The theme for the final exam in photography is ‘Union’. To start with my investigation, I began by reading through the entire exam paper as this provides me with starting points to gain inspiration from before I fully research different interpretations of the theme. I annotated and underlined key pieces of information and the names of any movements or artists so that I could research them later on.

I also used the other exam inspirations for different courses such as Fine Art as this could give me an idea of what else I could incorporate into my work and the different ways that artists inhabit this theme in their work. I used this as my starting point when creating my mood board.

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Mood Board:

These are just a handful of the suggestions within the exam paper that I found may inspire me. From here, I have already started to think about some different ideas that I want to do.

The word ‘union’ is defined by:

‘a society or association formed by people with a common interest or purpose.’

Once I had defined this term, I began to think of ideas of my own. Some of these ideas were:

1. Environmental portraiture in the workplace in relation to trade or work unions
2. Cubism in photography

However, one of my favourite ideas I have been inspired by is political movements surrounding feminism and the like. Being a young person, I have always sought importance in keeping myself informed about the different injustices and movements within society because I understand that it is key that I am aware to these things in society. However, growing up in a world as a young girl has meant that I have acknowledged the inequalities between man and woman in society and have experienced the repercussions of normalising these issues.

Because this is a topic that is important to me as a feminist myself, I want to explore as many issues as I can that are highlighted within feminism within this study. These consist of:

What is Feminism?

Feminism is the advocacy for women rights in society in accordance to gender equality. A common misconception is that feminism is concerned with ‘girls being better than boys’ however this movement strives to remove the barrier between male and female in political, economic, personal and social contexts. A core value of feminism is the position that modern society is infiltrated with patriarchal viewpoints, this being where the male point of view is prioritised due to predetermined stereotypes. This movement is centred around fighting against these close-minded views that women shouldn’t receive the same personal, educational and professional opportunities than men do.

Feminist campaigns originate back to late 18th-century Europe, pushing for women’s equal rights such as the right to vote, earn equal pay, run for governmental office, the right to education, owning property, equal marital rights and maternal leave. These are just a small handful of what the feminist movement has pursued over many years, however this must still be driven to combat the stereotypical views that women equate to lesser than men. This movement was fundamental in ensuring women and girls gain access to contraceptives, legal and standardised abortions, as well as the protection from sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape or domestic violence.

However, these implementations of societal change stem from major historical battles that women have faced for hundreds of years, and are currently still having to be fought for in many third-world countries. For example, there are 24 countries across the world where abortive services are entirely prohibited, according to TIME magazine.

In these third-world countries, this may be due to the undeveloped nature of their medical systems. However in a more familiar and Western world, the U.S Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which was a landmark in history that granted women in each state of America access to suitable healthcare surrounding their pregnancy freely to the choice of their own. This removed every woman’s constitutional right to abortion rights in America, and handed it to each state to make a decision of their own. After existing for nearly half a century, this jeopardises many young girls and women’s lives, practically taking a step backwards and undoing all of the work that feminists of the past had strived to complete.

Roe v. Wade was initially passed in 1973 allowing the entire right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, however this has been eroded over the years. For example, Texas – a very republican state which majorly agrees with the pro-life movement – passed a law in 2021 allowing the people to sue clinics and doctors for carrying out an abortive procedure after 6 weeks. Now that Donald Trump has been re-elected as president, one of his plans have begun within his Project 2025 campaign which concerns bans on contraceptives and abortions with absolutely no exceptions. This is entirely dangerous and harmful to the millions of young girls and women across the country who could be put in life-threatening situations without simple access to these services.

With the inability to terminate a pregnancy, this could result in numerous deaths as the mother could die from giving birth – whether this may be from not being developed enough to carry to term or the body straining, rape victims being forced to birth their assaulters baby, not being able to provide for the child due to financial instability or pay the extravagant prices of hospital bills due to the lack of free healthcare, not having a support system in place, or just simply not feeling ready to have a child.

Historical events:

The Suffragettes:

The Suffragettes dominated the feminist movement for several decades, and are a notable period of time of activism for the rights of women. These women were members of an activist organisation in the early 20th century, fighting for the right to vote in the UK.

Within this campaign, there was a divide in the choosing of tactics and strategy in making their voices heard.

The Suffragists: NUWSS:

The suffragists sought to achieve women’s suffrage (the right to vote) through deep debating and campaigning through non-violent marches and petitions. This was led by Millicent Fawcett who was the head of the National Union for Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). This was an organisation, founded in 1897, however was merged with other organisations dated back to the 1860s. This consisted of primarily upper- and middle-class, however there were many women representing the working-class too. This was a limited representation as the working-class would be restricted on the time they would have to attend these protests as this would result in the loss of money when it was already difficult to gain a living in the first place.

Many women who were interested in this movement sent delegates to the NUWSS to then report back the benefits to those who were being represented, many of these women were textile workers, sweated labourers and those who worked in mines. By 1914, the NUWSS had over 100,000 members throughout the country with over 500 branches. Some of these methods of constitutional seeking for change consisted of:

• Public meetings
• Organised petitions
• Wrote letters to politicians
• Published newspapers
• Distributed free literature

The Suffragettes: WSPU:

With the lack of progress with the NUWSS being disappointing, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. Instead of taking a peaceful approach like the suffragists of the NUWSS, the WSPU decided to use a confrontational manner out of irritation of resistance to change by the government – a male-dominated field at the time. This direct advance was referred to as militancy, leading to these campaigners being called the ‘Suffragettes’ instead of Suffragists. This adding of the suffix ‘ette’ was purposely applied to belittle those taking more dramatic action, portraying the idea that these women were lesser than those acting in a peaceful way. However, this insult stuck and was used by the members of the WSPU themselves. This radicalised approach resulted from a culture of women who had already campaigned tirelessly without seeing results.

The Pankhurst family who formulated the WSPU led the way for the new struggle, and due to them being at the forefront of campaigns they were arrested numerous times, being imprisoned and committing to numerous hunger strikes. The Suffragettes These tactics implemented shocked society due to a large number of these women having well-connected families in middle-class society, with this being reinforced by the traditional stereotype that women should be family-orientated, delicate and nurturing – this was seen as scandalous.

Initially, these tactics were employed to cause disruption and some civil disruption, for example 60,000 people gathered in October 1908 as a ‘rush’ on Parliament – this was intending to invade the House of Commons. However, this was just the beginning, as the lack of government attention resulted in:

• Ruining male-only clubs and golf courses
• Hunger strikes
• Handcuffing themselves to railings/buildings as public displays of resistance
• Planting bombs
• Burning public buildings and unoccupied politicians homes
• Disrupting political meetings, the postal service and the 1911 census (this recorded the details of over 36.3 million men, women and children)
• Smashing windows of private property and government buildings
• Attacking Church of England buildings
• Holding illegal demonstrations
• Heckling MPs
• This is just a fraction of the disruptive strategies that the Suffragettes used to make themselves known and heard.

The Suffragists would not co-operate with the Suffragettes as they did not agree with this form of direct action, and believed that non-violent methods were more suitable. Whilst their civil disobedience allowed them to be the main focus of the country at the time, meaning that no politician could ignore them, this meant that the NUWSS’s actions were often overshadowed by the actions of the WSPU. Many historians still argue over which side of the movement furthered the campaign.

Black Friday:

A notable point within the Suffragettes is Black Friday. In the 1908 election campaign, a member of the Liberal Party named Herbert Henry Asquith promised to pass a law that included women’s rights if elected as Prime Minister. With the support of the Suffragettes behind him, he was elected. However until 1916, this actually resulted in Asquith refusing to reform the right to vote, leaving the women with empty promises and anger.

In response, the WSPU organised a march to highlight the issue with his refusal, however the women were met with violence by policemen and male bystanders. This meant that hundreds of women were badly hurt, even resulting in death.

‘Public conscience must be aroused, and it can only be done by attacks on public property. When women’s bodies were battered on Black Friday that was alright but when a few windowpanes are broken, that is all wrong.’ – Emmeline Pankhurst, 2 years later in a newspaper.

The concept of feminism is still fought for in modern society through protests as well as the use of social media. A great example of this is the #MeToo movement where women can come forward online about sexual harassments or assaults and tell their story in hopes to help those who relate or inspire others to come forward about it. This has also involved celebrities too, highlighting to the world that these people are not untouchable and many of them do awful, inhumane things and expect nothing to occur due to their wealth and fame. This is also extremely useful for those who have reported their assaults but have lost their case.

A predominant issue within modern feminism is the focus of misogyny which has been widely practised for thousands of years, this being a dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women or girls, being a partial form of sexism that women should be kept at a lower status than men. This concerns male violence and domestic abuse against women, where approximately 1/4 women (23% or 2.2 million) have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age for fifteen in the UK. A notable addition to this is the fact that in the event that the England football team wins or draws, the occurrence of domestic violence increases by 26%, and when they lose the percentile increases to 38%.

The feminist movement has been growing strong for hundreds of years, and is still rife in modern society.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

https://time.com/6173229/countries-abortion-illegal-restrictions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zh6nsk7#zspyvwx

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-42879161

https://hist259.web.unc.edu/nationalunionofwomenssuffragesocieties/: Exam preparation

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/startsuffragette-/#:~:text=However%20the%20lack%20of%20Government,campaign%20for%20votes%20for%20women.

https://noviolence.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Whataboutmen.pdf

https://www.simononthestreets.co.uk/news/domestic-violence-and-football-the-campaigns-fighting-for-change#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20in%20the%20event,that%20statistic%20rises%20to%2038%25.

I started to pair images together in Lightroom on the book section, basing this on the composition, colour and contextual information that they gave.

When I was doing this, I wanted to create variation in my work by using different page designs so that each spread would have alternating layouts. I was aiming to use full-page spreads that bled all the way to the edge, however I wanted to also leave small spaces on other pages so that they would be different. I also differentiated between the sizing, being that some images were made to be very small, taking up only the edge of the page, whilst other images were placed central to suit the image paired with it.

I wanted to create standardisation in my work by making all of the archived material have the exact same design. I came across different border options which I experimented with side-by-side to the pairing image so that I could see which one I preferred.

I also had to find the same border for the images that were portrait, as many of my archived images were landscape. However, this wasn’t a problem as I was able to zoom in the image and crop it to fit.

I also alternated the positioning of the images to assess how well the compositions went together so that I could figure what order to place them into.

For example:

I wanted to make sure that the material in the images was focused towards the centre as this is important in

I played with pairing images too as this would help me piece together the narrative whilst also show me what suited and what didn’t.

During this process, I was able to do final touches and alterations to my images so that they would accommodate the other images. This also helped me see what weaknesses I had in my images and how I could perfect them.

In images, like this one below, that were over-exposed, I used the masking brush tool as this allowed me to edit specific areas of the image without making alterations to the overall image. I did this with this photograph as it gives high contextual information about my brother. I wanted to highlight the depth of the cracks in the door whilst also keeping the image dark at an appropriate amount because this will make the image come across as angry and hurt, which are relevant emotions concerning my brother.

I experimented with this in numerous ways as I wanted to make it look the most dramatic as I could whilst still making sure it looked realistic:

I started experimenting with different layouts for my front and back cover as this sets the scene for the viewer to give them a clue on what this is going to be about. I saved doing this until last so that I would find it easier as then I can choose from my selection of images that have already been displayed, being faster.

My ideas began like this:

I began to copy over my essay into the back of my photobook. I imported the reference images into my Lightroom Catalog so that I could drag them from the strip into the pages of the book.

To add text, I used the photo description box which is just a simple text box while for my images I used the photo choice.

Here, I could experiment with font types, sizing, spacing and boldness to decide which suited my photobook the most and which one was the nicest in my opinion.

I decided on a solid black background colour as I feel that the darkness and opacity suggests to the viewer that this photobook is concerned with topics that are deep and serious. I didn’t like how the templates sat so I decided to use one, and then create my own photo cell and measure it over the top so that they would be equal.

I paired these images as the front cover shows the start of his life, and the back cover shows a more recent photograph of him once he has endured the battles of his mental health and has changed as a person. The shine of the flash in the first image can be echoed into the back cover image, which not only gives it consistency but can be perceived as still having small parts of his old personality tucked away in his mind somewhere.

I chose on the title ‘Fragments of Him’ for a number of reasons. For one, the two images on the front and back cover are small, acting like a window into his life. This is also reinforced by the pixilation on my brothers face on the front cover because there are pieces of him covering up his own face. Finally, I thought this name was well suited and appropriate as many of my images are quite abstract, being that they allow the viewer to have small flashes into the direct experiences of my brother and the second-hand repercussions that untreated mental health issues have on a family.

I decided on the Georgia font and put it into bold in order to make it stand out against the contrasting black so that it would be more eye-catching. Once I did this, I standardised all of my writing in the photobook so that it would be the same.

Once I had completed this, I felt that I wasn’t quite done with my photobook. So, under my archived images, I began to write small anecdotes about what mine and my brothers relationship was like, his hobbies and the family dynamic. I did this to provided context to these archived images but also so that the viewer can get to know who my brother was/is and learn about his life.

I dragged the image caption down further away so that it would stand alone and be more emotive. I also altered the colour of the pages as I felt that the white was too harsh for a subject matter like this.

Once I had my final checks, I sent my book to Blurb.

I chose for standard portrait with a hardcover image wrap, with premium lustre paper.

My Final Layout:

The first set of images I began to experiment with were digital archived images that my parents found of me and my brother, as well as singular images of my brother or with his friends from childhood. I imported these onto the computer from my phone and began to experiment with them in Photoshop using different techniques.

My initial idea going into this was to create adaptations to the images and convey a message of concealing his identity to protect him as these images are of me and him at vulnerable ages, susceptible to different kinds of traumas and the risks within the world that parents try to protect their children from. These images reflect a time of innocence and naivety to connote feelings of nostalgia. A very affluent theme within my personal study is looking at memories, so by making adaptations to these archived images that are associated with core memories from childhood, it changes the meaning behind the images to think back to how my brother used to be before this illness completely changed his identity. This also is representative of how these core memories with my brother are something I think back to all the time and reflect on the person who he used to be in comparison to now where the entire family dynamic has been altered.

However, although I am using family albums in my personal study, I still need to ensure that the image isn’t too under-exposed or over-exposed as I need to ensure I am using effective images.

My first few experiments are inspired by the aesthetic of the ‘unknown user’ profile pictures that people typically use when trying to be anonymous. This is because I think that this is an effective way to show how my brother is not the person who he once was, and demonstrates how he may feel out of touch with himself or like another person because of how much the illness has deteriorated him. This anonymity also contributes to my idea of showing the stigma surrounding men’s mental health in a subtle and muted way as it could be interpreted as hiding away due to a diagnosis due to the perception that men shouldn’t be emotional or speak out about their mental health.

What I began looking at was empty silhouettes of my brothers face, using the Lasso tool in Photoshop to create my selection and delete it to reveal a plain white background. I then added the gradient tool to the white page so that this would be shown through the selection, instead of being this cut out as a block colour as this looked too strange and was very plain.

Whilst I did like this idea of total concealment, I found that the image still looked quite plain and didn’t really convey the message in a clear way. Even though there was a gradient in the image, it still looked very flat and not very interesting, even if I changed the colour it looked quite odd.

I then attempted this again with another image, however this time I included the strands off hair that were laying on his face as this would not only add more texture to the image, but make it look more detailed and intricate rather than being a flat and simplified cut out. I also repeated this method with the same image I used before so that I could see if the images would link together and work cohesively.

I preferred the way this looked more, however the cut out still looks very exaggerated and dramatic and I feel like this has the possibility of taking away from the ‘memory’ aspect of the image as it doesn’t have that soft touch to it. However, I may still use these as I feel like it looks like an anonymous user profile picture which I could use to link to the present. However, I am going to have to think about this after I begin taking my other photoshoots to see it aligns correctly with my other ideas.

I didn’t really like these experiments that I created so I decided to try a different approach with this method where his entire body was surrounded instead.

I repeated this process again with another image as I felt that it would work very well with this technique:

I think that this was successful as it balances the aesthetic of the image instead of looking out of place.

I began thinking about the other ways I could represent anonymity and concealing identity in a way that I thought would be not only more accurate to the techniques that people usually use to remain anonymous, but would also have a softer touch to them to keep the same tone of nostalgia and protection as well as the aspect of remembrance. I did this because it means that I can include a variation of these methods in my final photobook.

I began playing around with the idea of pixilation. There wasn’t a tool for this in Photoshop so I began by using the rectangle tool to make reasonably sized squares to begin covering my brothers face. I also used the eyedropper tool to select the different tones of my brothers skin and hair so that the pixels looked accurate. I had to make sure that both the fill (the box) and the stroke (the outline) were the exact same colour so that this wouldn’t look strange and actually looked as if his face had been really pixelated.

I started duplicating them and then changing the colour to make sure that each of them were the same size.

Whilst I was beginning to experiment with this, I realised that the resolution of the image was quite poor, and whilst I am using the snapshot aesthetic, the image was still quite blurry and out of focus. I decided to go back to the image that I used before as I wasn’t too fond of the initial outcome anyway, and the composition of the image was nicer too, for example I’m wearing pink whilst my brother is wearing blue.

I repeated this process continually over my brothers face until I thought that the shape and size of the cluster worked proportionally. This resulted in a large amount of layers:

Similarly…

I didn’t really like the edits I made on this experiment as I felt that the pixels were too large so I attempted this again using smaller cubes:

I pixelated this image of my dad and brother playing pool on holiday when he was younger. Whilst the resolution isn’t as great as I would’ve liked, I am still going to use this image in my photo-book because it acts as a contextual cue for my images containing the keyring of a pool ball. This way, I can imply how my brother’s mental health restricted him from continuing with his hobbies, and I feel that this will be a very reflective way of what my brothers personality used to be like and his different interests.

I repeated these two methods in several different images to have an element of consistency in my photobook. I also experimented with cutting out just my brothers face and also his body to still keep them differentiated.

I found a few images of my brother in his football kit so I can enforce the same contextual cues.

I am also going to use these two images to pair them with my second photoshoot that took place at the same beach to show context:

Final and best images:

 ‘The duty thus falls upon the snapshooter not to just ‘save’ moments, but to ‘immortalise’ the people who they photograph’ Stephen Bull, Photography 2009

The notion of family is a theme that is closely exhibited within photography from a multitude of perspectives, ranging from the demonstration of healthy relationships, to more negative storytelling through nostalgic cues, being that ‘a photograph can be a site for conflicting memories’ Kuhn (2003:397). Photographers like Yury Toroptsov and Philip Toledano use conceptual methods in their work in order to implicitly give away clues about the events of their childhood. These events are centred around the memory and loss of immediate family, as well as attempts to transform an emotive notion into singular images, for example a visual representation of an intangible feeling. Indexicality is abundant when memorialising family members who have passed away as it conceptualises that the “taking” of a photograph can be thought of as “pointing” to something in the world, being that these photographs are closely related to presence and absence, memory, the past and death. My personal study focuses on the difficulties and struggles of growing up with a family member who, over time, deteriorates from gaining a mental illness, this being my brother who has Bipolar disorder. The family album has been developed in congruency with advancements in technology in order to pass down generational stories in order to commemorate them to serve as souvenirs of the past. My interest stems from how these tributes to past events can be used to evoke emotional stories of personal difficulties.

I find an analysis of Toroptsov and Toledano to be most appropriate here as my work resonates with theirs in a relative manner, allowing me to convey the difficulties of grieving someone who is still alive yet not who they once were. A dominating factor, however, lies in the direct contrast between Toledano’s project of When I Was Six against Toroptsov’s work entitled Deleted Scene. Toledano’s project inhabits a dark tone throughout the photobook where he depicts archival material from his older sister’s life, Claudia, before she died in childhood, and characterises these images through ethereal dream-like images in between to represent disorientated emotions. I found that his still-life images of childhood keepsakes of which belonged to Claudia were able to create tension within his storytelling which is what I aim to do in my own work in order to depict life before my brother fell unwell to enable my viewer to follow the narrative in a chronological way and learn of a vulnerable perspective. Additionally, I wanted to interpret his ethereal images, which can be seen to resemble fluidity of emotion, into a more domestic setting by using a relatively low exposure and low angles. Alternatively, Toroptsov expresses echoes of his father within his home town of Russia in the form of ambiguous images through the formal elements and zooming into the more discrete patterns in his surroundings. I wanted to manipulate this into my work by showing the echoes of my brother in the areas of which we once shared pleasant childhood memories, yet these are sites of nostalgia and grief now. This obscurity that Toroptsov employs will allow me to be subjective and add a morose tone to my images.

The idea ‘snapshots did not reinforce the positive messages of the images, but instead went ‘beyond’ the album to fill in what the photographs did not record: negative memories’ (Bull 2009:94) is something I am also inhabiting in my work through the use of archived images of my brother in childhood and creating digitised alterations to further pursue this idea of change from the person he was remembered as. I looked at the work of Carolle Benitah for this concept as one of my artist references as she redefines herself by using her own archived images from family albums in order to symbolise and hint at different events of her life.

Origin of the family album

The development of the family album has coincided with new advancements in technology throughout history, for example ‘A Victorian album was itself a series of visual novelties, with the portraits often cut up and arranged in decorative shapes and incorporating drawings and other scrapbook items’ (Holland 2004: 128). Beginning in 1900, Eastman Kodak produced the Kodak box brownie, a basic box camera with pre-loaded film. Retailing for $1 at the time, the simplicity and low cost aspect provided specifically the middle and upper-class with the ability to generate snapshots of each other, friends and pets in order to create physical manifestations of family memories. The Kodak box brownie introduced amateur photography, with one hundred thousand of them being purchased during the first year alone, as an alternative from the difficult, lengthy and expensive processes of professional photographers inhabiting techniques of daguerreotypes and calotypes. Its simplicity began to develop and led to Kodak producing a mass of varieties, where ‘working-class people could present themselves to each other, creating a confident working-class identity’ (Holland 2004: 135)

The first commercial photographic process of Carte-de-visite, inhabited by Henry Mullins whose work is one of the most prolific within the Societe Jersiase Photo-Archive, is defined by its close-trimmed portraited aesthetic that was intended as a substitute for a visiting card. This small albumen print was produced through the use of egg whites in order to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper, with the image emerging as a direct result of exposure to light. The typical carte-de-visite consisted of one or a few people in a studio setting, sometimes holding personal belongings to be remembered by. The cost-effective aspect meant that they were easy to formulate, making cheap copies of the same photo to be handed out to loved ones, being less delicate too so they did not require velvet-lined cases like earlier forms of photography like the Daguerrotype.

Mullins specialised in carte-de-visites, capturing 9,000 portraits of islanders during 19th century Jersey. His work was highly politicised due to the variations of occupational backgrounds and the containment of the island’s most affluent and influential people at the time. These images consisted of Jersey political elite, such as The Bailiff, mercantile families, military officers and professional classes like doctors or advocates. Mullins gathered all these images and compiled them into an album to document the levels of social class, beginning with the most powerful roles down to the less fortunate.

Now, the idea that ‘The family album is now being slowly supplanted by the development of social media and the decline of traditional film’ Dennett (2006: 124) is rife within society, being that anyone in the world with access to technology, such as a phone, can practice amateur photography; specifically for the preservation of memories and reminiscence of people and places. These technologies mean that the exchanging of memorial family images is a simpler process now, and is ever-growing in its approach to conserving the loved ones who have passed away or are distant. This chance of amateur photography stems from how ‘Once a technology exists, it may become adapted and introduced into social use in a variety of both foreseen and unforeseen ways’. (Price 2004: 13)

The work of Toroptsov and Toledano use the topics of loss and memory to exorcise personal and internal conflicts in family matters where ‘These silences, these repressions, are written into the album, into the process of its making, and into actual photographs.’ Kuhn (2003:400) in order to express a dark tale for others to relate to.

Yury Toroptsov

This reminiscence is visible in Toroptsov’s work entitled Deleted Scene where he ventures out into his hometown within Russia, Vladivostok, to capture the echoes of his father within the formal features of the landscape.

Due to his father passing when Toroptsov was just two-years-old, he aims to unravel the neglected recollection of him as he bears little to no memories of the time he spent with him. This lures Toroptsov out into the external environment in order to get to know his father through the fragments of his memory that are scattered in these locations. Knowing that this time was shared with his father, yet unable to relish in the memories to recollect and rewind, is represented through the mysterious tones that he depicts in this photobook. These distinct patterns in rural areas of nature become cinematic through the high contrast within the composition as this adds drama and solemnity to the image to infer to the viewer that there is a dark concept and story being symbolised through the small pieces that build up the environment, just like there are pieces of Toroptsov’s father’s memory which he must seek out in order to know him. Through the ambiguity of the images, he uses an ominous tone within the images which could be metaphorical towards the difficulty of growing up in a single-parent household as something beknown is missing to Toroptsov, however at a younger age he may or not been able to acknowledge that his father had passed.

The sharp contrast is the most eye-catching feature in this image, the comparison of the saturated yellow lake paired with the dark natural landscape of leaves and sticks displays the composition in a bold and vibrant way to catch attention. These sticks and leaves disturb the smoothness of the block-coloured water and adds texture specifically in the foreground as these are spread across more meaning that the viewer can focus on the individuality of each piece, restructuring the initial sense of tranquillity and order. As this saturated tone of yellow is commonly associated with hazardous signs, this adds a cautionary aspect to the image that conveys emotions of unsettlement, not only because of this association but also because of how unusual this composition is, creating a tone of not everything being the way it should be. This can relate to the psychological feeling of the uncanny, where everything appears correct at face value however there is just something slightly off-putting. Reflections of the surrounding trees are echoed into the yellow swamp below, adding an intricate pattern of lines in a variety of lengths and sizes to layer over one another. This creates a textural perspective to layer over this blanket of yellow that was initially thought to be flat, adding greater depth to the image and makes it come to life in a 3D manner. This layering of reaching arms off the branches of the trees can be interpreted as resembling his fathers connection to Vladivostok, being Toroptsov’s home town, and depicting that his heritage is all around him here. This is an obscure metaphor through the delicate pattern that the branches create which look like the veins within the human anatomy, being an accurate representation of how the blood vessels spread out in a randomised order, intertwine and vary in sizing. This could be Toroptsov’s attempt at trying to show that even if he doesn’t recall his father, he has the ability to honour his memory even if he is ultimately a stranger to him. This provides indexicality to Toroptsov’s work, this being tangible evidence of a things existence as he is shooting geographical parts of his home town. This concept is concerned with how the ‘taking’ of a photograph can be thought of as ‘pointing’ to something in the world.

In my own work, I have found inspiration from Toroptsov to explore this ideology of seeking the “unseen” or picking apart the location as a form of obscure metaphors in memorable places that me and my brother shared our childhood in, however I have included this in a domestic environment instead to show the echoes of my brother at home when he has been admitted to hospital again.

This image is taken of my back door next to my brothers room which he uses regularly due to him being a smoker, however I thought that this would make a strong image, specifically because of the diagonal lighting that goes past the window and bounces onto the wall as when it is paired with the darkened shadows, this creates an effect of gloom and mystery. This image is slightly under-exposed, however this was my aim because I don’t want my images to be too bright as this may convey emotions differing to what I am intending, for example it may make the image look more happy as bright images can be commonly associated with lighter feelings, rather than this solemn tone that I am aiming for. As there is natural lighting coming through the window, this creates a glowing effect in the centre of the image that could be interpreted as seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel” due to the darkness that is in the hallway until it reaches this burst of light. As this window acts as a privacy window due to the texture over it, meaning that the end of my garden is reflected through. Because of the objects in my garden, this has created a purple tinge to glow through which I think contributes to this idea of things getting better over time. This image also connotes ideas of being trapped, for example the cat flap acting as if a portal to the outside world even when the door is locked, however it is evidently too small for a human to go through. I feel that this is very representative of this idea of negative mental health making a person feel helpless and trapped within a consistent cycle of breakdown, treatment and healing that has repeatedly had an effect on my brother for years. This darkness shadowing around the image acts confining, as if the back door is holding in all of this darkness. I think this could clearly represent how mental health is not a physical thing, but more like a fever of the mind that is more difficult to treat in comparison to a tangible injury and disease.

These images depict the out-of-place feeling that loss brings into a family, and while the conceptual difference is that my grief is directed towards someone who is still alive, this use of an ambiguous aesthetic allows me to represent the intangible feeling of missing who my brother once was and how his memory reflects off the walls. I like Toroptsov’s approach of minimalism and formalism because it allows the viewer to familiarise themselves with the person that this memorial is for, and allows the viewer to creep into small snippets of their life for moments at a time through these snapshots.

Philip Toledano

However, Philip Toledano takes an altered approach when immortalising the life of his nine year old sister, Claudia, after she passed away. Being a conceptual visual artist, Toledano creates a narrated photobook entitled When I Was Six that is formulated through a concoction of still-life images and atmospheric “heaven-like” images in order to put the viewer into the shoes of his six-year-old self, exploring the human psyche.  The way that the photo-book has been pieced together has been done very thoughtfully, thinking about the dream-like images first comes across as some sort of escape from the reality of Claudia’s death for Toledano, imagining these landscapes that connote emotions of peace, vulnerability and freedom from demons in his mind, even as a six year old who wouldn’t be able to process such a devastating concept. How well would a six year old be able to understand death, such a traumatic and disruptive event? Such a trauma to a six year old would be psychologically altering as Philip Toledano wouldn’t of been cognitively “ready” to acknowledge the passing of his sister, giving him the opportunity to meet his sister through the memories of her left behind in a box in the attic, barely spoken about since this ordeal. These still-life images document artifacts from Claudia’s life, her belongings, such as her school pencil, however this also provides documentation of her life too, such as her certificate of death. On the other hand, these ethereal-looking patterns that Toledano incorporates adds form and depth through the changing of direction and movement, representing the fluidity of emotion that could be portraying the loss of control Toledano had over his own at the time of her passing. Toledano ‘placed the photographs with hand-painted, fantasy scenes in order to create narratives of escapism’ (Bull 2009:93) in order to be retrospective of how he felt at the time of the event.

‘I don’t have any memories of my life after she died, except for this kind of peculiar fascination with space travel and astronomy. I think it was a way of being somewhere else, far from what had happened.’ – Toledano tells Time Magazine

This image particularly resonated with me, capturing Claudia’s school summer dress from when she was nine, placed neatly and cautiously into what seems to be an adult shoe box with the lid off, accustomed by tissue paper underneath. When the image is initially viewed, the high contrast immediately draws the eye due to the tension between the blocked black background and the checked pattern on the dress. This juxtaposition forms an optical illusion as this variance adds drama, making this burst of colour and the textural aspect of the dress look out of place and adds an aspect of solemnity as this looks so awkward. With the box placed just out of centre and pushed off to the side, this adds a sense of the uncanny – the idea that something isn’t quite right. I also find this where the box isn’t placed exactly straight, appearing to have been just pushed into the lens with no real thought behind it. I consider this to be a purposeful action, possibly to symbolise how this box containing all of the objects that are associated with Claudia, including her school uniform, were pushed aside for 40 years unbeknownst to Toledo, only to be discovered once his parents had passed away. The tissue paper behind the dress is crinkled, showing its age as its been discarded for so long. However, I find that this may resemble the memory of Claudia withering away from within the box over the years, specifically due to Toledano stating that ‘I have no memories of my life after my sister’s death for a few years’. (Toledano tells GUP Magazine) What I find is the most motivating factor within Toledano’s image is the lighting technique he has used. This image has been taken from a bird’s eye view using artificial light, however this lighting is in a squared shape, possibly done by using a specific head on the light above or, if he didn’t have the equipment for this, perhaps using different material to create this square outline as it is not entirely perfect. As the lighting has been pushed to the left side to oppose the dress slightly to the right, I feel that this may be reflective of how young Claudia died, explaining why only a partial selection of the dress has been highlighted by this glow. I also feel that this may be representative of that feeling of emptiness and loneliness that we find after a loved one has passed away, as I said before, showing that the beginning stages of grief may lure someone to begin to question their place in the world, what their purpose is. This could be reflective of the shift in Toledano’s family dynamic when he was younger, demonstrating how Claudia wasn’t mentioned much again due to the heartache, making her life slowly disappear into the darkness.

In my own work, I have created similar image types however I wanted to shoot these in locations relevant to my brothers childhood as I feel that this provides more contextual information that is necessary in making my narrative consistent.

I plan to sequence these together, shooting childhood toys outside my brothers old football changing rooms, because I feel that this symbolises the leaving behind of my brothers memory and how the memories of his childhood remain here unobtainable to him due to the severity of his illness at this time. I used opposing angles and distances for these two images and edited them side by side so that I could ensure they had the same tonal range in order to keep congruity. I set them up on this bench as if they were waiting for somebody to collect them, as if they had been lost, in order to represent how I would sit and wait for my brother. I also think that this is effective due to the way the changing rooms look so dull and lifeless when paired with the muted greenery as the entire image looks depressing and lonely due to it being so empty. I think that this has portrayed how segments of both mine and my brothers childhood is left here as if it is left unsolved or unfinished as times changed so quickly once my brother became unwell.

Conclusion

To conclude, the preservation of family memory is interpreted in many different ways in photography. Photographers like Yury Toroptsov use the formal elements to pick apart the environment around them to reveal the hidden echoes of their passed love one that they may encounter in everyday life. By attempting to understand who his father was through death, this offers a fresh approach to the subjects of memory and loss as Toroptsov must try to depict an image of who he was before his passing, and explores how such an abrupt loss at a young age could unconsciously impact him. On the other hand, more subjective photographers such as Philip Toledano incorporate multiple image types; still-life images and fantasy images. This collection of abstract metaphors connotes the suppression and blocking out of painful memories to resist facing a harsh truth of losing a family member. This explores the psychological repercussions of loss and memory. The family album has developed in congruity with technological changes, meaning the way we preserve memories has advanced too.

These concepts have influenced me to be subjective in my work through trying to visually represent an intangible feeling, however it has allowed me to formulate ideas where I can include contextual cues within the background of the environment by going to specific locations that me and my brother share childhood memories at, even if he cannot recall them as easily as me. With four photoshoots so far, I initially began with a domestic environment where I used not only different angles of low lighting but also incorporated some of my brothers personal items, using different depths of field, through the inspiration of Toledano’s ethereal images which produced some of my favourite images. I followed this by using objects that relate to my brothers childhood as well as the memories we share with each other and shot these in locations related, using dynamic angles to add drama and solemnity to the images to represent how these memories have been lost and discarded. I feel that this has actively been effective in illustrating how my brother has changed from who he once was as his mental illness has worsened, depicting how it feels so grieve someone who is still present.

Finally, I have used the snapshot aesthetic in my use of archival image experimentation, where I have pixelated and silhouetted my brother. Creating adaptations to the image conveys an effective message of protection at such a vulnerable age for what was about to come in the future where he was susceptible to risks within the world through innocence and naivety. These adaptations change the meaning of the images to compare the past to the present, and represents how these core memories are always thought of.

Bibliography:

Family
Bull, S. (2009), ‘Phototherapy: The Family Album and Beyond‘ in Photography. London: Routledge.

Dennett, T. (2006), ‘Beyond The Album’ in Jo Spence’s Family Album. London: Virago Press.

Memory

Kuhn, A. (2003). ‘Remembrance: The Child I Never Was’ in Wells L. (ed) The Photography Reader. London: Routledge

History

Headshots | 2025 Photography A Level Blog

Holland, P (2004), ‘Sweet it is to scan…: personal photographs and popular photography.’ In: Wells, L. (ed.) (2004), Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge

Price, D (2004), ‘Thinking about photography: debates, historically and now.’ In Wells, L. (ed.) (2004), Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge

Turnbow (2023), Before Instagram, There Was Kodak. Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum: https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/instagram-there-was-kodak

In this photoshoot, I wanted to add an under-exposed aesthetic to my images as I have began thinking about the sequencing of my photobook as this is a key aspect in making sure the narrative is consistent. These images are related to those I took during my second photoshoot, however they are taken at differing times of day and weather.

My intentions with these photos is to sequence them with relevant archived family images which I have experimented with in Photoshop, for example pairing the images relevant to football with images of my brother from when he was younger.

I wanted to use a darker tone in my images this time through the use of the time of day and weather type because it will enable me to show the other side of reminiscing on childhood memories – this being the more negative side where I reflect on the implications my brother has faced due to his diagnosis and add a tone of solitude into the images instead of a happier composition where it connotes ideas of remembrance and hope.

I took this photoshoot at FB football fields as this is where my brothers passion and talent for football began and where I used to go and watch him play matches to support him. Since he became unwell, he hasn’t really continued with his football as he hasn’t really had the motivation to go, so in this photoshoot I wanted to represent how he gave up his love for football, alongside the idea of having childhood memories stuck here.

During my editing, I wanted to ensure that the image was still kept dark to represent emotions of grief, however I wanted to highlight the objects in the image to show small hints of my brothers memory. I did this by using the object masking tool and increasing the highlights or exposure of that particular item to make it stand out from the background and prevent it from blending in.

I also added a vignette to a majority of my best images just to reinforce the idea of seclusion and solitude as it darkens the edges so that not only the overall image appears sombre, but because it will create a more dramatic effect where the objects can be highlighted. This means that the viewer can really reflect on the comparison of the family image compared to these images as they become binary opposites being happy to sad.

Final Images:

For this image, I shot with a low exposure in order to create this dark contrast. As it wasn’t great weather, the different tones of grey in the storm cloud can be seen to once again represent that fluidity of emotion that I as aiming to show in order to keep the narrative consistent on the various differing emotions surrounding my brothers mental health. I shot this from a low angle so that I could get the net of the goal to look similar to a cross-hatching pattern which I think has worked really well because this allows me to take images of sections of the landscape using formalism. Also, the more distinct straight lines add structure to the image in a more dramatic way which can connote feelings of seriousness and solemnity. The lock on the goal could be interpreted as if my brothers illness has locked away his passion and these certain memories that he may struggle to reflect on, restricting him from becoming the person he once was or growing from these experiences. The image didn’t require much editing as the natural sunlight was concealed by a cloud which meant that I could add a gloomy effect to really represent the morose tone in the atmosphere.

In this image, I placed down an image of me, my brother and my cousin from when we were in the UK at a photobooth. I noticed that the pitches had marks on them from the groundskeeper, so I used this as leading lines central to the image to symbolise how my brothers illness caused him to walk away from football. I wanted to add the image in as if he had left himself behind when his illness didn’t allow him to play football anymore because I thought that this would add a stronger emotive factor. I added a vignette because this helped me reinforce the feelings of desolation as it makes the edges of the image darker which denotes negative feelings. I took this image at a relatively low angle and pointed in diagonally so that the background of the image appeared smaller than the foreground. I feel that this enabled me to portray feelings of isolation and loneliness as there is nothing else in the image so that the viewer solely focuses on the concept behind the image rather than the technical aspects, making it more ambiguous. Also, the alternating directions and shades of the grass make the image look more chaotic as it adds movement and texture, which could be linked to the contradicting feelings that my brother feels about his ending of football.

With these two images, I wanted to show the football left in the goal, untouched, as if it was representing the last time my brother played football. Instead of using a normal sized football, I used a smaller one as I wanted to show how young my brother started playing football and how this ended so abruptly when he reached the age of around 17 years old. I used a really small ball to add irony to the image through the dramatic difference in size between the ball and goal itself to make a implicit comparison to now, where the goal is now larger to resonate with how my brother has grown up, however the ball still remains small as his passion for football did not continue, hence why it has not increased in size.

In this image, I used the same angle as I did before however I bent down closer to the ground so I could get a more detailed image. I feel that there is a high contrast between the grass and the bar of the goal due to the vibrancy that works really well when using a low exposure because it adds drama to the image as the line is so defined. The way that the white of the bar is off-coloured, I feel that this could represent how my brothers main concern at the time was how well he played in a football match, something so innocent and pure, whereas now his priority is trying to get better from his bipolar which is a more difficult process, hence all of the marks on the goal. I used a vignette on this image to emphasize the dark tonal range which then meant that the ball looked brighter and would contribute to it being the focal point of the image. I used an angle that was diagonal to the goal which has created a straight line across the image to section it which adds structure and a more formatted aesthetic. The goal net itself does this too, however the curves of the lines create movement and shape.

I used a similar approach in the image, however I put the camera on its side just about touching the grass which has meant that a lot of pieces are blurred in the foreground and look enlarged. I feel that this image looks like a combination of the previous images as this incorporates the stormy weather in the background to evoke feelings of gloom and despair, however this image uses a lot of lines such as the grass spiking up against the goal which may symbolise spikes in my brothers mental health in critical periods. The image was quite bright due to the weather being a large part of the image so I used a vignette on this image too as it allows me to darken the edges of the image, however I wanted to do this to emphasize the shadows made by the grass in the foreground as darkness evokes negativity which is relevant to my brothers emotions about this topic.

In my photobook, I am going to pair these images together as I feel the sequencing of them will be really effective. I took this image outside of the football changing rooms where I would always wait for my brother after his football matches as I was very young and would be ecstatic to congratulate him. For the first image, I stood quite far back and zoomed out the camera so that the objects looked far away, but could still be seen. I then moved closer, zoomed back in and bent down at a lower angle so that I could centralise the objects and take an image that was specifically looking into what they were. In my editing, I put the images side by side so that I could ensure both images had the same tonal range and looked as if they were exactly the same. I also used the object masking tool in order to brighten and highlight just the toys in a subtle way without altering the overall lighting because this meant that the objects wouldn’t disappear and blend into the background when they are the main focal point. I set them up on this bench as if they were waiting for somebody to collect them, as if they had been lost, in order to represent how I would sit and wait for my brother. I also think that this is effective due to the way the changing rooms look so dull and lifeless when paired with the muted greenery as the entire image looks depressing and lonely due to it being so empty. I think that this has portrayed how segments of both mine and my brothers childhood is left here as if it is left unsolved or unfinished as times changed so quickly once my brother became unwell.

I wanted to experiment with ways on how to represent nostalgia, and how fragments of my brother remain in certain areas from my childhood where I have formed core memories with him or just areas near my house that he frequently enjoys going to. In this instance, I focused on La Mare beach which is a 5 minute walk from my house as my brother usually takes my dog for long walks here. I thought this would be an effective location too as this meant I could utilise the motion of the waves, rippling in and out, to add elements of fluidity to represent emotion.

For example, the tide swells in and out, and I feel that this is relative to the way that my brothers mental health fluctuates between the distinct line of ‘well’ and unwell. I like this metaphor because it subtly hints at the unpredictable nature of my brothers illness which I feel will be very powerful when I begin sequencing for my photo-book. As well as this, I used the sunset to create different reflections off the water to add vibrancy to my images.

I have began to think about my sequencing, and have collected archived images that link extremely well. For example:

Final Images:

For this image I created my own fake footprints in the sand in order to make it appear as if someone is walking away from the teddy bear that I placed against the rock. The teddy bear is representative of my brother as he gave it to me when I was younger so I wanted to incorporate that sentimental value in the image. I wanted the image to appear as if someone is leaving the teddy bear behind because I feel that this is a good representation of how, this area specifically, is nostalgic for me due to the memories that me and my brother share. However, my intention is to convey the message that reminiscing over a person who does not exist anymore is a difficult thing, and sometimes the easiest thing to do is to walk away. The tide did swell in when I was taking this image, however I found this to be really effective because it is as if the tide is coming in to take the memories away, symbolising how my brothers illness may distort once pleasant memories or erase them. The sea looks as if its over-exposed in comparison to the rest of the image, however I do like this aspect because it makes the image have a higher contrast. As the tide is in the background of the composition, this could connote ideas of ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’, this being due to the section of the teddy being darker to represent how a once pleasant memory is now concerned with heavier issues. The footprints could also be associated with moving on from the childhood memories and coming to terms with reality and the harsh truth that things may not be the same again, however this is a time to make new memories in these locations and leave behind those that may not be as easily recalled by my brother anymore.

I chose to use this as my second object because my brother habitually plays pool with my dad and he has done since he was a child. I simply dropped the key ring from standing height and let it fall into a natural position, however I did this 3 times because I wanted to ensure that the viewer would know what it is. I used a very low angle, with the side of the camera touching the sand and pointing slightly up to the sky. I had to experiment with this as I obviously couldn’t see what the image would look like in the viewfinder, so I had many attempts. I used a short depth of field so that it would just be the keyring focused on as this is the main focal point of the image. I like the way that the keyring looks as if it’s just been discarded in a careless way because this shows how these memories are getting lost in the midst of his illness. I feel that the dramatic positioning of the keyring paired with the low angle is really effective here as it looks as if its been left behind and forgotten about. Also, the small lumps and bumps on the sand have created a lot of texture within the image due to the sand being so close to the lens of the camera which I think works really well when paired with the blurred and smoothed background as it is out of focus.

I wasn’t sure which one of these images I preferred as they were taken in the same multi-shot, however I liked how they both looked next to each other as it reinforces the concept of the sea swelling in and out just how mental health can fluctuate quickly between coping and struggling. I liked these images because the keyring is out of focus which contradicts my last image, however I liked this idea of almost ‘hiding in plain sight’ as if it is waiting to be revealed to the viewer. This is relative to nostalgia because it resonates with the idea that the memories of an area build up into a persons perception of that location. I like this idea of ‘seeking’ out different sections of memory as this could also be interpreted into how my brother may not be able to recall all of the memories that I do, therefore he has to pick apart the environment around him in order to remember. I feel that the muted pastel colours of the sunset connote feelings of reflection and hope as they stand out against the more negative blue tones in the foreground of the images. In the image of the tide surrounding the key ring, I feel that this could represent how these childhood memories may become ‘washed away’ due to my brothers illness and how he may not recognise himself anymore through things such as his hobbies.

The next 3:

In each of the three images below I experimented with hiding the objects within the frame to show how small fragments of my brothers memory are hidden in this area and spread out to bring nostalgia at any time. I got this idea from the images before as I feel that this is a good way to represent how little sections of the memories we share can build up certain locations.

I added a blue tint to the image so that the blue on the teddy bear is reflected and echoed into the rest of the image to create a more depressing tone. I like the composition of this image as there is a lot of line and shape in the foreground that can act as leading lines up to the bear as many of the curves and grooves in the rocks are pointing towards it. I was happy with this result as I did want to incorporate some of the landscape however I wanted to do this using the formal elements in a more ambiguous tone which I think is successful here. I also increased the highlights in the image to brighten the teddy as I didn’t want it to be lost within the composition as it is quite busy, which also removed the orange tones from the background which could’ve confused the concept of the image as warmer colours are commonly associated with emotions of happiness and joy.

This image did not require much editing at all. Once again, I kept the key ring out of focus as I wanted to play on this idea on showing the memories in a subtle way. I am really pleased with this composition as the dark red of the keyring is repeated throughout by the rocks as the majority of these are a range of dark reds and burgundy. The seaweed also contributes to this as it not only amplifies the dark nature of the image, but also adds texture against the rocks. I feel that the two main sections of seaweed look at equal size which is aesthetically pleasing as it balances the foreground and background. Once again, I used a low angle so that I could make the key ring look enlarged so that the viewer doesn’t miss it. The focal point is the dark brown rock in the centre of my image so that the viewer has a middle point to them explore the image from in further detail. The angle that I have used has enabled me to inhabit a type of optical illusion where the objects in the foreground appear larger than they actually are, giving it a forced perspective.

I really liked this idea due to the high contrast that it inhabits through the randomised pattern of seaweed paired with the dramatic lines of the rocks because this adds texture to my images which in turn will make it look more 3D instead of becoming flat and lifeless. I took this image from a higher angle so that my photobook will incorporate different styles as this will make the images more interesting so that they don’t all look the same. I took this image facing the sunset instead to contrast my other images too as this allows me to gain different perspectives of the same location to tell a stronger visual story. Once again, I hid the teddy bear between a cluster of rocks so that the images still have a comparative and consistent aspect, placing it directly in the middle this time from a further distance. My favourite factor of this image is that I have caught the edge of the sunset on the side of the camera. I feel that this contributes to my research on vernacular photography as it gives the image a retro effect from vintage cameras.

For example:

I feel that this will link nicely with my archived pictures as I am keeping this element of ‘old images’ in the new images that I produce.

Photobooks are a typical format for presenting a photographers gallery of images. These images are contained into a concept, collection or a story, having an overarching theme. Sequencing and placement of the images are defining factors that contribute to the aesthetic of the book, however many photographers sometimes use text to relate these images to more qualitative information too.

Laia Abril – ‘The Epilogue’

“giving voice to the suffering of the indirect victims, the unwilling eyewitnesses of a very painful degeneration” – Laia Abril, Burn Magazine

I chose Laia Abril’s photobook ‘The Epilogue’ to deconstruct as not only does it surround a sensitive topic, this being the story of the Robinson family after the loss of their 26-year-old daughter to Bulimia, but it also incorporates many unique techniques in order to keep the narrative consistent and detailed.

“Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are brutal holidays in our family” – Cammy’s brother

The Epilogue

Abril works closely with the family to reconstruct Cammy’s life through memories and flashbacks to depict the second-hand implications that her family were affected by also, showing not only the absence, frustration and guilt that her family share, but to act as a memorial to her wilfulness and energy. By doing so, this photobook comes together to act as a bittersweet way of remembering a loved one.

However, this photobook has wider applications through its explorations of the dilemmas and inner conflicts that many young girls and their parents face, and by giving voice to the suffering of the family or the indirect victims of eating disorders, such as close friends, it allows their eyewitness stories to be heard to process this grief, or allowing the viewer to relate and feel seen in order to prove that they aren’t alone in their battle against it. This conveyed narrative of loss, tragedy and remembrance provides a tone of solace to the viewer through the rawness and honesty in documenting Cammy’s story.

Being quite a large photobook, Abril has multiple genres in relation to her image-making in order to depict the Robinson’s family accurately, whilst also being paired with information in a text format, including ‘testimonies’ from family members, as well as small captions describing what the image represented or what it involved.

The Epilogue employs contemporary pictures, archived family images, letters, interviews, and documents in order to attempt to answer the complex question of Cammy’s identity and highlight how she was beset by psychological problems. This breaks down her life into a distressing amount of detail and picks apart the events in her life leading up to her death so that we, as the viewer, can gain a holistic perspective of her and her family dynamic.

The book begins with candid images of the Robinson family paired with more landscape images to gain an initial understanding of who this person may be and allows the viewer to have a glimpse into what Cammy’s life was like:

The beginning images connote love and connection, this could be suggestive not only to the bond they share in their times of remembrance and grief, but also how Cammy was surrounded by adoration from all members of her family. This could also be relative to how this story began until her Bulimia deteriorated her.

Similarly, Abril incorporates contemporary images of items too, such as strawberries or trainers in the back of the car, possibly symbolising how remnants of Cammy are everywhere, and how they feel that she is still with them.

Abril includes medical information too. Towards the beginning of the book, Cammy’s new born identification sheet is digitised, creating a familiarity between the viewer and herself. Abril also does this with what seems to be Cammy’s ECG paper (tracing her heart) as it states earlier in the book that she previously had more than one seizure in relation to her eating habits.

Diary entries and letters from Cammy and family members also take multiple formats in The Epilogue, either being digitised, for example:

However, Abril also plants sections of these documents and data by making them look like leaflets overlaying the images that the viewer can pull out and read. I really like this aspect on Abril’s work because this creates a more physical perspective for the viewer rather than it being a singular visual narrative to make it more engaging. This could be a symbolisation of how her illness had good and bad days, explaining how her illness could spike at any given moment even in the midst of happy memories. I thought that this was extremely effective.

Abril also employs the use of archived images in order to be reminiscent on Cammy’s life and the moments that she felt enjoyment in order to make The Epilogue encapsulate the fluidity of emotion around this topic. Her use of various image styles and methods reinforce this idea, and this allows Abril to rehearse the story of the Robinson’s family overall to really assess what the situation was like and how this impacted all members.

With the image below, its clear to see that Abril uses a multitude of formats when layering her images too. This includes:

• Double page spreads,
• Single page,
• Half page spreads,

Abril also would play alternate with the sizing and placement of the images, sometimes making the image look as if it came from a polaroid, in contrast to placing the image just off-centre.

Laia Abril:

Abril’s work in photography is heavily affiliated with themes of bio-politics, grief and women’s rights. Abril pushes the boundaries from looking into the failing structures of law that continue to perpetuate rape culture, to the impacts of abortion control in varying cultures, leading to her various projects surrounding the impacts of eating disorders – Thinspiration, for example, being a self-published zine that challenges the use of photography in pro-ana websites (websites which use the promotion of behaviours that influence anorexia nervosa).

Her bodies of work strive to advocate for inequalities, specifically more feminist matters, which are able to act as forms of activism for the female community, and give those less fortunate a voice. I feel that with The Epilogue, Abril is striving to speak out to young girls who may be struggling with body image or an eating disorder themselves, and strives to assure them that they are not alone. This also provides solace to parents or families who may have a young daughter who struggles with an eating disorder or recovering from one, so that they can hear the Robinson’s story and use this to find peace within their possible own grief. Eating disorders are a sensitive issue and I feel that Abril intended to show the harsh reality behind them in order to spread this awareness, and could possibly be used to create preventative methods against them through the spread of awareness.

The Epilogue “… is a sombre and affecting photobook … dense and rewarding … At times, it makes for a painful read. From time to time, I had to put it down, take a breather. But I kept going back.” – The Guardian, Critic Sean O’Hagan

The Epilogue has received numerous awards, some of these being:

• In 2014, The Epilogue was shortlisted as First PhotoBook award in the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards
• The Hood Medal of the Royal Photographic Society
• In 2023, the Spanish National Photography Prize
• The PhotoEspaña Best Book Award
• The PhotoBook festival in Kassel

Narrative, Design, Concept:

The term ‘Epilogue’ actually means a final or concluding act or event, usually a section at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment or conclusion on what has happened. I find that this being paired with a graphic rectangle over can be assumed to be Cammy’s face is very powerful as it secretly hints at her death without giving away any specifics until further into the photobook. I find that this could be metaphorical for how different she became, as eating disorders do not change just a person’s body but their attitude, personality and mindset too. Although the title is literal, I find it quite poetic too as this is concluding what happened to Cammy until the end of her life, resonating with the ending of the book. The weight of the book goes hand-in-hand with the title too as it tacitly hints at the dark and heavy subject matter that Abril is representing.

The beginning and last pages have an ominous blue tonality to them, appearing to be leaves against a wall at night-time. This adds to the solemnity that the front cover inhabits, preparing the viewer for this dark story. The photobook has a hard cover that has been printed on, however the graphic section of blue is slightly raised in an embossed way. This is where the design is raised up from the surrounding material. Within the book, this also consists of three chapters categorised into dates so that there is a progression of her illness at three intervals. All of the pages are kept white and portrait, however some images have been enlarged so that Abril could have pages which fold over so that it is interactive.

Whilst all the different types of images that Laia Abril employs in this photobook, the image of the scales above is the most defining image of the photobook. This image is extremely powerful, being that it would have been used by Cammy when tracking her weight. The swift in tonality between the scales themselves and the white background creates an ominous tone that can be echoed throughout the rest of the photobook with support from Abril’s other images, adding a ghostly effect to the scales themselves. In my work, I would like to be able to use this idea of having a defining image in my photobook, because Abril has been able to use this to solidify and verify the narrative that the other images were implicitly hinting at. Images like these can tend to pause the viewer so that they can take time to really connect with the context of the narrative and think about the deep conceptual meaning behind it.

I copied in the essay plan from the blog and put it into my own blog post so that while I was working on my essay draft, I would be able to stay on track and know what I was doing:

Literary sources: Go to this blog post here: Theory: Literary Sources and copy relevant key texts relating to the subject of your essay and list in alphabetical order in your bibliography. In addition, find your own key texts in relation to artists selected for in-depth analysis in your essay and list these too. These texts could be interviews with the artist, or reviews/ critique’s written by others. See useful online sites/ sources here .

• Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
• Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
• It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
• Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages, page number to be used for in-text referencing etc.

Bibliography
List all the sources that you have identified above as literary sources. Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year distinguish them as 1988a, 1988b etc. Arrange literature in alphabetical order by author, or where no author is named, by the name of the museum or other organisation which produced the text. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources in alphabetical order e.g. websites/online sources, Youtube/ DVD/TV.

Essay Question

• Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
• Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.

I began going through the Theory: Literary Sources blog post to look at the different subjects that were there to see which ones were the most relevant to my personal study and my artist references. I took screengrabs of these so that I could have a brief overview of all the key texts that I could use:

I included a section about snapshot/vernacular photography as this may be useful in my essay as this is part of my personal study.

Possible essay questions:

1. How does the work of Carole Bénitah and Jessa Fairbrother explore issues of memory and loss within family?

2. Compare How Phillip Toledano’s  and Nancy Borowick’s photography represent the concept of loss?

3. How have concepts of family, separation and memory been explored in the photo books of Sarello, Casanova and Germain?

4. How are concepts of loss and memory narrativised through the works of Markosian, Toroptsov and Sarello?

5. How have Yury Toroptsov, Mariela Sancari and Julian Germain reflected upon the  themes of memories and remembrance in the construction of their photobooks?

6. Explore How both Yury Toropstov and Julian Germain Convey the Theme of Loss, Through their work.

I thought it would be appropriate to go through possible essay questions on the blog and list them on my own because this way I can easily see which question would be the most relevant to my personal study. This way, I can start to go through and find quotes from the different sources so that I can begin my essay clearly. As well as this, it gives me a good starting point for my own research too.

Previous essays:

Below are previous high-marking essays from students that I feel are the most relevant to the concept of my personal study as this gives me good examples of what an effective structure looks like so that I can use this as a tool in my own essay.

How do Diana Markosian and Rita Puig-Serra Costa express the notion of family history and relationships in their work?

 In what ways do alterations in Jessa Fairbrother’s work make the visible what is invisible?

Format:

• Essay question: How does the work of Yury Toroptsov and Philip Toledano explore issues of memory and loss within family? 
• Opening quote: ‘surplus of Faustian energy and psychic damage needed to build modern, inorganic societies’ (Sontag 1977:4)
  
• Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
• Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. 
• Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used – example:

Sontag, S. (1977). ‘In Plato’s Cave’ in On Photography. London: Penguin Books.

My first photoshoot is centred around my house and the places nearby that have a emotional connection to me and my brother as a starting point to build ideas from. I went through each image to decide whether I liked the composition of it or not, and then began colour coding my favourite images and rating them so that I could clearly pick through them and start trying to link them.

CONTACT SHEETS:

Whilst this photoshoot was centred around places, items and things that have an emotional connection with me or my brother, I also took the formal elements into consideration, specifically when I went outside to the areas that were nearby to my house. I did this because it ensures that my composition will be appealing to my viewer whilst also creating a more detailed and abstract image, this being important to my personal study as it gives a small snippet into my family dynamic and the events that occur when you have a family member suffering from mental illness.

Some of my images can be perceived to be slightly under-exposed, however I think that this has worked very well as my aim was not to be documental in my work, but more abstract and ambiguous. I feel like the images I have selected below portray negative emotions which is my target within my personal study as I am putting the viewer into my own shoes to see small snippets of what it is like.

My images are all very symbolic as mental health is not a tangible object that I can photograph, so many of my images within my personal study have to represent the inner emotions that my brother feels whilst going through this. It was important for me to be subjective during this photoshoot because I am trying to turn a feeling or thought into an image which is a difficult thing to do.

BEST IMAGES:

This image is taken of my back door next to my brothers room which he uses regularly due to him being a smoker, however I thought that this would make a strong image, specifically because of the diagonal lighting that goes past the window and bounces onto the wall as when it is paired with the darkened shadows, this creates an effect of gloom and mystery. This image is slightly under-exposed, however this was my aim because I don’t want my images to be too bright as this may convey emotions differing to what I am intending, for example it may make the image look more happy as bright images can be commonly associated with lighter feelings, rather than this solemn tone that I am aiming for. As there is natural lighting coming through the window, this creates a glowing effect in the centre of the image that could be interpreted as seeing ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’ due to the darkness that is in the hallway until it reaches this burst of light. As this window acts as a privacy window due to the texture over it, meaning that the end of my garden is reflected through. Because of the objects in my garden, this has created a purple tinge to glow through which I think contributes to this idea of things getting better over time. This image also connotes ideas of being trapped, for example the cat flap acting as if a portal to the outside world even when the door is locked, however it is evidently too small for a human to go through. I feel that this is very representative of this idea of negative mental health making a person feel helpless and trapped within a consistent cycle of breakdown, treatment and healing that has repeatedly had an effect on my brother for years. This darkness shadowing around the image acts confining, as if the back door is holding in all of this darkness. I think this could clearly represent how mental health is not a physical thing, but more like a fever of the mind that is more difficult to treat in comparison to a tangible injury and disease.

This image is taken from within my brothers room, looking at the objects that he puts on display on his shelves. I feel that the composition within the image is very successful, with my focal point being on the word tablets. I really like this image because it is demonstrating the medical side to mental health as it explicitly says tablets, and the surrounding items such as the watch, have become shiny and reflective due to the natural light coming through the window behind me. I have used a shallow depth of field in order to blur the items that are built up behind the box of tablets, however the words can still be made out on the mug behind being ‘This mug belongs to the best uncle!’. I felt like this was a very sentimental touch to the image as it reinforces the concept of family support, how the difficulties of having a family member with poor mental health has second-hand repercussions, however it implicitly shows that all my family members try to do whatever they can in order to try and help alleviate some of my brothers symptoms by giving him reminders that we are there for him.

I would say that this is one of my favourite images, specifically due to the diagonal reflection of the sink because it adds the element of repetition which makes the image a bit more balanced, however I feel that this image could be interpreted as an inward reflection, representing how my brother may look into his bathroom mirror and recognise himself as a stranger, not realising how much this illness has changed him. This idea of not recognising yourself may connote ideas of depersonalization or disassociation, the disconnection from a person’s sense of identity. This detachment from physical and emotional experiences is a heavy topic and I feel like this image encapsulates this intangible pit in a persons stomach when they don’t know who the person is within their own reflection. The diagonal aspect of the image can be symbolising disorientation which is why I didn’t correct this in Lightroom as I feel that this contributes cohesively. Overall, the composition flows nicely, with specific tones of grey echoing throughout for the cream paint on the wall to act as a border between the backsplash tiles on the sink against the mirror. This could be seen as creating a divide between reality and fantasy, for example the sink is a physical object that can be visibly seen in an objective way, however a persons reflection is subjective depending on how the person perceives it. This goes back to my idea of disassociation because it reminds the viewer that my brother is not going to see everything the way it actually looks, specifically his own reflection as this struggle has been something that has taken a lot of time away from him. I think that by utilising this under-exposure, it looks as if a cloud of darkness is above the camera, which could be under the intention of a heavy and clouded judgement or mind itself.

This image is also taken of my backdoor, however I have opened it slightly and zoomed into the handle to capture a more focused image. My favourite aspect of this image is that the edge of the door stops at the exact middle of the image, dividing it up into two sections which is pleasing to the eye. As this allows the natural light to flow in slightly, this has created a reflection on the door handle, making it look shiny and metallic which makes the handle stand out as the focal point in the image. I feel that the burst of colour that the key ring provides, and then reflecting onto the handle, can be seen to echo into the edge of the latch of the opening of the door which makes the image flow better. The way that the door is open yet still appears closed is another part of this image that drew me into using it as one of my best images as this can be seen to once again reinforce this idea of being in a prison of the mind, where there is a constant battle between recovery and relapsing back into a breakdown. The line between the two can often be perceived to be binary opposites, however the upkeeping of the balance between these two states of mind aren’t as separate from each other as it seems which I think this image demonstrates very well. This image also connotes ideas of the unknown, not knowing what is behind the door as it opens applies a very eerie tone to the image that I think adds to the drama of what my personal study is about.

As my brother smokes in abundance, having a fixation on this at times due to his illness, I thought it would be appropriate to photograph the ashtray that he uses in my garden on a day to day basis as this is giving the viewer a bit more insight into who my brother is so they can begin to formulate their own identity for him. As abstract viewpoints are a pivotal part of my personal study, I decided to take this image from a diagonal angle from one point of the ashtray to oppose the other point across from it as this could be used to capture more detail instead of taking a more ‘deadpan’ approach to it. As it had been raining in the past week, a pool of water had formulated around the cigarette buts and made them break apart and separate. Upon initial look, the composition is very messy and looks chaotic due to all of the tobacco intertwining and layering over the skins he has used. I feel that this can be very effective in symbolising how my brothers mind may feel crammed, congested or obstructed, resulting in him feeling adrift when coping with the demands of the world around him. The fact that the components of the cigarette are just about to break the surface of the water may resemble how difficult it is to have this need and want to be able to contribute to society, whilst still feeling trapped by this bubble that your brain has created to restrict you from living properly.

Looking at Laia Abril’s work on The Epilogue (2014), I gained an understanding that within photobook’s about pressing topics, it is key to have a defining image about the situation to not only ensure that the storyline is clear to the viewer and not misinterpreted, but also as a large emotive factor as this is important to truly portray the difficulties behind what is being spoken about. I felt that this image would be suitable because it shows the violence that Bipolar disorder inhabits within a person and can really represent the loss of control that it causes, resulting in shame and guilt afterwards for events occurring that are out of that persons control or can’t even be recalled. I added a slight vignette to this image as I feel that the shadowing makes the cracks stand out greater and become brighter, to not only make this image bold to the eye but to emphasise each ridge on the door so that it is easier to see all the details. I think because the door is grey, this helps to reinforce this idea of emptiness, making the image look bland and lifeless alongside a large crack that runs up the door. I feel that this image, if I use it in an effective way, could be incredibly powerful in my work as this image carries so much rage in it in a muted way.

I took this image above as a comparison image to the one above it as this is how my lounge typically looks, however the crack on the door is covered up. I thought this would be a good way to represent how things are not always the way the seem, and that there are many events that occur surrounding my brothers mental health that are concealed or hidden as it is sensitive. I may use Photoshop to create a photo montage of these two images as I feel that the story will link better if I include the image of the picture frame placed over the crack in the door underneath as it will convey the idea of being secretive. I feel that this will link in with the ideology of the stigma surrounding men’s mental health as it can symbolise how this is not as frequently spoken about. I added a slight vignette to this image too so that it would be able to go hand in hand with the image above as they should have the same levels of lighting (and highlighting) in order to move the viewer to think deeply about what my work represents.

This image is taken from the shared calendar I have hanging from my kitchen door. I began planning for this image by going through each of the months in the calendar to see which dates had writing about my brother, however I decided to use the 17th and 18th of November as I feel that these dates had the best information relating to my brother as it is focusing on the hospital alongside showing that my parents regularly have to have meetings with all kinds of organisations, for example the staff at Orchard House, doctors or my brothers care-coordinator. I took this image from a low angle because I feel that this could be interpreted as a child’s perspective looking up at the information my mum would write for example. This is the focal point of the image and the surrounding dates are slightly out of focus as well as the other pieces of writing that aren’t as relevant. However, I didn’t crop this out of the image as I feel that this gives the image more authenticity as having a shared family calendar is a common thing, so I wanted to involve this aspect because it represents that things must still go on. I feel that this can be interpreted as showing that this silent issue is something that adds pressure to the whims of everyday life, but its important that it is not something that is consistently affecting me or my parents as this would restrict us from getting on with anything important or achieving anything. I feel that by using a low angle when shooting, I can resonate this with a child-like perspective, looking up at the calendar to information that wouldn’t of necessarily made sense to me apart from something important revolving around my brother. This could signify how my brother has been struggling with his mental health for a number of years now, beginning when I was still a child, and how the experiences of growing up around a family member who has a mental illness has shaped me into being a more considerate person today.

This image is taken of the lock on my front door which we don’t usually use however I locked it for the purpose of the shoot. Due to aggression being a large aspect of my brothers Bipolar disorder, I felt that this would symbolise it very well as this lock isn’t something that people usually use in their homes unless it is out of desperation for safety by keeping people out of the house. As I can’t ethically show this in a truthful way, I feel that this works very well as the locking of a door is used to keep unwanted people out. This side of the disorder affects my brother immensely, being times that he cannot control his behaviour, to then not being able to recall what has happened, accompanied by great feelings of guilt and hopelessness. I wanted to find a way to photograph this because I feel that this is the most vulnerable side of the disorder as it affects the entire family dynamic. I find that the darkness in this image contributes to this idea because the spontaneous aggression that can occur is incredibly dark and wouldn’t necessarily be something that many people know about as it is so shocking, however I want to bring light to this as I feel that it is one of the most important talking points within my work to talk about a real and raw thing in a more symbolic way. As the lighting from this image has come from behind me, this adds a metallic effect to the links on the lock which makes the image have a shiny appearance to make it stand out from the plain colours of the background. This makes the image look more appealing and stand out more instead of fading into the background.

The Le Marais High Rise flats are located near my house so I decided to photograph them because they are relevant to where me and my brother grew up. I think that these flats can be used really creatively when photographed because I feel that they radiate this kind of lifeless energy, making it so even looking at them for too long can make you feel sad. Firstly, I feel that the bland cream colour that it has eradicates all life from it because it makes it look so flat and dull, washing itself out when paired with the stains that rise up with it as well as the off-white skirting and ledges. The repetition of the windows harmonises the image because this leads the eye to follow up the image in straight perpendicular lines that are organised, however the darkness that is within the windows adds anonymity to the image, as if all signs of life inside are hiding away. Whilst this was accidental, I feel that the two men inside looking out at the camera when paired with the bars on the window add to this idea of being kept like a prisoner in ones own mind because looking at a camera from inside could symbolise desperation to escape, like a cry for help towards the viewer. The repetition in the image keeps the composition consistent which I think could resemble how all the days may appear to merge into one and fly past a person as they feel a great loss of control over their life.

I took this image using a shallow depth of field in order to concentrate on detail of this eroded wall to capture all of the different tones of grey and varying holes inside. Whilst without context this image stood alone could be about anything, however my intention behind this image is taken from where me and my brother used to play in the park around the corner from my house. As you walk in, there is a slight hidden corner (which is in the background of my composition) of which me and brother used to hide in when we would be playing hide and seek outside when we were younger. This area brings a lot of nostalgia for me as when I was young, I didn’t particularly know anyone who lived near me because I didn’t go to the local school so I would always be with my brother and his friends, where I would see this enclosed space nearly every day. Some of my best childhood memories resonate with this small area, so when this image is paired with the ones that symbolise my brothers poor mental health as well as my experimental childhood images, I find that this image is very moving because when I was young, I would have never of expected that those times would have changed so drastically. I think involving this image in my work provides sentimentality, however it still has a lot of abstraction which will make my work look like a small snapshot into my life and my memories that can become really special.

The first thing that caught my eye in this image is the pairing of these different shapes and lines that contrast each other when they are layered. For example, the slide elongates from a square, and flows down pieces of rectangular wood out of the frame. Similarly, these wavy lines that the slide juxtaposes the linear flats that solely include straight borders in a harsh way, removing all soft edge. I also find that the natural lighting has made the slide look luminescent and contrasts with the depressing mood that the flat behind conveys. This glow around the slide can represent the fondness I keep for my childhood memories that I share with my brother being in this park, and how I still perceive him this way as at times in his illness I see my brother in a different light, as if he is a stranger. Once paired with these flats, I feel that this represents my negligence from reality, with the flats showing the raw truth that my brother is a completely changed person now as his illness has festered as he has grown, and depicts a scene of change in personality. As the flats look so lifeless and dull as they tower over the more ethereal-looking section of the image in the bottom left, this could be interpreted to resemble how these feelings of extremely high-highs followed by low-lows may feel overpowering at times and as it is impossible to overcome them as they appear so daunting to the individual.

I feel that this image radiates feelings of loneliness, specifically looking at the empty bench initially makes the image look abandoned and desolate, with no signs of life nearby. As you look into the background, the trees begin to intertwine and cross in a randomised pattern, bare from the loss of leaves from winter, which I think contributes to this feeling of loneliness as they stand alone and bare in an uncontrolled manner. The colour palette in the image is quite consistent, looking at mainly greys, creams, browns and greens so that the foreground is echoed throughout the entire image which pulls the entire image together.

This image uses a deep depth of field in order to get a sharp shot of my brothers primary school photo framed in the hallway, whilst keeping the bars of my banister out of focus and blurred. I feel that the bars in the image have the ability to uphold this idea of my brothers mind acting as a prison that I spoke about in my earlier images, restricting him from thinking freely and having control over his behaviour. I wanted to include this image of my brother on the wall as if he is protecting his younger self from the mental damage that he has incurred as I thought this would make the work more meaningful, showing that he was still at a relatively young age when this all began. On the other hand, I feel that this image could denote the idea of being sat on the stairs when you are young and listening to arguments happening downstairs, for example when I had a limited understanding of what was happening to my brother I used to sit exactly here on my staircase to listen out and hear the conversation in order to piece the story together myself. I thought it would be appropriate to shoot an image relating to this because it links the project together better so that the viewer can understand the storyline properly.

This image is shot of my brothers bag that my parents take up to him when he gets sectioned containing his belongings like his wash bag, etc. In this image I put the camera on its side on the ground to get a dramatic angle as I wanted it to have a powerful tone to it instead of just shooting head on in a simpler way. I feel that the grey of the bag goes nicely with the background as it has quite monotone shades. I used a shallow depth of field in order to make the background slightly blurred as this emphasises the bag as the main focal point and encourages the viewer to only look at the bag, reflecting significance. The lighting is coming from behind the bag, making the short glimpse of raw light begin creeping around the bag – I feel that this imbalance between light and dark could symbolise how the bag is only used for negative purposes, being that my brother has had to leave home, however with the short burst of light bouncing from the right of the image, this could be resembling how even though it is an uncomfortable experience for my brother, the outcome is positive and it is necessary that he gets the specialist care that he needs in order to get better.

These two images are of my brothers empty tablet packets in two different perspectives as I was unsure on how I wanted to arrange them. The first image is more of a documental image with them all layered out in a structured way, whilst the image on the left consists of them in a pile in order to emphasise on the amount of medication my brother takes and to show how long he has been taking them for. As they are covered in foil, the natural light from the window has bounced off of them in a really pleasing way to make them reflective which makes the images more eye-catching. I don’t think I will use both of these images in my photobook, however they are both really good images and so I wanted to include them as I will not be deciding until I have all of my photoshoots completed.

Experimental images:

I took these three images with the intention of using them for experimentation, so I am going to try and explore different ideas with them. I might end up just using them alone because they are still successful images, but I need to play around with them in Photoshop first, and let my more detailed images take priority in my photobook.

‘A good snapshot stops a moment from running away’ – Eudora Welty

‘The snapshot aesthetic’ stems from the idea of a photograph being shot spontaneously in a quick manner. These images are usually made without photographic intent, taken impulsively as if the goal is to quickly capture a memory. This technique is typically used to document the events of everyday life, tending to portray family members, friends, pets, celebrations, sunsets, tourist attractions, childhood events such as birthday parties and the like.

As this aesthetic demonstrates a glimpse into real life, the images can be technically imperfect due to this being used by amateur photographers, for example taking a snapshot of a sunset you may see when going home from work. From its instantaneity, the snapshots may appear poorly framed or composed, out of focus and/or inappropriately lighted by flash. However, this contributes to the idea of rendering memorable moments in imperfect images.

MOOD BOARD:

The snapshot aesthetic falls under the umbrella term of Vernacular photography, this being used to distinguish ‘fine art’ photographs from those that are used for a wider range of purposes such as forensic, commercial or governmental. The different forms of vernacular photography consist of:

• Family snapshots
• Travel photos
• Photo booth films
• School/ID photographs
• Amateur portraits
• Souvenir-type photos

Snapshot photographs can also be associated with street photography when the photographer is using it to interpret societal situations, shooting at the hip without thinking about the composition and leaving the result up to chance. This is done to capture candid moments in public spaces, reducing the risk of a member of the public catching them. This could link in with Henri-Cartier Bresson’s “decisive-moment” due to the act of using impulse when taking the image.

The components which commonly feature in the snapshot aesthetic are blurriness, grain, cutting off objects as a result of shooting from unplanned angles, high contrasting, being under/over exposed and a soft focus.

The snapshot aesthetic was originally recognised as ‘folk art’ in the 1960s where it began its development into fine arts, where it is now used by photographers such as Nan Goldin, Petra Collins, Gillian Wearing and Lorna Simpson. These female photographers utilise this technique in their images to convey a message in a photo-diaristic manner, using methods to create immediacy and informality in the composition to make it seem more authentic and relate to this aesthetic as capturing meaningful moments. For example, this aesthetic can be utilised by female photographers to explore historical lineage, looking into the domestic lifestyle.

This technique is going to be woven into my work through the use of my own archival family photos, digital and physical from photobooks. Then, I am going to create adaptations from them and experiment with graphic design as well as different art mediums in destructive ways, for example ink splatters or even possibly burning sections of the image.

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapshot_(photography)

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/women-photographers-and-snapshot-aesthetic

https://aboutphotography.blog/dictionary/snapshot-aesthetic