Identity politics is a type of politics that is based in a certain identity. Things like nationality, race, religion, gender, social background, sexual orientation, social class and so much more.

Identity politics can be quiet damaging to the younger half of society as it puts pressure on those individuals to express something they do not need to express just because they want to ‘fit in’.

There are some positive effects of Identity politics which are things like, society can feel more free to express themselves as there is a more excepting community and they can also feel free to identify themselves as who they want to be, wherever they are and not be judges for it. However there is some bad effect in identity politics. As said above, it pressures young individuals to express things that they don’t even properly know themselves which causes them to feel isolated because they can’t express themselves or don’t know how to or even don’t need to express themselves.

A culture war is a cultural conflict between different types of social groups that illustrate their struggles, beliefs and their want for dominance towards individuals.

Cultural wars can significantly effect society as a whole because it can influence a wrong set of individuals and therefore cause chaos. Cultural wars can cause distrust within a society which encourages people to cluster in their cultural groups.

There is some positive effects of cultural wars because it enables a set of individuals to express the same views and feel heard and appreciated. People who cluster in these cultural groups can relate to each other and set order to things that need to be said and done. However a negative effect to cultural wars is that there is constant conflict and things can get quite serious, even deadly.

An example of identity politics and culture wars are,

Global:

The Black Lives Matter movement:

Black Lives Matter or more known as BLM is a activist political and social movement that urges to highlight racism, racial inequality towards black people, discrimination, and it promotes anti-racism. The primary concerns in this movement are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people.

It’s something that is know globally and still continues to power through, calling out anyone who’s against the whole purpose of the movement and especially making sure that those who purposefully commit such acts towards black people are to be called out.

This example is an example of political identity and culture wars globally.

Local perspective:

Something that happened locally recently was the discussion to wether same-sex marriages would be legalised. After 2 years of development and discussion, jersey is closer to legalising same-sex marriage.

The new law will encourage people to stop discrimination against same-sex as same-sex marriage will equally have the rights as an heterosexual married couple. The fact that it took 2 years for it to be nearly approved may imply that there was some type of conflict toward the whole development.

This is an example of identity politics and culture wars locally.

References:

https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter#:~:text=Black%20Lives%20Matter%20(BLM)%20is,motivated%20violence%20against%20black%20people.

https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0016241/

Jersey closer to approving rights for same-sex parents

The Plan:

• I will take photos of my subjects facing towards the camera either straight or slightly tilted, and then go into photoshop and use the select tool to select either a triangle shape or square shape on the subjects face and move it to another part of their face like their hair or forehead and the two shapes should swap. For example, if I moved a part of the cheek to the hair then that part of hair would be where the cheek is.

For this photo I used, soft lighting with the body tilted slightly off centre frame, but his head facing directly towards the camera with eyes focus into the lens with only a subtle smile but no other emotions and no other gestures.

For this photo I used a model but I pasted the same picture 3 times and with the middle photo, I made it black and white and just cropped it to the eyes then copped the final photo just from the eyes and below to create this photo montage triple eye image.

are an illusion created by layering images (or portions of images) over the top of each other. . Artist have used these techniques to explore Surrealist Ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.

The plan mf:

• subject looks off into distance, with same background he turns head, looking directly into camera with a facial expression.

Here are photos of a very handsome model with a tash of editing:

Diamond Cameo
Diamond Cameo is when four small oval portraits were placed in background in the shape of a diamond with each portrait being of the same person photographed in a different position.

Henry Mullins moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. Here he would photograph Jersey political elite (The Bailiff, Lt Governor, Jurats, Deputies etc), mercantile families (Robin, Janvrin, Hemery, Nicolle ect.) military officers and professional classes (advocates, bankers, clergy, doctors etc).

My take on Diamond Cameo:

Started by taking a few photos of each other with different face angles to recreate the diamond cameo look.

I really liked these 4 pictures of myself looking in different directions, so I used them in photoshop by copy and pasting them in, moving each photo to the correct position, creating oval shapes to go behind the photos with bevels and shadows on. Old, tea-stained paper for the overall background to give it an old look and then with the dodge tool, I lightened up parts on my neck/face.

Experimentation

In addition to the diamond cameo I wanted to try some different presentation techniques.

Double Exposure

I experimented with 2 different uses of double exposure. The first I added false colour and arranged each layer in a different spot to create an arrangement. The second I layered 4 different angles over the top of each other to distort the portrait. I reduced the opacity of these layers so that they wouldn’t be too harsh. I prefer the second one because I think that the distortion looks more interesting than the first arrangement.

Vignette

Using photoshop I added a light vignette to the corners of the portraits. The lighter backgrounds worked best only needing one layer to be visible. The dark one needed many layers which made the clothes looks overly exposed. I don’t really like how these turned out and were one of the weaker experiments this project.

Cut outs

Using these two portraits I used the triangle shape tool to select two areas of the portrait and cut out those sections. The black background is too dark and didn’t give much to choose from in terms of areas to select. With the lighter background it stands out more from the background.

Virtual Gallery

I arranged the four portraits I was using on one wall using the perspective tool. I added one multiple exposure image and the two diamond cameo images. The diamond cameo images look out of place on the wall and I think I should have made them smaller and together on one wall.

Evaluation

I compiled all the best images into my virtual gallery. I think the photoshoots inspired by Henry Mullins were the best since I had a clear plan and vision. I wanted to create some diamond cameo arrangements and at least one vignette portrait so set out to photograph similar angles. Since I wasn’t planning on creating the multiple exposure or cut outs, I hadn’t photographed with those ideas in mind so especially for the cut out images they just looked a bit odd.

Henry Mullins

I chose this layout above by choosing 2 of my best final images and adding a drop shadow and a dark blue frame.

Below is a Virtual Gallery with the Photos I hand picked.

Henry Mullins moved to Jersey in 1848, where he set up his studio in the Royal Square known as the Royal Saloon. His photography was represented in Societe Jersiase Photo-Archive, producing over 9000 portraits of islanders from 1852 to 1873.

His work was placed in various albums during the 19th century, showing individual faces and bodies of the first generation of islanders, in which he would place his clients in order of social hierachery. He would photograph Jersey Political elite, mercantile families, military officers and professional classes.

He used carte de visite to print his portraits, which was a small print called albumen print that was then sealed by egg whites, bind together with the photographic chemicals on the paper. These prints were affordable and common to many islanders, which were traded among friends and visitors, while albums and cards were also featured in Victorian parlours, during the 1860s. The portraits became very popular, which lead to the publication of portraits featuring famous people.

The four headshots Mullins captured are put together and presented in a Dimond Cameo which is a process where four separate portraits of the same subject are printed on a carte de visite.