Michelle Sank

Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town Africa, but however has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity. Michelle Sank, “Insula”, Insula was a photoshoot that took place within Jersey, Gurnsey and Sark.

Insula

“Working outside of particular demographic scenarios Sank’s Jersey imagery continues to develop a lyrical vision within which the defining influences are place and cultural geography. As a stranger, present for a limited period only, Sank’s ‘residency photographs’ are of course procured under certain psychological precepts. In April 2013 when she arrived at the Archisle Project to undertake a six month residency, geographic and historical influences also loomed large. There were late twentieth century blanks in the archive to compensate, Jersey’s peculiar British-Norman cultural identity to contemplate, economy, politics, community, work, leisure, environment; these concerns together set against a twenty-first century backdrop.”

Image analysis

The location of this image is a well-known beach in Jersey, from my perspective of living in Jersey I know that this is a popular beach that many people use for many varied reasons, either being to swim, relax or just have an enjoyable time. From an outsider’s point of view, it clearly looks like this photo was taken on a warmer day, giving the reflection that these girls are there to enjoy their summers. The environment of the image gives context to the viewer, this tells a story about the people within the image. With the beach clearly being a public beach, it proves something of their social class, we can see that they may be more middle/lower class due to being on a public beach, one which is more known for being not a genuinely pleasant beach too. We can also interpret this from the girls ages and clothes, we can see that these girls may be in their teens and there clothing does not seem to be anything designer adding more to our assumption of their class and social status. Within the framing of this image, we can see the girls’ whole bodies, showing off their skin due to the warm weather, and may give ideas of their outfits to further add to assumptions of their wealth. The girls are clearly not smiling and are posed in a more formal way which gives off a completely different idea to us if they were posed in a more unformal way. I personally think Sank has posed them in this formal was to contrast their personalities, being their age and wearing those outfits in that setting almost proves how these girls may be more informal so the look of them being formal is a mind twister. Both of the girls are engaging with the cameras, giving a feel that they are looking directly as us, this can connotate to many things, people are generally scared of eye contact, and the idea of the girls staring at you almost makes you want to look away from the camera, they look with more of an angry gaze yet again adding to the peoples fear.  

This image represents a completely different idea than the last photo did. The environment and location of this image are in this lady’s house. We can see that the lady clearly has a cabinet behind her which are filled with things of more wealth and ore meaning hence why they are locked away. Being able to see this we can Invision her social status of something more of the upper class. There is a clear colour scheme going on here of the woman’s dress, her couch, and her curtains’, the colour red has many symbolic meaning’s, sex, anger, power but within this woman’s case it is symbolising something of power. We can see her whole body in frame and her whole entre environment, this gives an idea that she may be happy with her life and proud of what she owns and is wanting to show it off. This woman is looking at the camera in a formal way, but her body posture may be argued as formal or informal, she seems like more of a formal lady trying to assert her power with her body posture. This environmental image stems very differently from the last one I just analysed, proving that depending on the environment and person you are photographing they can all have completely different outcomes.