Mind Map

Mood Board

As photography began with the Camera Obscura dated back to 4th century BC and known as an ancient building block for photography where an image is reflected into a dark room upside down using only natural light, which is still used by photographers to this day. It was then developed by French photographer Nicephor Niépce in 1822 who is named the father of photography, his first photograph was a view from his window in Burgundy, France. He used a sheet of pewter coated with bitumen, which required at least 8 hours of exposure time. Painter Louis Daguerre heard about this achievement and he decided to partner with Niépce. Daguerre continued to develop with the process by using silver-plated copper sheets and mercury vapor. As he continued to develop this process, Daguerre was able to reduce the exposure time.

After the death of Niépce in 1833, Daguerre concentrated his attention on the light-sensitive properties of silver salts. For the process which was eventually named the daguerreotype, he exposed a thin silver-plated copper sheet to the vapour given off by iodine crystals, producing a coating of light-sensitive silver iodide on the surface. The plate was then exposed in the camera. Initially, this process also required a very long exposure to produce a distinct image, but Daguerre made the crucial discovery that an invisibly faint “latent” image created by a much shorter exposure could be chemically “developed” into a visible image. The Daguerreotypes, introduced in Paris in 1839, process made it possible to capture the image seen inside a camera obscura and preserve it as an object, they were usually portrait and the rarer, landscape ones were more expensive. Typically Daguerreotypes would be used for recording many other images such as documentary subjects, antiquities, still lives and remarkable events.

In the same year of 1839 William Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype process. Calotype is an early photographic process, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low contrast details and textures. Despite their flexibility and the ease with which they could be made, calotypes did not replace the daguerreotype. The calotype produced a less clear image than the daguerreotype. The texture of the paper was visible in prints made from it, making an image that was grainy or blurry compared to daguerreotypes, which were usually clear.

A daguerreotype would be seen as a window image as they document reality through the photographs and portraits of real people. A calotype would been seen as a mirror image as they can be manipulated as they weren’t typically used for documenting portraits of people and can be taken of anything as they were easier and cheaper. Using one of Szarkowski’s quotes ‘is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?”

Mirror Image

This image is a mirror image as it has been highly edited and manipulated. I have chosen to analyse this image as I think there is a lot to talk about where every part of the image has been edited in some sort of way, for example the woman has been edited onto a stack of wooden blocks and reflected the same image on both sides. The body has been put on two sides of the blocks and one side has got a combination of black and white blocks where the body is shown more in the black parts and in the white parts the body is much lighter and almost transparent. On the other side where all the blocks are black and the body is also a more transparent figure yet is more visible and more obviously a body than the side that has a combination of black and white. The artist could have seen this image as a way to express the same body but differently, The two different colours on each side of the blocks could reflect on how the artist is feeling like feeling seen in different situations and referred to on the blocks. “The distance between them is to be measured not in terms of the relative force or originality of their work” I agree with this quote about photographs because it tells you that a photograph isn’t just about the originality of the picture its about how they do it and what the story behind the photo is whether its reality or made up and romanticized.

Window Image

Rafal Milach, ICELAND, Saudakrokur, 2010, Annual horse gathering country ball.

I think this image is a window image as it has been taken of three people clearly under the influence. This Image to me is objective, shows realism and presents the effects of alcohol is young adults. This would be a window image as it is not staged and is taken authentically of three adults, one asleep or resting on the table and two kissing. This could also be seen as a more subjective image and therefore a mirror image but I think the realism of this proves otherwise. The actions that these adults are presenting can clearly show the influence of alcohol. a quote that I think goes well with this image from John Szarkowski’s thesis would be “The distance between them is to be measured not in terms of the relative force or originality of their work, but in terms of their conceptions of what a photograph is: is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?” I agree with the quote because photographs can be objective where the subjects in the photo are real and representing what is in the image clearly with realism and truth or subjective where you get to make up a story and choose what the story is behind the image. “generous and inclusive acceptance of fact, objective structure,” and that the selection among these facts is the romantic, personal opposite built into any photograph of merit.” This quote from Jed Pearls review argues with John Szarkowski’s thesis that an image is either a window or mirror is argued from Jed Pearl that photographs all have romanticism included and that each photography has their own subjective story as it is personal to the photographer and each person that looks at it.

I think that John Szarkowski’s theory and Jed Pearls review has made sense of the idea of window and mirror images and has been put together well where John Szarkowski had put his idea out and Pearl has reviewed it and made it make sense. The difference between mirror and window images are that the mirror image has been manipulated and edited highly whereas the window hasn’t and is authentic. The subjectivity behind the mirror image is in the imagination of the people who sees it and has a selective story behind it. Whereas the window image has got truth behind it and is objective as there is what is in the image and that is it. “an evolution from public to private concerns and at the same time a potential toward either self-expression or exploration in the unique sensibility of each photographer” Is a quote Jed pearl used in his review of Szarkowski’s thesis and I think it has value towards what the thesis is getting across with mirror and window images as both include the photographers vision where a mirror is a reflection of the photographer and a window is what the photographer sees as objective and real where he wants to document the message they try to get across.

Is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world? – John Szarkowski

What are the differences between photographs that are Mirrors and Windows?

The difference between mirror and window photography is a mirror is a romantic expression of the photographer’s sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world. A mirror image is staged and subjective, they reflect the photographer and therefore called a mirror image. A window photograph is a photograph that shows realism and are objective. They are called window images because they show what is real in the image, like looking out of a window.

Key Words

Mirrors: Romanticism, Subjective, Naturalistic,  Fiction, Tableaux, Reflective, Personal, Internal

Windows: Authentic, Objective, Documentary, Realism, Candid, Public, External, Truthful

Binary Opposites

Inside / Outside

Subject / Object

Staged / Candid

Fiction / Non-Fiction

Image Analysis

I have created a gallery for my favourite images because I can’t fit them all into one gallery so I put the images that best fit and look best together into one gallery.

I chose to put these images together in my gallery because they are the ones that I have put together in my zine and because they all are in black and white so in my opinion they look good together in the gallery.

Evaluation

Overall, I think my zine creates a good idea about the harbour and maritime history in jersey because of my different selection of images of and around the harbour throughout my zine. What could have improved my zine is if there were images of the maritime museum which could have added more diversity in my zine but they were my least favourite and didn’t have the best quality out of all the pictures that I took.

Front Page:

I chose this image of fishermen’s storage rooms as my first page. I did this because it creates a sense of mystery and intrigue. I knew I wanted this because I knew I wanted to have the front page and the back page to correspond with each other and I thought this image was interesting as my front page as your not too sure what is inside the zine yet causing the person to be interested.

First page:

The first page of my zine I did two pictures straight across from each other of people working in and around the harbour. I put these two images together because both include people working with fish/sea animals within the same area just doing two different jobs. The left image of a fish shop showing the workers and the fish they sell and the right image being of a man working with big crayfish and some other sea animals that you can’t see in the image. I chose to put both pictures straight across from each other because it looked clean with both pictures being in black and white creating the sleek look that I wanted with my zine.

Second page:

For the second page I chose two pictures of fishermen’s storage rooms, one angled down through all of them and one more upfront of one store room. The image on the left page shows all the lockers as if you were standing and looking straight through them. The image of the right page shows one storage room with wellies hanging from the door, this shows that the old lockers that have been used for hundreds of years are still being used today by fishermen. I wanted these pictures in my zine because they resembled the front and back of the zine but these ones are in colour, you cant see the colour in the front and back page apart from the red I kept in them. I originally had these two pictures straight across from each other but it looked boring as I have done that for other pages as well so I put the left picture at the bottom and the right picture at the top for more structure in the zine but still looks clean and sleek.

Third page:

The third page of my zine consists of two images of boats. The image on the left page is of one singular boat with low tide visibly in the image. The left image also creates a sense of mystery as the main feature of the image is the boat alone with the back of another boat being in the image you can’t tell if its just them two or more boats around them. The right image shows more boats lined and propped up on wooden beams with no water around. Both images look like they could have been taken a while ago because of the boats within them. These images, in my opinion go well together because both include the visibility of how old the harbour is and how one boat can have lots of space and within a 5 minute walk boats can be cramped together.

Fourth page:

I chose this image of a hill going down towards the boats with lots of buildings in the background because Its different to my other images because non of the others have this kind of perspective of being at sea and looking onto land and at the same time it blends in well with my other images as it carries the same older and vintage aesthetic. I put one large landscape image across two pages in my zine and made the image go all the way to the end of the margin lines I created so it was a full bleed photo. I wanted a couple of these in my zine because I like the way it looks and contrasts to other pictures in my zine that have borders or don’t completely fill the page.

Fifth page:

For the fifth page I put two pictures in colour of boats. I did the left page smaller and with a border and my other one full bleed to create a nice contrast effect where one has a border and the other is full bleed. I liked this compared to my other pages with two images on that are the same size and either straight across or diagonal. These two images contrast with every other image in this photo but I like how it is different and adds a big pop of colour throughout my zine compared to all the other black and white or beige coloured images. These two images were taken on the other side of the harbour from the others with all the more modern and newer boats so I thought it would be best to leave these in colour.

Sixth page:

I chose these pictures of wall art across the harbour to be in my zine because it creates a different aesthetic compared to all the boats and other harbour related images in the zine where they are all of actual real things whereas these images are of art on a wall. I put these in black and white and diagonal from each other similar to my fishermen’s store rooms for more effect and structure throughout the zine.

Seventh page:

For the final page I chose this picture of a seagull. I originally had this image with the two wall art pictures but I put it on its own page because it looked squished when I put all three on one page. I made this full bleed because I wanted to have all my pages with one picture on the be full bleed and I thought it looked cool that the bird spread across two pages. I chose the bird to continue the aesthetic of mystery throughout my zine.

Back Page:

I chose this as the back page because it goes with the front cover but from a different angle. I did it like this because I liked the effect it created on the back and front of the zine where it’s the same picture and location but at a different angle. It makes the zine tell a story like the front you are going through the store rooms and then throughout the zine two more pictures of the lockers show up, one of an actual store room and then finally you reach the opposite end of the rooms like you reach the end of the zine.

At the maritime museum and along the harbour I took a total of 554 images and I flagged it down to 152 of the best images I took.

After I went through the images I flagged as my favourite I then narrowed it down again and then selected the ones that I will edit and coloured them green.

Final Edits

I have chosen to group these images because they go together well as they all have boats and the sea in each of their images. I chose to edit these in black and white because they look older, especially the first one where the boats are propped on wooden beams. The last and biggest image is of three boats with buildings in the background. The perspective is like your at sea looking onto land which I liked compared to my other images where it looks like you are on land looking out to sea.

In these images are the lockers for fishermen. The first image was taken in the French harbour and the other two of these are taken nearer at the English harbour. I decided to keep these in colour as I liked the way the red looked with the original rusty colour of the area.

These images are the same as the ones above but I decided to experiment with the colour tools on Lightroom. To do this I went to the saturation section and turned all the colours down to -100 and kept the red at 0 or turned it up a bit more as it is the main colour in the pictures to make it stand out.

These two images I chose to pair together is because they are both of people at work. These two images correspond together well because all the people are working with fish at the harbour. I edited both of these in black and white and made both images darker where blacks are more prominent than whites. I chose to edit it this way so there was clear definition in each image and I liked the way the black and white looked in the working environment.

For these images I chose to experiment on Lightroom. I took these of a fishing boat at the harbour. I edited these images in black and white apart from the green popping out on the boat and around the image. To do this I went on Lightroom and turned the saturation down on all colours apart from green. I chose green as the only colour in this photo as it was the most prominent and eye-catching colour in the original, unedited image.

I started off with 60 pictures in total of and around the harbour.

After I flagged the pictures I liked I had 40 pictures remaining I then rated my images and edit them from that selection.

Edits

I edited these images in a similar way so that I could combine them all together. They all have a similar vibe for example I edited the water so the images are all the same shade of dark blue or green and the sky appearing moody. The top three images all feature boats ,centred in the middle, and so they complement each other well. The main image I have selected is of the pier with no boats in the image, I chose this as my main image because it is different from the other three where there are no boats just the pier making it feel dark.

For this selection of images I chose two wall art images along one of the piers at the harbour and one image of a seagull. I edited these in black and white as I liked the way each photo contrasted with each other. I turned up texture and clarity slightly to show more details in the wall art images. For the main image I have chosen this picture of a seagull. I cropped the image so that it was centred and in the middle. I turned down clarity and texture and turned up shadows and blacks to make it look less emphasised and more like a shadow. The overcast sky in each of these pictures creates a nice contrast with each subject.

Camera Obscura

how is an image produced using Camera Obscura?

A Camera Obscura ‘dark chamber’ is a dark room or box with a small hole in one wall/side in which the rays of light from outside passing through to form an image and project a scene from outside the box onto the surface opposite to the hole, resulting in an upside down and reversed projection of the view outside.

Camera Obscuras with a lens in the opening have been used since the second half of the 16th century and became popular as aids for drawing and painting. The technology was developed further into the photographic camera in the first half of the 19th century, when camera obscura boxes were used to expose light-sensitive materials to the projected image.

The camera obscura was used to study eclipses without the risk of damaging the eyes by looking directly into the Sun. As a drawing aid, it allowed tracing the projected image to produce a highly accurate representation and was especially appreciated as an easy way to achieve proper graphical perspective.

Daguerreotype

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, known for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography. He is most famous for his contributions to photography but he was also an accomplished painter, scenic designer, and a developer of the diorama theatre.

The daguerreotype Creates a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. The process required great care. The silver-plated copper plate had first to be cleaned and polished until the surface looked like a mirror.

The daguerreotype process made it possible to capture the image seen inside a camera obscura and preserve it as an object. It was the first practical photographic process.

It was introduced worldwide in 1839, There has been a revival of the daguerreotype since the late 20th century by a small number of photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes. Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s.

Calotype

Calotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low contrast details and textures.

Talbot made his first successful camera photographs in 1835 using paper sensitised with silver chloride, which darkened in proportion to its exposure to light. This early “photogenic drawing” process was a printing-out process, i.e., the paper had to be exposed in the camera until the image was fully visible. A very long exposure—typically an hour or more—was required to produce an acceptable negative.

Richard Maddox

Richard Leach Maddox was born at Bath, England, on 4 August 1816. 

Long before his discovery of the dry gelatine photographic emulsion, Maddox was prominent in what was called photomicrography – photographing minute organisms under the microscope. The eminent photomicrographer of the day, Lionel S. Beale, included as a frontispiece image made by Maddox in his manual ‘How to work with the Microscope.

Maddox freely gave his discovery of the dry gelatine process to the world, saying that “I had no thought of bringing the subject into notice until it had been lifted from the cradle”. Maddox, at the initial stage of invention, could probably produce only ‘lantern slides’ contact-copied from his microscope plates, the slow speed being impracticable for camera lens images.

It was these origins that led to the miniaturization and adaptability of photographic emulsions, and consequently paved the way for social and action photography and cinematography.

The advantages of the dry plate were that photographers could use commercial dry plates off the shelf instead of having to prepare their own emulsions in a mobile darkroom. Negatives did not have to be developed immediately. Also, for the first time, cameras could be made small enough to be hand-held, or even concealed: further research created ‘fast’ exposure times, which led to snapshot photography and the Kodak camera with roll film, paving the way for cinematography.

George Eastman & Founding of Kodak

George Eastman was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he patented and sold a roll film camera, making amateur photography accessible to the general public for the first time. Working as the treasurer and later president of Kodak, he oversaw the expansion of the company and the film industry.

In the 1870s, Eastman became interested in photography. After receiving lessons from George Monroe and George Selden, he developed a machine for coating dry plates in 1879. In 1881, he founded the Eastman Dry Plate Company with Henry Strong to sell plates, with Strong as company president and Eastman as treasurer, where he handled most executive functions. Around the same time, he began experiments to create a flexible film roll that could replace plates altogether. In 1885, he received a patent for a film roll, and then focused on creating a camera to use the rolls. In 1888, he patented and released the Kodak camera. It was sold loaded with enough roll film for 100 exposures. When all the exposures had been made, the photographer mailed the camera back to the Eastman company in Rochester, along with $10. The company would process the film, make a print of each exposure, load another roll of film into the camera, and send the camera and the prints to the photographer.

The separation of photo-taking from the difficult process of film development was novel and made photography more accessible to amateurs than ever before, and the camera was immediately popular with the public. By August 1888, Eastman was struggling to meet orders, and he and his employees soon had several other cameras in development. The rapidly growing Eastman Dry Plate Company was reorganized as the Eastman Company In 1889, and then incorporated as Eastman Kodak in 1892.

Digital Photography

Digital photography is a process that uses an electronic device called a digital camera to capture an image. Instead of film, it uses an electronic digital sensor to translate light into electrical signals. In the camera, the signals are stored as tiny bits of data in bitmaps, tiny bits of data that form the image.

While digital photography has only relatively recently become mainstream, the late 20th century saw many small developments leading to its creation. The history of digital photography began in the 1950s. In 1951, the first digital signals were saved to magnetic tape via the first video tape recorder. Six years later, in 1957, the first digital image was produced through a computer by Russell Kirsch.

The first consumer digital cameras were marketed in the late 1990s. Professionals gravitated to digital slowly, converting as their professional work required using digital files to fulfil demands for faster turnaround than conventional methods could allow. around the year 2000, digital cameras were incorporated into phones. In the following years, phone cameras became widespread, particularly due to their connectivity to social media and email.

What is Narrative?

A narrative is a story that you write or tell to someone, usually in great detail. A narrative can be a work of poetry or prose, or even song, theatre, or dance. Often a narrative is meant to include the “whole story.” A summary will give a few key details and then the narrative will delve into the details.

the purpose of narrative is to tell stories. Any time you tell a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident in your day, you engage in a form of narration.

What is a Story

A narrative about people and events, usually including an interesting plot, is a story. A story can be fictional or true, and it can be written, read aloud, or made up on the spot. Journalists write stories for newspapers, and gossips spread stories that may or may not be true.

My Zine Story

My zine is going to be about Jerseys harbour and maritime. I will create a zine that shows different parts and history of and around the harbour that represents the laboured hard work that goes into being in the industry.

3 words:

Jersey, fishing, history

How will you tell your story

I will tell my story by taking photos around the maritime museum and the harbour and portray what it is like to work, live or be associated with everything to do with the harbour.