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.
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
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:
A diary entry from Cammy detailing her triggers
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.
Defining image
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.
‘The duty thus falls upon the snapshooter not to just ‘save’ moments, but to ‘immortalise’ the people who they photograph’ (Bull 2009:92)
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. 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.
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 at 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.
The development of the family album has coincided with new advancements in technology throughout history. 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.
Now, the idea that “The family album is now being slowly supplanted by the development of social media and the decline of traditional film” 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.
Notes
Pg: history/ theoretical
origin of family album + photography + kodak brownie
origin and development of the family album coincided with new technology such as Kodak box brownie and the new commercial photographic process carte-de-visite link to Jersey studio photographer Henry Mullins
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:
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.
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:
Miko LimArnis BalcusHiromixLee Friedlander
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.
For my personal study, my inspirations come from the work of Carolle Benitah and Philip Toledano, two artists who utilise the theme of nostalgia, family, memory and loss in order to challenge events that have occurred in their lives, specifically in childhood. This is something I want to reinterpret in my own way and apply it to my own circumstances, that being growing up with a sibling who develops Bipolar disorder.
First Idea:
My first photoshoot idea solely comes from the work of Carolle Benitah. Benitah takes images from her own family archives, such as photo albums, and uses different mediums to symbolise different events that happened which are linked to the image itself, or the people within it.
She also uses the same consistent shade of red within each image to make them all link and be cohesive in the story that she’s trying to tell – this is something I have thought about doing but with a consistent shade of blue as this is my brothers favourite colour, however I need to think about this a bit more as I am unsure at the moment. But, if I do use this inspiration, I may be able to apply this into each photoshoot so that all my images link and show a clearer reference to Benitah.
As my inspiration, I am going to go through the images that my parents have involving my brother, whether that be just him, me and him or all of us, and photograph them. I am going to do this either by using the studio or creating my own small studio at home using black card as the background so that I can crop any spaces after. If this is unsuccessful, I will photocopy the physical image itself. This is because I don’t want to tarnish the actual picture, so by creating a copy this then allows me to be experimental with different mediums – such as paint, ink, thread, glitter – multiple times. I also do have digital images from my mum, meaning that I can print multiple copies off to also be able to experiment and not be worried about it being ineffective.
Second Idea:
My second idea stems more from the work of Philip Toledano, looking at the still-life’s he took of his sisters belongings from before she died as a nine year old child. Toledano took an assortment of Claudia’s belongings and keepsakes from her childhood and photographed them using a birds-eye view technique.
This is going to inspire me in my second photoshoot, beginning with me asking my parents for everything and anything they kept from mine and my brothers childhood, with the objects ranging from birthday cards to baby toys. Anything I can find I am going to photograph in order to have a wider variety of images to choose from as this will enable me to be more selective in choosing which images are the best, link the story well enough, and carry the most meaning. If I do this well, I think this will make my photobook more emotive, and encapsulate the heaviness of this topic behind it. I am going to try to achieve the lighting technique that Toledano uses, being that he uses geometric shapes in order to add that ‘out of place’ tone within the images. However, if this doesn’t work I will be able to find a way to do it on Photoshop by merging the two images and making one in black and white and the other in colour, then cutting out my desired shape in the black and white image, finally layering the two over each other so that the shape I have created is the only part of the image that is in colour.
Third Idea:
My third category of images that I am going to use is going to be of different locations that resonate with my brother and relate to his childhood. For example:
My house
Football fields
My estate
My garden
The hospital that he goes to
These are only just a few I can think of at the moment, however I will ask my parents where the best places to go would be as they will know from taking me and my brother.
However, I don’t want my images to just be plain landscapes that don’t really fit in with my other two photoshoots so I am going to hone in on form for these images. My second zine that I did for Jersey’s maritime museum was very focused on the form of the landscape instead of the aesthetics of it, which is why I want to use this knowledge in my own personal study, as this is a good representation of seeking out the environment around me as well as portraying the context of my brothers story better. When I go to these places, I am going to take multi-shots to be able to distinguish the best images and be able to experiment better.
Overall, a key aspect of my work is going to revolve around form and shape, specifically in my third photoshoot, however this is also going to be demonstrated in my second photoshoot in a more discreet way. My photoshoots may change as I begin to work on them next week, however I need to remember to be experimental and explore different ideas by taking risks.
Yury LI-Toroptsov is a certified professional life coach, author and visual artist within Paris, France. Born in 1974 to a rural community in Vladivostok, a city within Russia, Toroptsov gained a prestigious scholarship in 1998 to the New School for Social Research in New York.
The core of Toroptsov’s work incorporates a multitude of culture – from his Far-Eastern origins, travels of America and his residence of France – in order to detail a story of identity, people and the permanence of myths. Nostalgic tones are rife through Toroptsov’s work too, through his recurring themes of memories and the secular(no religious connection or affiliation). Whilst living in Berlin, he explored the notion of fairy tales for adults, however the work that I am most interested in is entitled ‘Deleted Scene’.
HIS WORK:
In ‘Deleted Scene’, Toroptsov transports the viewer back to his home town within Russia to explore the echoes of his father’s memories who passed away before he turned two. With little to no memories of him alongside all reminders of him disappearing too, beside his camera, Toroptsov aims to unravel the neglected recollection of him. With his father being an amateur photographer, Toroptsov discovered his camera at age 9 with a strong curiosity due to it being the last personal thing connected to his father in his possession.
From the images that his father took, family archives of letters, keepsakes, group images paired with landscape images that seek out the distinct patterns within rural areas of nature instead of perspective images, Toroptsov highlights how the told and retold stories of his father were shared like folklore, the detail alternating on who was reciting the story. He also demonstrates the frustration of not being able to recall the early and limited time he shared with his father before his untimely death, for example one of the pictures show Toroptsov as a five-month-old baby lying on his belly on his parents’ bed fixated on the photographer – his father, who has thirteen months left to live. This dedication to someone who is so close yet still a stranger allows Toroptsov to begin trying to get to know his father even through death, and allows him to express the complete and happy family that he was part of, even if it is difficult for him to recall from such a young age. 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.
Toroptsov includes archived images and letters in this photobook, however that is not the images that I am interested in as I have already explored the work of Phillip Toledano alongside Carolle Benitah, where they both already include this format of images in their work. Instead, I would like to look at the landscape images that he takes. Usually, I find that landscape images are very external and more documental rather than a personal, expressive image however, Yury Toroptsov seeks out the formal elements of:
Line
Form
Shape
Pattern
Texture
As he travels through his home town of Vladivostok, a rustic community that borders with China and North Korea, Toroptsov focuses on the smaller aspects of the environment around him instead of taking a vague, wide-shot image of the whole area around him. Alternatively, he seeks out the smaller fragments that build up the community in greater detail, as if he is zooming in with a magnifying glass and picking apart his childhood without a father figure at home.
Some examples which I could find online:
This is just a small fraction of the locational images within Deleted Scene, however within the physical book there are a variety of images that are detailing what builds up this location, and becomes depicted in the book as something that gives Toroptsov nostalgia from his childhood.
I find that by picking apart his home town and employing the visual elements of form, shape and line specifically, creates ambiguity within the composition and adds directional factors into the images that make the viewer explore themselves. Looking at the personal connection that his father shared with this location in a minimalistic way makes the images carry a melancholic tone, although some of the images have bursts of colour such as the yellow body of water, each image carries a large juxtaposition within its tonality. What I mean by this is that the changes between the tones of the image are drastic and bold, showing that they carry a lot of emotion and sentimentality.
I am going to use the work of Yury Toroptsov in my personal study by following his naturalistic images specifically focusing on tone, line, shape and form. In my own work, I am going to go to locations that are linked with mine and my brothers childhood to represent the experiences that we have shared growing up, and highlighting these nostalgic places that I share memories with him as a child. As well as this, I may take images of locations that symbolise loneliness or appear to have a melancholic tone because this is a key aspect of the meaning behind my personal study that I want to share. For example, I am going to go to FB football fields as this is where my brother spent a lot of his time when he was younger as he played football frequently as one of his hobbies, or possibly going to Fort Regent to add information about the other sports he began to do as he started to grow up, such as boxing. I may or may not incorporate objects in these images, but the main focal point within each of these images is going to be the formal elements as this will provide a more interesting perspective on the landscape in a more subjective way, rather than being objective and documental in my landscape images.
Being that it is winter, I think that this will provide a more morose tone in my work due to the gloomy atmosphere it will bring into the background, similar to Toroptsov. In order to achieve the same effect as Toroptsov I am going to have to account for both the foreground and the background in order to make the composition consistent with its patterns, so I need to really seek out these spaces and be thoughtful about my images before I shoot them so that I can get this same effect of mystery and obscurity in my work. I think this will be really successful if I can execute it well, and I am aware of what to look for as a result of the topic on Jersey’s Maritime History as in my second zine I used this technique.
ANALYSIS OF HIS WORK:
This specific image from Yury Toroptsov’s ‘Deleted Scene’ was one of my favourites because of the sharp contrast between the saturated yellow tinge to what appears to be a lake, compared with a deep black colour from the natural landscape poking through underneath, such as sticks or leaves. Being the first aspect of the composition that grabs the viewers attention from its vibrancy, the sticks from underneath break this block-colour seal, disturbing its smooth blanket that it has engulfed the water in. This adds the initial layer on texture in the image, scattered throughout the lake in an erratic and unstructured way. This saturation of yellow adds a cautionary aspect to the image when paired with the chaotic sprinkling of these sticks and leaves due to their dark colour, creating a tone that already makes the viewer feel as if something has gone wrong here, not everything is the way it should be. The strangeness of the water being this colour is already warning enough, however this colour is commonly associated with warning signs of danger, meaning that this is conveyed to the viewer as unsettling. As the image is inspected more, this vibrancy isn’t actually the focal point of the image, just merely the out of focus background. 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.
Born in 1968 to a French Moroccan mother and an American father, Philip Toleando is a London-born conceptual visual artist, as well as growing up in Casablanca, who lives and works from within New York City, utilising his passion from photography after a decade of working as an advertising art director. Targeting primarily socio-political themes, Toleando believes that a photograph should act as an unfinished sentence, exploring and executing this through a variation of mediums; photography, installation, sculpture, painting and video. Toledano uses photography as a form of internal storytelling through typically using staged sets, for example in his project ‘The Many Sad Fates Of Mr Toledano’, he uses different models to represent different life events and lifestyles in a uncanny and unsettling way. Alternatively, Philip Toledano in his project of ‘Another America’ he uses an Ai generative tool in order to depict worldwide events, such as devastation from 9/11 or the Influenza outbreak in order to challenge the notion of truth in photography and in the media.
Growing up in London, the British photojournalist recognised for his photography concerning war and urban strife, Don McCullin, motivated Toleando in his early pieces, causing him to aspire to be a ‘combat photographer’. However, Toledano’s work is contrasted from this, using abstract metaphors in order to deeply explore his own personal views and experiences of the world.
The selection of images that I am most interested is from one of his photobooks entitled ‘When I Was Six’:
HIS WORK:
The six images above are just a small example of the solemn story that Toledano sought to represent in this narrated photobook, an anecdote of how the death of his sister, Claudia, at age nine, left an unknown and empty presence in his life. His exploration of this event resonates with the human psyche, with it occurring 40 years prior due to a fire. Toledano mixes still-life images, text and atmospheric, ‘heaven-like’ images to not only see this section of his life from a clearer perspective, but also put the viewer into the shoes of his six year old self in order to make them almost relive the experience for him.
These two types of images within this photobook; ethereal-looking patterns juxtaposed by Claudia’s childhood keepsakes such as hair, her school pencil, the box of which her belongings were preserved in and her baby tag detailing her birth. 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?
‘I have no memories of my life after my sister’s death for a few years, other than an obsession with space, planets, and distant universes. ‘
The quote above suggests to me that the inclusion of images surrounding space, planets, astronomy and universes is Toledano expressing his inner child. 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. As he states here that he has no memories of life after Claudia’s passing, this determines the conclusion that these memories of such a difficult time in his life have been suppressed and blocked out so that he doesn’t have to face such a painful truth. However, this photo-book can be interpreted as a final release of this ordeal and ultimately preparing and trying to grieve someone who has already been gone for 40 years. This gives Toleando the capability to heal and come to terms with Claudia’s passing, however this also means that he can relive the memories that he shared with her, whether he is consciously aware that they exist. However, this movement and changing of direction adds form and depth into his work, making these images show the fluidity of emotion, possibly suggesting the loss of control he had over his own when he lost Claudia.
On the other side of the spectrum, Toledano presents objects linked the Claudia’s life in a randomised order, beginning with her baby tag. This could be purposeful for the start of the photo-book being associated with the start of life, with a baby being a new beginning. Toledano stated that:
‘After my parents died, I found boxes of her things, things I’d never seen before, neatly packed away, a museum of sorts, created by my mother. ‘
Being almost never spoken about again in the family due to the heartache, this enabled Philip to finally get to know his sister from a more ‘outsider’ perspective, getting an explanation as to who she was, how she loved her parents and what happened after she passed. Toledano compiles many images of Claudia’s belongings, as well as key pieces of information to tell her story, this being:
Sympathy cards for Toledano’s parents,
A large cardboard box (the box of which her belongings were in),
Claudia’s birthday cards,
A shoebox,
A piggy bank,
Claudia’s school photo,
Small, singular images of Claudia at home or at school,
Her school uniform,
Notes and cards with Claudia’s handwriting,
A book of hers,
A handheld fan,
Her school pencil, engraved with her name,
Postcards,
A giraffe ornament,
Her hair,
A photo album,
Towards the end of the photobook is when the images begin to get dark, painful and depressing. The last two images of objects capture the blueprint of which Toledano’s father had to draw his daughter’s own tombstone alongside the folder containing her certificate of death. I feel that, similarly to the beginning, this makes the photobook become more cohesive, being that the end of Claudia’s life is represented through the ending of Toledano’s storyline. Within the still-life images, Toledano moves his lighting to create shadows over the different objects involved over black card, angling the camera from different viewpoints to create dynamic lines over each object in a different way. The shadows are either solely parallel, going from one corner of the image to the opposed, however many of the images hide shapes within them, made out of shadows. Because these shadows aren’t directly centred around the objects themselves, this could be used for creating an ‘out of place’ tone in the work.
ANALYSIS OF HIS WORK:
This image from Philip Toledano’s ‘When I Was Six’ project really resonated with me and is one of my favourites from the photobook. This still-life captures 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 first thing that I notice is the tension between the blocked black background with the checkered pattern on the dress. This juxtaposition creates a type of optical illusion as this is such a dramatic contrast, making this burst of colour and the textural aspect of the dress look out of place and adds an aspect of solemnity for the viewer to begin to pick apart the images to come. The way that the box is placed just out of centre, pushed to the side every so slightly, gives the image the theme of the uncanny, something that isn’t just 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 Toledo stating that ‘I have no memories of my life after my sister’s death for a few years’. 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.
Originally being a fashion designer for a period of ten years, in 2001 Carolle Bénitah began to make herself known as a French Moroccan photographer whose work was largely concerned with themes of memory, nostalgia, family and the passage of time. Her work was a form of reinterpreting herself and her own history as a daughter, wife and mother; defining her own identity. Bénitah tends to incorporate embroidery, beads, ink and collaging into her work through pairing these different art mediums with old family snapshots, or images taken during her childhood.
HER WORK:
These selection of images are taken from her three-part series entitled ‘Photos-Souvenirs‘, created between 2009 and 2014, intending to explores the memories within her Moroccan family and adolescence by reworking these images into a new form, creating heavy contrast, texture and depth into her work. Her work focuses on Freud’s concept of the uncanny; representing the suppression of emotions and perceptions alongside incoherent experiences during her life. While the images that she used were taken from approximately 40 years ago at the time, it meant that she could turn her attention to her own history and decipher what occurred at the time to allow her to express the emotions she may have not been able to portray at the time due to her being a child with a good perception of the world, as children do. Through this series, it enabled her to unravel the fears and secrets of her inner child that have constructed her into who she was as an adult, using those experiences who formulate her identity and differing perceptions of the world that would become more realistic and conscious. The concept of nostalgia is evident throughout this series where her images of her as a young girl would convey the sense of relativity whilst seeming so distant and unknown, creating tones of strangeness and comfort, juxtaposing each other.
Embroidering is perceived as a majorly feminine activity due to the fine work and precision it requires because of its delicacy, leading on to symbolise the way that traditionally, this is linked to the mother and daughters of the family taking up sewing and embroidery whilst waiting for the ‘man of the home’ to return. As Bénitah was born in 1965, she stated that:
‘Embroidery is intimately linked to the milieu in which I grew up. Girls in a “good family” used to learn how to sew and embroider — essential activities for “perfect women”. My mother embroidered her trousseau.’
Through utilising the expressions and insights practiced within her childhood, this gives her the ability to symbolise these developing opinions by pairing embroidery with old family archives. I like the concept behind this because whilst the image and the embroidery is supposed to represent these traditional roles at the time, it makes the snapshot have movement within it, adding direction and form into something that is old in order to formulate a new fresh piece. This could be representative of all of the ever-developing perceptions of life within society.
This reflection back onto childhood experiences confronts Bénitah to face her own inner conflicts and past repressions, whether they she may be consciously aware of them or able to use this as an aid to overtly face unpleasant memories in her subconscious. This would enable her to understand her current identity through being able to come to terms with what has occurred in her life as these experiences would have shaped her outlook on life, regardless of the emotions they convey. As well as this, the consistent use of the same shade of red in the images ensures that they all collaboratively link up to guarantee that the viewer can identify the story here and be capable of forming their own personal narrative through interpreting Bénitah’s story in their own perspective. This allows the viewers of her work to make a more personal and intense adaptation to draw their own conclusions and ideas based off of factors in their own lives. This can be a very powerful technique because it leads people to resonate with her work, for example if a parent of a young child sees this they may recognise a similar story from their own childhood, and begin to attempt to make sure similar things don’t occur for their child.
I would like to incorporate the methods of Carolle Bénitah into my own personal study about my experience of growing up with a brother who has Bipolar disorder because I feel that the concepts of our work, while not the same, correlate clearly. I think this use of an obscure metaphor in order to portray a story of loss is very effective through the ambiguous format that the lines move in. It is a way of visually expressing a story that the picture alone wouldn’t be relevant to or able to reveal. Because my intention behind my personal study is tapping into the human psyche as it concerns topics of psychological change, behavioural differences and the impact this has on a family dynamic, I feel that this will be a good starting point for me to experiment with and develop upon in order to make my work very metaphorical and symbolising. This idea of “performing a kind of exorcism of inner demons and past repressions” connotes a tone of liberation which could be very compelling in my work, and allow me to freely express myself, the concept and message that I am trying to send.
ANALYSIS OF HER WORK:
This specific image from Carolle Benitah’s series of Photos Souvenirs, engaging with her childhood constraints and anguish, particularly caught my eye. Upon initial sight, it is evident that this image was taken from around the 1970s to the 1980s from the overall tone of the archived image of Benitah’s family being a more yellowed tone due to age; instead of it just being black and white, the film has gained a cast of discolouration as well as a large crease in the top left corner from being folded. This connotation also stems from the aesthetics of the individuals in the image, wearing respectable and modest apparel that was very common in the 70s, whereas in the 21st century, children may be wearing more casual clothing such as a tracksuit, instead of such a humble appearance. As well as this, the different hairstyles portrayed in the image highlight the large contrast in generational trends to successfully demonstrate how old this image is. For example, the woman on the right holding the baby has had curlers in her hair in order to create a feathered look, which was the general choice for women in the 70s. As the embroidery string used is red, this immediately makes the image become eye-catching and more visible due to it juxtaposing the original image’s more vintage, recessed tone. Benitah has embroidered an empty silhouette around each person within this family image at an angle that is slightly off – the silhouette isn’t accurately outlining each individual. As this series is Benitah’s form of establishing her identity, this could be representative of looking outward herself, picking apart each family member and therefore, making her have an almost ‘out of body’ experience by revising over her past life events. This metaphor stems from the distance that the silhouette has with each person. Because this uses ambiguous shapes, this creates dynamic lines within Benitah’s work that add a sense of direction, causing the viewer to scan the image for a reasonable response. I feel that Benitah’s concept behind this can be perceived as forcing the viewer to become familiar with her family and really have to look at each individuals face and demeanor in the image. This would assist her in trying to portray a story of her childhood as it allows the viewer to gain an initial impression of what that person is/was like. Leading on from this, Benitah has formulated a randomised pattern of plus signs or crosses over four of the individuals faces. I feel that this may be a obscure metaphor for absenteeism and loss, hiding the faces of the people behind these markings. It adds a sense of anonymity, creating questions as to why these people have been concealed within their own family image. Because family snapshots kept as memories and keepsakes, this may be symbolising that the four people within the image have became part of an unpleasant memory that Bénitah desperately wants to forget and ignore instead of coming to terms with it. This evokes tones of mourning, deconstructing the myth of an ideal family and altering an image to hint at a personal secret behind it. Due to the needle piercing the image during the embroidery, this has left small holes and tears in the image that are only visible if the image is truly explored in detail. The violent nature of the needle stabbing the image, almost looking explosive, may suggest conflict, drama and/or pain because of the aggressive nature behind it – in this case, pricking the archived outlines of family members to erase their identities from being in the saturated image. Because of this image imitating the ‘snapshot aesthetic’, when the archived image has been photographed, there are slight patches of the light bouncing back off the image. This reflection, possibly from the cold artificial lighting from photographing this image again at a ‘birds eye’ angle, could be interpreted as a sort of ‘calm after the storm’. What I mean by this is that this reflection of like may act as a symbol for her own person growth by creating this study, healing some sort of unresolved trauma from her childhood that was gained from events that occurred relating to this image, due to brightness tending to correlate with cleanliness or holism.
