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Essay introduction

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Colour photography is an area I have always wanted to explore, the use of colour (or the lack of it) can really define an image and be a great tool in creating beautiful, eye catching and exciting photographs. I feel like the world is becoming less colourful and more dull with most modern buildings being painted with colours such as dark greys and whites. Nowadays, cars too, are either coloured in white, back, grey and silver also logos are losing their colour and signage is becoming more dull. It does not help that the sky is usually overcast and grey which can dampen your mood.

I am not the only one who notices this with a study finding that three out of four manufactured cars are painted in monochrome and the most popular carpet colour is grey. Researchers from the science museum group also analysed thousands of photographs and found that in the 1800s monochrome colours only represented around 15% of all the items in the photographs, but nowadays that number has increased to around 60% of items being either black, white or grey (Aleksandra Pękala, April 2024).

To combat this, I want to show the importance of colour by creating colourful and vibrant photographs. A fun and effective area of this is painting with light because it has the potential to be creative and illustrative. The artists I want to analyse, both use light painting in their work as well as other photographic techniques such as long exposure and bracketing. Will Lakeman and Benoit Paillé, both create interesting and beautiful images with a dream like aesthetic through the use of colour photography, night photography and light painting. I want to respond to their style of work by capturing and trying to recreate the dream like effect their images have as well as the way they use colour to help compliment their work.

Essay Plan

Essay question

Opening Quote

Introduction: Once you have read some of key texts/ sources below reflect on them and incorporate quotes from text. Add to your introduction above that you will be studying examples of early color photography and developments, as well as Troy Pavia/ contemporary photographers using ‘painting with light’ techniques.

Pg 1: Historical/ theoretical: See book in class room History of Colour Photography
Johannes Ittens and colour theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Itten

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/itten-johannes

https://bauhauskooperation.com/wissen/das-bauhaus/koepfe/biografien/biografie-detail/person-Itten-Johannes-565

https://colorwithlara.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/itten-projects.pdf

Early colour photography and first example of colour image in 1861 by James Clerk Maxwell and collobration with Thomas Sutton (lived in Jersey

https://timeline.photomuseumireland.ie/timeline/the-first-colour-photograph-as-opposed-to-a-painted-black-and-white-photo-was-created-by-james-clerk-maxwell-and-thomas-sutton/#:~:text=On%20May%2017%2C%201861%2C%20Scottish,Maxwell%20as%20early%20as%201855.

https://clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/html/first_colour_photographic_image.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sutton_(photographer)

Thomas Sutton

Pg 2: Artist Case study 1: Troy Pavia and ‘painting with light technique?

You need to find online/ literary sources on Troy Pavia and ‘painting with light techniques’

Pg 3: Artist Case study 2: ?

Conclusion: Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced

Bibliography: List all relevant sources used.

References to be added to the bottom of essay: Pękala, A. (2024). Is the World Turning Gray? Why Colorful Objects Are on the Decline. [Blog] available at: https://medium.com/@aleksandrapekala/is-the-world-turning-gray-why-colorful-objects-are-on-the-decline-e799e15ccdc5 [Accessed 15 Jan. 2025]

Lowe, P. (2018). ‘Colour becomes Accepted Art’ in A Chronology of Photography. London: Thames & Hudson

Roberts, P. (2007). ‘What Came Before’ in The Genius of Colour Photography; From the Autochrome to the Digital Age. London: Goodman Carlton Publishing Group.

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Statement of intent

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For my project I would like to explore nighttime and colour photography . As the world feels less colourful as most buildings and cars and logos use blacks, whites and greys and I really want to create colourful photos as not only does it make photos look more vibrant and visually appealing but also can highlight and define an image. These themes focus on the observe and seek in observe, seek and challenge. I want to help illustrate it by using light painting and colour photography as I feel like it could help illustrate my photos and create a dream like effect as it can be used to help visualise a colourful world. Another part of the project I want to do is the nighttime aspect of it as it is a part I want to focus on as it can help contribute to the dream like feel i want to incorporate and show the use and beauty of colour photography at night.

A great inspiration for my photos is the Jersey photographer Will lakeman as his photos have a dream-Like feel to them. He also uses light painting in his photos as well as nighttime photography which are all similar techniques which I want to use in my photos. Benoit Paillé is another great photographer who has produced some stunning light painting photos which would be great to use as a reference.

Will Lakeman, Lurking in darkness, 2020
Benoit Paillé, Surreal Mexico, 2016

To make my photos I would like to include a mix of indoor but mainly outdoor photos as most my photos will be of places, but I do want some photos of objects such as ones from my childhood which I can do with still life photography at home or in the lighting studio. My photos will be a mix of documentary and tableaux as I want to document and show objects for how they are but also show them with some difference such as with the coloured gels or other methods to help make the photos match my themes.

I would like to present my work as a book as it feels important to me to have a physical copy of my work, plus a book feels like the best way to document and show my work as my project is almost like a story. I would present my photos on a page with some brief text probably the title of the photo to help the viewer understand my photos. I would also like to try emphasising some of my images by displaying them on a double page spread or by making some photos appear bigger than others on pages.

For my photoshoots I want them to be at places I spent time at during my life such as the park, the beach and the sand dunes I also want to have a photoshoot in the parish Grouville as I used to live in that parish during my early years and went to the school there, areas I could focus on is the bus shelter, the golf course and the beach (with the castle in the background) as I used to go on walks around there with my mum when I was only a few years old.

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Personal Study: Light painting experimentation

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Last week I went to the studio to experiment with light painting and using a bulb shutter as some of it is quite new to me and it was good to get used to light painting. Lots of my photos didn’t turn out too well but I started getting the hang of it the more photos I took.

My best four photos from the shoot and their edits

Original
Edit

For this photo I liked the idea of having the room one colour and the corridor another colour. First I had to level the photo as it looks bad if it is not level, than I cloned the layer and removed the door so, I was only editing the first room, and increased the contrast, brightness and saturation because the blue was too dark. Now it looks better than it did but I feel like there is still room for improvements.

Original
Edit

I really loved the colours and the lighting in the photo above, however there were marks caused the by the light, and the camera was not level, because it can be hard to tell in the dark, I managed to fix this in photoshop by rotating the photo and using the Clone stamp tool and the spot healing brush tool to get rid of the marks. Now the photo looks so much better.

Original
Edit

For this photo I wanted to experimenting with writing with light, I did this using a violet laser pointer as it creates a cool light effect and goes well with the red. I wanted to write ‘forever learning’ because its on a whiteboard which teachers teach on and it goes well with the themes I want to explore in the personal study. I started editing the photo by making it brighter and more colourful by editing the: brightness, contrast, exposure and blacks/shadows as well as increasing the Vibrancy of the colours to make them stronger. I also moved some of the letters closer together with the selection tool and the move tool

Original
Edit

I really like the way the light painting turned out in this photo and I felt it didn’t need too much editing done to it, so I mainly just increased the vibrancy to make the colours look stronger.

Overview

Overall I felt like going to the lighting studio to experiment with light painting was successful and I feel like I greatly improved by being in the studio for a few hours as before I knew how to light paint words but not colours and now I am more confident in both. I also felt like it was a safe space to practice and learn compared to being at a location and trying to figure it out.

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Artist Case Study 2: Will Lakeman

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Will Lakeman is a local Jersey artist/photographer. Last year he did an exhibition at Art house Jersey’s Capital house gallery, where over two thousand people attended. The exhibition was based on the former leisure centre and swimming pool at fort regent. In the exhibition Will Lakeman includes the use of AI generated images of the the former site which look surreal and are interesting as you see the AI’s interpretation of the old fort regent. However there is a lot of controversy online with AI art as it undermines and negatively impacts real artists who make a living and spend hours creating art and commissions, some people don’t even consider AI art as actual art.

Playtime exhibition, 2023

Lakeman states about his work that “Through my work I try and communicate something of the weird, vivid sensations of my dreams and nightmares.” This can explain why a lot of his photos have a dream like and in some cases liminal aesthetic to them, especially in his series ‘Lurking in darkness‘ which uses coloured gels, as well as being shot at night.

As well as Will Lakeman’s work being shown at Arthouse jersey, he has also had his work shown at the Private & Public gallery and the CCA galleries. In 2021 he was awarded the Summer Prize from the CCA Galleries International Summer Exhibition, this shows just how creative and good his photos are, which I personally find that they are all interesting to look at especially as most the photos are taken locally.

some photos of his work

Lurking in darkness, 2020
Lurking in darkness, 2020
Lurking in darkness, 2020
Playtime exhibition, 2023

Image analysis

This photo was taken by Will Lakeman in 2020 as part of his series of photos called ‘Lurking in darkness’ with Will describing the series as “I love to explore the world at night. I aim for these images not to represent reality, but to explore my dreams and fantasies.” which can be seen in this photo, which has a dreamlike and even liminal aesthetic to it due to multiple factors.

The first factor is due to the sense of unknown. We know nothing about the person looking in the window or even the location, as the background is completely black and there is little to nothing in the photo that provides context. The second factor is the strangeness of the photo. In the photo, we see a woman looking through a window, which is in the centre of the image and is the main subject of the image. On the other side of the window, there are lots of potted plants. This sense of strangeness reflects dreams, as dreams can be strange and random and contain elements of the unknown, providing mystery and making people want to seek answers.

The lighting is also quite interesting in the photo, all the lighting is artificial and the white light looks really bright especially as it contrasts with the darkness of the rest of the image, there is also a really nice purple shadow coming from the window, made from coloured gels, which provides light to the foreground of the photo. The lighting also helps contribute to the dream like feel of the photo. The cool white and purple from the lighting gives the photo a cold feel to it and may imply that the dream is not inviting or positive and may reference that the photographer’s dreams are not enjoyable or wholesome ones.

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Artist Case Study 1: JASON D. PAGE

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Jason D. Page is a photographer regarded as a leader of the light painting movement. He has had a passion in light painting photography since 2004 and has even created a website aimed at inspiring people to take up this style of photography. The website contains other light painting artists, a wide range of tutorials on light painting and the history of light painting.

Jason was born in Newport, Virginia, and moved to Florida when he was three, his farther was a Coast Guard machinery technician and an avid photographer, however after they moved he ended up divorcing Jason’s mother which had an impact on Jason. After graduating collage in 2004 Jason focused on cinematography and produced 4 award winning films about surfing.

Jason describes finding his passion as “I have had images in my brain that I wanted to create and could never figure out how to do it. That was up until a winter night in 2004 when I bumped my camera while taking a long exposure of the ocean. When I checked the exposure I saw the moon had made a streak across the sky, in that moment it all clicked for me.”

Photos by Jason D. Page

Messages, Jason D. Page
Light trails, Jason D. Page
Messages, Jason D. Page
Jason D. Page, Light Sculptures

Image analysis

The image above is called Moonlight Drawing #1 and was created by Jason D. Page in 2010. It is the first of three images he created in the series Moonlight Drawings.

The main subject in the photo is the glowing heart, which was made with a slow shutter and by moving the camera so that the light from the moon creates a heart shaped trail. The heart shape could be a personal reference to the photographer’s love and passion for light painting. This reference originated when he was taking a long exposure photo of the moon in 2004 and accidentally knocked the camera, which created a light trail, this led to Jason’s discovery of light painting- and is similar to how this image was produced.

The photo uses a combination of natural light, from the moon and low light from the dusk/dawn in the horizon, as well as some artificial light in the background on the right from the buildings. This helps dimly illuminate the photo so you can see the lake and the silhouettes of the trees which gives the photo a sense of natural beauty and almost a sublime like feel to it due to the smoothness and deepness of the water which can make people wonder what is under the surface.

The water also creates the texture in the image as the bulb shutter makes the gentle ripples in the water look soft and smooth and the reflectiveness of the light gives it dark ranges of purple and black complimented by the orangish colour from the light.

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AL Photography: Review & Reflect

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Landscapes -Urban & Natural

Landscapes was one of my favourite topics we did in photography because I really enjoy taking photos of Vistas (views) of the land as I find it visually appealing to look at. There are also lots of creative paths as you could go down and take photos of such as, urban landscapes which could link to Urbanisation and the Topographics, or natural landscapes which could go down the route of Romanticism and the Sublime.

Urban landscape photo of St.Helier I took
Natural landscape photo I took of the coast

The New Topographics

The new topographics was also a topic I enjoyed. I think it was because I enjoyed photographing things which wouldn’t commonly be photographed, as well as the urban and industrial elements of it which I find interesting. Below are some of my favourite photos from the photoshoots I did.

Anthropocene

Anthropocene was a great topic we did in photography as it helped me see the impact humans are having on the planet including the small things which usually go unnoticed. Below are my favourite photos I took.

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Mirrors and Windows

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Mirrors and windows was a photography exhibition consisting of 127 photos at the museum of modern art in New York 1978, created by John Szarkowski. The exhibition was created because Szarkowski wanted to categorise photos into two categories.

Mirrors: are photos which mirror the photographer’s feelings/what they are trying to portray.

  • Words which associate with mirrors are: personal, expressive, subjective.
  • Some photographic examples include: Self Portraiture and Tableaux photography.

Windows: are photos which act a window for the viewer so they can view an image which is documented as what the photo actually is in reality.

  • Words which associate with windows are: real, documentative and objective.
  • Some photographic examples include: Candid, Documentary photography and Natural landscape.

Szarkowski described the exhibition as “a fundamental dichotomy in contemporary photography between those who think of photography as a means of self-expression and those who think of it as a method of exploration.“

Example of mirror photos

This photo could be seen as a mirror because it is staged and the photo is taken in the view of the photographer, Nan Goldin, and is of people he knows.

Example of window photos

This photo is an example of a window as it is just a photo of a landscape by Ansel Adams the photo documents the landscape and it is what it is shown. As it is all subjective it could be a bit of a mirror image as Ansel Adams had a passion for Yosemite national park and he could be trying to portray his passion for the landscape and scenery of the park by taking this photo to show his view of the park.

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Zine: design and layout

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I started with experimenting with a front cover for my zine I wanted the colour scheme of my zine to be blue and white because it reminds me of the sea

for my first page I wanted to do a comparison of the harbour a long time ago vs today I started by creating the layout with placeholder shapes.

I started by designing the layout of four images and then chose the four I wanted. I ended up swapping the top right image to the one in the screenshot above, from one I took of the new quay, as I wanted the page to look more vibrant and the original photo looked out of place.

Back cover

original idea
after

For the back cover I originally wanted to have an image of the old harbour, however it sadly didn’t look right, I couldn’t position it correctly so it looked good and there was too much blank space. I ended up starting again and using a different image this time a portrait image which would fit better which I also wanted to use on the zine. Overall I am much happier with how it turned out and think it looks a lot better than before.

Thankfully I could use the image more appropriately as a double page spread because I needed another two pages because I had 18 pages and I needed 20 so it would print without any blank pages. Because the image is a panorama it is wider that a standard landscape image so it was a lot better having it stretched out across two pages.

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Narrative & Sequencing

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STORY: What is your story?
Describe in:

  • 3 words: Saint Helier Harbour
  • A sentence: What goes on at the harbour
  • A Paragraph: I wat to tell the story of what happens at st Helier harbour and the life of it, in general and have sections dedicated to parts of the harbour such are people and places.

NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?

  • Images: I will use images from both the photoshoots at the harbour as well as archived images.
  • Archives: I want at least one page comparing the harbour to what is is today as it is important to focus on its long history. I will use photos from the photo-archive for this.
  • Texts > Write a short introduction or statement about your picture story, image captions
  • Typography: For the font I want to use a unique font to help my zine stand out, but not a font which is too over the top. I can use the font for my title for the zine which I will display in large on my front cover.

Mood board

creating a concept zine for laying out and sequencing my photos

I printed out the photos I wanted to use for my zine and created a rough layout to help me decide what photos to use and where they will go in my zine. It really helped when I was creating my actual zine as I knew roughly what and were my photos will go.

^Front Cover