Photos Souvenirs by Carolle Bénitah

‘Photos Souvenirs’ is made up of multiple photos which have been dug out of photo albums and shoebooks and then sewed and beaded into, often with red thread. This photobook explores Carolle Bénitah’s memories of her Moroccan childhood and adolescence by reworking these images with her skills she gathered after being a fashion designer for ten years.

Carolle Bénitah created her photobook as a way to try to better know herself through investigating and studying images taken over 40 years previously. Bénitah complated what she describes as ‘excavations’ where she dug out old snapshots out of photo albums and old shoe boxs. She focused on collecting snapshots as they relate to memory and loss. Therefore in a way the book was created for Carolle Bénitah herself as a way to bring old memories back.

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/carolle-benitah-photos-souvenirs

For this photoshoot I focused on photographing my family in similar ways to old photos which I gathered from old family albums. I did this by using similar props to the old photos.

I went through my images and flagged the ones which are successful in a white flag, and the ones which arent as successful in a black flag. I also colour coded some images in blue, these are my best images which I am going to make edits of.

Best photos

Before and after edits:

Edit 1:

I also decided to create a black and white version as black and white images are largely linked to the past which I am trying to recreate through restaging old photos.

Edit 2:

For this image I did similar edits to the last one such as increasing contrast. I also decreased the saturation slightly as I found when I adjusted the other settings the colours became too vibrant.

Edit 3:

In the before photo the exposure is quite low as the face is quite dark compared to the background which is why I increased the exposure.

I prefer this edit in black and white as the bright white background doesn’t stick out as much as it does in the coloured version.

Edit 4:

Edit 5:

Evaluation:

I think this photoshoot was successful as I was able to recreate multiple of the old images in a similar way. My images I created represent the artist I responded to Irina Werning as I took them in a similar way to her, which is recreating old images in the same pose with the same props. I also created the same concept of her project ‘back to the future’, as all my images are recreations of old photos. Next I plan to recreate more images, I also plan on doing more portraits which I can combine with landscapes in a similar way to John Stezaker. I will do multiple photoshoots for my landscape images possibly in places which mean alot to each individual.

Photoshoot 1: Portraiture

For my first photoshoot I will focus on taking portraits based off of old photos I have collected from albums. These portraits will include photos of people together as well as alone. I will try to make the poses as similar to the original image as I can. This photoshoot will be mainly based on the photographer Irina Werning as she takes new photos based on older ones.

Photoshoot 2: Landscapes

For my second photoshoot I will focus on Taylor Jones’ photography where he holds up old photographs and photographs them against the same place they were originally taken. This shows how things change overtime as well as how things also remain the same. I will do this by collecting various photos from photo albums where I know where they have been taken. I will then produce multiple photoshoots in response to these in different environments.

Samiksha Chaudhary believes objects function as memory keepers and he found himself reliving these memories through photography. This all began in lockdown when Chaudhary found himself stuck in Mumbai, whilst his parents were back home at Calcutta. Chaudhary found this time lonely as he missed his parents, therefore he aimed to revive and relive little moments which were created by these objects. He released a set of photographs taken of these objects as part of a bigger collection which he previously shot during 2019 whilst being at home with his parents. Chaudhary found photography to be a way of tracing back memories all the way to his childhood. It was also a way to feel closer to his parents and a way to hold onto old memories. Each of his unique objects tells a story which takes him back to his home. Chaudhary wishs to capture the object’s value to his personal history, rather than the value of them.These objects create a mental map to his childhood and they are also a way of knowing his families history. With the objects laid out they all tell a story. They capture a lifetime within them, not only his own but also that of his parents and relatives.

“A wedding gift, this wooden doll, my mother told me, held a small vial of perfume. The showcases in our home, when I was growing up, were always full of such curios – some inherited, some received as gifts or others collected patiently, one item at a time, by my parents (mostly Maa),” – Chirodeep.

This is a picture of the silver bowl that originally belonged to Durgamoyi Roy, his mother’s maternal grandmother and was a gift to his mother to celebrate seeing her great-grandson for the first time. The bowl, probably 100 years old now, has been with his parents for as long as he has been around and continues to exist as a daily use object at his home.

How will I respond?

To respond to this photographer I plan to photograph old objects which hold meaning to my relatives, specifically my grandmother. I will take these photographs on a plain background

Taylor Jones created the movement ‘Dear Photograph’. He was inspired to do this when he was sitting with his family and an old photo album was taken out including hundreds of old photos. In one of these photographs Jones’ brother was sat in the exact spot he was sitting in this photograph. This prompted him to take his camera and take a shot of the old photograph lined up to its original location. He then posted this photograph along with six others on a blog. This blog had gone viral within days, he later called this blog ‘Dear Photograph’. The success of this movement enabled Jones to leave his job and create a book inspired by Dear Photograph that will feature stories along with some shots. He has also met Tv and Film executives to discuss projects based on the site such as a screenplay a friend wrote about using photographs to travel into the past.

Dear Photograph

The idea of Dear Photograph revolves around memory and nostalgia and it involves holding an old photo up to the same environment where it was originally taken. This concept has resulted in powerful, emotional reflections on time, loss, and connections between past and present. Each of the photographs in the book is partnered with a sentence or note from the person who took the photograph which provides the reader with more information on the photograph as well as personal stories which enhances the viewer’s understanding of the images.

This is the original photo taken by Taylor Jones which started the whole idea of ‘Dear photograph’.

Back to the Future

Irina Werning became world-famous as a result of her project ‘Back to the Future’. In this project Werning photographed people as they reenacted their childhood portraits. This unique series shows how people look and feel 20 years after their childhood portraits, Werning took her camera and portrayed hundreds of people as they go back to their future. She was inspired to create this project after she scanned some older photos and after she ended up in one of the locations where one of these photos had been shot. I find this project interesting as your able to see how people change overtime.

Analysis

 

This photograph by Werning shows the way that the subject has grown since the original photo. It has been well done as she was able to position the new photograph in the exact same way the old one was taken, including the same object in the background and view in the window. They also paid attention to detail by using the same clothing and almost identical glasses.

How will I respond?

Irina Werning will be my main inspiration when creating images . I will find old photos of my family members in photo albums and then I will select ones which I plan to recreate. I will recreate these images using similar props, clothes, and poses/ expressions. I will also edit these images in similar tones and crop them in similar ways.

For my personal study I am going to focus on photographing my family and restaging older images. Therefore I chose to create a mood board using these old images which I gathered from old photo albums and boxs.

Statement of intent

I will be focusing on binary opposites for my personal study, these will be ‘old and new’. For my personal study I intend to recreate various old photos of my family members to show how people change overtime. To do this I will look at old photo albums to find photos which I can recreate. I will edit this new photos and compare them to old ones, I may also try combining these photos. I might also explore landscape photography through using older photos and holding them up in the landscapes where they were originally taken, this will not only show how people change but also how the landscape around them has changed overtime.

Photographers

Irena Werning

Taylor Jones

My personal study will be looking at binary opposites, specifically old and new. I will do this through comparing old photos with new ones that I have taken in a similar way to these old ones. My project will relate to nostalgia as it will be looking back on old memories and tying to capture them again within new photos. I will focus on observe, seek, and challenge within my photography through observing old photos, seeking new photos through creating them, and challenging the concept of time by showing the effects of it on things such as people and the environment.

Binary Opposites

Binary opposition is a pair of related terms which have opposite meaning, for example good and evil, man and woman, black and white. The two terms I will be focusing on are old and new.

Theory of Binaries

According to the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, meaning is often defined in terms of Binary oppositions, he stated “one of the two terms governs the other.” For example the binary opposition of male-female, where the male is often seen as the dominant gender and women are subservient. This is linked in with the patriarchy, a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

Claude Levi-Strauss

In this blog post I will review some projects which I believe have been successful.

Deadpan Photography

Deadpan photography is a type of photo which lacks all sense of emotion, it is mainly seen within landscape images. However it can be seen within portraits as well and the subjects of these portraits will tend to be in their natural state, without showing any emotion. For my photoshoot I chose to respond to the photographer Lewis Baltz.

These two images were my best shots within my Deadpan project. I completed my photoshoot in various areas within St Ouens, which is where these two photos were taken.

I also investigated leading lines within photography which are typically used for drawing the viewers attention to a certain area within a photo. I took this image on the road in St Ouens where the white lines lead your eyes deeper into the image.

Evaluation:

I think my deadpan photography went well as I was able to create some similar images to Lewis Baltz. If I were to do it again I would take more photos in different areas, not just St Ouens.

Femininity

Another project I believe went well was my project based on femininity in response to the photographer Cindy Sherman, an American Photographer who mainly takes self-portraits portraying herself as multiple different characters.

In this photoshoot I chose to focus on photographing my model doing cleaning, cooking and more. I did this as I wanted to focus on photographing the out-dated stereotypical views of what women should do.

These are my best images from this project, I chose to make them all black and white as this is what Sherman does in her photography.

Evaluation:

I liked how my final images turned out in this photoshoot especially after making them black and white. If I was to re-do this photoshoot I would focus more on the ideas which Cindy Sherman focuses on, such as domestic violence and I would try to capture more emotion in my images.

Anthropocene

One of my favourite projects I have done is my the one based on Anthropocene where I responded to the photographer Zed Nelson.

For my response to Zed Nelson I chose to visit Jersey Zoo, where I photographer a variety of animals. This related to the subject of Anthropocene as it shows has humans have had a negative affect on the lives of animals by making them live in cages for their own enjoyment.

This is one of my favourite images which I produced. I edited it to make the background blurred to make it appear that everything around the animal is moving however the animal is constantly stuck in the same place, similar to how they are constantly in the zoo.

Evaluation:

Overall this project was successful as I was able to create photographs with meaning similar to Zed Nelson’s photographs.