A zine is a self-published, often handmade magazine that features a collection of photographs, typically focused on a specific theme or concept. Zines can vary widely in style, format, and distribution, allowing photographers to express their artistic vision outside traditional publishing routes. They often include accompanying text, such as essays or poetry, and are created in small runs, making them accessible and personal. The DIY nature of zines fosters creativity and experimentation, encouraging photographers to engage directly with their audience.
Zine: A tool that photographers can use to tell a visual story, to inform an audience about a specific topic or issue, to showcase and advertise a new idea or simply create a preview of an ongoing project. Zines were originally called fanzines, alluding to the fans who made them.
Once you have considered the points made between the differences in narrative and story and thought about what story you want to tell about St Helier Harbour and the images that that you have made in response, consider the following:
A story can be linear or complex, with sub-plots, twists and turns, etc. A story usually answers the question “What’s going on?” or “What are the main events?” On the other hand, a narrative encompasses the entire narrative work, including the story itself, as well as the way it is told, structured and formatted.
STORY:What is your story? Describe in:
3 words
A sentence
A paragraph
Harbour throughout time
My pictures will tells a story of St Helier harbour throughout time going from the older harbour to the newer one.
The story my images will try to convey is the idea of how St Helier harbour and Jersey in general has grown and expanded. From back in the day where Jersey only consisted of one small harbour to now days where we have a newer, bigger, modern harbour. My pictures will also show how Jersey has expanded in landmass as my images show where once was sea is now land/ buildings.
NARRATIVE:How will you tell your story?
Images > New St Helier Harbour photographs
Archives > Old photographs of St Helier Harbour from SJ photo-archive or JEP Photographic Archive
Texts > Write a short introduction or statement about your picture story, image captions
Typography > creative uses of words, letters, font-types, sizes
I will convey this idea of time by using images I took of the older harbour and the modern harbour. Additionally, I will add filters over my images to enhance the idea of aging. For example, some of my images will be black and white like they would’ve been back in the day. On the other hand, some of my images will be in full colour (with some of the colours in the images enhanced to emphasise the point of how colour in photography has changed and grown). Finally, some of my images will be mainly black and white and then have one object in colour. I decided to do this in order to represent the time where colour slowly got introduced into photography.
I will also use these image from the JEP photographic archive which shows the old harbour and maps of it.
Add a selection of your final 10-16 images as a moodboard/ gallery to the blog post too, including any archive material too:
These are the images I am going to use in my zine. I decided to create my zine around the idea of time. For example, the first 6 images in my zine are black and white. This is representative of the olden days where images had no colour. Next, I decided to add some colour splash images to convey the idea of colour slowing being introduced to the photography world. Finally, the last set of images in my zine are coloured. This represents the present day. The use of different colouring throughout my zine almost acts as a timeline going from when images were only black and white to now when they are full of colour.
For this specific project, I chose to base my approach on myself and my own upbringing for no other reason than I know myself and my own story in the most detail. Therefore, it will be easier and sentimental for me to share memories from my childhood, as well as how they are still important to me today.
For my approach, I asked my mother to lend me a photo album from when I was little. I then photographed some of the most precious images of me during my childhood, and I will display them in a chronological order to give a more in depth effect, as well as showing a deeper meaning throughout my story.
Adding a filter from the app Snapseed, I lowered the saturation and temperature to add an aged Hue to the image, Altering the highlights, I aimed to make my facial features stand out more.
Adding grain to the image, this further helped add to the desired aesthetic of a grained image.
After –
Image 2:
Before:
Editing:
In attempts to make this vintage image look more modern, I tried to bring out the colours more to seem more plausible to be taken from a modern camera/phone.
brightening up the image allowed for a more natural skin tone, compared to the over-saturation which has come from the camera at the time. By also adjusting the ambiance, this created a more realistic impression of warmth of the image, since the image was taken on a sunny day.
After –
Combining the works –
To make these edits more interesting I’ve taken an abstract approach to my images by merging with a cut-out pattern within each of them.
Doing vertical lines on the image of myself and horizontal on the ones of my dad It created a really interesting composition of a checkered design where both subjects (me and my dad) are visible in their pictures.
By lowering the opacity of the image of my Dad, this was how I created that subtle fade.
Image 3:
Before –
Editing:
Using the editing settings shown, I did this in order to the bright cracks due to aging of the original photograph.
Furthermore I added a blur to image surrounding my Dads head, this was intentionally done as for my images final outcome I wanted to create an interesting effect which would become apparent when finished.
After –
Image 4:
Editing:
For this image, I had already altered it previously by converting it into greyscale, for it to work for my final project I cropped the image down and added the blur affect like my previous edit.
After –
Combining the works –
Cutting the first image in half, this allowed for me to line up the second image, with the blur effect surrounding both of our heads, this created an interesting effect, as due to the majority of the image being blurred it forces them to focus on the faces.
As a result this is what turned out.
Image 5:
Before –
Editing:
Firstly, I cropped this image to make the composition smaller and focused on what would be added to it later. With to much room I felt this would takeaway from what the outcome would look like.
Using the following settings, I altered this image to make it greyscale, but also to make parts of the clothing I was wearing stand out more once converted. To do so I mainly lowered the shadows, and increased the brightness and contrast to what suited it best.
Adding grain to the image, this took inspiration from my artist reference, John Stezaker. The aim was to create the effect of a vintage photograph which is usually the subject of his work.
After –
Image 6:
Before –
Editing:
For the second edit of the image set, I applied the same edit settings as the previous image.
After –
Image 6:
Before–
Editing:
Using a pre-set style from ski seed, This allowed the image to have that old-digital camera look which was what I hoped to create.
adding another vignette, this helped made the image look more realistic for when i added it to the final outcome.
After –
Image 6:
Before –
Editing:
Using the same settings as the previous image, I liked how this image came out, To me it really does replicate that early 2000’s camera style.
After –
Combining the works –
With Stezaker work, some of his images within images contain a ripped paper effect as if a post card has been glued on. To replicate this I found a stock image and copied the effect.
Using the Object select tool, I was able to cutout the stock image.
Combining this with the edited image, I added a drop shadow to make it seem as if the edited image looked like it wasn’t properly stuck down to the paper.
After merging the 2 I then adjusted the image to how make it seem more naturally placed like how Stezaker had done with his work.
As a result this is what turned out.
Combining the works –
Like the image before I repeated the process of cutting out the paper to have that postcard effect.
Again, adding a drop shadow, and merging the imported image and paper this then allowed me to place it in the desired place for my final outcome.
This type of photography technique is used to tell a story within a range of photos printed on one page. These photos tend to link together displaying an overall meaning/story but each image also may be unique in its own way and tell a portion of the story of its own.
It’s important to carefully choose photos that make sense within the story you are telling, if you remove a photo and it no longer makes sense then it tells you that photo was an important aspect whereas if you remove one and it makes more sense that photo would be unneeded.
Establishing shot:- This is a shot that is usually a wide shot of buildings or landscapes which could include important landmarks. The photo would generally give the audience context and an understanding of where the shoot is based or a sum up of what the piece is about
Person at work:- This is a shot that captures an image of a person who is in their work environment. It would usually involve them participating in an activity that relates to their job while the image is being taken. The background of these images are important os that the viewer gets the best understanding of what job they do (for example rails of clothing behind them and a till would explain they work in a clothing shop) as well as this, props can also help (such as a name tag with the shops name on it or a uniform)
relationship shot:- this is a shot which shows a connection between people in the image. This could be relationships such as partners, family members, or friends.
detail shot:- This is usually a shot which would focus on one aspect of an image. Usually this small factor is able to tell the story of the image by itself. The background surrounding the main aspect would be usually blurred to make sure that the main focus remains the main focus and stays high-quality.
environmental portrait:- This is a shot where the person is in their natural environment such as their home or even their place of work. It usually shows key parts of that persons life and what they do
For this edit, I first had to start by picking an image that had an obvious colour in it so that I could make it stand out with the black and white. I chose this photo as yellow is a bright colour and would pop out well.
I got the photo up on Lightroom and then turned all the saturations to -100 on every colour but yellow as that was the colour of the umbrella. this washed out the colour elsewhere in the photo, however, it wasn’t completely black and white. using the brush tool I needed to scroll down and select saturation and turn it down to -100 as I did before with the individual colours. Then I could adjust the size of the brush and drag it over my image around the umbrella. The last step I did was going back to the first step to the saturation of the colours and select yellow and increase it so that the yellow became more vibrant amongst the black and white.
For this edit, I used the AI experimentation work to get id of certain aspects of my image. As you can see in the screenshot photos, I dragged the rectangular marquee tool over the things or people I didn’t want in my image and then simply pressed the backspace on my keyboard and then ‘ok’. after a little bit of loading it then got rid of what I wanted. in some trials, the AI would distort the image which I didn’t like so I had to retry many times or just decide not to use the image.
This photoshoot was taken in St Malo where we were able to go off in groups and take photos of the various things we see. the main focus was people and making sure this didn’t involve any posing as we needed the photos to be natural and unexpected like Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photos. I decided on editing many of my photos into black and white however kept some in their original form as I didn’t want to do everything in black and white. My photos include both camera photos and also photos taken on my phone.
When taking photos on my phone, I put it into portrait mode so that after the photoshoot was over I was able to go through the photos I liked and select the main aspect of the photo so that the camera would refocus on that and add a slight blur into the background. I liked how these type of photos turned out.
When going through my photos, I decided to group them into mini photoshoots when I noticed a few similarities in some images. I really like how some of the photos turned out in the rain so decided to pick out my favourites and present them together.
Favourite photos in the rain:
I quite liked how the photos turned out in the rain and I also think putting them images in black and white was a good idea as the use of dark shades adds to the weather which is dark and miserable. I took 3 of these photos in the same place by looking around and waiting for a moment to turn up. On the bottom right image, I kept my camera positioned in the same place as many people were turning the corner at different moments and wouldn’t be expecting to pose for an image. My favourite image from this selection is the top left image.
Favourite Photos of Couples:
I really liked these images because I think it can bring across a happy feeling to the viewer by seeing two people together captured in a photo. For the top two photos I also used the skill of cropping to make them the centre of the image, the top right photo was originally more zoomed out where the couple in the back weren’t instantly the main focus so i think the way i cropped worked well as they are directly centred and very obviously the main focus.
My favourite photos in colour:
Favourite photo
This image really stood out to me and I decided to choose it as my main image. The lighting in the image is only from natural lighting but as the weather was raining at the time, the lighting is limited as there was barely any sun. The light reflection non the bench further shows the viewer that the weather is wet and rainy as it may not be clear to them instantly. The angle I used was directly next to him but not as close as I didn’t want to be noticed and have him look at the camera. So I simply zoomed up on him from a small distance away. This phot was taken on the camera but I also partially edited it on my phone by using the portrait mode to but the man in focus and blur the background.
I decided to make this image black and white to match the overall feel of the image. The dark tone, rain and emotion shows how black and white would work better than keeping the image in colour.
I think this image would make the viewer feel quite sorry for the man because with the involvement of the weather, darkness and his expression it gives the image a bit of a sad feel to it. The man in the image is sat alone on a bench in the rain with his head slightly tilted down but his eyes are looking off into the distance. I like this because it gives the viewer a chance to imagine what he’s seeing or what he’s feeling and wonder what his story is.
Henri was born on August 22, 1908 in Chanteloup, France. He grew up in a wealthy family in France. It was in his early life that he was introduced to the arts. Cartier-Bresson developed an early love for literature and the arts since creativity was certainly a part of his DNA as his grandfather, uncle and father had been involved in some shape or form. Starting with painting and being drawn to it the most, Bresson soon discovered photography which he described as an extension of drawing and an extension of his eye. He used photography as his way of interacting with the world, he travelled extensively from Europe to Africa and explored many different cultures within his photography work. “I adore shooting photographs,” he’d later note. “It’s like being a hunter. But some hunters are vegetarians—which is my relationship to photography.” His effort and work with photography shaped his outlook on life and he believed that photography isn’t just about images, its about capturing the essence of existence. This is what became his founding of ‘The Decisive moment’
‘The Decisive Moment’ became an unintentional motto which later defined Cartier-Bresson’s work.
Henri Cartier Bresson was known for using a Leica rangefinder with a 50mm lens. this is because in his time, they were a revolutionary piece of equipment. they were compact, reliable and consisted of a discreet design instead of being large and noticeable like an ordinary camera in that time. This meant he was able to capture photos unnoticeably and be hidden while he took the photos which is essential for street photography.
What is the Decisive moment?
Cartier-Bresson presented this idea in his own book which became widely considered to be one of the most important photobooks of the twentieth century. Often described as ‘A bible for photographers’. The book was quite literally about taking pictures in a dynamic and moving world. It was the moment “when the visual and emotional elements of reality captured in the photograph align in perfect synchrony.” It’s the split second when the story, composition, and emotion culminate into a singular, powerful image.
This one particular photo taken by Cartier-Bresson is the perfect image to demonstrate the decisive moment. Bresson took this image while he was passing a contruction site and took the image by simply holding the camera meaning he had not set up any tools in order to capture this, it was simply just an in the moment image. Further evidence of this was that bresson had cropped this photo as he had taken it in between a fence which was visible on the original image. The lighting in this image is natural lighting as the use of shadows and reflections tell us the sky is what is creating the brightness in the image. The reflections further show the decisive moment as you can see how close the persons heel is to the ground and how the shot was captured just before it came into contact with the water.
