Saint Helier Harbour is the main harbour on the Channel Island of Jersey. It is on the south coast of the island, occupying most of the coast of the main town of St Helier. It is operated by Ports of Jersey, a company wholly owned by the Government of Jersey.

Before 1700 St Helier had no decent harbour although a map of 1545 does show two stone piers in the area under Le Mont de la Ville, near where South Pier is today. The modern harbour dates back to the construction of the stone fronted quay at La Folie in the early 1700s.

Etymology: Saint Helier Harbour is named after Helier, a 6th-century ascetic hermit from Belgium. The traditional date of his martyrdom is AD 555. His feast day, marked by an annual municipal and ecumenical pilgrimage to the Hermitage, is on 16 July.

History: The harbour was constructed in the early 19th century. Previously, ships coming into the town had only a small jetty at the site now called the English Harbour and the French Harbour. The Chamber of Commerce urged the States Assembly to build a new harbour, but they refused, so the Chamber took it into their own hands and paid to upgrade the harbour in 1790. A new breakwater was constructed to shelter the jetty and harbours. In 1814, the merchants constructed the roads now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchands to connect the harbours to the town and in 1832 construction was finished on the Esplanade and its sea wall. A rapid expansion in shipping led the States of Jersey in 1837 to order the construction of two new piers: the Victoria and Albert Piers.

The Old harbour: English Harbour and French Harbour have berths for over 500 motorboats and sailing yachts which dry out on the mud at low tide.

Main harbour: The main harbour provides deep water berths for commercial vessels alongside the Victoria Quay and New North Quay. On Victoria Quay you will find fish wholesalers such as, Fresh Fish Company and Aquamar Fisheries. Albert Pier has now been re-developed from a ferry terminal to new berths for large vessels and yachts.

Elizabeth harbour: The Elizabeth Harbour consists of a ferry terminal, two roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a trailer park for shipping containers. These are used by high-speed craft to Poole, Guernsey and Saint-Malo, traditional ferries to Saint-Malo, Guernsey and Portsmouth and foot passenger ferries to Granville, Barneville-Carteret and Sark.

Marinas: There are three marinas — the La Collette Yacht Basin, the Saint Helier Marina (built in 1980) and the Elizabeth Marina. The La Collette Yacht Basin is the only one of these to provide non-tidal, 24-hour access to the sea and is home to Jersey’s commercial fishing fleet.

What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?

More than 400 years ago, the first Islanders crossed the Atlantic ocean in search of pastures new (a new place/ activity that offers new opportunities). They went over in order to raid the cod-rich seas of the American and Canadian coast, which would then be sold later. (Merchants).

Its unclear when the first Europeans reached Canada, but it is thought to be Italian explorer John Cabot’s descriptions of ‘new found landes’ and a sea swarming with fish in 1497 that drew fishermen to the north of the continent. Around 1600, English fishing captains still reported cod shoals.

By the beginning of the 16th-century Basque fishermen were travelling to the region to fish and, by 1580, around 10,000 European fishermen were making the transatlantic voyage to the area each year to fish for cod. Channel Island fishermen were among these and by the 1750s they had set up lucrative trade routes between Canada, Europe and America, establishing bases on the Gaspé Coast where they could salt and prepare the cod. 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.

Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?

Jersey ships sailed to the Gaspé Coast in which they then salted and prepared the cod they had caught. The nearer the fishermen were to the coast, the harder it was to catch the cod, but Channel Islanders experience with coastal fishing made use of their skills. Some other ports they sailed to was on the Newfoundland and South America.

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

Cod from Canada produced by Jersey merchants was consumed by enslaved people. Jersey cod-merchants also exported cod-fish to British colonies in the West Indies and later Brazil too in exchange for plantation goods, such as sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee and tobacco which it brought to markets in America, Europe and the UK (inc. Jersey). Within that context Jersey benefitted from the profits made in the British Empire build on a capitalist model of a slave-based economy.

To what extent, 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)?

Jersey was not a bystander in the transatlantic slave trade – but played an “active” and even “pioneering” role in it

Jersey had grown prosperous through its strong connections to the United Kingdom. People generated wealth from trading enslaved people. For example, the founder of New Jersey, Sir George Carteret. Some of the most common Jersey structures to end up involved with the salve trade were boats eg Speedwell, commandeered by Sir George Carteret’s son, James Carteret.

Jersey’s links with the slave trade “chiefly” stem from the mahogany industry. Mahogany was harvested using enslaved people. Many Jersey merchants either owned or traded in mahogany and some Jersey families even had mahogany plantations in British Honduras.

In order to create my picture story, I used InDesign. We first created a page on it using certain dimensions so that we had four columns doing down it and a boarder. To do this, I first selected an A4 sized paper and made it landscape (width= 410mm, height= 297mm) then made 4 columns with a column gutter of 5mm. My margins were 10mm and I had a bleed of 3mm.

Next, I created a box in which I would add my image into. I did this by using the rectangle frame tool. Next, I pressed ctrl d which then opened up to my photos I had taken in France. I decided that I wanted to create a picture story focusing on the architecture of St Malo. I ensured that all of my images were black and white beforehand so there was consistency in my work. If my image wasn’t lined up correctly, I right clicked on the circle in the box and selected fitting then fit frame proportionally. I repeated this step of adding boxes and images to them until I had the desired amount. Next, I added writing into the empty spaces on the page. This writing included the history of St Malo and other facts. Finally, I added a title ‘behind the wall of St Malo’.

Once I had created my basic outline of my picture story, I then added details into it to make it more pleasing to look at. Firstly, I added a dark grey boarder around all of my images in order to create a contrast between the background and the images.

Next, I decided that I wanted to add a background to my picture story that would consist of another image I had taken in the photoshoot. I first copied the original picture story beforehand so I could experiment with it more than once. When I first added this image to the background, it was quite dark and made the picture story look very crowded and made it difficult to read the words on the page. In order to fix this, I lowered the opacity of the background of the image. This made it lighter and enabled you to establish the difference between the background and the pictures.

Finally, I added an outer glow to my title in order to make it more prominent.

Next, I decided to create the French flag on the background of the picture story. I did this by adding shapes onto my page and adding colour to them. I also experimented with adding circles instead of just rectangles. Then adding circles within circles. A problem I occurred whilst doing this was that there was overlay of the shapes from one page to another. In order to fix this problem, I had to adjust the level the shapes were on and create white boxes to hide some.

Final outcomes

These are my final outcomes for the picture stories. Overall, I like how these came out as I think I managed to successfully experiment with InDesign and create unique, interesting picture stories. However, one improvement I would make to this is by creating a picture story with other images eg with people as mine only consisted of the same images of buildings. I would also have liked to experiment with using colours in my photographs instead of making them all black and white.

Photo story means presenting a story or essay primarily through images. Many photo stories have written elements that help narrate the story. And, individual images may even have captions that give more in-depth information or context to that photo. It is important to ensure that all of the photographs link to the story and remove any anomalies that don’t fit into the story your trying to convey.

Establishing shot: Establishing shots are typically wide or extreme wide shots of buildings or landscapes. These shots might include signage, landmarks, or other obvious signals of place and time. This type of photo gives the audience viewing the story context. An establishing shot is the first shot in a scene that provides an overview of the setting. It is often shot from above as an aerial shot, offering a view from a distance that helps the audience orient themselves to and identify the time and/or location in which the scene is occurring.

Person at work: This next type of shot involves an image being captured of someone in their own work environment. Typically in these images, the person seen in the photograph is completing a task/ activity which relates to their job. The background of the image holds high importance in the viewer being able to understand the context of the image. The objects/ things seen around them can provide as clues in order to figure out what profession the person in the image has.

Relationship shot: A relationship shot captures a connection between people whether that be platonic or romantic. Eg family, friends, couples.

Detail shot: Detail shots often tell the story of the situation by focusing on a relatively small portion of it. Details shots also can be images that, through compositional techniques, draw attention to a specific detail of a subject that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Environmental portrait: An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings.

These are some examples of picture stories. Each one has unique details added to it in order to make it different from one another eg different backgrounds, colours, text fonts, layouts etc.

With people

For these edits, I used my photographs I took in St Malo. I decided to experiment with different cropping styles eg portrait, landscape, panoramic, square and circle. These lead to some unique, different images.

Portrait crop:

For this type of crop, I opened up a landscape image I had taken then used the cropping tool on photoshop in order to turn it into a portrait image. I decided to off centre the people in the image slightly and include a bit more of the background in it for context. The decisive moment in this image is the lady pointing.

Panoramic Crop:

For the panoramic crop, I used the same landscape photograph but this time used the cropping tool to create a panorama which involved only the top halves of the peoples bodies being in the image and some more of the background.

Square crop:

In order to create this square crop, I opened up an image I had taken then selected the crop tool then changed it from ratio to 1:1 (square). I then adjusted the image to ensure the two people were in the centre of it.

Experimenting:

For these next set of images, I wanted to experiment further with using the different crop tools and other various tools. Firstly, I used the rectangular marquee tool to create a rectangle slightly smaller than the whole image in the centre. I then right clicked on the rectangle and pressed layer via copy. Once I had created this new layer, I then decided to colour it black and white. Next, I created a smaller rectangle inside of the rectangle I had just made. I then selected the bottom layer (colour layer) then right clicked on the rectangle and clicked layer via copy. This ensured that my rectangle was in colour and not black and white like my previous one. To finish this idea off, I added a drop shadow to the rectangles. This helped to enhance the contrast between the black and white rectangle and the colourful ones.

For this idea, I used the elliptical marquee tool in order to create a circle shape. I decided to draw the circle around the two people, highlighting the decisive moment in the image. I then right clicked on the circle and pressed layer via copy. Then in order to make the circle stand out I decided to make the background black and white and keep the circle and people in colour. Finally, I added a drop shadow to create some depth and contrast in the image.

For the next few images, I created a colour splash in which I made the people in the image have colour and then make the background black and white. I did this by using the object selection tool to select the people I wanted to highlight then pressing layer via copy. Once I had them all cut out, I then made the background black and white by going onto image then adjustments then pressing black and white. Finally, I decided I wanted to enhance the colours of the people so I exported them into Lightroom then used the colour section on it to change the hue, saturation and luminance. I like how these images turned out as they bring attention to the people as the bright colours seen on their clothes contrast drastically with the black and white background.

Without people

Panoramic crop:

I then experimented with creating a panoramic crop again but this time with a landscape picture. I think this crop was successful as it only shows the necessary parts of the image and got rid of any random objects at the bottom of the image.

Circle crop:

I then experimented with using a circle crop. I did this by using the elliptical marquee tool on photoshop in order to create a circle shape around a certain part of one of my images. However, I didn’t like how just one circle looked on a plain white background and so I decided to try out different things. For example, I opened up a new, different image and then dragged the cut out from the other image onto it. Then added a drop shadow to the circle in order to make the difference more clear and prominent.

Next, I used the elliptical marquee tool on 6 different images. Once I had all of my cut outs, I then opened up a plain sheet of paper and dragged them all onto it. To finish this idea off, I added a drop shadow to all of the circles. I think the many circles instead of just one looks better and more interesting and allows you to see more of St Malo.

Polygon crop:

For the final crop, I used the polygonal tool. With this tool, I drew a triangular shape on my image and then right clicked on it and pressed layer via copy. I then tried different colour scenarios eg making the triangle black and white and the background in the colour, and making the triangle in colour and the background black and white. I also added a drop shadow to both. Finally, I tried using an outer glow effect on the triangle as a way to emphasise it more due to the image being quite dark already.

Experimentation

For the next two images, I superimposed two images. I did this by opening up on image to start with then opening up another one and dragging it on top of the original one. I then readjusted the size of it so it filled the page. Next, I lowered the opacity of the top layer in order for the bottom layer to become more visible. Finally, in one of the images I selected the top layer and then pressed on adjustment pre-sets then selected ‘cinematic-split tone’ in order to add a green-red colour to my image.

These were inspired by Stephanie Jung.

For this photoshoot, we went to St Malo for a day in order to photograph the different buildings and take pictures of people without manipulating their poses/ what they were doing by not making them aware they were being photographed. The aim was to mimic the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and the decisive moment. To do this, we ensured that we didn’t try to bring attention to ourselves or get people to purposefully pose for a photograph as the goal was to capture natural, real behaviours. However, sometimes this wasn’t possible due to people spotting the camera and then asking for photographs or changing their behaviour. When we visited, it was quite cloudy which meant we had to adjust the camera to cloudy mode. Additionally, we wanted to test out using different shutter speeds in order to get movement in our images. To do this, we lowered the shutter speed which allowed us to capture the movement of different things eg people and vehicles. On the other hand, if we wanted a sharp, in focus images, we increased the shutter speed.

In order to minimise down the many photographs we had taken, we imported them into Lightroom then began by giving each image either a white flag (if we wanted to use them) or a black flag (if we didn’t want to use them). This narrowed it down by a half approximately but there were still too many. So, next I ranked each of the images out of 5 stars (5 being the best and 1 being the worst). Once I had completed this, I then selected the filter button and made it so I could only see the images with 3+ stars. Finally, to finish narrowing down my selection I assigned each of my images a colour: green (I wanted to use as a final image), orange (potentially use) and red (not going to use).

With people

Once I had narrowed down all of my images, I then gathered all of my images with people in and put them into a folder. I then used Lightroom to adjust each of my images eg the exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, blacks, whites and colour hue, saturation and luminance. These were my final outcomes:

Overall, I like how these images came out as I think I manged to successfully photograph some decisive moments where people were acting naturally and unaware they were being photographed. However, I also liked the images were people were aware of the camera and looked at it/ posed as I feel from each image you get a slight insight into that persons life and highlighted to me how different everyone is.

Black and white

Finally, I decided to turn some of my favourite images black and white. I think these images are good as the people are acting naturally and not looking into the camera. Its also interesting to see the different types of emotions people were displaying whilst I was taking the photograph. I think the image with the lady holding the umbrella is mysterious as you cant see any of her face and I like how she is in focus and the background isn’t. This brings the attention to her yet the viewer cant work out anything more about who she is or what she looks like due to the umbrella covering her. Additionally, I think the image with the man holding the dog is interesting to look at due to the lady’s facial expression which makes you curious as to what they were talking about in order for her to produce that reaction. Finally, I think the last two photos are good due to the framing of the people due to the trees on the bottom left image and the unique positioning of the people in the bottom right image (as usually the people are in the centre of the image but this time they’re to the right). Finally, they are both in good focus and sharp.

Without people

I then put all of the images without people in into another folder. Next, I edited all of the photographs the same way I did for the ‘with people’ images.

I think this photoshoot was good as I managed to capture a wide variety of different buildings from a range of different angles. For example, in some of my images I zoomed out quite far in order to get the whole building/ street in but in others, I zoomed up into certain parts of the buildings. Additionally, some of my photographs were taken from head on but some were taken from a side angle. This helped to create more variety in my work and make it more interesting to look at. Most of my images had high focus and sharpness. However, one problem I encountered whilst taking my photographs was that due to the sky being cloudy, it meant that lots of my images looked quite dull where the sky was. I tried to minimise this by using the burn tool on photoshop and experiment around with the colour section on Lightroom in order to enhance the blue in the sky.

Black and white

Finally, I made some of my images black and white. I think these images turned out well and create more of a gloomier atmosphere. They’re in good focus and sharp/clear.

Mood Board

Henri Cartier-Bresson key themes of photography:

Physical pleasure

Extension of the eye

Focuses on connecting humanity

How does Henri Cartier-Bresson view the activity of photography?

“To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It’s a way of life.” “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which gave that event its proper expression.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson described the “Decisive Moment” as the exact instance when a unique event is captured by the photographer – when something that may never happen again is frozen in the frame.

Biography

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.

Henri was educated in Paris and developed an early love for literature and the arts. His great-grandfather had been artist and an uncle was a noted printer. His father also dabbled in drawing.

In 1927 he began a two-year stint studying painting under noted early Cubist, André Lhote, then moved to Cambridge University to immerse himself further in art and literature courses. Sparked by the avant-garde scene enveloping Paris, and fresh from his release from the Army, which had stationed him just outside Paris, Cartier-Bresson travelled to Africa in 1931 to hunt antelope and boar. However, he eventually grew tired of the sport and gave it up. But Africa did fuel another interest in him: photography. He experimented with a simple Brownie he’d received as a gift, taking pictures of the new world around him. For Cartier-Bresson there were direct parallels between his old passion and his new one.

“I adore shooting photographs,” he’d later note. “It’s like being a hunter. But some hunters are vegetarians—which is my relationship to photography.” In short, as his frustrated editors would soon discover, Cartier-Bresson preferred taking shots rather than making prints and showing his work.

Upon returning to France later that year, Cartier-Bresson purchased his first 35mm Leica, a camera whose simple style and stunning results would help define the photographer’s work.

Throughout his life, he made clear his disdain for the augmented image, one that had been enhanced by artificial light, dark room effects, even cropping. The naturalist in Cartier-Bresson believed that all edits should be done when the image was made. 

The decisive moment

Henri Cartier-Bresson described the decisive moment as the exact instance when a unique event is captured by the photographer – when something that may never happen again is frozen in the frame.

The concept of the decisive moment implies that in the constant flow of events, there are moments in which the arrangement of everything within the frame is perfect. These moments are always spontaneous, so a photographer must be ready to click right away. As part of capturing the decisive moment, Henri took photographs of people who weren’t aware they were being photographed in order to capture their real behaviour instead of them becoming aware of the camera and changing what they’re doing/ how they are posing.

For example, in this image the decisive moment is the two people looking at each other. You can clearly see that they aren’t aware that they are currently being taken a picture of and are solely focussed on one another, showing their real, natural behaviour. Therefore, this is a good example of the decisive moment as there is no manipulation or pre determined poses, he simply captured what he saw in the moment. I also like this image as there is a clear contrast between the people and the background as the background consists of lighter shades of grey whereas the two people are dark grey/ black.

Throughout the time I have spent learning and researching about Anthropocene, I feel like I have gained a good understanding on the topic and understand what the word means (human kinds impact on the Earths natural environment). For my Anthropocene project, I decided to focus on urbanisation, industrialisation, overpopulation, natural landscapes and artificial animal habitats. For urbanisation and overpopulation. I decided to take photographs of what I saw whilst in central London, to which I captured many buildings all clustered together and crowds of people everywhere. This highlighted to me how severely humankind have expanded and built on the earth; stripping it of its natural beauty. Additionally, for industrialisation, I went down to Havre Des Pas and carried on walking along the side of it until I reached La Collette. From here, I took photographs of the incinerator and waste disposal building. Next, for the natural landscape images, I visited various beaches/ cliffsides around Jersey and photographed the view. I decided to take these images as a way to spread hope for future generations and hopefully inspire people to help them realise that we can have this natural beauty and beautiful views if we stop harming the planet so much. Finally, I took photographs of different animals in their artificial habitats in the zoo. This idea was inspired by Zed Nelson who does something similar and I found it ironic how humans are stripping animals of their real, natural environments in order to put them in artificial ones, simply so we can be entertained.

Urbanisation and industrialisation

Overall, I like how these images came out as they are in focus and the majority have good lighting. The images with lots of buildings stacked on top of each other was inspired by Giacomo Costa. I felt this linked to the theme of Anthropocene as it is almost exaggerating further how overbuilt and crowded our planet is. However, this may not be an exaggeration but a reality for what our planet is going to look like in the future if we don’t stop building and expanding so much. I then decided to further experiment with this idea by adding a crack like shape into the centre of the image and then adding one of my natural landscape images behind it, creating a clear comparison between the two different types of landscapes. Finally, I wanted to further emphasise the difference between the two landscapes and so I decided to make the building layer black and white then the natural landscape layer coloured.

Artificial habitats

This photoshoot was inspired by Zed Nelson. In order to create these photographs, I went to different zoos in London and Jersey. I then focused on taking photographs of animals with unnatural backgrounds eg paintings of real landscapes or artificial lights. I tried to place my camera as close to the glass as possible in order to minimise any glare or reflections but this wasn’t always possible. However, I think having some of the images with visible glare/ reflection is successful in reminding the people who are looking at these images that these animals are stuck behind glass and in cages, restricting them from the real world. Therefore, by reminding people of the conditions these animals are in, it may lead to people wanting to help them and hopefully provoking positive changes. I think these images turned out well as the focus and detail is good and I think it successfully replicates the work of Zed Nelson and links to the theme of Anthropocene by highlighting how humans are destroying animals natural habitats just to recreate them in an artificial way.

Natural landscapes

For this photoshoot, I wanted to capture the natural beauty of the Earth. These images were taken in many different places like Norway, France and Jersey. I decided to take these more positive images as a way to bring hope to people who are looking at them. By highlighting the natural beauty our planet already has, it may hopefully cause a realisation for people that by building such vast amounts of buildings, we are hiding beautiful views. I also wanted to capture some manmade structures in some of my images to portray the idea that we can live simultaneously together and it doesn’t mean that humans should just demolish everything we’ve built but instead compromise and protect certain places from being built on and destroyed. Overall, I think this photoshoot came out well as I think I managed to successfully capture the beauty of the landscapes I was photographing. Some of my images were also inspired by Ansel Adams and romanticism as I turned the images black and white and manipulated the sky into making the clouds more prominent and powerful, creating a different kind of vibe to the image.

AI photography refers to a form of photography that utilises artificial intelligence to either generate new images or enhance existing ones that mimic real photographs. One of the most exciting applications of AI-generated photography is the creation of synthetic photo studios. It’s particularly remarkable for its capability to create virtual photo studios. These digital environments empower photographers to produce realistic images without physical studios or equipment, offering flexibility in location, lighting, backgrounds, and subjects, without the typical logistical challenges of traditional photo shoots.

AI-powered tools can analyse photographs and calculate optimal exposure, correct colours, and adjust shadows, among other enhancements. These tools aim to streamline the photo culling and editing process, offering faster and more customised processing and adjustments.

How Does AI Improve Your Photography?

AI can improve the way photographers capture images by making post-processing less time-consuming and more focused on capturing shots. Here are some examples:

1) AI-powered autofocus systems can help photographers take sharper and more in-focus images, even in challenging situations. This can free up photographers to focus on other aspects of composition and lighting.

2) AI-powered noise reduction can help photographers reduce noise in images, especially those taken in low-light conditions. This can make images look cleaner and more professional, without having to spend hours in post-processing.

3) AI-powered image-upscaler can help photographers upscale low-resolution images to higher resolutions. This can be useful for printing photographers’ images or for displaying them on large screens.

4) AI-powered style transfer can help photographers transfer the style of one image to another. This can be a fun way to create unique and creative images, without having to spend a lot of time in post-processing.

5) AI-powered background removal can help photographers remove the background from an image, leaving only the subject. This can be useful for creating product images or for creating composite images, without having to mask out the background manually

For this idea, I combined my piece inspired by Giacomo Costa and wanted to add a gap in the buildings which would reveal a natural landscape. I did this by opening up the Giacomo Costa inspired piece and then opening up an image of a natural landscape that I had taken. I then put the natural landscape image layer behind the Giacomo Costa level. Next, I selected the magnetic lasso tool and made a hole shape with rough edges to make it look like there was a crack in my image. Once I had made this cut out, I then right clicked and pressed layer via cut, creating a hole in my top layer and then making the bottom layer visible. To finish off this idea, I then decided to add a drop shadow to the hole to make it have more depth and look more realistic. Finally, I experimented with this idea by making the buildings layer black and white and then the natural landscape layer colourful. This made it stand out more and highlight the difference between the two types of landscapes. I like how this idea came out as it shows two polar opposite landscapes (one which has been destroyed and built on by humans and the other beautiful and undestroyed).

For these images, I wanted to incorporate futuristic and modern things into a landscape image I had taken and then incorporate old objects/ things into another landscape in order to highlight how different our world is now compared to before. I decided to add a sepia photo filter onto the old image in order to give off the impression of aging and make it look vintage. Overall, I think this was a good first attempt at experimenting with time and AI but next time I would research what type of things were seen in the past as I struggled with ideas of what to add to my image.

For this photoshoot, I visited different zoos and took pictures of the various animals which are trapped there. This photoshoot was inspired by Zed Nelson who is often seen taking pictures of animals in zoos and highlighting this idea of a false landscape being created in order to mimic the animals’ actual habitats. The problem with this being that we are destroying these animals’ actual habitats in order to replace them with manmade ones which are evidently too small for them. In order to narrow down my photographs, I imported all of the images onto Lightroom and then flagged each image with either a white flag or a black flag (white= wanted to use, black= didn’t want to use). I then pressed the filter button and selected so I could only see my white flagged photographs. I then rated all of these out of 5. I then filtered it to only show my images which had a 4 star+ rating. Finally, I edited all of these images by adjusting different settings on Lightroom.

For this set of images, I focused on photographing different animals in their enclosures which are made to look natural by adding things such as trees and rocks. However, it isn’t natural and is evidently way too small for these animals. This links to the artist Zed Nelson as he explores how people have put in effort to recreate these animal’s natural habitats when the animals could have their actual natural habitat if it weren’t for humans destroying their homes in order to build places like these which create a false reality of these different habitats. Another thing I noticed when taking pictures is that there were often paintings of natural/ earthy landscapes seen behind the animals, further emphasising the idea of recreating a landscape which we would already have if it weren’t for human kind.

For these images, I wanted to try and capture the barbed wires and fences that are stopping these animals from escaping from their miniscule prisons. I also tried to take photographs of the animals when they were looking into the camera as I feel eye contact makes it harder for people to overlook the animals horrific conditions they are kept in and are forced to face the reality of how these animals are suffering at the cost of our entertainment.

Overall, I like how this photoshoot came out as I think I managed to successfully link my photoshoot to Zed Nelson’s work. I also found my images of different animals looking into the camera be very effective in making you feel sympathy for them and looking at them more than just a source of entertainment. However, in some of my photographs you can see a glare from the sun hitting the glass which makes my images look less professional. However, I also think it is important that you see that these animals aren’t just free roaming and are actually trapped in these ugly, unnatural cages.