For this photoshoot, I went with a diverse approach and used multiple locations around St. Ouens and St. Brelades. This was so that, later when the sun was setting, I had a location in mind that I thought would look best that day. This is because I believe Jersey looks the best during the golden hour, and this day was the perfect day to demonstrate that.

Location 1

The first location I decided on was La Pulente in St. Brelades.

This photo shoot was partially inspired by Joe Deal, a new topographic photographer who is known for his bird’s eye view photographs. I thought that this location was best for this because the hill looks out onto the beach, where La Rocco tower is, and the 5 mile road which leads towards the La Braye cafe. I knew I could use this in inspiration of Joe Deal because both key points in the landscape are demonstrations of the manmade world mixing with the natural world. However, I had a few ideas of my own that would differ my work from Joe Deal’s.

Firstly, I wanted to include people in my photos. Joe Deal preferred to do the opposite and removed people from his shots to make the buildings and the infrastructure the focus of his photos. However, I am taking photos of the natural beach and sand dunes rather than the manmade city suburbs or landscapes, and I wanted to show how the people of Jersey enjoy the Jersey landscape, and not how it is full of boxy eyesores like cities are.

Secondly, I wanted to include the horizon in some of my photos. Joe Deal commonly doesn’t include the horizon in his photos. However I thought that, because some of the other Channel Islands can be seen in the horizon at La Pulente, my photos would be enhanced if I did include them. I find that they add an additional point in the landscape so that the viewer can understand the distance more clearly in the photo.

In my landscape, the only obvious, city-like building I could use was the La Braye Cafe with the 5 mile road running alongside it. However, I also wanted to show in the photo that the cafe is not an eyesore, and it doesn’t ruin the landscape like a city would. Here are a few different ways I tried this.

In the top left photo, I framed the road parallel to the ocean and made the cafe quite small and out of the way in the frame. In the top right, I cropped out the cafe to see how the photo would look without it. In the bottom photo, I aimed to make a photo more like Joe Deal, so I cropped the photo into a square and enlarged the road and the cafe to make them the focus of the photo.

Best Images

Location 2

The second location I went to Les Monts Grantez in St. Ouens.

I chose this location because of the extreme storm damage to the rare trees that stand tall on the headland. Additionally, the location offers a beautiful and awe-inspiring view of L’Etacq, which is especially sublime during the sunset.

However, the view towards L’Etacq is quite misleading in consideration of the rest of the location. The trees along the edge of the headland seem untouched by Storm Ciaran, and their deep green pigment makes them appear strong and lively. However, directly behind this angle shows a different story.

This specific species of trees, also known as ‘Scots Pine’, are indigenous to Jersey, and are the only ones of their kind. As you can see, these trees are severely damaged, at a time when they should be thriving. Large branches and cut-up logs lay scattered along the ground. It was dangerous for me to walk below the trees, as parts of the trees were still falling. You can even see that the remaining greenery at the tops of the trees are permanently affected by the harsh winds of the storm.

Although most of the damage caused by Storm Ciaran was in the east of Jersey, I thought that I should show how it has also affected the west of the island. Also, I wanted to show that, even though the storm didn’t affect much of the population of Jersey, it did harm some of the most beautiful scenery in all of Jersey.

Best Images

When photographing this location, I found that this angle of the L’Etacq ‘mountain’ stood out to me.

I decided that this would be the specific shot that I would work with later in the day when the sun was setting. But in the meantime, I had more ideas.

Location 3

While at Les Mont Grantez, I saw that the tide was very low. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to work with the rocks at L’Etacq.

I used this photo shoot to try and work with a linear sense of distance. By this, I mean that the rocks and the ocean are flat, and the foreground, middle ground and background are all below the camera. When photographed it creates a flat scale which is easy for the viewer to interpret. I first experimented with this by using the rocky cliffs of Le Pinacle to fill part of the frame.

This was the best image to come out of the initial experimentation. I find that this image has a good blend of colours, and the placement of each environment in the photo is very separate and individual.

I also took this photo, which is similar to the previous one, but the rocks take up all of the foreground. I feel that this specific location is a very surreal place in Jersey. You are completely surrounded by the rocks, which are very tricky to navigate, and the cliffs at Le Pinacle provide an additional sense of sublime. However, I didn’t choose this location to be the one I would use during the sunset because I felt that this environment was better portrayed in harsh weather conditions when this tide is further up. This did end up being the inspiration for one of my later photoshoots.

Moving further around this location, I found more ways I could experiment with the flat landscape.

This was the first photo I took of this view. I was very inspired by this for three reasons. The first is the distant Corbiere lighthouse. I felt that it was a good background to include in the rest of these photos. The second was the flowing water in the middle of the frame. The water twists and turns like a river, and flows like a snake. I was also inspired by it because it looks like the river that appears in this photo by Ansel Adams.

Thirdly, I thought that the pier on the left of the frame was a great place to stand so that both the river and the lighthouse are positioned nicely in the frame. This was the photo that I got from this idea.

I was very happy with this photo. The distant lighthouse sits perfectly in the middle of the frame, and below it is the flowing body of water, that leads the eye towards the middle left of the frame, where two fishermen are walking along the side of the water. In editing, I plan to make them more obvious by dodging that part of the photo to bring up the exposure. Also, the colouring of the photo is two-tone, making it very basic and easy to look at for the viewer.

Best Images

Final Location

Finally, once the sun had begun to set, I headed back to Les Monts Grantez.

Here I produced a variety of photos, trying my best to include the different aspects of the sunset. I started by heading straight to this specific view I spoke about previously.

I had a few ideas in mind when first taking these photos. I first experimented with a few different fields of view, until I ultimately settled on the one I thought was best. Secondly, I changed where I was standing to make L’Etacq the main subject of the photo. Additionally, I experimented with landscape and portrait photos to perfect this photo. These are the two final photos I came up with for this specific angle.

I then moved onto the other side of the bay, where the Corbiere lighthouse can be seen.

I experimented with a few different angles. I found that I really liked the green tint that the sunset created. Also, I tried my best to show how the sun was hitting the clouds above. Ultimately, I found that this photo does it the best.

I then returned to the original shot that had inspired me to come back to this location to work on it a little bit more. The sun had since become unblocked by the clouds, and the greenery of the landscape was really coming out quite nicely.

I experimented with a few different angles. I mostly was trying to use the trees to lead the eye towards the ‘mountain’ at L’Etacq. I was also looking at how the sun was giving the photo a warm feeling, and I looked for certain colours in the frame that emphasised this. Ultimately, I ended up with these two photos.

I was extremely happy with these photos. They both capture the exact elegance of standing atop that headland with the life of the trees and the powerful greenery around you. The addition of the sunset creates this beautiful environment that really brings out these incredibly warm colours. I found that I was able to fill my frame up very well with everything around me. Ultimately, I finished the photoshoot there as it was getting too dark for my camera to handle.

Best Images (All of Photoshoot)

Virtual Gallery

Intro

Ansel Adams is a very well known photographer. He is best known for his incredible landscape photos that he took in the Yosemite Valley in California.

Adams was born in 1902 in San Fransisco. In his early life, he faced many problems due to a nose injury that left it permanently disfigured. Additionally, Adams was a very shy person. Because of this, Adams didn’t have a great school life, and was constantly moving schools. Eventually, Adams was homeschooled. This meant that he then had more free time to himself. This is most likely when Ansel found his love for nature and photography. It is said that Ansel enjoyed long walks in the sand dunes and forests around his home in San Francisco.

At age 14, Ansel and his family visited the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Yosemite Valley. This was Adams’s first time in the Yosemite Valley. Adams was quoted saying, “That first impression of the valley—white water, azaleas, cool fir caverns, tall pines and solid oaks, cliffs rising to undreamed-of heights, the poignant sounds and smells of the Sierra… was a culmination of experience so intense as to be almost painful”. He had taken with him a Kodak Brownie Box camera, a portable camera in the shape of a box. With this camera, he began to take photos of the beautiful mountains and flowing rivers of the Yosemite Valley.

Techniques

Over the years, Adams developed a few interesting photographical techniques. One of these was splitting the photograph into different zones, determined by the black and white gradient. This is called the ‘zone system’.

This is done by manipulating the exposure settings of the camera (e.g. shutter speed) so that there is no pure black or pure white, and all of the zones of the photo fit within the zone rule. His main rule was that you should “Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights”. Adams would do this while he was taking the photo. He also liked to use filters as well to enhance his meticulous colouring technique. It is also worth noting that Ansel used a film camera to take his photos. With a modern digital camera, this technique is more difficult to replicate because the light comes out more linearly, and exposing and developing is not possible.

Additionally, Adams edited his photos after they were taken. In a darkroom where the images would develop, Ansel would ‘dodge’ and ‘burn’ his images. Dodging the photo means to place an object above a region of the photo to block the light in the darkroom from reaching it, therefore exposing the photo in that region. Burning is the opposite of dodging, placing an outline of the region above the image so that the light in the dark room only reaches the open region, therefore underexposing the region. Ansel was known for being very good at both of these techniques, and it became a vital part of his photographical process.

Analysis

This is a photograph of the Half Dome summit in Yosemite. It is an iconic part of the Yosemite landscape, and in this photo dominates the majority of the frame. Adams did this to make the summit look as grand and massive as possible, and filling the frame with it creates this effect. This technique also makes the image appear flat and almost two-dimensional. However, Adams uses this two-dimensional appearance to fit the moon in the frame. Additionally, the summit and the moon are on opposite sides of the frame. This was most likely done to fill the frame up better, rather than having a blank corner in the top left. The Half Dome summit is also a great object to photograph. This is because the steep cliff has these long vertical lines that lead the eye down the cliff. Also, the cliff stands very tall above its surroundings, which is helpful for getting as much light as possible.

The lighting in this photo is also used rather interestingly. Because of the shadow on the side of the cliff, I can guess that this photo was taken at sunset. Adams uses the shadows to remove parts of the frame. This is done with the dark cliff on the left, and the part of the Half Dome that is outside of the frame on the right. Adams did this for two reasons. One was to create this smooth shape in the middle of the photo with the shadows. Two was to underexpose the photo to remove the detail in the shadows. This is so that the parts of the photo that are shaded are basically removed from the photo entirely, which increases the viewer’s focus on the exposed parts of the photo.

The story of this photo is quite spontaneous. It was taken while Ansel Adams was travelling through Yosemite. Adams saw this view of the Half Dome and decided to bring it to its full potential. The Half Dome summit appears multiple times throughout Ansel’s work since the beginning, when he first presented this image titled ‘Monolith, the Face of Half Dome’.

Although this is the same Half Dome that we see in the previous picture, it is clear that this angle offers a different perspective and overall a different interpretation of the Half Dome from Ansel Adams. Adams is quoted saying, “I have photographed Half Dome innumerable times, but it is never the same Half Dome, never the same light or the same mood… The many images I have made reflect my varied creative responses to this remarkable granite monolith”. It is very clear that Ansel has a fascination with not only the Yosemite Valley, but the specific mountains and peaks that make it iconic.

Photoshoot

In my response to Ansel Adams, I want to reflect Adams’ fascination with the Yosemite Valley by setting my photoshoot in a location in Jersey that I enjoy visiting, Plemont Beach.

The photoshoot took place in sunny, mid-day conditions when the tide was very low, which was enhanced by the wide range of tides that we experience in Jersey during the springtime.

During the photoshoot, I was very much inspired by Ansel Adams and his connection to the Yosemite Valley. When looking through Adams’s work, it is very clear that he is mostly fascinated by the Yosemite Valley. I compare this to my fascination with Plemont Beach. My idea going into this photoshoot was to show the parts of Plemont that I love the most. These were concentrated on the right side of the beach where the sun was at the time.

I started with some basic postcard-like landscape photos that were mainly focused on filling the frame with the right amount of land, ocean and sky.

I then started to use the rule of thirds in a portrait frame. This then formed into making some deadpan photos.

I was also very inspired by the rocks that were sat next to the ocean. I felt that I could use the rocks and the ocean, but also the other Channel Islands in the distance to fill the frame. I found that having a rock in the foreground of the image created a better environment in the photos.

I tried this idea with quite a few rocks that were scattered around that area of the beach. Eventually, I found the angle that I was looking for.

This was immediately a very powerful photo to me. The water flowing from the bottom of the image leads the eye towards the rock in the foreground, and moves on towards the final rock on the outside of the beach. In the distance, you can see Little Herm, Herm and Sark. The rule of thirds is also unintentionally used multiple times in this photo.

There are three islands in the distance;

the rocks in the foreground, the rock to the right of that and the islands in the distance also follow the rule of thirds;

and the flowing water follows the ‘left, right, left’ pattern that the example above does too.

All of this accumulates into a very visually appealing photo. I would say that it was inspired by this Ansel Adams photo that demonstrates similar ‘snake-like’ features.

In inspiration of this photo, I also edited a black and white version of my photo following Ansel Adams’ ‘zone system’.

I also briefly took photos of a cliff face which is fairly hidden away at Plemont, and I thought that I may be able to replicate another specific photo from Ansel Adams.

I experimented with a few different perspectives, but unfortunately I was very quick photographing this area and I didn’t experiment very much. However, these photos did turn out very well.

The comparison between these two photos is very obvious. Both cliffs are used to lead the eye from the top of the photo to the bottom, where in my image you can see a pool of water. Arguably, Ansel Adams did a better job at leading the eye down the frame as there are very apparent lines in the cliff face that they eye can easily follow, however, I am pleased at how comparable these two images are.

I also wanted to capture the sublime nature of standing alone between the vast cliffs either side of Plemont, and how empty it feels to stand alone in this vast landscape. Luckily, there was a person standing alone in the middle of everything. I knew this was a perfect opportunity for a great photo.

This second one I really liked. The sublime nature of this photo really stands out. The subject stands completely alone in the foreground, he is surrounded by the immense cliffs of Plemont, and towered by the cloudy sky above. I decided to experiment with this a little bit.

I tried to make a black and white version of this photo to enhance the feeling of emptiness prevalent in the photo.

I was very happy with how this turned out. I cropped the image to make the rocks and the subject equidistant to either side of the frame. The image is almost two-tone, which makes it fairly simple and easy to look at. The artistic message is very clear in this photo. The atmosphere is very lonely, and the photo feels quite mysterious and dark. However, I felt that the cliffs in this photo are too dark, so I decided to dodge that region of the photo to expose the cliffs.

Overall, I am very happy with this photo shoot in general. The weather conditions were perfect, and I was very able to capture Plemont the way that I had in mind. I may not have captured every part of Plemont that I had planned on, but I did end up with a good selection of best images.

Final Images

Romanticism – an art movement that originated in the late 18th century that countered the new world of the industrial revolution. Romanticism mostly focuses on the beauty and awe of the natural world and the belief that life before the ‘new world’ was greater. Typically, artists in this genre are people who see themselves as casual observers of the modern world.

Origin of Romanticism

Romanticism paintings of this time mostly focused on the beauty of landscape art and the natural world that was being taken away from people due to the industrial revolution. In fact, the industrial revolution is part of the reason for the existence of romanticism. However, the origin of romanticism came from the time before the industrial revolution, the age of enlightenment. The age of enlightenment is described as the age of reason, when people began to think more factually and scientifically than emotionally, putting reason over superstition.

However, some people of the time felt that the age of enlightenment removed emotion too much from their art, and eventually those people started to feel resentment to looking at the world in a scientific, super realist way. Rather, people felt that emotion should be presented a lot more in art, and that people shouldn’t constantly think in rationality, rather they should think more about the things that they don’t fully understand or can’t completely comprehend. This is where romanticism began, however only a small number of romanticists began to paint the sublime landscapes of the natural world. Although, the idea that the new age of the industrial revolution was stripping humanity from its animalistic, natural roots began to grow, and people started to look towards romanticism and the beautiful sublime landscape paintings.

Romanticism on its own can be used in many ways. In the painting below, romanticism is used to demonstrate the beautiful world that the industrial revolution was stripping away from society. In other cases, it can be used to present the problems within the new society that was forming.

Sublime

Sublime – a combination of extreme beauty and overwhelming scale that evokes a strong emotional reaction.

Romanticism and the sublime go hand in hand when it comes to art. This is because, on its own, the sublime is such an overwhelming emotion that an artist is able to recreate using the vast landscapes of the rural (romantic) world.

An example of this is Edwin Deakin, an American-British artist that was well known for his paintings of romantic and sublime landscapes.

In this painting, which was painted sometime in the 1800s, Deakin has presented romanticism by demonstrating the beauty of the natural landscape and painting trees and colourful grass, and presents sublime by painting the distant vast cliffs and mountains of the Yosemite valley. This example of romanticism isn’t meant to send a grand message just about the greatness of the natural world, instead it also captures the vast and powerful landscape. The sublimity of the painting is shown through the overwhelming scale of the mountains against small and meager humanity.

The awe that is created by these views and landscapes is described very well by an English philosopher called Edmund Burke. Burke, born in 1729, wrote many books about romanticism and the sublime, and is a well known figure in the romanticism world. In a book he wrote about the sublime and the beautiful, Burke stated “terror is in all cases whatsoever, either more openly or latently, the ruling principle of the sublime”. This quote is saying that the emotional reaction to the sublime is created by the fear of insignificance and being small in the world in comparison to the magnificence and size of these incredible landscapes.

John Constable

This is a painting by John Constable, a notable figure in English landscape painting during the 1800s. Constable was also a romanticist himself, and has painted many nature landscapes that sometimes tell a deeper story. This painting, named ‘The Hay Wain’, is a very good example of this.

At first glance, the painting appears fairly ordinary. It depicts an English landscape with green trees, large and open meadows and shallow rivers that appears bliss and free, like a utopia. However, on deeper inspection there are details that imply further meaning to the painting. Firstly, the house on the left appears unkept and poor. In addition to this, a shoddy horse carriage, also called a ‘hay wain’, carrying two men can be seen in the foreground of the painting. These two details imply that this landscape could not be as bliss and free as it seems. It could be interpreted as a demonstration of what was going on between the socio-economic classes in England at the time. This is because it was common for large and wealthy land owners to use their class and power to control the farming happening around their property so that they could make money off of the poor farmers. This is what could be happening in the painting, because there is a difference in cleanliness between the background, where there is a large open meadow with animals and nice green trees, but in the foreground the trees are dark and the ground is muddy and unappealing.

Romanticism in Photography

Since then, romanticism has changed drastically. Photography was introduced in the mid 1800s. It was a completely new way of presenting art. At the same time, the industrial revolution continued to grow, cities got bigger, populations grew and the yearn for the natural, romantic world was more prevalent than ever. This meant that more and more people were drawn to photography and paintings to express their love for the rural world.

One of these people was Roger Fenton. He was born in 1819, and most likely grew up being influenced by the romanticism of the time.

This is a photo that Roger Fenton took in Wales, in the small village of Bettws-y-Coed. The photo depicts a small waterfall, surrounded by rocky surfaces, with trees in the background. In the far distance, we can see a few houses. Although most likely not intentional, the distant houses could imply the romantic view that the natural world is best, and that the man-made world should be kept distant. This photo is actually a recreation by Fenton from Thomas Roscoe’s guidebook, where he details this exact position where you must stand. At that standpoint, where you are almost level with the upstream, and you are very much involved with the elements of the stream. This could be interpreted as a romantic, as you are more involved with nature.

In the 1900s, landscape photography began to change. Photography had since developed and had become a lot more mainstream, especially during and after the second world war. This was when photographers like Ansel Adams became very well known for their romantic landscape photography.

This is probably Ansel Adams’ most famous photograph. The photo details a wide river, deep in the forests of Wyoming, which passes by miles of wilderness, and leads the eye towards the distant snow coated Teton mountain range. In this location, the viewer feels very involved and deep in the wilderness. There is most likely no civilisation for miles. This photo is the encapsulation of romanticism and the sublime. It probably demonstrates the exact emotion that Edwin Deakin, John Constable and Roger Fenton felt towards romanticism. The vastness of the distant mountains create such a great feeling of sublime, and the many miles of trees, rivers and wilderness evoke passionate emotion for romanticism. To the viewer, it feels as if they are there themselves.

Summary

Romanticism and the sublime go hand in hand when it comes to depicting the natural world. It is the key to creating incredible paintings and photographs that create such mesmerising emotions. Those who have mastered it have become highly praised for their work and their ability to put so many minds in awe of nature and chasing a romantic dream.

The most important factor when creating a romanticism painting or photograph is sublimity. Whether it is large cliffs, mountains, incredible distances or a combination of all, an artist must include some sort of awe inspiring detail or scale in their work to evoke a sublime emotion.

Landscape photography is generally focused around displaying the beautiful views of the world. Rural landscape photography focuses on demonstrating the beauty of the natural world. This can be from wide landscapes of mountains and rivers, to rural houses and trees.

Origin of Landscapes

Landscapes are not only depicted in photography. They have been around for centuries, the earliest findings of landscape art were from Ancient Greece. Although, landscape art wasn’t popular for a very long time as it was seen as something to put in the background of religious art rather than being its own category.

However, in the 16th century, Dutch artists did begin to see it as its own genre of painting, and painters like Gillis van Coninxloo began to paint the Dutch landscapes.

At the same time, the artistic movement of the renaissance was also taking place, and artists began to seek out new forms of expression in art. Because of this, landscape art began to take on a new form. It started to be about the beauty of the environment. This was how Classical Landscape was introduced.

Now that more European painters were interested in landscape art, the competition for quality began to rise, and better and better landscapes were being produced. This also meant that more and more real places were being painted. Additionally, framing became very important, and the positioning of objects in paintings were perfected.

Claude Lorrain was a French painter in the 16th century. In this painting, we see what appears to be the Italian city of Venice. Although this is not a rural landscape, it does show how painters of the time started to focus on the positioning and framing of their paintings. In this example, we can clearly see a main focus and subject, which is the boat in the middle of the painting. Additionally, there are detailed buildings placed on either side of the painting, as to not intrude our line of sight of the sky and the sunset in the background. We can also see people standing in the foreground of the image, which creates an environment in the image and makes the painting feel lively, and makes the viewer feel as if they are in the city at that moment.

After the renaissance period came the industrial revolution. Cities began to grow, factories became more complex and the quality of life of people living in big cities such as London rapidly decreased. Because of the increased population which followed the rise in mass production, the cities were crowded and cramped and they became even more unhygienic than they had been ever before. In opposition to this, some painters of the time began to paint landscapes to demonstrate the beauty of the natural world and how it was much better before the rise of the industrial revolution. This is also called ‘Romanticism’.

An example of a painter that was involved in the romanticism art movement is Edwin Deakin. Edwin Deakin usually painted buildings in cities, such as churches and cathedrals. With this experience, Edwin Deakin learnt how to frame and arrange his paintings, so when he decided to paint the Yosemite Valley he knew where to place the objects in the painting. This painting is a perfect example of this. There is a foreground, middle ground and a background. In each of these, the U-shape of the valley is clearly outlined by the trees and the clifftops. Additionally, the trees in the foreground move away from the viewer and lead the eye to the centre of the image. In the centre of the image, we see the vast cliffs of the Yosemite Valley, however we have nothing to scale the cliffs to, so its size is undetermined. This makes the cliff appear even larger in the painting, and gives the viewer a feeling of sublime.

Sublimity became a common feature of romantic landscape paintings, even through to the 19th century, when landscapes went from paintings to photography.

In the 1940s, Ansel Adams became one of the most notable landscape photographers of all time. His sublime depictions of the Yosemite Valley made waves through society. Adams knew exactly how to show the beauty of the Yosemite Valley. Take this photo for example. The positioning and framing of the trees and cliffs are set to perfection and blend perfectly with the sublime fog that covers the valley below. The cliffs stand on either side of the frame and meet far in the background where the valley opens up and we see a small glimpse of the vast mountains of the rest of the valley. In the foreground, we see the tops of the trees that stand below the hill that Adams stands on. We only see the tops of the trees in the foreground because it keeps all of the trees in the shot in the same consistency. The trees also lead the eye from the foreground to the middle ground, where the fog covers the entire valley. This fog adds mystery to the photo, and when paired with the sublime mountains and cliffs of Yosemite, evokes an even deeper feeling of sublime.

Summary

Overall, Rural landscape photography focuses on many things. The beauty of the landscape, the positioning and arrangement of objects in the frame, the great scale of mountains etc. However, the key element to rural landscape photography is nature. Nature must be the most prevalent aspect of a rural landscape photo.

Artist analysis

Martin Parr is a British photographer, born in 1952, who is mostly known for his work that focuses on consumerism and tourism. Through this work, he has developed a very unique style that often displays the strange mannerisms of human behaviour.

Take this photo for example. What is immediately apparent to the viewer is the arrangement of the two subjects, a male and a female, who seem to be a married couple. The male in the photo is standing awkwardly in the background of the photo and the female is sitting dominantly in the foreground. This is atypical of the masculine and feminine dynamic, as normally the roles would be reversed. This creates a big contrast between the male and the female in the photo, and it forces the viewer to assume that the traits of this couple are uncanny to regular masculine and feminine traits. Additionally, the name of the image implies the type of people that the subjects are being depicted as. These two characters that Martin Parr creates in this photo are a perfect example of how he uses comedy in his work. The styling of the image is also repeated in the other images found in this series. It is very representative of the typical British household at the time. The colour scheme is both very wide, but also quite bland and uninteresting, for example, it has some pink and green, but it is mostly brown, beige and off-white. The tone is very neutral, as the photo was taken on a cloudy English day, which makes the tone appear grey, in the middle of light and dark. This could have been intentional, because it looks as if they are both dressed for work, and so this image is meant to be a representation of what their daily life is like.

The lighting used for this photo is a combination of natural sunlight coming from the glass doors, and most likely a key light positioned behind and to the right of the camera to bring light to the underexposed areas that the sunlight doesn’t reach. Parr made this key light low intensity so that it blends with the sunlight, and so that the key lighting doesn’t overexpose part of the photo. By doing this, it makes the editing process a lot easier as the photo doesn’t need to be altered in terms of brightness or exposure. Everything inside the house is in focus, but the outside becomes blurry. This tells me a lot about the aperture. The depth of field is deep, therefore the aperture is in the mid-range, my guess is between ƒ5.6 and ƒ11. With this information, I can also justify that the time that the shutter was released was fairly long. Being that the photo was taken indoors, the image doesn’t appear very grainy, and the contrast is low, the ISO was most likely set between 200 and 400.

Along with the rest of the photos in this series, this photo has a strange aesthetic. The image looks like something you would find framed in your grandparent’s house. Additionally, the photo is like a time capsule. It could be that Martin Parr created the photo like this intentionally, because the name of the series is “Signs of the Times 1991”, which implies that this photo is demonstrating the behaviour of groups of people, specifically the working class, in 1991. In this photo, Parr uses these mannerisms in a comedic way, to make fun of how these people care so much about mundane things. This is also clear because of the name of the photo, which is meant to be a line of speech made by one of the subjects in the photo. As well as this, the warped masculine and feminine dynamic going on in the photo also could suggests that the men who behaved like this were typically not the more dominant people in a relationship, and they preferred to stay quiet and be in the background of things.

The context of the photo is fairly simple. The subjects are dressed for work, talking about their mundane commodities and appear to be waiting around. From this information, it is clear that this photo is meant to represent the morning life of the average working class couple, living in an estate in 1991. This perspective is interesting because it answers a lot of questions for the viewer, such as what these people are like, what they talk about and what they do in their daily life.

This is another example from Parr’s “Signs of the Times” series. Again, the first thing that the viewer recognises is the odd positioning of the subjects. In this case, the man stands oddly by the side of the bed and appears to be looking at the cameraman, whilst the woman sits on the bed facing the man. This arrangement says a lot. Firstly, this photo reflects what the true dynamic of a masculine and feminine relationship looks like. The man and the woman are both placed in the foreground, demonstrating that they are equal from a relationship standpoint. Secondly, having the man stand and the woman sit demonstrates the power dynamic in this relationship, as standing makes the man appear more powerful. Thirdly, where both subjects are looking tells us a lot as well. The woman is facing the man, which could be another example of the power dynamic in the relationship. Additionally, the man is facing the cameraman, which could mean that he is the one who is looking for the direction in the relationship. I think that this was completely intentional by Martin Parr because this positioning is very good for showing the viewer these people’s mannerisms, which plays perfectly with Parr’s style. As mentioned previously, the photos in this series all share the same aesthetic. In this case, the colour scheme is drab, it consists of a mix of off-whites that appear in the majority of English houses. Also, the subjects again appear to be heading off for work, as they are dressed in professional attire.

The lighting used for this photo is a mix of room/artificial lighting and most likely a key light situated behind the camera again. Given that both of these photos appear to have been taken at the same angle, I can also assume that the photo was taken on a tripod. This also makes sense because artificial lighting isn’t ideal for a camera, as it slows the shutter speed, which without a tripod, would make the photos come out blurry and unfocused. Once again, the key light is used to fill in those underexposed areas, but it could also be used to bring up the lighting in the room. This also aids the camera, as bringing up the light intensity will allow more light into the lens, therefore the camera can reduce its shutter speed. The aperture for this photo was most likely the same as the one previously, between ƒ5.6 and ƒ11, as we can see that everything indoors is in focus, however, the objects outside the window come out blurry. As mentioned previously, the shutter speed will be long, due to the photo being taken indoors, however the key light most likely brings the shutter speed down. Indoor photos usually need a higher ISO so that the camera is more sensitive to the light, but the image doesn’t appear extremely grainy, so it is probably in the range of 400 and 1600.

The concept and the context of this photo are mostly akin to the previous photo, however in this photo the subjects are slightly older. This could have been done intentionally by Martin Parr to show the different demographics that existed in 1991 throughout this series. This can also be inferred by the room that they are in. It is even commented on in the title/ line of speech, saying that it is like a hotel room.

Ideas

I used these photos by Martin Parr because I think that they portray a lot about masculinity and femininity. They demonstrate very clearly the dynamics of the relationships in the photos, but they also give a lot of insight into the people around the photo, such as what they do for a living. There is a lot of context in these photos, but it is not political or historical, rather it is a personal context or cultural context.

I want to replicate the portrayal that Martin Parr gives of masculinity and femininity in these photos. I could do this in many ways, but I must stick to a clear framework:

• man and woman
• positioned on either side of the photo
• demonstrating some kind of dynamic

I have a few locations in mind, however I don’t want to recreate the images like Martin Parr. Instead, I want to take the photos outdoors, rather than indoors like how Parr had done. This is because I think it will force the focus to be about the dynamic between masculinity and femininity, rather than personal context, such as what the subject does for a living.

I could demonstrate the dynamic in many different ways. I could experiment with the position of either subject, where they are looking, their stance, and their clothing. I can also use my surroundings to create a deeper meaning.

For example, I have one idea in mind where the background plays in with the positioning of the subjects. I could have the woman sit next to a wall while the man stands with the sky behind him. I believe that this demonstrates a masculine/feminine dynamic very well.

Contact Sheet

These photos were taken at Plemont, a small beach in St. Ouen. I experimented widely with the area, using as many different angles and poses as possible.

Image Selection

From this wide range of photos, I selected a few that I think properly replicate the style that I was going for

In this selection, I took photos that represent the masculine/feminine dynamic I was going for. Within this group are a few photos I am very happy with.

This photo I believe is the best from the selection. I put a few of my ideas to use. One was that the background plays a part in the message that the photo presents. In this photo, the cliffs of Jersey’s north coast are visible in the background behind the female subject, whereas behind the male subject, there is only the vastness of the sea and the infiniteness of the horizon. Another idea I had was to position either subject so that the female was below the male. In this photo, I used the slope of the hill to create this effect. All of this plays a part in the portrayal of masculinity and femininity that I am heading for.

This is another photo from the selection. In this photo, I focused less on the values that masculinity and femininity portray, rather I decided to look more at the mannerisms of either gender. In the photo, the male subject is sitting casually on a wall, whereas the female is wedged in the doorway uncannily. This is a demonstration of the difference in expression between masculinity and femininity. In masculinity, expression is limited, and it tends to be that the masculine man doesn’t express himself by experimenting with things such as clothing. In femininity, expression is a key factor in defining the femininity of a woman. It is more feminine to express your femininity in areas such as clothing, hairstyles, and many other things in the modern day such as makeup.

In this photo, I focused more on the dynamic of masculinity and femininity in terms of a relationship. The male subject in the photo sits coldly, similarly to how he was in the previous photo to demonstrate the lack of expression that comes with masculinity, and watches the sunset. The female subject is lying on the wall, to demonstrate the expressive side of femininity, and is also watching the sunset. I believe that this positioning in the photo displays masculinity as the protective and strong half of a relationship, and femininity as the elegant half of a relationship.

Editing

Going into the editing process, I have a few ideas in mind.

Firstly, I want the colouring to not be like the colouring that Martin Parr uses in his photos. Instead, I want to bring colour to the image. This is because the images are a representation of the dynamic between masculinity and femininity in a relationship, therefore having more visually appealing colours introduces the aspect of beauty to the relationship.

Secondly, I want to emphasise the split between masculinity and femininity more. I could do this by splitting the image in half and changing the colouring of either half. I could also do this by just cutting out the subjects and making adjustments to the colour of those. I will have to experiment with this a bit.

Here is the development process of the first photo. Here, you can see I started just by going through exposure, temperature, highlights and shadows and simply trying to make the image look better. Once I was done with this, I decided that the image was underexposed, and that the ground was not as clear as I wanted it to be.

In the second image, I fixed this by bringing up the exposure and the white balance so that the ground was more visible. This did make my photo more exposed, but I did think it was too bright, meaning it was overexposed.

To fix this in the third image, I brought down the exposure and brought up the contrast so that the colour in the photo was more defined. I also brought up the vibrancy and saturation a small amount just so that the golden hue in the sky is more clear too.

Here is the development process of the second image. To start with, I went through and brought up the exposure, shadows and vibrancy, and brought down the highlights to emphasise the colour.

I found that this photo was too colourful. So in the second image I decided bring down the contrast and bring the highlights back up. As well as this, I took down the saturation to take away some of the colour.

In the third image, I decided that I had taken out the colour too much, so I took down the whites and the contrast and brought the highlights up. This worked very well. It brought up the colouring in the sky, and the colouring of the building is not too yellow like it was previously.

For this image, I started by bringing up the exposure as the photo was previously underexposed. I then brought down the highlights and the whites and brought up the vibrancy just to alter the colouring.

I wanted to bring up the colouring a little bit, so in the second photo I brought the contrast up and also took up the saturation, which resulted in a yellow hue covering the photo.

I was unhappy with this, and so in the third version, I decided to take out some saturation and instead bring down the highlights. This worked well, as it lowered the yellow hue to the point where it isn’t ruining the photo, and I am happy with the final result.

I also went through and cropped the images just so that the subjects share equal space in the photos.

Final images

I think that these images are the best representation of the style I was going for. In reference to Martin Parr, this is exactly what I had in mind when analysing his images and creating my own ideas. I made sure that I followed the criteria I made for myself when mapping my ideas.

Comparison and critique

Here is one of my images and one of Martin Parr’s images. This image is the closest I got to recreating the style of Martin Parr. You can see that the male and female subject both stand on either side of the frame. I did try to find some kind of pose for masculinity and femininity, however in the location I was not able to do anything that fit. Personally, I think I could have done much better. To me, this photo doesn’t really say anything, there is no statement. You could infer some things, such as the male/female hierarchy implied in the slope of the hill, however that’s really all I see in this photo.

In this photo, I think the positioning of both subjects works well. Additionally, the mannerisms of femininity and masculinity are also visible in this photo. In inspiration of Martin Parr, I once again split masculinity and femininity to either side of the frame. However, I also think I could improve on this photo as well. Once again, there is not much to say about the photo, and it isn’t obvious that the photo is about the dynamic between masculinity and femininity. In my opinion, I don’t think there is much to infer about the image. You could say that the masculinity and femininity are both on the same level, however that is not immediately obvious.

Once again in this photo, I have split the frame so that masculinity is on one side and femininity is on the other. This time, I am demonstrating the difference in expression between masculinity and femininity. I think, in this image, the message is more obvious. However, there is not much meaning in the photo. Additionally, the photo doesn’t look interesting or intriguing.

Virtual Gallery

Photoshoot 1

For this photoshoot, I want to explore the binary opposites of masculinity and femininity, inspired by the works of Martin Parr.

In this photo, both subjects are positioned either side of the frame, implicating a difference between the two. This will be the general theme of the photoshoot, that both subjects will stand on both sides of the picture. To further experiment with the difference between masculinity and femininity, I will make changes to either subject to further emphasise their masculinity/femininity.

This photo is a perfect example of the type of contrast I will be attempting in this photoshoot. In the photo, the woman is dressed flamboyantly, to impress, but the man is only wearing speedos and a hat, as that is all that he needs.

Like in this example, I want to try and create a contrast between the masculinity and the femininity by demonstrating the difference between the two with a hidden message. This could be, in the context of clothing, that the man is wearing the essentials and the woman prefers to accentuate her taste in fashion.

Photoshoot 2

For this photoshoot, I want to explore the theme of identity, inspired by the works of Claude Cahun.

In this photo, everything but the hands and arms of the subject are visible. This introduces a sense of ambiguity to the identity of the subject. This is the type of ambiguity I want to experiment with in this photoshoot.

This is an example of what I can do to the photos in photoshop. I could attempt to recreate this effect with multiple different photos.

Photoshoots

The following photos consist of three different studio lighting techniques, Chiaroscuro, Butterfly and Rembrandt.

Edits

For this rembrandt photo I chose to bring up the exposure and add some warmth to it too. This made the photo look a lot more clearer. I also changed the vibrance and saturation a small bit just to emphasise that warmth and to bring in brighter colours to the photo instead of the dark greys that are present in the original photo.

In this butterfly lighting photo, I chose to make the temperature colder. This changed the background from grey to light blue, which overall changes the atmosphere of the photo and makes it look a lot more interesting by adding slightly more vibrant colours.

For this chiaroscuro photo, I decided to bring up the contrast so that the difference between both sides of the subjects face is more defined. Also, I rose the clarity so that there is more texture in the photo. Overall, this makes the photo a lot deeper and slightly more dark, while the added clarity highlights the subjects face a lot better than before.

For all the photos below, the camera was set to:

ISO 100

ƒ16

1/160 sec

Best photos

Jimmy Nelson is an environmental photographer who has travelled the world photographing a variety of different personalities, from places such as Afghanistan, El Salvador and Nigeria.

This is a photo taken by Jimmy Nelson in Mongolia, displaying the Kazakh people and the beautiful environment that they inhabit.

The photo is taken at about sunset, and Jimmy Nelson has positioned himself facing away from the sun, which creates a shaded effect on the vast mountains in the background of the shot. He has also used a wide aperture to capture the mountains. The photo looks like it was originally under exposed, meaning the shutter speed was too fast, but this could have been done on purpose so that, when editing the photo, Jimmy Nelson could turn the exposure up. The ISO could also have been in a higher range as well to compensate for the low lighting level.

This photo also has a distinct grey colour scheme, which gives the photo both a light and a dark tone, as the foreground is more dark and the background is more light. In the foreground, there is a rocky surface below the horse, which adds to the texture of the photo, and gives context as to how difficult the terrain is to traverse. The two men behind the main man who is the focus point of the shot, give the photo a nice pattern too. Generally, the composition of the shot is very well done.

In the photo, you can see there are three men on horses, each with a bird resting on their arms. These men are Kazakhs, living in the mountains in Mongolia, a place infamous for how difficult it is to traverse. Even in this photo you can see how rough and mountainous the landscape is. Clearly, these men have travelled far up to the top of the mountain that they stand on, which gives the photo power and mystery, it is almost like a demonstration of strength. Although, this is what day to day life is like for these men, and this photo is a very good example of environmental portraiture because it is a demonstration of how different their lives are to ours.

The work that Jimmy Nelson has created would have been a very difficult task. He would’ve had to hike up the mountain with the group of men who most likely don’t speak the same language as him. It is incredulous that Jimmy Nelson had willingly put himself through such an arduous trek just to capture the day to day life of the Kazakhs. It also might have been that this photo was not an idea, but more of a photo that is in the moment, a photo that was not planned but taken on the spot as Jimmy Nelson saw it.

This is a photo of a Maasai warrior in Tanzania, a country in the south east of Africa.

Once again, Jimmy Nelson is facing away from the sun and towards the shadows of the hills, except this time it is to capture the vast emptiness of the landscape behind the warrior. It is not clear what time of day this photo was taken, presumably around sunset. The image looks a little bit under exposed, which again could have been done so that Jimmy Nelson could manipulate the photo in photoshop. Also, Jimmy Nelson uses a wide aperture so that the baron landscape behind the man could be captured. The shutter speed would have been fast so that he could capture the warrior while he is walking, which could have been why the image looks slightly underexposed. The ISO on this photo would have been regular because the frame isn’t that dark and is quite bright in colour. The photo is both warm and cold, the warmth comes from the yellow colours coming from the clouds or the desert, but the coldness comes from the dullness and lack of vibrance in the shot.

The texture of the shot is mostly sandy and rocky, which is another representation of the difficulty of traversing these landscapes that Jimmy Nelson captures. The photo is very 3 dimensional as the wide depth of field displayed the vastness of the desert in the background and how far is goes. There is a very clear line between the sky and the land, which also demonstrates how far the land goes as well.

The photo was taken in 2010, although it is generally a timeless photo as tribes like the Maasai have been around for thousands of years and continue the same traditions as they did all those years ago. Even the weapons, such as the spear that the warrior wields, and the shield as well, most likely have been around for centuries. The man is wearing very traditional Maasai clothes and are very unusual and unlike the clothes generally worn in western culture. He is also wearing what appears to be a lions mane around his head, which is a very powerful statement and could be a sign of strength among the Maasai people.

Once again, this most likely was an in the moment shot, which is emphasised by the warriors lack of gaze at the camera and that he is in motion as the photo is being taken. This perfectly encapsulates the essence of environmental photography, to portray a persons life in one shot, and having the warrior unaware of the shot gives the photo a natural feel.

Overall, Jimmy Nelson is an incredible environmental photographer who goes through thick and thin to capture the beauty of the different cultures he finds himself in and the vast landscapes that they inhabit.

This is all of the photos that I have taken so far in my study of still life. I have utilised the techniques that Still Life photographers and painters used, such as using objects like books to symbolise knowledge and wealth. The majority of the photos are singular objects where I have experimented with lighting and the positioning of the object in the frame. I used a variety of lighting to give different tones and tints to the photo and to add warmth or coldness to the picture. I also used a variety of backgrounds, such as an infinity curve and a flat background. Throughout all of the photoshoots, I kept the depth of field wide on all of the photos as I found through my study of Still Life that having every object in focus is a key element to Still Life photography. Some of these photos are a bit experimental, adding different and contrasting objects that usually would not be seen together, such as the wooden block and the painted cutlery.

Here are what I believe to be the best photos. Most of these are singular objects, with some experimental photos in there as well. There are a couple Walker Evans inspired photos in the bottom right. I have used lots of different backgrounds such as an infinity curve or just a flat white background. Not much editing was done to these photos, only slight changes to bring up the exposure of the image. I did this because the lack of colour in a photo generally gives it a very solid, still feeling.

This photo depicts what appears to be some kind of kitchen appliance like a meat grinder. It was taken using an infinity curve, which works well in this case as it looks as if there is no background at all. The photo lacks colour, which emphasises the aspects of still life as colour generally tends to bring a sense of movement, like something is going on in the photo, whereas here it is a still object. This photo was taken with a slow shutter as well, which further implies the stillness of the photo as a slow shutter means that the object cannot move. Older still life paintings used to depict flowers, books or skulls as metaphors for happiness, knowledge or death, but nothing significant derives from the kitchen appliance in this photo, which coupled with the drab colour scheme, puts further emphases on the stillness of the object.

In this photo, there is an object that appears to be some kind of flat tool which was used a very long time ago. This adds mystery to the photo immediately as it gives uncertainty to what the object actually is, where it has come from, what it does. This lack of context is prevalent in most still life photographs as still life is not about the context of the photo, but the content. Also, the object has a slight tilt, which adds another layer of uncertainty because it looks as if it will fall, but it doesn’t and remains still. The shutter on this photo was also slow, which applies further emphasis on the stillness of the object. The tool is rusted everywhere there is metal, which adds texture to the photo and also aids the photo in keeping a brown colour scheme. Although there is more colour in this photo compared to the previous one, the colours are still dull, which again depletes the photo of movement.

This photo was one of the more experimental ones out of all of the photoshoots, and it is the odd one out of all the selected photos because it features warm lighting, a few colours and has a shadow. I also wanted to include this photo because I felt that I needed to show how shadows can be used in still life. In this example, the shadow is used to stretch the object across the photo so that the frame doesn’t appear empty. The texture that appears on the wooden block also adds to the photo as it adds roughness to the otherwise smooth background. The painted cutlery also adds an interesting element as it removes the smoothness that would be on the spoon and replaces it with a gritty, unclean texture that, again, adds roughness to the smooth background.

This photo is one of the two out of the selection that is inspired by Walker Evans. It depicts a saw on a flat background. Nothing is happening in the photo, which makes it a perfect example of still life. There is no colour, the saw is only grey and black and the background is just flat white. The texture that appears on the saw gives the photo a rough feeling, but it also shows that this tool has been used a lot. This allows the viewer to question the context, despite there not being any context at all, it is just a saw on a flat background.

This photo depicts a wooden block used to hold scissors. This type of object usually appears in a classroom, which adds an element of nostalgia to the photo. Also, the texture of the wooden block, with the random splodges of paint and wear to the wood adds a worn element to the photo. Unlike the other photos taken with an infinity curve, this photo actually has a lot of colour. Despite this, the object continues to appear very still and solid. Also, the lighting is almost warm, which emphasises the brown colour of the wood and gives the photo a bit of vibrancy compared to the other ones.

This photo is the other example of a Walker Evans inspired photo. It features three paint brushes on a flat white background. In this case, the shape of the paintbrushes and the pattern that they are arranged give the photo an interesting quality. As well as this, the paintbrushes have clearly been used a lot as there is lots of remnants of dried paint on them. This also adds texture to the photo, as without it the paintbrushes would look new, which is counterintuitive to the still life photos that were taken by Walker Evans, as they tend to feature used tools with obvious marks or dents that clearly show signs of wear.