Finish essay and make sure bibliography is correct. Also check that references are correct, essay plan is also clear and added to. Then PUBLISH essay+ essay plan.
EDIT images that are being included and in the book and make sure they are all the same type of lighting and vibe as the others. X3.
1ST PHOTOSHOOT, Front Cover! All similar sizes and orientation, also select the amount of photographs I would like to include and make sure they are not all too similar. ALL BLACK AND WHITE IMAGES
2ND PHOTOSHOOT, Front Cover! Make sure the images have a brand label at the beginning and then how some similar images, then include the next brand, show some similar images, brand 3 then show some similar images. ALL COLOUR IMAGES.
3RD PHOTOSHOOT, Front Cover! Make sure all images are edited and be mindful of lots of different orientations, choose images with the best quality and a mixture of black and white, best way forward. MIX OF COLOUR AND BLACK AND WHITE IMAGES.
WHILST CHOOSING, EDITING AND EXPERIMENTING, TAKE PHOTOS FOR BLOG AND ANALYSE ALONG THE WAY.
WHAT WENT WELL+ WHAT TO IMPROVE ON ANALYSIS.
Mock Day 2-
Complete photobook design and post pictures on the blog. Showing process and evaluate it. WHY have I chosen this layout, Why in this specific order. WHAT am I trying do demonstrate.
ADD ESSAY AT THE END OF THE BOOK+ SMALL INTRO TO THE BOOK AT THE BEGINNING.
Select my final prints, produce blog post on why chosen, layout ideas for images and SAVE TO PRINT FOLDER.
In what way has Benoit Paillé and Will Lakeman explored colour in their work?
Introduction 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 while street lights are losing their warm orange glow. It does not help that the sky is usually overcast and grey which can lower your mood. I am not the only one who notices this with a study finding that 3 out of 4 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. (Pękala 2024) To combat this, I want to show the importance of colour by creating colourful and vibrant photographs. A fun area of this is painting with light as 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 through the use of colour photography and light painting. I want to respond to their style of 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.
J. Clerk Maxwell, T.Sutton (1861)
Early colour photography Colour photography was something researchers spent ages trying to create when photographs could only be taken in black and white. Some photographers got so tired of waiting for the invention of colour photography they took matters into their own hands and started adding colour by hand to their photographs by colouring them in. It was not until 1861 when James Clerk Maxwell and Thomas Sutton managed to create the first colour photograph using the three-colour method he proposed. The three-colour method involved taking the photo three times, one time with a red filter, one with a blue filter and one with a green filter. Maxwell printed these images onto glass and used three projectors with the same colour filters used when photographing the image. When the projectors were turned on it displayed the full colour image in all its glory. After this success Thomas Sutton and his business partner L.D. Blanquart-Evrard moved to Jersey in 1847 to set up a photography studio in St Brelade’s bay which sadly burnt down a few years later.
E. Kelsey, ‘The Positive and its Natural Colors‘ (1909)
The first commercially successful process of taking colour photographs was called the autochrome and was invented by the French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1904 however it was not commercially available until 1907. The process involved putting an autochrome plate into the camera and using a yellow filter for a more accurate colour as the blue was very sensitive and this helped counteract it. The autochrome plates were a complex process to make and involved millions of microscopic grains of potato starch, around four million per square inch, which were dyed red, green, blue or violet and mixed together and spread out over the plate which a varnish is used to make them stick. After this charcoal powder was used to fill in any gaps between the coloured starch and the plate was flattened; to make sure the grains were flat and then covered in an emulsion. When you take a photograph with these plates the light passes through the grains of potato starch and combines with the light from the camera which creates the colour. This process was very successful and took the world by storm with the demand outweighing the supply as the factory which made them could only make about six thousand of these plates a day.
Will Lakeman Will Lakeman is a local Jersey artist. In 2023 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. Lakeman states about his work that, ‘through my work I try and communicate something of the weird, vivid sensations of my dreams and nightmares.’ (Lakeman) This can explain why a lot of his photographs have a dream like and in some cases liminal aesthetic to them, especially in his series ‘Lurking in darkness’ which uses coloured gels and is 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, and this shows just how creative and talented his photographs are, which I personally find that they are all interesting to look at especially as most the images are taken locally.
W. Lakeman, ‘Lurking in darkness‘ (2020)
This photograph was taken by Will Lakeman in 2020 as part of his series of images 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.’ (Lakeman) which can be seen in this image, 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 image that provides context. The second factor is the strangeness of the photograph. In the photograph, 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 his dreams and fantasies, 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 image, all the lighting is artificial, and the white light looks incredibly 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 image. The lighting also helps contribute to the dream like feel of the photograph. The cool white and purple from the lighting gives the image 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.
Benoit Paillé Benoit Paillé is an unconventional artist who abandoned his daily life in 2013 to live in his truck and drive around the world taking beautiful photographs in places such as China, Guatemala, India and Mexico. Benoit describes his photographs as, ‘my pictures document an altered state of mind.’ (Paillé) He originally undertook a biomedical career but ended up becoming a self-taught photographer instead.
B. Paillé, ‘Magical realism nihilism POLE‘ (2019)
This Image is taken by Benoit Paillé is part of a series called ‘Magical realism nihilism POLE’ and in this collection of images Benoit took of poles, a mundane everyday object which people don’t pay much attention to and photographs it in an interesting and glamourous way. Benoit describes it as deconstructing, ‘the aesthetic hierarchy between what is deemed worthy of interest and what is not.’ (Paillé) It is incredibly interesting seeing how he captures these objects which people don’t see worthy of being a photographed and makes them into aesthetically pleasing photographs.
In the photograph, the pole is centred right in the middle of the image which leads the viewer to look and acknowledge it, something they may not notice or pay any attention to if they were walking past it. There is also a contrast as the geometric vertical line of the pole contrasts with the horizontal lines of the wires attached to the pole. The snow in the foreground of the images creates a soft texture which pairs well with the hard wooden pole. The lighting in the photo is also incredibly beautiful with an artificial red light, not seen in the image, creating a lovely glow in the image and making the pole look red, this helps Benoit achieve his goal in making the pole look visually pleasing.
The pole being in the snow which has no footprints and the trees in the background which could be of a forest gives the image a sense of isolation which is further added by the cold feel the photograph has due to the white balance and the blue darkness of the sky. The cold snow may also resemble the isolation of the pole as it just sits there getting no appreciation or thought even though it serves a purpose and may be used as a telegraph pole or to hold up the wires which provide power to a home. The red glow in the image creates a conflict to this as red is seen to be a warm colour and may highlight the photographer’s intentions of shedding light it and breaking the boundaries of what is seen as worthy to be photographed.
Conclusion In conclusion Will Lakeman and Benoit Paillé both explore colour in similar and different ways with will Lakeman using it to create a dream-like feel to his photographs and Benoit Paillé using colour to compliment his work and add to the overall aesthetic. Both photographers use colour to create beautiful and vibrant photographs, and it really highlights the importance of colour in a world where dull colours are becoming a lot more common. I really want to show the importance of colour in my images by using vibrant colours like they do and taking my photographs at night like they do with their photographs that inspire me.
This photo I took was taken at night when there was a bit of fog/mist. As a result, it diffuses the light around the streetlight, giving it this warm orange glow. The ground is also a bit wet, which makes the light on the ground more shiny and reflective. This all contrasts well with the shadows and darkness at the top and bottom of the image, giving a nice balance of light and darkness. The photo also has no one in it and not much context as you can’t see the rest of the road due to the mist and darkness. This gives the photo a mysterious dream-like effect which is something Will Lakeman explores in his series ‘Lurking in darkness’ and gives off the same energy as the photo Will Lakeman took in that series of a road and the entrance to the petrol station in the fog with the vibrant orange glow of the streetlights. The photo also uses techniques from Benoit Paillé as I enhanced the orange in the image to really capture the colour and add to the overall aesthetic of the photograph. This also helps highlight the importance of colour as the warm orange glow would not be possible if the road used dull LED streetlights.
I experimented with my photos between landscape and portrait layouts and found that the portrait layout worked much better for my project. When I had the landscape I also didn’t explore the uses of templates throughout my book which made it look too busy on the pages as there was no black spaces making the book crowded and confusing.
After changing to portrait, I found it easier to use templates like two page spread as it meant my images weren’t stretched out to fill a landscape layout. I managed to create variations of layout on each page such as having two at different positions and sizes, followed by a two page spread. I also did a few pages with 3 images.
On some images I needed to use the zoom tool which zooms into the photo and fills the page. this cancelled out a lot of empty space in the image and resulted with making sure the main focus was the subjects face. One problem with this page was the composition of colour. The image on the left is a lot warmer than the right due to the left image being directly in front of the light from the sunset creating an orange tint on the skin. In comparison, the right image is a lot cooler as the subject is in a shaded area not being directly hit by the sun.
To fix this, I went back to the develop page where I edited the exposure, contrast and temperature of the image to match it more closely with the tone of the image on the left. This was the result.
Another change I made was transforming the images that aspects of the image such as the horizon was straight and not at an angle. to do this I selected the image I needed to edit (the right image) and the went back onto the develop page where I scrolled to transform and then clicked auto. This straightened out the image by automatically zooming in slightly and tilting the image so that the horizon went across the image straight and not diagonal. though is was a very minimal and slight change, it made a difference.
When working on double page spreads such as the one below, I needed to make sure that I wasn’t putting the main subject of the image in the centre as this would be stuck in the fold of the book. With this image, it nicely splits in the middle where the left shows two girls and the right shows another girl. this meant the split in the middle of the book did not interfere with any important features of the image and the main subjects are still very visible which being across two pages.
I started with resizing images to create uniformity throughout the photobook and allow for breathing room between images. I then removed any images I felt were not adding to my books overall aesthetic and narrative and/or were repeat images or too similar in nature. I then introduced a anonymous figure, using faceless and dynamic photos to create more an atmosphere mystery and inquiry.
Juxtaposing Images
These particular images were chosen in order to combine two opposing elements in the same page spread, highlighting the interesting contrast between the height, contrast, colour and form of the images, this creates an eye-catching and thought-provoking collection of images to break up any potential monotony throughout the photo book that may have occurred.
Ambiguous Characters
In my essay I looked into famously incredible photographic storytellers anna gaskell and duane michals and found a common lik throughout their compositions is the central character is often less anonymous and up to interpretation. not all my images are faceless, however all of them are somewhat obscured by either, shadow, hands, hair or intentionally unfocused images , this creates a sense of mystery and allows the viewer to speculate. this fills in any gaps they may be left when trying to portray and pictorial and wordless narrative.
In the case of witches rock some of the images I selected were chose to create a sense of panic, witches were persecuted and feared, i wanted to portray the felling of being hunted and shunned by society. i attempted this with tense images and false bindings, this is indented to create a feeling of anxiety within the viewer and worry for the witches in question, however in contrast with this the images i selected for the crooked fairy were to create an entirely different felling of fear and quierie, will this unknow creature harm our protagonist? this is even more impactful because of the anonymity of the individual in the photos as viewers are encouraged to insert themselves into the character.
Witches Seats
In order to create a juncture between the two stories I travelled around jersey photographing historical witches seats, when arranging these images i used a double page spread and aligned the houses so they carry on from each other, this is done to create a sense of community within the juncture and to illustrate just how prevalent these superstitions become in light of the folk tales and urban legends spreading across the channel islands, these beliefs created a community within the fearful so much in fact they had inbuilt infrastructure to prevent cursing and hexing from the local ‘witches’ on their journey to Sabbeth
Personal study folder. Select all using ctrl A. Go back into top collections, create collection inside of personal study, seperate folder. Click book, create. Drag in new images and create save book. Blurb book- choose size- square- orientation and format. Hard cover wrap images. Premium paper. Name and title page? Maybe a short paragraph. Images are at the bottom can drop and drag them in, use zoom button and favorite different templates. Use right click too add pages.
Using Lightroom
Make a rough selection of your 30-50 best pictures from all shoots.
Grading
I have added stars to my images to make it easier to decide which images I want in my book and which images I dont. By doing this I can then just select my images by colour grading them.
Book Making
I then added all these images into the book option on lightroom and started playing around with the order of the photos to make the book that I want.
Experimentation
Final
EVALUATION:
Comment on the following:
How successful was your final outcomes (book, film, prints etc)?
I think that my final outcome was very successful, my book has created a real meaning.
Did you realise your intentions?
Not really, I knew that I wanted to photograph teenage life and comment on the experience but I didn’t realise how well it would turn out.
What references did you make to artists references?
I have used images very similar to Jim Goldbergs like my cover of the skateboard, and some like Diane Arbus with my use of eye contact.
Sontag, S. (1977) ‘In Plato’s cave’ in On Photography. London: Penguin Books.
Solomon-Godeau, A. (1994), ‘Inside/ Out’in Photography At The Dock: Essays on Photographic History, Institutions, and Practices. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
My book will be about what life is like ot be a teenager in this current generation. My main focus is on male teenage life rather than female because I didn’t want my personal bias to be portrayed, I wanted to be an outsider I terms of Solomon-Godeu’s theory of insiders and outsiders. The concept will consist of an obsessions with cars and landscape images to contrast this, how there is so much beauty around us yet we focus on the things that destroy this. Creating a binary opposition in terms of Levi-Strauss’s theory. My design will be a normal photobook, with some multiple page spreads, and some smaller images to focus on the small print. I will also add text to my book so that I can really reiterate my narrative.
My story in 3 words, a sentence and a paragraph.
The Teenage Experience.
A portrayal of teenage life in comparison to generational changes.
My story is about male teenage life, and how it is altered depending on current world events. My book will contain examples of the current events, to portray a true authentic storyline of what it means to be a teenager in this generation. I want to do this to create a representation of how the current events change how we live, I will do this by using the view of an insider and an outsider.
Write a book specification
Narrative: What is your story? Describe in:
3 words
Male Teenage Experience
A sentence
A story line consisting of current trends and the way that teenagers life their life.
A paragraph
A story line consisting of representation by using different photographic tools, such as landscape photography to portray how the environment around us changes out narrative. Also consisting of portrait imagery to make a personal storyline adding depth to the characters.
Design:
Consider the following
How you want your book to look and feel
I want my book too look consistent by using a sequence within my imagery, and I want it to feel smooth rather than shiny.
Paper and ink
I will use premium paper and mainly black ink.
Format, size and orientation
I want a smaller square book as to not stretch out my images which would focus on its imperfections.
Binding and cover
My cover will be a wrapped image to contain the book.
Title
My title will be a short description of my book, trying to give as much context as I can in a short sentence.
Structure and architecture
My book will have a structure which dive deep into the personality of each character and be broken up by a landscape image.
Design and layout
I want to have some smaller images and some images that are full bleed to create attention to the full bleed images portraying them as more important to the story line.
Editing and sequencing
I have edited my images to contain bold colours with some more personal black and white images.
Images and text
I will add part of my essay into my book to create a contextual element.
