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.
The word observe means to notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant. Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. In photography, observation takes on a deeper meaning, going beyond merely looking at subjects to truly seeing and understanding them. This can be understood in terms of the standard process of a scientific inquiry using observation. Firstly, there is the fieldwork (which is where you have to capture the object of your inquiry and collect the data). In photography, this is the shooting part. Photography here is taken as a method, partly incorporated into the camera and partly implemented by the photographer. Secondly, you have to analyse and interpret the data. This translates into photography as shown: How do we read photographs? What do we see (or fail to see) in them? Lastly, you have to write about your findings, a doctoral thesis or a scientific article to be published in a well-ranked journal. Scientists using photography do exactly that. Artists show their work in exhibitions or publish books, trying to please their audiences or otherwise offer them an interesting experience.
The word seek means to attempt to find something. Similarly, it also means attempt or desire to obtain or achieve. Seeking in photography is about exploring deeper layers of meaning, expression, and connection through the lens. It involves experimenting with different styles, techniques, and subjects to uncover a unique perspective, while engaging with both the technical and emotional aspects of the medium. By reflecting on your work, studying the work of others, and pushing boundaries, you can discover new ways to express ideas and capture moments that resonate with you. Ultimately, seeking in photography is a continuous journey of self-discovery and creative growth.
The word challenge is a call to someone to participate in a competitive situation or fight to decide who is superior in terms of ability or strength or to dispute the truth or validity of something. Challenge in photography is an opportunity for people to address a question, tell a story, or convey meaning through an image they have created.
The theme observe, seek and challenge refers to humankind’s desire to seek and explore the unknown, driving artists to constantly seek new inspirations and materials to use. For example, artists used to create cave paintings which is now translated into graffiti. However, graffiti is actively looked down upon and covered up whereas cave paintings are seen as sacred and preserved, despite the two being closely related. This theme also involves peoples desire to unravel the working of the human psyche and understand the nature of consciousness, resulting in the creation of challenging and contentious images. Other artists are often inspired by the actual physicality of the human body, such as the South African artist Walter Oltmann whose piece Bleeder explores the body’s myriad networks of blood vessels. The diversity, complexity and geometry of nature also inspires artists and designers. For example, Richard Diebenkorn’s aerial inspired landscapes explore the macro world of colours and forms, created when nature is manipulated by agriculture and industry. Artists have also challenged the ideologies and conventions of their respective times through their work. Many revolutionary movements have generated specific, politically motivated artwork, primarily for propaganda purposes. Communist posters from the beginning of the 20th century, used imagery that championed notions of equality and working-class power. These illustrations generated a potent archive that continues to inspire contemporary graphic illustration. Producing art that questions the authority of kings, dictators, religions and political ideologies is a risky endeavour. Artists frequently use metaphors in their work to disguise the messages; some of these are blatant, others are obscure. Artists may also undertake hazardous journeys to capture the imagery of exotic and unusual locations. Some documentary photographers continually place themselves in dangerous situations, such as war zones, to record and capture the reality of these conflicts. For example, the work of photographers Tim Page and Dick Halstead has completely dispelled the myth of the glory of battle. In contrast, wildlife photographers have often captured the struggle of life and death that surrounds us on a daily basis.
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.
Mood Board
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.
Image Analysis
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.
My personal study will be looking at binary opposites, specifically old and new. I will do this through comparing old photos with new ones that I have taken in a similar way to these old ones. My project will relate to nostalgia as it will be looking back on old memories and tying to capture them again within new photos. I will focus on observe, seek, and challenge within my photography through observing old photos, seeking new photos through creating them, and challenging the concept of time by showing the effects of it on things such as people and the environment.
Binary Opposites
Binary opposition is a pair of related terms which have opposite meaning, for example good and evil, man and woman, black and white. The two terms I will be focusing on are old and new.
Theory of Binaries
According to the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, meaning is often defined in terms of Binary oppositions, he stated “one of the two terms governs the other.” For example the binary opposition of male-female, where the male is often seen as the dominant gender and women are subservient. This is linked in with the patriarchy, a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist in the 1900s, he proposed a theory of ‘binary opposites’, this believes that the majority of narratives in media forms for example books and films contain opposing main characters. These binary opposites help to thicken plot and make a story more interesting. These opposites can be used within photography to make more interesting projects.
Joanna was born in Poland and is based in London, Piotrowska has an interest in domestic spaces and man-made environments. For one series of works she asked people in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Warsaw and London to build makeshift shelters in their homes and gardens, subverting childhood play. Other works present gestures and movements from self-defence manuals, implying violence against women as well as their empowerment. Her photographs and films relate to self-protection, psychophysical relationships and the power dynamics underlying how we relate to each other.
Joanna’s psychologically charged work explores human relations and its gestures of care, self-protection and control. Although her photographs feature everyday motifs, they do not show ordinary or candid situations. As the curator George Vasey points out: “Each image resists easy assimilation, like reading a book with the pages torn out, the images are enigmas.”
Her photographs investigate human behaviour and the dynamics of familial relations, exploring intimacy, violence, control, and self-protection. The artist reveals moments of care as well as hierarchies of power, anxieties, and imposed conventions that play out in the domestic sphere. In the Franticseries (2016–2019), Piotrowska invites her subjects to construct makeshift shelters in their own homes out of readily available domestic objects. While reminiscent of the innocent children’s activity of fort-building, the proposed activity also exposes the home as a space loaded with complex emotions and embodied memory. The black-and-white photographs in Piotrowska’s Self-Defence series (2014–15) depict young women, most often in their bedrooms, performing gestures and actions from self-defence manuals, implying the structural violence against women in a patriarchal society as well as the possibility of rebellion against such a culture. Through these unsettling images, Piotrowska challenges conventional narratives of the family and the home and their tension with the reality of the wider socio-political realm.
The performative aspect plays a fundamental role in the construction of the artist’s work. Piotrowska asks her subjects to perform certain actions and they respond actively in order to let psychological structures and conditionings emerge. The resulting images may look awkward or potentially disturbing, the psychoanalyst and writer Anouchka Grose suggests: “While Piotrowska’s photos might initially look sinister, it’s also easy to imagine the subjects suddenly bursting into laughter.” Piotrowska’s work investigates the interaction between the human body and the environment, which is charged with social, political and anthropological issues. Through exaggeration the artist challenges seemingly obvious settings and assumptions, such as the common equation of home=family=safety. Her work thus invites viewers to reconsider certainties that were taken for granted.
Image Analysis- Untitled 2022
In terms of this image I think it captures connection really well, as simple as the image is in terms of the elements and editing it’s very neutral. Looking at the image it portrays that their is a larger message behind it despite the very obvious outlook and composition. The gesture is staged and this can focus on the suspended moment of an encounter between two realities that are condense into image with multiple meanings and that can be interpreted in one way or another.
The images created by her. whether captured in photographs, on film or which come to life in front of the viewer in the form of performances/ installations are wrapped in a sense of ambiguity despite the fact that everything is in plain sight.
An encounter between two people, between those who perform and those who undergo an action, with an invisible enemy, between human beings and objects, and even when the upholder is a single person, the gestures or the pose call up a doubling, showing the essence of Joanna ’s work to be found in the inner investigation that operates in different contexts.
In the series of photographs Enclosures, started in 2018, the human figure is absent, even if the project is in continuity with the reflection developed in the previous production in which the body is the upholder.
From this shoot, I ended up with 17 good shots. I need to go onto to edit these shots now as again the lighting proved tricky.
Edit One
I liked this shot, the texture from the tires to the repeated pattern from the spokes and chain. It is similar to the previous shoots detail shots meaning the shoots link together.
Edit Two
Having previously done a similar photo in the last shoot I liked the idea of having a similar photo from a different shoot, linking the shoots and subjects together. I chose the black and white as it added tone to the image, taking away the yellow tinge to the photo. It also highlighted the texture of the mud on the bash guard.
Edit Three
This photo needed cropping, as while it was composed well it would work better with the frame pulled in. the black and white is becoming a common theme throughout these photos as actually the colour doesn’t add much to the image, in fact it is a stronger photo in black and white as it counteracts the lens flare in the corners as it takes away the green colour making the lighting softer.
Edit Four
Unlike the previous photos, I trialled this photo in black and white but found it to work better in colour. Having kept the photo in colour I then increased the blues on the colour mixers as well as increasing the shadows to make the background a deeper black and decreasing the highlights to remove some of the glare from the white plastics. This helped the photo have a bright, vibrant colour, capturing the colour of the bikes graphics, similarly to how, in the previous shoot, I captured the true colour of the cars paint.
Edit Five
I went for a similar approach in this photo, by again increasing the shadows and decreasing the highlights. Following on with an increase in luminance in both blues on the colour mixer panel. This helped bring out the Yamaha blue on the plastic panels, highlight the Yamaha badge on the black plastic panel. It also benefitted the ‘rainbow’ on the exhaust, bringing out details specific to the bike in the photo.
Edit Six
This shot needed very little work but I did want to highlight the ‘WR’ just off centre in the shot. I did this by increasing the shadows, contrast and whites. Following with decreasing exposure, highlights and blacks. This helped bring out ‘WR’, the blue texture on the seat and the blue washers. All of this helped pull the rest of the shots together, having the same blue colour and neutral lighting, focused, detailed shots.
Edit Seven
This shot was trickier to edit as I wanted to highlight the ‘rainbow’ as I had done previously but I needed to make sure the chain didn’t end up looking too rusty as it’s actually gold in colour not rusty. Surprisingly by reducing the exposure and the highlights it made other details pop out, like the blue of the suspension spring and the blue washer again. All these features help pull the photo together and make sense of the composition of the shot.
Edit Eight
Originally I wasn’t sure I liked this shot, it seemed a bit of a throw away shot, but I liked the use of the foreground to pull the handle bars and wrist guards out of focus while keeping the seat and tail in focus. It created this double focused image, as you saw the seat and then flowed the line from it to the handle bars adding deeper depth to the photo. I changed the photo to black and white because it added so much to the tone of the images, the plastics panels allowed for large, smooth panels of different shades of grey. This only added further to the photo as while my tone is fairly low contrast for the black and white shots this ones had so many shades of grey it was interesting to look at and highlighted each section of the bike.
Edit Nine
Alternately I actually did like the raw shot, however to keep it blended with the rest of the shots, I increased the shadows, decreased the highlights and changed the blues on the colour mixer. This not only kept the photos consistent throughout the shoot but it solidified details, like the ‘WR’ and the blue parts of the bike that were otherwise washed out in the original image.
Edit Ten
Normally I’m not a fan of colour pop edits. However when I first saw this photo my first thought was, ‘what would this look like if I used a colour pop technique?’ To do this I went onto the colour mixer and reduced the saturation on every colour other than blues. This worked well, showing the details of any bikes graphics and highlighted the blue parts on the bike. It made for a strong image as in the previous shots I was trying to highlight the blue parts of the bike as it links to my mothers car and is specific to this bike being a Yamaha. This shot also won’t look out of place as the blue on the seat softens the black and white with blue elements. Having edited many of the previous shots in black and white this helped this shot blend in, keeping the tone the same as the previous shots helped as well.
Edit Eleven
This photo, was tricky. Again I struggled with the yellow lighting in this shot, I also found I didn’t really like the shot. It had potential but I found the background distracting and made the shot look unfinished. I went onto to try the photo in black and white but it didn’t help, however I then tried using the masking brush tool. With the tools exposure lowered I then coloured over the background to darken the distractions. This hugely benefitted the photo as it polished the image, creating more of a studio setting.
Edit Twelve
This shot is the same composition, just slightly zoomed in as the previous shot. However when editing it I wanted to keep to background as it is less distracting than it was in the previous shot, and in fact the soft lighting factors and soft grey tones benefit the photo. I did make this shot black and white, unlike the previous one as the shots looked too similar and I liked how the soft greys make the graphics lines and patterns clearer.
Edit Thirteen
This shot is a common one within the motorsport community, I liked the shot as it shows the bike through my eyes as I normally walk up to it on the left. The black and white, again does benefit the photo as it highlights the shadow of the bike and draws the bike out from the background. Even though I changed the photo to black and white it didn’t need additional editing and already fitted fairly well with the other black and white images I’ve produced. I did move the tone slider to reduce the yellow from the lighting though, this helped keep the greys, grey rather than have a yellow tinge.
Edit Fourteen
This is a very simple shot, an angled front on shot. However it does show the bike well and the close cropped frame draws the focus to the bike as there isn’t much room for looking around the photo. I liked the colour with the blue and red contrast but the yellow from the lighting had reflected on the white plastics so I preferred the shot in black and white, highlighting the details with light tone and many greys rather than black and white.
Edit Fifteen
This shot is very similar to the previous one, but I had changed the lighting and it created a very different effect, the bike looks like it is appearing out of the background, which is what I was originally going for as I wanted to focus on the bike itself. I kept this shot in colour just pulling the tone to a bluer setting. Having kept it in colour it has allowed for the bikes colours to be seen, showing the personal choices I made to customise the bike. (red wrist guards on a Yamaha)
Overall Summary
This shoot wasn’t easy, I found the lighting tricky to contend with, as it was dark outside and I only had two small lights to move around. However I did find this taught me a lot about what I actually wanted in the photo rather than just trying lots of things with little direction. This helped pull me in direction of planning each shot before hand, moving the lighting purposefully framing each shot. I went into the shoot with the intention of getting a mixture of detail shots and full shots of the bike, similar to my previous shoot. I had liked the results of my previous shoot so I wanted to link the two together by keeping the style similar. By having very little background showing I have presented the bike without much context, this allows the viewer to see how the bike is mine as such. Like any person who likes their bike/car there are certain things I’ve changed and kept on the bike, like the choice of red wrist guards on a Yamaha (a blue bike brand) it shows the love for the bike and the personal choices I ‘ve made for it both appearance and mechanically on the bike. This is shown through my parents bike and car. I picked up a lot of my choices from them, with them both having unusual aspects to their bikes/cars or just in general unusual taste. It’s clear I’ve followed in their footsteps with odd colour combinations on the bike, this is what I wanted to capture in this shoot, not only the bike itself being one of my bikes but how my parents have influenced even the smaller parts of the bikes.
Final Photos
Having looked through the pictures I then arranged them in a grid, placing images that work well together, together. I found I had a lot more interesting detail shots than bigger picture photos, but the wider framed photos were important to provide context. With a mixture of editing styles from simple low contrast black and white images to bright, luminance colour shots to a mixture of both with colour pop style editing. I think this worked well, keeping all the photos interesting but by having three ‘set’ editing themes all the photos are cohesive, working well together to show the colours, textures, patterns of the bike which is what I wanted to achieve.
Throughout my time doing A level Photography, I have learnt lots of new skills and techniques in photography such as how to setup and use a camera based on different environments you may be in and the history behind photography. I have also come to realise that photography is more than just taking pictures: there’s a story behind each image. Whether that be someone trying to capture a memory in time which they can then look back on or discussing an issue in the world. This has made me have a greater appreciation for photography and helped to make my own images be more meaningful than just simply capturing what I see.
Still life
The first topic we covered in photography was still life. Still life is a painting/ drawing of an arrangement of objects. These typically include fruits and flowers and other objects that contrast with those textures e.g. bowls and glassware. Still life pictures are often rich with symbolic depth and meaning. It first emerged as an independent genre in the early 1600s in Dutch and Northern European paintings.
I found the still life section of photography quite interesting as I learnt about still life photography’s deep history and the symbolic meanings behind certain objects seen in images. I also enjoyed finding objects that had personal meaning to me and being able to capture them in different types of lighting eg cool and warm, and seeing how this effected the tone of the image. For example, the warmer lighting gave a warm, cosy feeling to my images that is representative of the objects seen in the image. However, I didn’t enjoy this section a lot as I felt there wasn’t much creatively I could do with these images, making them quite uninteresting to look at as a final piece. Therefore, I will probably not be using a lot of still life photography images in my personal study as it doesn’t stimulate me creatively as much as other topics.
Environmental Portraits
An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. These surroundings often help us to get an insight into that person’s life, culture and status. In most environmental portraits, the subject is staring directly into the camera creating a more personal and intimate image between the viewer and the model.
Arnold Newman was an American photographer who was well known for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He was also known for his abstract still life images. I enjoyed looking at Arnold Newman’s work as I felt as if I almost had been able to make up a whole backstory about each person purely based off of their facial expressions and environment they were in, which is what a successful environmental portrait should be able to do. I also like the fact that there is no one in the background of the pictures even in places that you would normally expect to be busy. This made my attention be purely on the subject being photographed. Finally, I like how even when Arnold Newman’s pictures are in black and white, they still manage to captivate his audience and allow for such free creativity as you try and guess what the person in the photo’s life is like.
I enjoyed the environmental portraits section of my A level photography course as I got to explore the outside world and take pictures of people from a variety of different settings and backgrounds. Although this section was a bit more challenging than the still life part as I had to ask strangers if I could take pictures of them, I found the images to be a lot more captivating to look at as you start to realise how different every person is and wonder what their stories are. I think the idea of photographing people in their work/natural environment leads to interesting pictures and I will therefore incorporate this idea into my personal study.
Studio Lighting
Rembrandt lighting is a technique utilising one light and one reflector or two separate lights. It’s a popular technique because it creates images that look both dramatic yet natural. It’s predominantly characterised by a lit-up triangle underneath the subject’s eye on the less illuminated area of the face (fill side). One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric form on the face. The triangle should be no longer than the nose and no wider than the eye. This technique may be achieved subtly or very dramatically by altering the distance between subject and lights and relative strengths of main and fill lights.
2. Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting pattern where the key light is placed above and directly centred with a subject’s face. This creates a shadow under the nose that resembles a butterfly. Butterfly lighting is often used in portrait photography, especially in headshots. Butterfly lighting is commonly used to photograph famous stars from classic Hollywood.
3. Chiaroscuro is a high-contrast lighting technique that utilises a low-key lighting setup to achieve contrast between the subject and a dark background. Chiaroscuro creates three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional plane, darkening the background and highlighting the subject in the foreground, drawing the viewer’s focus and attention.
Throughout the lighting techniques module, I learnt a lot of different lighting techniques which I will hopefully be able to use in my personal study where I will be taking pictures of people. I liked this section as I find it more interesting to photograph people rather than objects as you can move them into certain poses that you want etc which you cant do with most objects and then edit these images in a variety of ways.
Femininity and masculinity
Femininity is described as: qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of women or girls. Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gracefulness, gentleness, empathy, humility and sensitivity, though traits associated with femininity vary across societies and individuals, and are influenced by a variety of social and cultural factors.
One of the artists I looked at for this project is Claude Cahun. She was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. She is best known today for her surreal self-portrait photographs which show her dressed as different characters. Cahun staged images of herself that challenged the idea of the politics of gender which can be seen throughout her work.
I also looked at Cindy Sherman who was born in 1952 and is an American artist who’s work consists primarily of photographic self portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Sherman was always interested in experimenting with different identities and has continued to transform herself, displaying the diversity of human types and stereotypes in her images. Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model.
This was one of my favourite sections in photography as I got to cover a real issue in society through my photographs. I found it fascinating learning about the ways women have been presented in the media throughout history and also challenging these stereotypes of males and females. This has lead me to choosing identity as the theme of my personal study as I feel I could cover the idea of femininity, masculinity and stereotypes whilst also experimenting with different things associated with identity eg your heritage and the idea of people feeling as though they need to disguise who they really are (which I didn’t get to do in this section).
Landscape Photography
Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on human-made features or disturbances of landscapes. Many landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in the pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature, devoid of human influence—instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light. landscape photography is a broad genre which may include rural or urban settings, industrial areas or nature photography.
For this project, I looked at Ansel Adams who was an American photographer and was the most important landscape photographer of the 20th century. Adams’s most important work was devoted to what was or appeared to be the country’s remaining fragments of untouched wilderness, especially in national parks and other protected areas of the American West. He was also a vigorous and outspoken leader of the conservation movement.
I also looked into Robert Adams who is an American photographer who focused on the changing landscape of the American West. Robert Adams was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1937. His refined black-and-white photographs document scenes of the American West of the past four decades, revealing the impact of human activity on the last vestiges of wilderness and open space. Although often devoid of human subjects, or sparsely populated, Adams’s photographs capture the physical traces of human life: a garbage-strewn roadside, a clear-cut forest, a half-built house. An underlying tension in Adams’s body of work is the contradiction between landscapes visibly transformed or scarred by human presence and the inherent beauty of light and land rendered by the camera. his work also conveys hope that change can be effected, and it speaks with joy of what remains glorious in the West.
I found this project to be more interesting than I initially thought as I got to explore different places around Jersey and see the vast amount of different environments all around me which I would normally take no notice to. However I found the editing process of this project to be quite boring and repetitive as I was only making the images either black and white or adjusting different settings on Lightroom.
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans. The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time. In simple terms, it describes the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet.
For this photoshoot, I decided to photograph central London as it is a very heavily built area which I think successfully shows how human kind have expanded and built on the Earth, destroying it of its natural beauty- that has to be ruined in order to make room for these masses of buildings. I focused on photographing areas with lots of buildings joined next to one another
For this photoshoot, I decided to get to higher level grounds and take images of the view I saw before me. I noticed that everywhere I looked was very urbanized and there was a severe lack of natural landscape, highlighting to me the idea of how humans have negatively impacted the Earth by constantly expanding on it and not embracing the beauty we already had.
For this photoshoot, I visited different zoos and took pictures of the various animals which are trapped there. This photoshoot was inspired by Zed Nelson who is often seen taking pictures of animals in zoos and highlighting this idea of a false landscape being created in order to mimic the animals’ actual habitats. The problem with this being that we are destroying these animals’ actual habitats in order to replace them with manmade ones which are evidently too small for them.
I really enjoyed this project as a whole as I got to photograph buildings in London, which were much more advanced and grander than the buildings seen in Jersey, and different animals in the zoo which is something I hadn’t got the chance to photograph yet. I also found it interesting to learn about how much humans as a species have expanded on the Earth, leaving us with hardly any natural landscapes for animals to live in left.
The decisive moment
Henri Cartier-Bresson described the decisive moment as the exact instance when a unique event is captured by the photographer – when something that may never happen again is frozen in the frame. The concept of the decisive moment implies that in the constant flow of events, there are moments in which the arrangement of everything within the frame is perfect. These moments are always spontaneous, so a photographer must be ready to click right away. As part of capturing the decisive moment, Henri took photographs of people who weren’t aware they were being photographed in order to capture their real behaviour instead of them becoming aware of the camera and changing what they’re doing/ how they are posing.
Like with the other projects involving photographing people, I enjoyed this section of the course as I got to photograph people being their natural self and not putting on a façade as they’re aware their being photographed and have to come off in a certain light. I also got to be very creative with my edits in this project which produced images I really like. I think this idea of the decisive moment would be a good idea to use in my personal study on identity as in these images people aren’t putting on the front they would if they knew they were getting photographed.
St Helier Harbour
Saint Helier Harbour is the main harbour on the Channel Island of Jersey. It is on the south coast of the island, occupying most of the coast of the main town of St Helier. It is operated by Ports of Jersey, a company wholly owned by the Government of Jersey. For this photoshoot, I walked around St Helier Harbour: exploring both the old and new aspects of it.
Overall, I found this part of the course not as interesting as other parts as I didn’t find much interest in learning about cod and the history of fishing in Jersey. However, I did become more enthusiastic when taking photographs as I got to see parts of the harbour I hadn’t seen yet and got to photograph some people who worked around the area where I got to get a sense of what life was like for these people.
Mirrors and Windows
A mirror photograph reflects a portrait of the artist who made it. Its a “romantic expression of the photographers sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of the world”. Some words that are associated with mirror photographs are: subjective and naturalistic. In mirror images, the artist expresses themselves and focuses on exploring themselves as a person rather than the exterior world (as seen in windows). On the other hand, window photography is where an artist explores the exterior world through photography in all its “presence and reality”. These images help those who are looking at it to understand the world further.
I found the idea of mirror and window images interesting as I came to realise the idea of images being not just one of the two but both. For example, I could use this knowledge in my personal study as I could take an image of an object which has personal meaning to someone making it a mirror image but also a window image as the photograph itself is just of an object which is objective as first glance and looks as if it has no trace of humankind in the image but as you look deeper into the reasoning behind the photograph, you can see aspects of a mirror image too.
Alicja Brodowicz, a Polish photographer, has spent the last couple of months working on a project combining parts of the human body with elements of nature in order to emphasise our unique relationship with the natural environment as well as the beauty of the human body
She photographs the human body – the microcosm. Its’ fragments: hair, scars, the texture of the skin, wrinkles. She is also interested in individual particularities; she looks for distinguishing features and irregularities. Imperfections are my favourites.
Alicja also photographs nature – the macrocosm. The surface of water, grass, tree bark, dry leaves. She combines the two images, looking for converging lines, textures, similarities in layout, and analogies in composition between the microcosm and the macrocosm. Looking for unity between the human body and nature.
Alicja is a great fan of classic black and white photography. When she started taking photos and photographed my daughter a lot, my greatest inspiration was Sally Mann. Later also discovered Anders Petersen – she loves all of his works. She is also a big fan of Josef Koudelka, especially the photos of Gypsies. She also greatly admire Jacob Aue Sobol and Pentti Sammallahti – the simplicity and elegance of his work.
This series was different than my other projects because it was conceptual. I usually just take the camera and wander about and take photos without thinking too much about the process. In the case of this project, I usually had the idea in my head in advance, before I started photographing and even though it changed a number of times in the course of my work, the initial concept had to be there first.
She states that “The series of photos is the visual re-enactment of my ever-increasing desire of being close to nature. The older I grow, the more intense this desire is. It is also the expression of my growing concern for the environment and the human impact on it. By combining images of the human body and elements of nature I am trying to show that we are inter-connected and that our separate existence is impossible.”
Image Analysis-
In terms of this image I think it really conveys the similarities between skin and natural being vs nature discussing the notions of belonging as well, this is especially prominent in Alicja’s work and what kind of elements she presents throughout it. Looking at her work I can questions that the sequences of image and composition can have many meaning s an symbols as though the similarities in detail. Her work explores themes of identity and human emotions and I can clearly see this. In this specific image the themes of femininity isn’t really explored as for the viewer it’s unclear whether the hand and veins are of a male or female body. Words that I could describe her work is: Unsettling, Unusual, Interesting, Detailed, Specific and Personal.
I think im gonna interpret and take inspiration from her work as it relates to my project of relating skin/natural elements of the human body and how it relates to family, identity and home.
