This photoshoot took place at the Maritime Museum, The Fresh Fish Company and around the Marina. In these areas alone, I took over 900 images in order to capture a wide variety of examples of what goes on down in these areas and what a working environment like this entails.

It was important for me to take images of nearly everything going on down here so that not only would my images be able to link with one another and tell an active story, but represent the way of life when working down on the Marina itself. As well as this, it meant that I could show comparisons and the advancements from when the transatlantic trade began for cod-fisheries, showing the more modernised and efficient industry.

BEST IMAGES:

One of my favourite images I took was of one of the hundreds of crabs that had been caught within The Fresh Fish company. These crabs were piled up onto one another and created an indistinguishable blanket of crabs, struggling to move around within these confined bodies of water. From here, these crabs would be exported to places overseas in Southern Europe. I think this image is really successful because there is so much detailed captured within the image, with the crab being partially submerged this creates an ominous tone due to the change in texture as the crab declines into the water, giving an almost glowing effect around its shell. I also think that this was really effective as in the foreground, the crab has high definition but as the background is entered, it goes out of focus, showing the compact space of crabs toppling over one another.

The image on the left is of one of the many fishermen working in this industry holding a crayfish. These creatures are exported to places such as Venice to become served in restaurants and are sold at £150 per kilogram. This environmental portrait depicts really well the type of ‘hands-on’ approach that fishermen take within their jobs, with the possibility of injury, in order to export these goods to be enjoyed.

This image was taken from inside the Jersey Sailing Club, hanging their life jackets in the air on a metal rod. I really like this image, not just because of the high vibrancy throughout the image which makes it eye-catching, but also the way the first life jacket is the main focal point of the image, making everything else in the background blurred.

This image was taken of a commercial boat, however I similarly do like the way that the yellow buoy is the focal point of the image, with the row of boats in the background flowing behind and adding to the composition. I think that this has worked very well also due to blue in the background, contrasting the brighter yellow within the foreground. As well as this, the light has reflected off of the metal and bounced off at a good angle due to this being taken at midday, leading to a more iridescent and shiny look, outlining it and making it stand out.

This image was really appealing to me because of the rich and bold yellow on the boat in the foreground as its very eye-catching and hard to miss. Not only do the shadows within this image provide dynamic shapes to slide across, but it also includes a vast amount of various dinghy boats and heavy machinery in the background, giving a rich insight into the types of activities that take place down at the marina.

These images are of cargo boats onloading and offloading for imports and exports to places like France for example. I wanted to capture these as not only are they really vibrant and appealing, but there are so many intricate details, textures and parts which I thought would be beneficial to my work as it shows how technical and intricate this work is.

I liked these images because the boats bring in bright block colours which juxtaposes all of the dull sand and left-over sea water in the boats as the tide has gone out.

These two images above are of the retailing part of the fishing process. The lobster and crab has been prepared during the production stage and now is ready to be bought and eaten.

On the left is a photo of one of the many stacks of rowing boats at the Jersey Rowing Club. I feel that this image is really effective because the points of the boats go down in a vertical line as if its splitting the image into two halves. As well as this, this adds some depth to my image too.

The image on the right is taken of one of the many ladders used to get down onto the boats to fish. I really liked this image because there is a large contrast within it, the ladder has become extremely dark and allows the marina to be revealed behind it.

I liked this image because it resembles the sublime due to the way the sail boats are much bigger in comparison to the worker, creating an intimidating feel in the image. As well as this, this image has used a wide-pan approach meaning that you can see how large the harbour actually is.

Not only did I really like the saturated tone in this image but the way the two sailing boats created parallel lines, due to their masts, making the viewers eyes flow through the centres of the images. As well as this, the foreground of the thick sludge revealed from the tide going out has been imprinted with seaweed, rope and chains making an intricate pattern and an uneven texture from puddles of water left behind.

Maritime Museum:

Glass bottles of models of ships used within Jersey’s maritime history:

This photoshoot taken from Jersey’s Maritime Museum was very insightful and provided a high amount of historical value and contextual importance into my work, however I didn’t choose to use many of the images I took here as I don’t feel that these would be useful any further as it doesn’t fit in with what I am intending to explore in this topic. Although this information will help me when creating my zine as it means I will be more aware of what I am creating and help me create a narrative, I have other images which are more successful.

Black and White:

I put my images into black and white too to create a more composed perspective:

My photoshoot took place down at Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive and St Helier Harbour in order to show the history and development of Jersey’s maritime culture and how the fishing industry substantially benefits Jersey’s survival.

CONTACT SHEETS:

Due to the weather conditions being poor, I took multiple images of the same thing in order to ensure the wind and rain didn’t make the camera go out of focus or blur. This meant that I could go through each selection in sections and choose which images had the best composition.

MY EDITS:

I think these two images are really successful as I have been able to make the seagulls, birds which are very common to Jersey as we have hundreds surrounding the island (alongside them being native to the sea), the main focal point of my image by making my background of the harbour become blurred. I feel that this has worked very well because, although I am still taking images of the harbour, this makes the image more interesting and tell a better story as its a quiet nod to the type of environment these people are working in every day, with the gloomy weather contributing to that.

For this, I used a horizontal cropping technique after completely zooming out my camera lens in order to not only capture the vastness of ships loading and unloading, but also make this appear as a panoramic as this meant that the harbour was the sole focus of the image and not taken up by negative space – a large amount of the sky or sea.

I selected this image because not only did I think the vertical angle makes the focal point of the boat look extremely large in comparison to the men working on the boat, but I feel that this juxtaposes images of teams of fishermen in the past working on large ships with little equipment at all towards this image of two men on a modernised sailing boat using high level technology to manoeuvre it.

Similarly, I feel that this boat suggests the same idea.

I liked this image because of the way the diagonal angle makes this image look more dramatic and mysterious, as if someone is slyly moving through the harbour trying to remain unnoticed. As well as this, it means there are many ambiguous lines moving and pointing in all directions, creating a cross-hatched type of pattern scattering across the screen and making the viewers eyes be signalled all over the screen.

I selected this image as I felt it tells the story on how these cargo ships and loaded or unloaded, as well as showing a contrast from how fishermen used to have to manually perform these acts at great difficulty in comparison to this industry becoming more modernised and using heavy machinery through Ports of Jersey in order to complete jobs and tasks with more efficiency.

I took these images of the Ariadne steam clock because, not only is it the largest in the world, it is a full-scale replica of the centre section of a paddleboat. I thought it would be useful to incorporate this into my work because it resembles a ships funnel and reflects Jersey’s long association with the sea.

This image here is a memorial dedicated to the RNLI, a crew of dedicated volunteers and staff concerned with the dangers of commercial fishing and keeping fishermen safe whilst at work. I wanted to photograph this as I felt it was really important due to this company being one of the main helpers in times of danger, for example if a fisherman is experiencing trouble at sea during rogue weathers, possibly in a storm.

These images are of an abstract structure of three block coloured anchors spiralling up into the air.

These two images depict a ships anchor, put into both monochrome and colour as whilst in the colour it has rich shades of red, I also liked the way the black and white version looked more modest.

I took this image of the roof of the maritime museum, crowded by a statue of a woman which would have been seen on the bow of an old ship, accompanied by a weather vane. I felt these two factors were relevant here because not only does it note the history of the structure of ships and shows the modernised change in the way they are manufactured, but also a weather vane which would’ve been important for fisherman to use in order to see the strength and direction of the wind before setting off to sea. As well as this, I feel that this is very important to show because the fact that a woman was placed on the bow of these ships shows the way traditional roles and social norms were – the men working doing these dangerous jobs whilst the wife sits at home looking after the children.

In this image, I really liked the way the buoy in the foreground, used in emergency situations when someone is in the water, and puts the harbour behind it out of focus. As well as this, I feel that this shows the extensive length of the harbour and makes it look bold.

I took this image facing down the stairs into the harbours waters, where many sailing boats and dinghy boats used to sail out to them, because this would be the perspective of a fisherman when going down into the boat to set sail.

In this image, I took it at a diagonal angle in order to capture the red buoy with the long stretch of harbour following behing it. I think that this worked really well because of the way the smaller boats are piling on top of eachother in the foreground, however as the camera pans back the boats are in a more relaxed state.

Typologies:

During my photoshoot, I took some images of structures created for and around the sea, in use and not, which are used for communications of fisherman at sea and with the island. I took them in this style because I felt as I feel that the anonymity this style provides makes the image more powerful as it is the focal point in the image and placed in the centre, showing significance and importance. As well as this, I feel that its a minimalistic way to show how, as a society, we find ways to update and advance technology, being applicable here through the way Jersey’s maritime history has gone from voyages at sea for months on end with no practical way to communicate back to the island, to a consistently developing fishing culture.

History:

This image is of one of many plaques placed on a benches, stating the name, weight and date of which one of the many sailing boats were in use within the harbour. I wanted to include this within my work as I feel that this acts like a memoir to the past, showing the kind of language these fishermen used and the old fashioned manor of which these boats were spoken about. I also think that the use of a harsh font portrays a viewpoint of strength and power, announcing that these boats were of high status at the time and extremely significant to the advancements made.

I selected this image of a reconstructed cannon because I liked the way I took it from a low angle, following upwards through the spine of the cannon. This is because I feel that this shows the depth and length of this weapon, and gives a powerful and bold feel to the images, specifically in black and white.

Down on the side of the lighthouse within my other images, a plaque dedicated to a person during concentration times and tells a story about this. This is important because it’s informative of Jersey’s history and stands as a idolisation of someone, fighting for their country.

This mural on the wall of the car park overlooking the harbour depicts a story of World War cargo ships and fisherman working to import and export cod in a black and white tone, contrasted against bright solid colours of red, cyan and yellow showing our society now and the simpler way these jobs are carried out now.

Saint Helier harbour is the main harbour of Jersey through its occupation of most of St Helier down the south coast. This harbour is operated by Ports of Jersey, the operative government company. Here, there are 3 marinas for private yachts on pontoons and drying harbours for commercial shipping, with facilities including a dock for lift-on/lift-off cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a tanker berth.

Definition: a berth is a designated area where a vessel may be moored, typically for unloading and loading, assigned by an authority – in this example, Ports of Jersey.

The harbour gains its name from the 6th-century ascetic hermit from Belgium, Helier (Helierius).

The Old Harbour:

This area got its name as the Old Harbour, also known as the English and French harbour, with berths for over 500 motorboats and sailing yachts used for leisurely purposes, resulting in them being able to dry out on the mud below during low tide. Down here is where South pier and, the abandoned pub, La Folie Inn, are and have become an area in which marine engineers are working for South Pier Marina and St Helier Yacht club.

Back in 1790, this was only a small jetty at the side of the island where ships coming into the island could go.

Construction:

The 19th century is when the harbour was properly constructed. This only occurred after the Chamber of Commerce was denied by the States Assembly to build a new harbour, therefore they took it into their own hands to upgrade it in 1790. This consisted of a new breakwater of which its purpose was to shelter the jetty’s and harbour.

This led onto the merchants constructing the roads now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchands in 1814 in order to connect the harbours to the island to make them more accessible. After this, construction was concluded on the Esplanade and its sea wall:

An extensive expansion of shipping around 1837 led the States of Jersey to order the construction of two new piers named Victoria pier and Albert pier.

The Main Harbour:

This harbour is home to the deep water berths necessary for commercial vessels along Victoria Quay, where fish wholesalers of Fresh fish Company and Aquamarine fisheries is, and New North Quay.

Elizabeth Harbour:

Here is where high-speed craft and traditional ferries to Poole, Guernsey and Saint-Malo alongside foot passenger ferries to Granville, Barneville-Carteret and Sark use the implemented ferry terminal, two roll-on/roll-off berths and trailer park for shipping containers.

Involved within this are three marinas known as:

• The La Collette Yacht Basin,
• The Saint Helier Marina (built in 1980),
• The Elizabeth Marina,

Out of all of these, The La Collette Yacht Basin is the only one which provides non-tidal, 24-hour access to the sea, leading it to be home to Jersey’s commercial fishing community.

Development of the harbour:

By the beginning of the 16th-century Basque fishermen were travelling near Canada to fish. Basques were fishermen and sailors which had greater expertise and a specialised group within whaling and fishing, controlling the fishery along la haute main (northeast coast) for over a century. By 1580, around 10,000 European fishermen were making the transatlantic voyage to the area each year in order to fish for cod.

This methodology of sea travel in order to fish for food intrigued the Jersey people alongside the Channel Islands, for example Guernsey, to get involved greatly as lucrative trade routes were and still are, crucial to Jersey’s survival. This pioneered the development of fishing tactics for Jersey fisherman alongside finding ways to ease the imports of food Jersey receives. Because of this, Jersey’s food production economy has shrunk over coming years, resulting in potatoes being near enough the only food source grown and sold – 98% of food sources being imported on vessels from the UK and Europe.

The sea has become a large factor within Jerseys culture, identity, geography, history and economy and has intrinsically helped shaped these.

During the Middle Ages, a large sum of piracy/raiding took place by Vikings, causing jersey to employ many Viking words within the old Norman-French language of Jèrriais to do with fishing, farming, ships and the sea. These include:

• bete, bait, beita ;
• dranet, draw-net, dragnet;
• flie, a limpet, flie;
• greer, to rig, greidi;
• haler, to haul, hala;
• crabe, a crab, krabbi;
• mauve, a seagull, mar.

Piracy in the Channel Islands concluded when Sark became colonised in 1563 by Hellier de Carteret, leaving some pirates hiding out in isolated French and English bays, some sailing up from places such as Turkey too in order to ransom valuable captives or keep them as slave workers.

INVOLVEMENT OF JERSEY MARINERS:

The fishermen of the Channel Islands, many from Jersey, had set up lucrative trade routes between Canada, Europe and America by the 1750s, establishing bases on the Gaspé Coast where they could salt and prepare the cod.  The Gaspé Coast is an area which follows along the St. Lawrence River extending from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This area provided great ease when fishing in the open sea, available at any time of year however fishing closer to the coast was a more difficult task, allowing the Jersey fishermen to obtain great catches.

One of the biggest companies on the Gaspé coast was operated by Charles Robin, a Jersey merchant, who set up a fishing post at Paspebiac in 1767 after Canada passed to the English. After the American Revolution had died down, he took advantage of the lack of competition to set up a fishing monopoly in 1783 to reap the benefits of the cod trade.

Within Gaspé, despite the fact they were a minority, the Jersey community settled it nicely, speaking Jèrriais in their businesses and day to day lives, almost transforming the Gaspé coast between these years into a Jersey colony. The Jersey people became the economic giants of Quebec. Alongside this, islanders would receive concessions from the people of Newfoundland or the Gaspé coast such as the dried cod produced as well as cloth, wine, wool, leather and household goods. 

However, this would all come to an abrupt ending when problems concerning finance and the disappearance of the cod trade appeared, causing a dwindling of this renowned Jersey fishing company. In the 1870s and 1880s they suffered a credit crunch, as the Jersey banks crashed leaving many companies in huge debt. For example, the Jersey Banking Company crash in 1883, came about due to the bank manager, Philip Gosset, gambling with the funds – a bank of which many Canadian-Jersey companies had borrowed heavily from.

When the banks crashed, vast sums that had been made during the fishing monopoly years were wiped out. The credit system, where fishermen would receive all they needed from the company insured against future catches, also left many workers heavily in debt to their employers. This meant the end of these monopoly trading years.

Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?

The effort towards building harbours didn’t become a concern until the late 17th century, with work beginning on the islet of St Aubins building a pier. It was the 18th century when St Aubins harbour was finally constructed, followed by the development of building a port in St Helier too, however this only began to develop as a port properly towards the 19th century due to the need to raise capital. This then sent forth the movement to developing stone piers at La Rocque, Bouley Bay, Rozel, to accommodate the oyster boats, alongside Gorey which took passenger traffic from Normandy.

What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?

The Jersey merchants exported their findings of cod to places like the West Indies, the Caribbean and other British Colonies to trade for plantation goods. This consisted of sugar, molasses (a thick syrup that people use as a sweetener), rum, tobacco and cotton alongside oils, skins and several types of fur.

In order to export the cod, the fish were dried, salted and dispatched in various wooden tubs weighing about 112lbs. This procedure was done as it meant that the fish would be preserved longer and wouldn’t arrive in an unacceptable state.

Has the island of Jersey benefitted from its constitutional relationship with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)?

During these times, many Jersey merchants either owned or traded using mahogany, tending to have mahogany plantations in British Honduras – a crown colony south of Mexico renamed to Belize in 1973. The mahogany industry was built through enslaved peoples harvesting, dragging and rolling felled mahogany trunks to riverfronts, then floating the logs, which were chained together, to ships waiting in bays full of sharks and coral reefs.

For example, Sir George Carteret – founder of New Jersey, was a founder of the Company of Royal Adventurers into Africa where he would trade in enslaved people, ivory and gold. As well as this, Aaron de St Croix and brothers, James and Clement Henry and Co, George Mauger, Francis Valpy, Francis Alexandre Bradley and George Le Geyt were identified as being part of the mahogany industry.

This trade connection was provided through boats and ships, one being the Speedwell. For example, leaving London in 1663, the Speedwell initially picked up 302 enslaved people at Offer, Benin, followed by the selling of 155 men, 105 women and 22 boys to plantations in Barbados by March 1664. This was only just the start of the hundreds of trades of enslaved people which would take place.

The Rohingya experience was a photography exhibition showcased around St Helier, Jersey from the 1st until the 14th of July. This consisted of photography boards strategically placed throughout the high street and most popular areas of town, with 26 images each taken by an extremely talented Rohingya refugee through a partnership named Rohingyatographer – a unique magazine showcasing images from the worlds largest refugee camp. Accommodating these images were QR codes which invited members of the public to scan and listen to the compelling story behind the photograph. The ideology behind this project was to reveal the truth behind one of the worlds most tormented and stateless populations, and indicate the tremendous resilience these people inhabit in their lives just to get through the day.

What is the Rohingya crisis?

For decades, the Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar (specifically the Rakine State) which is a predominantly Buddhist country, have faced a horrifying amount of institutionalised discrimination such as being denied citizenship. These policies have been created by Myanmar’s government since the 1970s, compelling over a million of these people to flee their homes for the sake of refuge and peace. Due to this exiling, the Rohingya people have shown to be the worlds largest stateless population, with an estimated 3.5 million people dispersed worldwide due to this brutal discrimination. Even though the roots and history of the Rohingya people is present in Myanmar dating back centuries, their existence is not recognised by the government.

Already being depersonalised by the ignorance of the Myanmar government, the hardships continue for the Rohingya people. Various restrictions have been put into place on topics such as marriage, family planning, employment, education, religion and freedom of moment – for example Rohingya couples in the northern towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung are restricted to only having two children.

The most significant exodus (migration) took place in August 2017 when large clashes broke out in the Rakine State, with the military mounting a brutal campaign which destroyed the homes of hundreds of Rohingya people in their villages and resulting in nearly 700,000 people having to evacuate this persecution to Bangladesh. Now, Cox’s Baza in Bangladesh is home to the worlds largest refugee camp, with 1.35 million people living there. This escape from unwarranted military persecution was the result of an attempted ethnic cleansing, one that consisted of widespread violence, attacks and the stripping of basic human rights. This genocide of the Rohingya people has resulted in the deaths of thousands, consisting of brutal forms of abuse and violence that is unimaginable.

Why?

This exhibition is one that is monumental and moving, having great importance in order to give visibility to this crisis. The intention behind this showcase is to provide a plaintive platform for the Rohingya people, from adults to children, to document the truth about their lives, in a raw and authentic way. This is extremely key in shifting the narrative from one of victimhood to a story of strength and tenacity through self-representation and advocacy. Photography has acted in a transformative way to illuminate the difficult experiences these people have gone through and emphasises their suffering and dignity. By doing things like this, charities such as the Jersey Overseas Aid have the ability to ease the unprecedented pain these people experience in their day to day lives by performing activities to positively impact health, hygiene, sanitation, nutrition and protection, both community-based and legally. I think it is really important that this exhibition has taken place in the busiest area on the island because it sparks a conversation about the need for change in Cox’s Baza and for these pressing issues to be addressed immediately, shedding light on the undergoing hope of the Rohingya people who has persevered for decades whilst living through this immense amount of violence. The way that photography can reveal the harsh realities that the Rohingya people are experiencing in this current moment is monumental because it spreads awareness about this crisis and can encourage advocacy and activism for this minority group who are struggling. Alongside this, it is eye-opening to the people of Jersey to realise the privileges that not only do we experience as an island, but the luckiness that economies such as the UK or USA experience and how much this is taken for granted. The visual element behind this experience is key because it means that members of the public get to actually see what these conditions are like instead of reading a piece of information to draw their own conclusions from, providing a more objective approach. Finally, the way that this exhibition has come from the Rohingya people’s own images makes the entire experience more compelling, captivating and moving because not only does it show Cox’s Baza from their own perspective but this would give them a sense of hope because this means that they are able to try to get away from this stressful situation and try to take their minds off of it through creative and artistic ways, giving them the opportunity to express themselves and try to find joy in a specific project.

I thought it would be really significant to involve this in my work through a blog post because not only does it provide more contextual elements into my work but it is something occurring in the world at the moment and is important to be aware of to try and help in any way.

Using InDesign, I created my picture stories to depict St Malo. I used these pre-sets:

This meant that my pages would be an A3 size with borders at the side. This made it easy for me to ensure my images worked well together and fit suitably on the page. As well as this, I could make sure that the small gaps between each image would be identical so that the picture story would look formal and structured. I began with 3 pages however I could add more by simply just using the pages button and creating more on he document to experiment.

To create my picture stories, I used the rectangle frame tool to create the size of the image I wanted to add:

Then I used the place button in the file section and selected an image:

Once I selected my image, I used the fitting button to make sure that the image fit proportionally inside of the frame, then afterwards I could move around the image to my liking. By doing this, it made sure the entire frame was filled and that as much detail was in it as possible.

After I had filled the page with the all the images that I wanted to include within that picture story, I could then use the rectangular framing tool once again and fill it with text depending on the context of the picture story and images in order to provide more information and detail on what it was about and the contents of the images featured.

MY PICTURE STORIES:

I created 7 different experimental picture stories, some in colour, black and white and with graphic design behind them. These are the picture stories before the writing within the captions in changed from placeholder text to mine. Once I was happy with the layout of each one, I either kept the placeholder text there or wrote some information about my images. In my picture story on ‘The Life Of St Malo’, I used google translate to add in some French words as I felt that it seemed more realistic.

I used my initial picture story as a template to build off of to create these two slightly different images. For the one below, I used the same rectangle frame tool as I did for my photos, however I laid it over the text I had written and filled it with a solid grey, then lowering the opacity to make my writing stand out bolder.

And for this one:

I used the polygon frame tool to create two hexagon shapes and right clicked each to send it behind my work and settled on a monotone colour scheme to make my work look more interesting as everything had been rectangular.

For the background on this one, I used an ombre effect to lighten the title and make it stand out in a bold way, whilst creating a gradient diagonally across the page.

For this background, I used a pastel yellow as yellow and orange tones were frequently shown in practically all of the images, however I didn’t want to make it too saturated as this would have been too bold and could have possibly distracted the viewer from the actual story taking place through the photographs.

For this picture story, I used the rectangle frame tool to create an opaque background of one of the small lanes I found in St Malo. Then, I used the polygon frame tool to depict a story of the heavy rain there was during my time in St Malo by using different images of people in the rain, structures and umbrellas. I chose not to add text onto this one as I felt that the images were able to carry and tell the story itself as well as the title.

Finally, in this picture story I used the same traditional layout for my images and text however, I used the same framing tool to create a red and blue rectangle in order to show the flag of France so my picture story was more cultural to France. Also, this meant that to those who are unaware of what/where St Malo is, this provides a more muted and simplistic explanation.

In my St Malo images, I wanted to try to experiment using the generative fill Ai tool in photoshop. With this, I wanted to try and show peoples impact on these more city-based stills, more specifically the heavy use of graffiti scattered around the town of St Malo and how teenagers may use this to make these areas feel like their own alongside the heavy ‘hustle and bustle’ and fast-paced lifestyle that the city life brings.

Unfortunately, this tool didn’t work effectively within my images as the people generated look unrealistic and out of place, sometimes not generating correctly either. Within this project I won’t be using Ai as I feel that this also takes away from the ideology behind the ‘decisive-moment’ as it adds a sense of falsity and doesn’t contribute to my perception of what I want to explore.

Graffiti:

Busyness within cities:

For this experimentation, I wanted to play around with different formats of presentation for my images, arranging them in different ways to usual:

PORTRAIT:

Original:

This removed any vacant space around the subject, making her the centre and appear closer to the camera.

Process..

LANDSCAPE:

Original:

Process…

PANORAMICS:

Vertical:

The process of each:

Horizontal:

The process of each:

SQUARE CROPPING:

The process:

CIRCLE CROPPING:

The process:

For this format of cropping, I used the elliptical marquee tool to select a circular outline of my image. I then inversed this selection and pressed delete to remove the entire background and keep what I selected. I put this onto a white square for the background so that the colour wouldn’t be disruptive of the image.

Afterwards, I went back into layer style and added a drop shadow, manoeuvring around with the angle, size, distance, and opacity I wanted. By doing so, this meant that the image looks more 3 dimensional and comes to life.

After using the circle crop, I wanted to experiment more with the different ways I could merge images using different cropping techniques.

I chose an image with red in the background to match the red illustrated on the subjects mug.

MULTI-CIRCLE/PORTHOLE CROP:

For this format, I decided to use a combination of 3 – 9 images and lay them onto another image. The process was the same as the circle cropping just more images are added.

Anonymity:

I chose images of people with their back turned away from the camera to create an image filled with anonymity and confidentiality, as if they are hiding away their identities, living in a small city where everybody knows everybody.

I added a slight drop shadow to each image to ensure that they didn’t blend into the background and still stood out to the viewer.

Relationships:

I really like the way that there are 3 images from 3 different perspectives – front, side and behind – because it’s as if the subject are turning slightly within each image. I turned up the saturation of the harbour of St Malo to make it more colourful and contrasting stronger to the black and white cropped images. I chose this for the background as it is a vitally historic aspect of the culture there so I felt that it was important to involve this too.

POLYGON CROPPING:

The process:

To create this, I firstly opened two versions of the same image, one in black and white and one in colour. I then cropped each image to get rid of blank space as this wouldn’t have contributed to the finished outcome of the polygon cropping as I was selecting small, triangular sections of detail to rearrange the structure of this building.

I did this in the same way as my circular cropping, using the inverse button on my selection so that I could pick out specific areas. However, I used the freehand selection tool as this allowed me to choose the height and width freely, while also using different features of the free transform button to stretch and distort the section I had created.

After this, I opened up another document of a black background in order to lay out the desired result, being able to rearrange them to fit into place with one another like a puzzle.

For this experimentation of my images from the St Malo shoot, I used partial inspiration from Stephanie Jung in addition to Henri-Cartier Bresson.

HER WORK:

Stephanie Jung is known as a fine art photographer who is based in Germany. Studying in Visual Communications until 2010, she discovered her passion for this experimental form of photography. Since 2012 she is working as a freelance photographer, focussing on fine art photography.

Stephanie Jung’s work is known to consist of cityscapes in a double exposure manner, either created through shooting multiple exposures directly within the camera or processing multiple images after in a combinative manner. I really wanted to create this effect experimentally with my St Malo images initially inspired by Henri-Cartier Bresson as I believe that these images symbolise the ‘hustle and bustle’ alongside the rapid pace of life within cities, with things consistently changing and people always moving.

MY IMAGES:

This is my favourite experimental piece using double exposure because I feel that all the images involved have worked very cohesively and I am really pleased with the outcome. I feel that this encapsulates many different parts of St Malo and ties all together nicely to show the culture.

First of all, I used my image of a graffitied alleyway and used colour selection to select only the large hot pink design as this was the main focal point and the most establishing piece of the image. I then created 2 layers of a low-shot building I took and reduced the opacity, flipping one version upside down and onto the right. I did this because I thought it would add a deeper texture and context of St Malo. I then opened up an image I took of an elderly woman conversing with a homeless man in a kind nature, used the quick selection tool (defining it using the Alt button) and imposed it into the image into the left corner as if it took placed within the alleyway.

The subjects within this image were taken as double exposure through a slow shutter speed within the camera, however I thought it would be appropriate to add this image into here. I created this by simply using the quick selection tool and selecting different subjects walking through the street and dragged them into the image, playing around with the sizing to make it appear more realistic and fit to scale. I chose to use this as my background image because not did I like the low angle I used, facing up towards the top of the building to make it appear as if it is towering over the camera – distorting the depth of the image – but I really liked the composition within in it. For example, a classic motorbike peeking out from another building’s corner alongside and old fashioned café placed ever-so-slightly behind, only just visible. Alongside this, I really liked the way the buildings gave off a rustic tone, looking old-fashioned and filled with memories, having flowers placed onto the windowsills. It looked like a location that would’ve been around many years ago, standing still in time.

For this image, I duplicated the layers and increased the tonality and saturation of one. I then arranged these into a distorted way to give the effect of a double exposure. Afterwards, all I had to do was duplicate each layer over again until I could create a mirrored reflection.

I think this worked really nicely as not only does it appear as if they are more people in the image, making it busier and more chaotic, but it adds vibrancy and volume to the image in a ‘bounced’ way.

Similarly:

For this image, I used the same technique of duplicating the layers and changing the tonality of one, then slightly shifting it. However, I then opened up a separate image of this couple in black and white. I used the quick selection tool as traced around them, using the Alt button to go back and make miniscule fixes. I then inversed the selection and cut them out, and brought them across onto my street image.

I think this worked really well because the contrasted shift between the neon colours adjacent to the black and white figures can be looked at as if they are frozen in time.

For this image, I made one layer monochrome whilst the other in a bright neon tonality because I felt that this would add a more urban edge to it, nodding to the bright graffiti fond through the alleyways within St Malo streamed across the grey walls. This was already a double exposure image due to the slow shutter speed used when it was taken, however I wanted to create it over the top in Photoshop as it makes it look even more chaotic. I particularly like the way the stop sign located towards the left hand sign of the image looks because it appears unusual and is completely wrong.

I used the same background I used on my second image and made the subjects in it appear more translucent as I felt this would add an ominous and almost ghostly effect.

For this experimentation, I used my image of a small boy on a carousel looking down at his pocket whilst he goes past. I duplicated this layer 3 times, making each layer less visible and a different scale of tonality. I arranged them placed slightly behind each other as I felt this would give a motion blur yet in the theme of a carousel, something associated with bright colours, music and happiness.

MOOD BOARD EXAMPLES:

This is a classic picture story taken from the ‘Nurse Midwife’, placing black and white images onto an off-white creamy background. However, picture stories can be created into a more modern format, for example:

ANALYSIS OF PICTURE STORIES:

I chose this picture story to analyse as I feel it works very cohesively due to the black and white, alongside the way many of the images are the same side down the edge, for example, as this ensures the images tell a continuous story and makes sense. Picture stories are laid out in an newspaper-styled/ magazine page structure. They typically consist of:

• A major establishing shot
• A person at work
• A detail shot
• Relationship shots
• Environmental shots
• Formal or informal images
• Observer shots

MAJOR ESTABLISHING SHOTS:

This is the largest image on the spread, the image which provides the most context about the article and can represent the story the best out of all the images. It should be the most eye-catching image within the structure to draw and entice the viewer in as this will be the largest part to catch eyes from a distance. In this case, this involved the candid nature of an older man playing the guitar in public. This would have been the major establishing shot due to this being the image most cohesive with the title – about the people of St Malo. Sat in the centre of the image, this becomes the main storyteller of the spread as it provides an insight into the life around the port of St Malo and the culture which inhabits it.

‘PERSON AT WORK’ SHOTS/ENVIRONMENTAL SHOTS:

This particular image on the picture story must consist of four different assets. These are ensuring the person can be seen, their actions are visible, the way they are doing it is visible and including the context of their surroundings (where they are carrying out their work). This leads the image to describe a story within itself and add more detail to the entirety of the topic that the picture story is based on. This can also be seen within the major establishing image through the use of the busker, this can be assumed that this may be his job or hobby.

DETAIL SHOTS:

These images are usually minor within the picture story, however it provides context to the location that it is based on. These are typically images that are zoomed in on small areas and sections, using a short depth of field to capture a specific part. For example, in the images of the St Malo trip, this could be an image of something native to France, such as directional signs or seagulls. This provides a subtle approach to the culture of the topic or location, usually in a format of being the smallest or one of the smallest images within the picture story. In this picture story, for example, this consisted of a cluster of birds on one of the many beaches of St Malo, showing how hundreds of them inhabit their coasts and are a part of the rich culture there.

RELATIONSHIP SHOTS:

Relationship shots are those consisting of two or more people engaging with one another, candidly or in a more formal way. The relationships shown within the image may be romantic, platonic, hateful or a way that boosts family relationships. Many emotions can be conveyed through the body language captured; jealousy, love, anger, sadness, happiness – the list is infinite. This adds a sense of humanity into the image as it portrays the experience of average, everyday human life in a raw or memorable way. In this example, a loving relationship can be seen in a way that has the absence of posing, sitting on the floor together and happy. Whilst this is a small image, it is still significant in a way as it tells a story about how life is within St Malo.

OBSERVER SHOTS:

Observer shots are those taken within the absence of posing – candidly and raw. This was the main ideology behind our trip to St Malo in inspiration of Henri-Cartier Bresson and his use of the ‘decisive-moment’. People within the image will be unaware of the shot as this means that emotion and actions can be captured in a more truthful, honest and genuine way. In this example, practically all of the images are observer shots however the actual ones show the culture of cycling within the town, the ambience of cafes and restaurants the regularity of busking throughout the streets and the continuous cycle of shopping. By shooting these images in a subtle way, it provides the viewer with a way to see the pace of life and how St Malo differs from many other places.