to pinpoint all the possible topics I could explore. This opened up my ideas more.

Mood board

I created a mood board for the general theme of ‘observe, seek, challenge’. It is made up of a number of images representing different themes such as identity, social public, places of worship, location/travel, abandoned buildings, discrimination, stereotypes, animals ect.

For my final exam project based on the brief of ‘Observe, Seek, Challenge’, I want to explore the practice of street photography and immerse myself and my images in the individual style of each city I visit.

This is important to me because I am lucky enough to travel to numerous cities fairly frequently with my mum and so I would like to portray these cities in the way that I see them. As I already have quite a good archive of images from various cities I will use these, but I also plan to build on them with three more photoshoots in Edinburgh, York, and Jersey. I think that this should result in a contrast between the more busy cities such as Paris, New York, and Athens and the smaller cities and towns, such as York and St Helier.

I plan to present this in a photobook – but not a printed one. I plan to print the images at a 6×4 size and then put them in a typical photo album/scrapbook you can buy from a stationery shop to create a homemade effect, like images from a family holiday.

I will begin by editing and selecting my existing photoshoots and then I will make new photoshoots, before editing them all. I want to take traditional street photography style images, like my artist references do, of people and life in the cities. I would also like to create images that do not contain people, and instead show the city’s architecture and style, as I feel that this is just as important in encapsulating the feel of a place.

The cities I have already photographed are Paris, London, Amsterdam, Athens, New York, and St Malo. I am not sure yet whether I will present the images all together in a specific order based on complementary images or whether I will present them in chapter-like sections for each city to show the travelling between them.

I do not think I will choose to manipulate my images with photoshop, however I will be editing them slightly to create a more professional look and create more links with my artists (who shoot in black and white).

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”

‘Observe’ within Photography

”The Art of Observation: Observation lies at the heart of street photography. It goes beyond just seeing; it involves truly looking and actively seeking out the details that make a scene come alive.”

Observation involves immersing ourselves in listening and looking, taking in sounds, sights, and smells in a careful, unbiased manner. It is a key attribute of any seasoned photographer; the difference between an average photo and one that speaks to an audience in a meaningful way. From nature to urban spaces to people and objects, there are many key takeaways that artists can find by observing surroundings. Taking note of direction of light, softness of shadows, and featured colours can lead to a successful finished product.

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”
   

‘Seek’ within Photography

”Seek” in the context of photography signifies a purposeful action of actively searching for subjects, moments, or compositions to capture. It implies a proactive approach to photography, where the photographer is not merely a passive observer but an engaged seeker of visual opportunities. By seeking out interesting subjects, unique angles, or compelling moments, photographers can create impactful and meaningful images that tell a story or evoke emotions.

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”
   

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”
   

‘Challenge’ within Photography

”Challenge” in the context of photography, it represents an opportunity for growth and exploration. Challenges in photography can come in various forms, such as capturing difficult lighting conditions, mastering complex techniques, or finding unique perspectives in familiar subjects. Embracing these challenges can push photographers to expand their skills, creativity, and vision. Encouraging them to step out of their comfort zones and experiment with new approaches. Overcoming these challenges can lead to personal and artistic development, resulting in photographs that are more impactful and visually compelling.

Mood Boards

Observe

Seek

Challenge

Mind map

Observe: (verb)

1. To notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant.

“she observed that all the chairs were already occupied”

2. To make a remark.

“‘It’s chilly,’ she observed”

3. fulfil or comply with (a social, legal, ethical, or religious obligation).

“a tribunal must observe the principles of natural justice”

Seek: (verb)

verb: seek; 3rd person present: seeks; past tense: sought; past participle: sought; gerund or present participle: seeking

1. The attempt to find (something).

“they came here to seek shelter from biting winter winds”

2. ask for (something) from someone.

“he sought help from the police”

3. search for and find someone or something.

“it’s his job to seek out new customers”

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”

verb:

1. invite (someone) to engage in a contest. “he challenged one of my men to a duel”
2. 2.dispute the truth or validity of.”it is possible to challenge the report’s assumptions”

Below I have created a mind map of words in which associate with the theme of observe, seek and challenge. By doing this I have come up with many things that I could do for 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”
   Synonyms: 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”
   Synonyms: 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”
   Synonyms: dare, provocation, summons
2. a call to prove or justify something: “a challenge to the legality of the banning order”
   Synonyms: 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”
   Synonyms: 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”
   Synonyms: question, take exception to, confront, dispute, take issue with

MINDMAP

MOODBOARD

INITIAL IDEAS

OBSERVE: I want to create photographs as a form of observation; observing individuals like my friends and documenting them in a way that captures teenage life. I also want to explore capturing photographs of my family and nostalgic environments to communicate a sense of myself, drawing upon the previous nostalgia project.

SEEK: I will explore the ‘seek’ aspect of the project theme through the concept of teenage life. Drawing upon past projects of identity and femininity vs. masculinity, I want to show exploration of finding yourself during your teenage years and finding a sense of belonging within friendships. I will explore aspects of exploration and disguise through documenting teenage girls challenging elements of the male gaze.

CHALLENGE: Through my project I could aim to challenge gender stereotypes; particularly those directed upon girls and femininity. Challenging these stereotypes by creating sets of images showing typical views of femininity on teenage girls contrasting against atypical behaviours which oppose these ideas of femininity.

With this project, I want to explore the world around me, the more intricate details of nature, overlooked areas that have plenty of stories to tell, and to bring it all together in a photobook. I want to play with a variety of different styles of photography, such as street photography, timelapse photography, landscape photography, and maybe some portraiture where possible. I’m starting my project with a wider area of study, looking at a larger number of photographers and refining it to a select few toward the end of the project. I’m interpreting the theme as three separate ideas, which I intend to either bring together, or to focus on a singular idea by the end of the project. I want to develop photoshoots that hint towards ideas of observation, seeking, and challenging as their own themes, before combining them in my final photoshoots.

What is it?

Liminal space is the idea of transferring from one “thing” to another “thing” or states of being also known as phasing from one location to another, this can be explained through transport, like from your house to what ever your destinations going to, everything in-between that is liminal space. Another example is emotionally, the transition from one emotion to another (death). OR even a building that is close to built, but not quite there yet aka “something that is on the boarder of being something”. This Concept of the “liminal space”, is observable because of its ability to be observed by someone within that present moment of witnessing the event or “thing” that might be occurring or is present. But is also challenging because, it is for some people an uncomfortable state to be in or to even witness, because of its unpredictability and unknowingness it presents, “Better help” even describe the emotions liminal spaces convey as, “A liminal realm might even feel eerie, which can cause discomfort”. Liminal space can be defined in many different ways and concepts, but there isn’t any set in stone definition, more as a vivid concept that is hard to grasp, which you could also say that Liminal space is liminal space.

Where is a Liminal space?

A liminal space is once again the space between one area or “thing” to another, I’m using “thing” because it is literally what occurrence that is happening, and the space between it that defines “liminal space”. Examples of liminal space is a hallway, the space within one side of the hallway/building to the other. you could see it as the journey of the “aim”. Another example is the waiting rooms for an appointment, this could be the doctors, dentist, therapist, anything. Even a breakup is an example of liminal space.

The aesthetic of liminal space is also represented through abandoned areas, waiting rooms, empty office buildings and can easily be captured with a camera, but is challenging because of the timing, setting, and look of the image, which is commonly seen through grainy, foggy, or 1990’s – early 2000’s styled images.

Observe

The Concept of liminal space; areas that convey an eerie sense of nostalgia/familiarity.

Patterns; repetitive visuals, or frequent occurrences.

The sublime; nature, landscapes, natural but expressive areas/things.

Events; parties, meetings, festivals, common gatherings.

Society; people in their natural environment.

Seek

Freedom; areas or things that express freedom.

Happiness; things or actions that can be seen to create happiness, for example expressing it through pain, peace etc.

Peace; through nature, solitude, dopamine, serotonin.

Power; the cause for power, or gaining power (like politics).

Meaning; a hidden context behind something, even a tree, it has hidden meanings.

Adventure: Areas that show journey, with possibly no end.

Challenge

Controversy; race, gender, peoples views.

death; challenging the feeling of fear/pain.

Mental challenges; challenging temptation through addiction, illness, loneliness.

Competition; through achieving.

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