For this photoshoot I am going to focus on colour, looking at how colour can create interesting contrast between two different subjects. Unique forms and compositions will be created from this highlighting bold shapes and patterns overall producing very visual and attracting images. Inspired by Saul Leiter I want to explore this concept of colour, perfect compositional elements like lines, peoples silhouettes, to shadows, which all come together to produce this very visual and attractive image. I want to create interesting and unusual contrasting elements between the subject and background with that being railings, coloured wall, shop windows (reflections and shadows), signs and posters to wording. Through this I will capture unique formations of patterns and lines that will be emphasised against the subject. I want to create a narrative between this having the subject relate to these features displayed in the background. I feel this will create depth and meaning, as the viewer will question why the subject is positioned the way they are in front of this, what they are thinking, is it revealing something about the subject. Capturing the subject in front of signage to prints and letters, I want the subject to pose in such ways that communicate a response of this that clearly shows a relation.
I want to stage aspects of this photoshoot, like posing the subject: leaning against the wall, in front of windows – so the reflection is visible, wearing contrasting outfits between the subject and background. I am going to make this photoshoot about my sister, in a way that still follows the genre of street photography and capturing unstaged moments. However I feel like having control over aspects of this, shown through the clothes worn, expressions, and poses, will create a visually appealing series of images, which all link together to create this interesting narrative and meaning which will draw the viewer in. I am going to photograph her in a series of locations throughout the streets of st helier, during late afternoon to evening. At this time very strong compositions will be visible, with interesting shadows and tones coming out through this. I feel at this time of day and it being winter will create an interesting atmosphere as it already creates a dimmed and sharp tone. So by having the subject dressed in bold colours and styles of clothes, photographed against a contrasting background, will emphasise this concept. Then using adobe lightroom to further develop this, to bring out these tonal colours and shadows inspired by Saul Leiter.
Capturing different features I find along the streets and come across including signs, bold prints, arches, contrasting background (walls, doors, windows, railings) will come together creating these contrasting features, mixing with the diverse colours and shapes which never fails to attract the viewer.
What I am going to look for:
Mirrors, window reflections, puddles (where reflections are shown), contrasting features (architecture, trees, people, bold colours, lines, shapes, colours and patterns.)
Saul Leiter Inspiration:
Lee Friedlander inspiration:
Developing photoshoot:
Using lightroom, I am going to make adjustments where colours, texture, lines, contrasting tones and brought out through interesting architectural buildings (as background) and silhouettes. I like how leiter uses things like windows, doors, sides of walls as a frame, creating this focus around the subject itself. I love this effect as this interesting form leads you into the silhouette of a person that blurred.
Josef Sudek was best know for his photos of the streets of Prague and dubbed the poet of Prague for this very reason, However, He started out his life as a bookbinder and getting his certificate at the age of seventeen. Sudek began to experiment with a box camera and became fond of self portraits. Taking his camera with him during the acts of world war two he produced three albums, however he lost his right arm while serving. After the war Sudek turned to photography.
Heavily influenced by Impressionism, Pictorialism, and Czech Poeticism, there is a romantic flow to Sudek’s images where the glass and roses meld into one to transform what once may have been mundane, to have a grace in which would have gone unseen before. In every image the light has been carefully used to add a glow to the subjects.
“Everything around us, dead or alive, in the eyes of a crazy photographer mysteriously takes on many variations, so that a seemingly dead object comes to life through light or by its surroundings….to capture some of this – I suppose that’s lyricism.”
Josef Sudek
Sudek used objects such as flowers, egg shell and glasses of water to carry meaning through his photographs. He would often work with material in his studio, sometimes on commission but in later years as photographic exercise and investigation. His still lives were undoubtedly inspired by his large collection of paintings, books and by his relationships with painters in Prague.
Using the app Snapseed on my phone, I was able to use their filters to create both a realistic depiction and more time-period based aesthetic of some of my images.
Lightroom & Photoshop –
Gun Crew:
Before:
Using the Image without me as a base Image the aim was to recreate the original photograph by layering the different positions of myself to replicate the look of the gun crew. By syncing the images to the same editing settings I aimed to create the old Yellowish texture and hue photographs from the past contain.
With this image as my reference, I tried to recreate it to the best I could.
Editing:
Using the following settings I was able to create the desired aesthetic that makes use of its low tones to contrast brightly against the limited but bright light.
Outcome:
Now edited I was able to merge these images to replicate the original image using photoshops object selection tool to layer the images of myself into one.
After:
Overall I am happy with the outcome of this Image. With the overall composition creating an interesting story, I find my inspiration from both the the original reference Image and the artist inspiration from Paul M Smith are faithfully recreated in my own piece of work.
Ammo Inspection:
Before:
Like the previous Image, the aim for this image was to create a scenario that would occur within the life of the fortress. With the Bunker being remade to look how it did 80 years ago, this helped create the immersive aesthetic which I believe added to to its overall mise-en-scene through the additional use of props and costumes.
Editing:
Using the following settings I was able to create an contrasted tone of stone grey’s and almost a sand-like white, to me this was creative in its own appearance, whilst still paying homage to the older appearance of photographs of that time.
Outcome:
From this I was then able to repeat the process of using photoshops object selection tool to create ‘clonified’ versions of myself.
After:
I Like this outcome as it recreates a plausible scenario which would occur within the bunker, with difference In headwear and accessories I feel that this image helps to separate the 2 ‘Me’s’ and creates an detailed level of immersion.
Crew Room:
Before:
With the more serious areas of the bunker being covered I thought I’d try to cover the more relaxed types of images you’d see in a bunker such as communal living and sharing the limited utilities offered.
Editing:
Using these settings I tried to create an Image with some colour, with the warmth of the photographs already with its brown and orange wood panelling as a backdrop, this acted as a stepping stone to achieve this, through the following edit settings
Outcome:
After:
With this intended candid style, I feel it creates an interesting atmosphere and aesthetic to the image, with the me on the right having a partially obscured face, like some of the other images I have made, to me, it creates a level of realism to the peculiar concept of Paul M. Smiths work I have chosen to base my images off.
Spent cases room:
Before:
With these Images here I wanted to try and continue this intended candid style, with some minor influence from Henri Cartier Bretton with use of motion blur. With the centre image, this was inspired by this photograph in particular.
‘Behind the St. Lazare’, 1932 – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Editing:
Using the settings shown I created the basis of tone, shadow, high lights and etc. This was to create that ‘Stoney’ colour like within Cartier-Bressons photograph.
Outcome:
Now edited I could now merge them into an image to create another ‘scenario’ photo.
After:
With the use of different props, poses and uniform diversity I feel as if this shows a creative mise-en-scene into the idea of my project and how I aim to show the lives of Jerseys occupiers in World War 2.
Command Phone:
Before:
Straying away from some of the multi-crew photographs I’d thought I would try some individual shots as sort of filler photographs between the main edits.
Editing:
Using both a gradient filter an exposure brush, I touched up on some details I thought were lacking towards the left side of the photograph.
After:
With a section of my influence based on the work of Michiel Peters, I aimed to recreate his images that feature a low-saturation to create a sense of drama and grittiness.
Field training:
Before:
With this image being a large one to recreate, I tried my best to copy out the poses and appearances of the individuals of each man within the original photograph of the training exercise.
Editing:
Using a blank image of my location as a basis, I edited it to my liking and then applied these settings to the set of images I wanted to implement into into it.
From this, I then used photoshop to merge them into one by cutting out myself into layers and piecing them together.
Adjusting them slightly to fill the gaps I then flattened the image to make it whole.
After:
As a result, this is what turned out:
Overall, I am very happy with this image, as editing the multiple ‘Me’s’ proved to be quite difficult. There is still some minor faults such as repetitiveness with the headdress and of course myself however this came at the expense of uniform accessories such as other hats or caps they would have worn. Cropping of the feet to was also hard, as wind direction and changes made from moving about made the lower parts seem less in quality compared to the upper, however if decide to crop by the calves this can be avoided.
Combat Exercise:
Before:
With these Images, I aimed to show my inspiration from Paul M. Smith and his series ‘Artist Rifles’. With his photograph of multiple clones of himself making an assault charge, I found that replicating this would be perfect within the types of battle trainings the Germans had on the island.
Editing:
Editing these images, like the ones previously, I applied them to my selected photographs.
Outcome:
From this, I then was able to edit this further in photoshop by merging them together to give the impression of a combat exercise.
After:
Placing the various me’s, I find it has resembled the photographs of Paul M Smith and his similar creative choices regarding his series ‘Artist Rifles’ very well.
‘Artist Rifles’, 1997 – Paul M. Smith.
Interlude Photographs:
With the edits making up a lot of the book, I will add some filler ‘interlude photographs between the scenario images I made. These images don’t include to much of the clone process.
Before:
Editing:
Using these settings, I tried to replicate the colour and tone of the ammunition room photograph.
After:
Overall I am happy with the outcome of this photograph as I find that it acts a good example of the more ‘regular’ experiences they got up to which, now we can still relate to such as shaving.
My intention with this photoshoot is to explore the female identity and my own identity through this photoshoot as well, just how Justine Kurland found her own identity through her work. I am going to explore the female identity and present all different female identities through my work. I want to present that the female identity isn’t just what is stereotyped, but it can be whatever you want it to be. In ‘Girl Pictures,’ Justine Kurland states that, ‘Cowboys, sailors, pirates, hitchhikers, hobos, train hoppers, explorers, catchers in the rye, lords of the flies- you name it…’ She is stating that the girls in her book were all these things. She has done this, so that she can present to the viewers that they too can be whatever identity they wish to be, no matter how different or not socially acceptable it may be. I also want to present this in my work, so that I can portray to my viewers that identity is just what you make it, instead of it being what makes you.
Through this work I also want to investigate into different stereotypes and present images that oppose these stereotypical ‘norms.’ Justine Kurland presented these girls ‘in the dominion of boys’ and ‘they were trying on a version of themselves that the world has thus far shown them was boy.’ She did this, so that she could combat against female stereotypes, so that she could present to the viewers that these stereotypical ‘norms’ aren’t just what we should be allowed to be and do, but instead girls should also be able to do anything a boy can do and act in a way that a boy would. I think this is a really important message and I want to display this message well in my work, by presenting the young girls in a more rambunctious, ‘boy like’ manor, combating these stereotypical ‘norms.’
However, I want to make a twist on Justine Kurland’s work, for my own work, and I intend on doing this, by showing a larger spectrum of stereotypes, and showing stereotypes, that are not being combated. For example, I want to display these young girls following these female stereotypical norms, just how Cindy Sherman presented these stereotypical norms, because I want to display to the viewers, and to all other young girls that may see these images, that your identity can be anything you make it, and you don’t have to feel like you have to oppose these stereotypical ‘norms’, if that is who you truly are and what your identity truly is.
I always want to explore youth through my work, just like Justine Kurland did in her ‘Girl Pictures.’ As I said I also wanted to explore my identity through this project, so to explore these two things I am going to be looking back into my youth, or my ‘Girlhood’ and replicating some of the activities I used to do in my teenage years. This will help me explore youth, especially my youth and it will help me explore my identity, to see what stereotypical ‘norms’ I followed, or didn’t when I was younger. This will also help me compare my identity back then, to it now. I think youth is also a really important aspect to explore, because Justine Kurland’s whole book was based off this idea of youth and ‘girlhood,’ so to also put a twist on her work, I am making my work more internal to me, by making it relative to my youth, ‘girlhood’ and my life. I also think that youth is a very important development stage, which helps to build your identity, so I also think it would be interesting to compare my youth, to the youth shown in Justine Kurland’s book, ‘Girl Pictures.’
During my review and reflect of all my previous blog posts and topics, I discovered that I much preferred taking pictures of people rather than landscapes, whether that was portraits, tableaux images, or street photography. However, I think portraiture is my biggest strength and what I enjoy the most.
I also found the topic femininity and masculinity a really interesting topic that I found I could write a lot about. I find researching and creating different stereotypes in my photographs the most interesting part, and I really enjoyed making my images fight against these different gender stereotypes. I really enjoyed this topic, because as a women stereotypes is something I hear and see a lot of and I feel like I could do a lot for this topic and write a lot about it, because it is so internal to me and my identity. I also enjoyed how in this topic Claude Cahun for example explored her identity, by becoming a more masculine version of herself and I feel like if I were to do something related to this topic I would also be able to explore my identity.
Artist Research Thoughts
I enjoy how Justine Kurland’s images are of young girls, because I am myself a young girl, so this is something I really relate to and is internal to me, so I feel like it would be easier for me to gather my friends to create similar images. I also feel like I could produce better images, as the topic of ‘girlhood’ is so much more internal to me, as I am experiencing my girlhood right now. I also like how she also fights against stereotypes, b getting the girls to ‘try on boy,’ which I feel like I would be able to do and create up to standard images. I am also going to explore female stereotypes, as well as opposing female stereotypes, because this is how I am going to put a twist on my photos, compared to Justine Kurland’s.
I am also going to be using the same photographic technique as Justine Kurland and Jeff Wall, which is producing tableaux images, that look like candid images. I am going to create these tableaux images in scenic outdoor environments and capture normal social interactions, that I would do in my youth. I am also going to pull ideas from the activities and the settings used in Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures.’
For my photoshoot, I am going to use Justine Kurland for my main inspiration, but I am also going to pull ideas, concepts and compositions from Jeff Wall and other Historical paintings. I am doing this, because both Jeff Wall and Justine Kurland pulled compositions, ideas and concepts from famous paintings.
I am going to pull composition ideas, such as the fore ground, middle ground and background, as well as using the rule of thirds and other compositional ideas, because Jeff Wall and Justine Kurland have used these compositional ideas, and I think they have worked very well. I am also going to use similar visual elements, such as tone, shape, patterns etc. that they have both used.
Photoshoot Plan
Justine Kurland- Girl Pictures
Examples of my youth:
During my teenage years, I went out with my friends a lot. Some of the outdoor places we would go, would include:
Harve Des Pas Beach
FB Fields
Fort Regent
St Brelades Bay
Frigate
People’s Park
St Ouens Beach
La Marrais
Town
In my car
Georgia’s shed
Campfire
The reason I am only choosing places which are outdoors, is because during my youth, I had more fun and did more things, while I was outdoors, instead of inside. I also wanted to keep the setting of my images still quite similar to Justine Kurland, because I think the images will relate to ‘Girl Pictures’ more, and will come out of a better standard visually.
During my youth I did many different activities including:
Jumping off the Lido at Harve Des Pas
Swimming in the sea
Wave surfing at St Ouens
Playing hide and seek at La Marrais
Camping at St Ouens
Have BBQ at the beach, or in gardens
Picnic
Get a snack/ meal
Tan/ chill with a book
Make a campfire
Other place ideas:
I also wanted to include settings that were used in ‘Girl Pictures,’ because I think they are visually pleasing settings, and they really help display the combat against stereotypical norms, because a dirty woods is not usually associated with femininity. Some places I have decided to include are:
Street
Public Bathroom
Field
Woods
Barn/ shed
Lakes/ rivers/ pond
Mountains/ cliffs
Walkway path
Sandunes
Roadside
Under a Bridge
Reservoir
Rocky coast
Similar Places in Jersey:
Cycling path along the avenue
Snow hill, St Ounes etc.
Field- nans garden
St Catherines woods
Georgia’s shed
Sandunes
Underground bit at harbour
Resoviour
Cliff paths St Brelade
Beach
Fort Regent park
St Brelades campfire
Stereotype Ideas:
Female Stereotypes-
Use of makeup in my images
Doing hair
Emotional shots eg. crying
Using colours such as pink
Male Stereotypes-
Strong eg. use of weights
colours such as blue
Emotional shots eg. anger and violence
Messing around
To fight against these stereotypes, I will have girls do these male stereotypes, so that I can present girls acting like boys, as well as girls presenting as more feminine, because these were some activities I did in my youth and they just happen to be more feminine.
Narrative of different Image Ideas:
Playing on swings in a park
Running down the street
Getting ready/ washing in a public bathroom
camping
smoking
eating ice cream/ other snacks
Making fires
Shooting glass bottles
swimming
playing catch
Fighting/ boxing
Hula hooping
Playing an instrument eg. Guitar
Blowing bubbles
Catching sweets in mouth
Reading books
Walking a dog
Climbing trees
Washing feet in a river
Picking flowers
Fixing a car
Roadtrip
Sand castles/ lying at the beach
Roasting marshemellows
Climbing fences
Sledging down the sandunes
Tools/ props needed:
Make up
Perfume
Hair brush
Soap
Cigerettes
Snacks
BBQ
Glass bottle
Toy gun
Balls
Hula Hoop
Instrument
Bubbles
Books
Car
Bucket and spade
Marshmellows
Sledges
Composition
Different compositions that Justine Kurland and Jeff Wall used included compositions from famous paintings, so I am also going to pull ideas from famous historical paintings to create some of my photos. I am also going to pull ideas, concepts and compositions from Justine Kurland’s work and Jeff Wall’s work.
Some example of historical paintings that I am going to pull ideas, concepts and compositions from are below:
Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret, The Burial of Manon Lescaut.
Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s world 1948.
I want to take inspiration from these paintings, not only because they have a good composition, but because they also tell a story, which I could tell through my photographs, but make it applicable to modern times, and to the subject of identity and youth, because that is what I’m exploring.
Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret, The Burial of Manon Lescaut.
For this historical painting, I am going to take a picture of the same composition and actions. I am going to have one of my friends lying down being buried, like the women in this image, and have another friend burring her, but the concept behind my photograph is going to be different to the concept of the painting. In the painting the man is burring the women after she has died, but in my photograph I am going to make a modern version of this painting, and I am going to relate this photograph to my theme of youth. I am going to do this, by having the concept of my image being too young girls playing at the beach instead, because this is something I used to do when I was younger.
Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s world 1948.
For this historical painting I am going to use the same composition and setting as this historical painting and I am going to position my model in the same way. However, I am going to try and find a daisy field, so that she could be picking daisies in my photograph, instead of the concept of the painting. In the painting, she is looking into the distance at a faraway farmstead and a cluster of structures, and she is portrays the artist’s neighbor, who was unable to walk due to polio, so she would drag herself around.
For another photograph, I am going to take inspiration from Edouard Manet’s painting above, as well as the photographs Jeff Wall and Justine Kurland have made by pulling concepts, ideas, and compositions from Edouard Manet. I am going to do this, by creating a similar setting and composition as they all have. I am going to do this, by going to a scenic outdoor area that is similar to the settings they have used, such as a woods, and I am going to use the same compositional method that they have all used, with a person in the foreground, middle ground and background.
To take inspiration from these images in the best and easiest way, I am going to print off these historical paintings and my chosen artists photos, so that I can visualise what I am trying to create while I am out on my photoshoot, and so I can see them side by side.
I am also going to be focusing on my composition quite a lot throughout all my photoshoots, as I am taking inspiration from Jeff Wall, Justine Kurland and famous historical paintings. Some examples of compositional tools I use are the foreground, middle ground, background, rule of thirds etc..
I am also going to be focusing on the visual elements that I can present in my photographs, and the visual elements that are being used in the historical painting, as well as Jeff Wall’s work and Justine Kurland’s work.
Interpreting the exam themes; OBSERVE, SEEK, CHALLENGE the topic which I wish to explore is Human and Family Connections, the main artists references which I chose to take inspiration from is Astrid Reischwitz which storytells from a personal perspective, Joanna Piotrowska which focus on psychological narratives which explore human relations and Alicja Brodowicz which combines elements of the human body with elements of nature a well. In terms of my final outcome I would like to produce a photobook that presents all my different ideas and photoshoots that relate to one another in a sequence. I want each page to feel like a story and for the viewer to understand as it progresses.
For my personal project I want to explore themes of nostalgia, family, ageing and changes throughout life when it constantly changes. These topics matter to me as having a multicultural background the topics follow me as it grow and become older, especially dividing both my Polish and English culture into daily life with speaking the languages at home vs in education/the workplace. For me family consists of mostly older generational European members growing up in Poland, living in The Netherlands as well as South England with conflicts over family, relationships, life, world war etc. I wish to develop my project by taking photos of different peoples skin and how it ages as part of formulating the topic of Human and Family Connections. As well as taking photographs of nostalgic archival images from my parents family album including photos of them when younger and other family relatives. For my first couple of photoshoots I want to include photos of my parents, my family and separate photos of elements that are sentimental to a specific time in the moment of the past e.g. the type of flowers my mum held on her wedding day, the type of car my dad used to drive, the jewellery she would wear when I was younger , the type of embroidered table cloth that would be laid out for breakfast with Polish folk art decorated etc/ things that remind her of home, belonging and both their lives.
Swindells started taking photographs while at university in Sheffield, inspired by a 1982 exhibition of Derek Ridgers’s nightclub portraits at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. After graduating, he moved to London and got a bar job in a club which he later got fired from for taking pictures. In 1985, he started taking club portraits. Since the early 80’s Dave Swindells has been documenting London’s most influential club, rave scenes and nightlife. As Time Out Clubs Editor from 1986 – 2009 he had exclusive access to nightlife and its shifts in youth culture, styles and attitudes. Dave Swindells captured on film what it meant to be raving during the late 80s and 90s. Starting off by taking sly photos on the dancefloor instead of working behind the bar, he quickly moved up in the world of nightlife press. Swindells remained Time Out’s Nightlife editor for over two decades, getting not only an insight into capital rave scenes over time but experiencing first-hand the birth of acid house.
In the case of acid house, overwhelming numbers of clubgoers defying the police to dance all night at huge, illegal parties eventually led after new laws failed to contain them to a gradual loosening of the draconian restrictions on both club opening hours and the sale and consumption of alcohol in the UK. These characteristics have also made the nightlife scene hard to record. There are technical issues for photographers in clubs, but also issues of trust. Swindells has been able to take candid pictures in clubs like Shoom because he made himself part of the culture by turning up night after night, year after year, bearing witness without ever being intrusive.
This is a mood board of my favourite Dave Swindells images. I have chosen these images because I like how there is a mixed variation of images, for example there are people who are posing and looking at the camera but there are also people that haven’t acknowledged it. These images show nightlife through the 80s and 90s and to me show a large difference is culture, fashion and styles from then compared to now, for example the hairstyles, outfits and behaviours. These are things you wouldn’t see in the youth culture now in clubs therefore I want to contrast this and show my own version of the youth culture nightlife in my photoshoot projects.
I have chosen to analyse this image of a man in a crowd of people who stands out from the other people. He is in the centre of the image making him the focus, also the bright pink jumper he is wearing makes him stand out compared to the crowd of everyone else wearing white and black. Another thing that stands out in this image is that everyone in this image is wearing denim jeans, this shows a large amount of the fashion at the time. To me this image represents the youth culture and fun during the 80s and 90s nightlife scene.
This image is of a group of people who are raving and partying in a nightclub. this image is different from the other one as the people have acknowledged the camera and are smiling at it. I liked this difference from some of the other images because it shows the reality of what would happen if people saw someone taking a picture of them, it shows that they are having fun and wanted to have their picture taken which is a realistic factor of going out with a camera and pointing it around when drunk people see it being positioned their way, they will probably smile.
