Henri Cartier-Bresson and the decisive moment

Who was Henri Cartier Bresson?

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.

What is the concept of “The decisive moment”?

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.

MOODBOARD

Here is where we went and where I took all my photos. We walked all within the walls and focused on the environment and the historical parts of St Malo. We also spent some time looking at all the people within St Malo enjoying their days and we captured in the moment photographs.

Contact Sheet

Best Images Selection

Here are what I would believe to be some of my best images, each individual one captures a different moment in time, some are of people and capturing what actions they are doing whilst going about their day however some others are images of the old historical architecture of St Malo which I had managed to nicely capture within my photoshoot.

AI stands for Artificial intelligence it is the science of making machines that can think like humans. It can do things that are considered “smart.” AI technology can process large amounts of data in ways, unlike humans. The goal for AI is to be able to do things such as recognize patterns, make decisions, and judge like humans.

What is AI used for?

Artificial intelligence is widely used to provide personalised recommendations to people, based for example on their previous searches and purchases or other online behaviour.

Examples of what AI can do:

• Create and generate images by using prompts.
• create texts of any kind
• help make websites
• create products
• design games

My Experimentation with AI

Original image:

First Use of AI editing

In this first try of my AI editing I chose to add some small and discrete differences to the image so that people would have to look closer at the image to see the changes I have made within it. For this image I added some windmills and more crowded buildings to the foreground on the left hand side of the image to represent what the island may look like in roughly about 5-10 years time due to all the overpopulating and crowding.

Second version of the edit:

As described in the above edit I have tried making the second version of the edit more crowded and more of what the island may look like in roughly 10-15 years due to the overpopulating of the world and on island due to the size of the island and the amount of people coming to live here.

Storm/Ansel Adams photoshoot virtual gallery

This is my virtual gallery for some of my final images for The natural landscape and romanticism shoots, I chose a nice looking gallery and used photoshop to place my best images into the gallery. I chose these images as my best as I felt they really created a story behind both individual shoots, My Ansel Adams shoot was representing the natural beauty of the world this followed under our topic of romanticism and the sublime as they were peaceful photos of nature with no people within the images just the natural landscape. However my Storm Ciaran shoot has the opposite effect as it represents the chaos and disaster in which the storm had caused to our beautiful island and its nature.

Urban Landscapes Final Images Virtual Gallery

Here is my virtual gallery for my urban landscape photoshoot. I chose a smart looking gallery from the shared folder and used photoshop to place my final images into the frame and presented on the walls of my gallery. Once I had moved the images into a good position on the wall I used a shadow for the background of the images to present them as if they were hanging on the wall on a frame. This photoshoot was representing how the buildings have interrupted nature on the island throughout the years seeing all different ages of buildings all from different centuries.

Anthropocene Gallery

Here are my final edits from my Anthropocene photoshoot. As previously I used the shared folder to find myself a gallery backdrop and used photoshop to put in my images and present them on the walls. This photoshoot was meant to present pollution within our seas and how big of an effect these items can have on nature and on our animals which live within the oceans and beaches. I presented them in a beautiful way and tried to make the story of what its presenting deeper down into the images.

Overview

Brief explanation

ANTHROPOCENE –

The theme Anthropocene was a really enjoyable series of photoshoots to take part in. Anthropocene consists of many different types of variations of things such as; light pollution, litter polluting the seas and land, noise pollution, deforestation etc. It is a mixture of all different ways that us humans effect the earth and leave our mark in the worst ways possible.

THE PHOTOSHOOTS –

For the theme of Anthropocene I did an overall of four different photoshoots all varied within different sections of what the theme of Anthropocene covers. I enjoyed this as it meant I was able to be very creative within the aspects of choosing where I wanted to go and what I was hoping my outcomes would be for each shoot I did.

Photoshoot 1 –

For my very first Anthropocene photoshoot we had been set the task to take photos of the aftermath of storm Ciaran. I found this photoshoot both very interesting to still see the damage of the storm months after it had passed while also feeling the devastation of what a mess the island had become. For this photoshoot I decided to go to Noirmor woods as this is a place I went often before the storm had hit therefore I felt a stronger connection to this location which had given me more room to be creative as I not only knew my way around but could really see how big of an impact the storm had left as I knew what it had looked like before hand. This shoot was lots of fun and I really enjoyed capturing all of what remains within that woods and painting a picture of just how bad the damage truly was.

Here are a few images from that shoot:

Photoshoot 2 –

For my second Anthropocene photoshoot we had decided to do this based on The new topographic, this is where photographers would study areas of land where it involved both modern buildings and environment whilst also being surrounded by nature within the same areas. Its main goal is to capture the image of the impact us humans being brought to earth and populations growing fast showing the increase in modernised buildings and the decrease in the nature. The photographers who study this try to capture the beauty of nature and the world we live in today where both nature and modern buildings share the same environment. For this photoshoot, as a school group we all headed down to Harve des par to conduct a photoshoot about the natural environment and modern landscapes we have over here on island.

Here are a few images from that shoot:

Photoshoot 3 –

For my third Anthropocene photoshoot I took some photos in my own time relating to Ansel Adams. I really like Ansel Adams work as he really tends to capture the full detail and beauty of nature and the landscapes that surround us. For this shoot I decided to go to Plemont beach as this is not only my favourite beach in Jersey but its also in my opinion the one with the most beauty and detail to it as it is full of caves, and many different types of cool areas to explore on that beach compared to any other beaches on the island.

Here are some images from this shoot:

Photoshoot 4 –

For my fourth and final Anthropocene photoshoot we were set the task of studying a variety of photographers and choosing one which we liked best to study in detail and create our own photoshoot relating to this photographer. For my photoshoot I decided to look into Mandy Barker and her work involving Anthropocene. Mandy Barkers main focus was within pollution of the streets and oceans, she created a variety of photoshoots with all the waste she would find along beaches and in the streets of many countries and would then edit them creating some amazing edited images which all created a story behind them if you were to examine her images further. For my shoot I took Mandy Barkers inspiration and went to St Ouens beach to collect as much rubbish from the beach as I could and took them home, set up a studio and took photos of each individual object while also creating some setups with various objects. My main goal was to capture these objects in detail and create a story following within each of my images just like Mandy Barker does.

Images from this shoot:

Natural Landscapes

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

Image 4:

Image 5:

Urban/Industrial images

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

Image 4:

Image 5:

Anthropocene – Final edits

Image 1:

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Ideas:

For my experimentation I have decided to play around with Photoshop and Lightroom to create some funky edits with my images in which I have produced.

Edit Idea 1:

I have decided to play around with colour selection within my images and created some random edits to show my experimentation.

Experiment 1 and process

Step 1: duplicate original layer

Step 2: Click on the background layer and go to image, adjustments and then make the background black and white.

Step 3: Go onto the copied layer which is in colour and go to select, colour range.

Step 4: Once you have selected the areas in which you want the colour to show, you then go to select and inverse before deleting the background which is selected to create the final look.

Step 5: Here is the final edit, you can then experiment further with different colour ranges and adding more details to the edit however these are the basics of creating edits like these.

Final edit 1:

Within the edit I added a few more details such as a women who I made see-through and a bird into the top right corner almost to give the effect that the lady is watching the bird.

another colour edit

For this edit I chose to select one specific area of the image and I did colour selection, once I had completed the colour selection I then decided to copy that one area of colour selection and make a load of different sizes with some being full opacity and others having little opacity creating a cool contrast between the black and white image and the one area of colour being spread throughout .

Photoshoot:

My Edits:

Sub selection:

Image 1

I have chosen this image as one of my sub selection as I really like the contrast and range of colours and shapes within this edit. I have used a few objects in which I found along st ouens beach. This photoshoot was related to Mandy Barkers work as she experiments a lot with objects in which she finds in the streets and beaches of various countries all over the world. With my images I tried to replicate the kind of work she does and put it into my own perspective with how I have laid it all out and photographed it.

Image 2,3,4

I have now chosen these three images in my sub selection as they are all images of individual objects. Within my photoshoot I made a variety of images, some where I had placed a few objects together like the selected image I previously described and also produced images like this where there is only one object within the image, this creates a very singular but catchy image where the one object stands out. With a series of these images together it almost creates a story behind it, representing all the different things I had found within my walk along the beach and that is not where these objects belong, causing danger to the sea life.

Final Images presented:

Here are my final edits from my Anthropocene photoshoot. As previously I used the shared folder to find myself a gallery backdrop and used photoshop to put in my images and present them on the walls. This photoshoot was meant to present pollution within our seas and how big of an effect these items can have on nature and on our animals which live within the oceans and beaches. I presented them in a beautiful way and tried to make the story of what its presenting deeper down into the images.

My plan:

For this photoshoot I have decided to go to Plemont beach as this beach has a lot of texture to it and would look really similar to Ansel Adams work as his images are full of texture and different heights, shapes and shades which I think I would be able to capture at this location.

My contact sheet:

Edit 1:

Edit 2:

For these edits I have used a greyscale chart otherwise known as the zone system to show where the different areas of colour and shades are within the images. There are a range of different areas of lighting, the darker areas being the areas where your eyes immediately are drawn to, and the lighter areas being a feature within the image that makes it stand out as it has a variety of different shades it helps bring out the structure and shapes that lie within the image and makes them really stand out compared to an image with no volume or areas of different colour.

Photo Comparison :

Here you can see the comparison between mine and Ansel Adams photoshoot the images are very similar and it shows that I have taken into consideration how he presents his images and tried to replicate them in the best way possible.

Photoshoot Plan 1:

Main idea:

For this photoshoot I have decided to go to the beaches of Jersey and collect all the waste from the beaches and take photos of each piece of waste individually and then also take photos of the waste arranged into a detailed design or even if its possible I want to create sea life and sea creatures out of the waste to create a story behind the images and to represent the impact that plastic has on our world today and the sea life in the ocean.

Artist Reference:

• Mandy Barker

Beaches I will go to:

• St ouens
• St brelades
• Plemont

What time of day I will do my photoshoot?

For this shoot I will have to go to the beaches within any of the daylight hours to collect my props, and for the actual Photoshoot of my objects I can do this at any time of day as I will be using a black backdrop and artificial lighting to make the objects more visible.

Mood Board of ideas:

Photoshoot plan 2:

Main Idea:

For this photoshoot I have decided that I am going to take photos of popular places on island which represent the work and things that went on in the older generations. For example I am going to take photos of some of the war bunkers and places on the island and when editing I will edit old jersey soldiers into the images this gives a contrast between the past and the present. Another location I may do will be fields and edit it with some old jersey farmers in the foreground. Lastly i might take photos of the harbour and areas around boats to represent where all of jerseys materials and resources located from back in the 1800s.

Artist reference:

• Sammy Baloji

Locations:

• Jersey war tunnels/bunkers
• the harbour/boats
• Farmers Land/field