Joanna was born in Poland and is based in London, Piotrowska has an interest in domestic spaces and man-made environments. For one series of works she asked people in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Warsaw and London to build makeshift shelters in their homes and gardens, subverting childhood play. Other works present gestures and movements from self-defence manuals, implying violence against women as well as their empowerment. Her photographs and films relate to self-protection, psychophysical relationships and the power dynamics underlying how we relate to each other.

Joanna’s psychologically charged work explores human relations and its gestures of care, self-protection and control. Although her photographs feature everyday motifs, they do not show ordinary or candid situations. As the curator George Vasey points out: “Each image resists easy assimilation, like reading a book with the pages torn out, the images are enigmas.”

Her photographs investigate human behaviour and the dynamics of familial relations, exploring intimacy, violence, control, and self-protection. The artist reveals moments of care as well as hierarchies of power, anxieties, and imposed conventions that play out in the domestic sphere. In the Franticseries (2016–2019), Piotrowska invites her subjects to construct makeshift shelters in their own homes out of readily available domestic objects. While reminiscent of the innocent children’s activity of fort-building, the proposed activity also exposes the home as a space loaded with complex emotions and embodied memory. The black-and-white photographs in Piotrowska’s Self-Defence series (2014–15) depict young women, most often in their bedrooms, performing gestures and actions from self-defence manuals, implying the structural violence against women in a patriarchal society as well as the possibility of rebellion against such a culture. Through these unsettling images, Piotrowska challenges conventional narratives of the family and the home and their tension with the reality of the wider socio-political realm.

The performative aspect plays a fundamental role in the construction of the artist’s work. Piotrowska asks her subjects to perform certain actions and they respond actively in order to let psychological structures and conditionings emerge. The resulting images may look awkward or potentially disturbing, the psychoanalyst and writer Anouchka Grose suggests: “While Piotrowska’s photos might initially look sinister, it’s also easy to imagine the subjects suddenly bursting into laughter.” Piotrowska’s work investigates the interaction between the human body and the environment, which is charged with social, political and anthropological issues. Through exaggeration the artist challenges seemingly obvious settings and assumptions, such as the common equation of home=family=safety. Her work thus invites viewers to reconsider certainties that were taken for granted.

Image Analysis- Untitled 2022

In terms of this image I think it captures connection really well, as simple as the image is in terms of the elements and editing it’s very neutral. Looking at the image it portrays that their is a larger message behind it despite the very obvious outlook and composition. The gesture is staged and this can focus on the suspended moment of an encounter between two realities that are condense into image with multiple meanings and that can be interpreted in one way or another.

The images created by her. whether captured in photographs, on film or which come to life in front of the viewer in the form of performances/ installations are wrapped in a sense of ambiguity despite the fact that everything is in plain sight.

An encounter between two people, between those who perform and those who undergo an action, with an invisible enemy, between human beings and objects, and even when the upholder is a single person, the gestures or the pose call up a doubling, showing the essence of Joanna ’s work to be found in the inner investigation that operates in different contexts.

In the series of photographs Enclosures, started in 2018, the human figure is absent, even if the project is in continuity with the reflection developed in the previous production in which the body is the upholder.

Contact Sheets

From this shoot, I ended up with 17 good shots. I need to go onto to edit these shots now as again the lighting proved tricky.

Edit One

I liked this shot, the texture from the tires to the repeated pattern from the spokes and chain. It is similar to the previous shoots detail shots meaning the shoots link together.

Edit Two

Having previously done a similar photo in the last shoot I liked the idea of having a similar photo from a different shoot, linking the shoots and subjects together. I chose the black and white as it added tone to the image, taking away the yellow tinge to the photo. It also highlighted the texture of the mud on the bash guard.

Edit Three

This photo needed cropping, as while it was composed well it would work better with the frame pulled in. the black and white is becoming a common theme throughout these photos as actually the colour doesn’t add much to the image, in fact it is a stronger photo in black and white as it counteracts the lens flare in the corners as it takes away the green colour making the lighting softer.

Edit Four

Unlike the previous photos, I trialled this photo in black and white but found it to work better in colour. Having kept the photo in colour I then increased the blues on the colour mixers as well as increasing the shadows to make the background a deeper black and decreasing the highlights to remove some of the glare from the white plastics. This helped the photo have a bright, vibrant colour, capturing the colour of the bikes graphics, similarly to how, in the previous shoot, I captured the true colour of the cars paint.

Edit Five

I went for a similar approach in this photo, by again increasing the shadows and decreasing the highlights. Following on with an increase in luminance in both blues on the colour mixer panel. This helped bring out the Yamaha blue on the plastic panels, highlight the Yamaha badge on the black plastic panel. It also benefitted the ‘rainbow’ on the exhaust, bringing out details specific to the bike in the photo.

Edit Six

This shot needed very little work but I did want to highlight the ‘WR’ just off centre in the shot. I did this by increasing the shadows, contrast and whites. Following with decreasing exposure, highlights and blacks. This helped bring out ‘WR’, the blue texture on the seat and the blue washers. All of this helped pull the rest of the shots together, having the same blue colour and neutral lighting, focused, detailed shots.

Edit Seven

This shot was trickier to edit as I wanted to highlight the ‘rainbow’ as I had done previously but I needed to make sure the chain didn’t end up looking too rusty as it’s actually gold in colour not rusty. Surprisingly by reducing the exposure and the highlights it made other details pop out, like the blue of the suspension spring and the blue washer again. All these features help pull the photo together and make sense of the composition of the shot.

Edit Eight

Originally I wasn’t sure I liked this shot, it seemed a bit of a throw away shot, but I liked the use of the foreground to pull the handle bars and wrist guards out of focus while keeping the seat and tail in focus. It created this double focused image, as you saw the seat and then flowed the line from it to the handle bars adding deeper depth to the photo. I changed the photo to black and white because it added so much to the tone of the images, the plastics panels allowed for large, smooth panels of different shades of grey. This only added further to the photo as while my tone is fairly low contrast for the black and white shots this ones had so many shades of grey it was interesting to look at and highlighted each section of the bike.

Edit Nine

Alternately I actually did like the raw shot, however to keep it blended with the rest of the shots, I increased the shadows, decreased the highlights and changed the blues on the colour mixer. This not only kept the photos consistent throughout the shoot but it solidified details, like the ‘WR’ and the blue parts of the bike that were otherwise washed out in the original image.

Edit Ten

Normally I’m not a fan of colour pop edits. However when I first saw this photo my first thought was, ‘what would this look like if I used a colour pop technique?’ To do this I went onto the colour mixer and reduced the saturation on every colour other than blues. This worked well, showing the details of any bikes graphics and highlighted the blue parts on the bike. It made for a strong image as in the previous shots I was trying to highlight the blue parts of the bike as it links to my mothers car and is specific to this bike being a Yamaha. This shot also won’t look out of place as the blue on the seat softens the black and white with blue elements. Having edited many of the previous shots in black and white this helped this shot blend in, keeping the tone the same as the previous shots helped as well.

Edit Eleven

This photo, was tricky. Again I struggled with the yellow lighting in this shot, I also found I didn’t really like the shot. It had potential but I found the background distracting and made the shot look unfinished. I went onto to try the photo in black and white but it didn’t help, however I then tried using the masking brush tool. With the tools exposure lowered I then coloured over the background to darken the distractions. This hugely benefitted the photo as it polished the image, creating more of a studio setting.

Edit Twelve

This shot is the same composition, just slightly zoomed in as the previous shot. However when editing it I wanted to keep to background as it is less distracting than it was in the previous shot, and in fact the soft lighting factors and soft grey tones benefit the photo. I did make this shot black and white, unlike the previous one as the shots looked too similar and I liked how the soft greys make the graphics lines and patterns clearer.

Edit Thirteen

This shot is a common one within the motorsport community, I liked the shot as it shows the bike through my eyes as I normally walk up to it on the left. The black and white, again does benefit the photo as it highlights the shadow of the bike and draws the bike out from the background. Even though I changed the photo to black and white it didn’t need additional editing and already fitted fairly well with the other black and white images I’ve produced. I did move the tone slider to reduce the yellow from the lighting though, this helped keep the greys, grey rather than have a yellow tinge.

Edit Fourteen

This is a very simple shot, an angled front on shot. However it does show the bike well and the close cropped frame draws the focus to the bike as there isn’t much room for looking around the photo. I liked the colour with the blue and red contrast but the yellow from the lighting had reflected on the white plastics so I preferred the shot in black and white, highlighting the details with light tone and many greys rather than black and white.

Edit Fifteen

This shot is very similar to the previous one, but I had changed the lighting and it created a very different effect, the bike looks like it is appearing out of the background, which is what I was originally going for as I wanted to focus on the bike itself. I kept this shot in colour just pulling the tone to a bluer setting. Having kept it in colour it has allowed for the bikes colours to be seen, showing the personal choices I made to customise the bike. (red wrist guards on a Yamaha)

Overall Summary

This shoot wasn’t easy, I found the lighting tricky to contend with, as it was dark outside and I only had two small lights to move around. However I did find this taught me a lot about what I actually wanted in the photo rather than just trying lots of things with little direction. This helped pull me in direction of planning each shot before hand, moving the lighting purposefully framing each shot. I went into the shoot with the intention of getting a mixture of detail shots and full shots of the bike, similar to my previous shoot. I had liked the results of my previous shoot so I wanted to link the two together by keeping the style similar. By having very little background showing I have presented the bike without much context, this allows the viewer to see how the bike is mine as such. Like any person who likes their bike/car there are certain things I’ve changed and kept on the bike, like the choice of red wrist guards on a Yamaha (a blue bike brand) it shows the love for the bike and the personal choices I ‘ve made for it both appearance and mechanically on the bike. This is shown through my parents bike and car. I picked up a lot of my choices from them, with them both having unusual aspects to their bikes/cars or just in general unusual taste. It’s clear I’ve followed in their footsteps with odd colour combinations on the bike, this is what I wanted to capture in this shoot, not only the bike itself being one of my bikes but how my parents have influenced even the smaller parts of the bikes.

Final Photos

Having looked through the pictures I then arranged them in a grid, placing images that work well together, together. I found I had a lot more interesting detail shots than bigger picture photos, but the wider framed photos were important to provide context. With a mixture of editing styles from simple low contrast black and white images to bright, luminance colour shots to a mixture of both with colour pop style editing. I think this worked well, keeping all the photos interesting but by having three ‘set’ editing themes all the photos are cohesive, working well together to show the colours, textures, patterns of the bike which is what I wanted to achieve.

Throughout my time doing A level Photography, I have learnt lots of new skills and techniques in photography such as how to setup and use a camera based on different environments you may be in and the history behind photography. I have also come to realise that photography is more than just taking pictures: there’s a story behind each image. Whether that be someone trying to capture a memory in time which they can then look back on or discussing an issue in the world. This has made me have a greater appreciation for photography and helped to make my own images be more meaningful than just simply capturing what I see.

Still life

The first topic we covered in photography was still life. Still life is a painting/ drawing of an arrangement of objects. These typically include fruits and flowers and other objects that contrast with those textures e.g. bowls and glassware. Still life pictures are often rich with symbolic depth and meaning. It first emerged as an independent genre in the early 1600s in Dutch and Northern European paintings.

I found the still life section of photography quite interesting as I learnt about still life photography’s deep history and the symbolic meanings behind certain objects seen in images. I also enjoyed finding objects that had personal meaning to me and being able to capture them in different types of lighting eg cool and warm, and seeing how this effected the tone of the image. For example, the warmer lighting gave a warm, cosy feeling to my images that is representative of the objects seen in the image. However, I didn’t enjoy this section a lot as I felt there wasn’t much creatively I could do with these images, making them quite uninteresting to look at as a final piece. Therefore, I will probably not be using a lot of still life photography images in my personal study as it doesn’t stimulate me creatively as much as other topics.

Environmental Portraits

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 surroundings often help us to get an insight into that person’s life, culture and status. In most environmental portraits, the subject is staring directly into the camera creating a more personal and intimate image between the viewer and the model.

Arnold Newman was an American photographer who was well known for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He was also known for his abstract still life images. I enjoyed looking at Arnold Newman’s work as I felt as if I almost had been able to make up a whole backstory about each person purely based off of their facial expressions and environment they were in, which is what a successful environmental portrait should be able to do. I also like the fact that there is no one in the background of the pictures even in places that you would normally expect to be busy. This made my attention be purely on the subject being photographed. Finally, I like how even when Arnold Newman’s pictures are in black and white, they still manage to captivate his audience and allow for such free creativity as you try and guess what the person in the photo’s life is like.

I enjoyed the environmental portraits section of my A level photography course as I got to explore the outside world and take pictures of people from a variety of different settings and backgrounds. Although this section was a bit more challenging than the still life part as I had to ask strangers if I could take pictures of them, I found the images to be a lot more captivating to look at as you start to realise how different every person is and wonder what their stories are. I think the idea of photographing people in their work/natural environment leads to interesting pictures and I will therefore incorporate this idea into my personal study.

Studio Lighting

1. Rembrandt lighting is a technique utilising one light and one reflector or two separate lights. It’s a popular technique because it creates images that look both dramatic yet natural. It’s predominantly characterised by a lit-up triangle underneath the subject’s eye on the less illuminated area of the face (fill side). One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric form on the face. The triangle should be no longer than the nose and no wider than the eye. This technique may be achieved subtly or very dramatically by altering the distance between subject and lights and relative strengths of main and fill lights.

2. Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting pattern where the key light is placed above and directly centred with a subject’s face. This creates a shadow under the nose that resembles a butterfly. Butterfly lighting is often used in portrait photography, especially in headshots. Butterfly lighting is commonly used to photograph famous stars from classic Hollywood.

3. Chiaroscuro is a high-contrast lighting technique that utilises a low-key lighting setup to achieve contrast between the subject and a dark background. Chiaroscuro creates three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional plane, darkening the background and highlighting the subject in the foreground, drawing the viewer’s focus and attention.

Throughout the lighting techniques module, I learnt a lot of different lighting techniques which I will hopefully be able to use in my personal study where I will be taking pictures of people. I liked this section as I find it more interesting to photograph people rather than objects as you can move them into certain poses that you want etc which you cant do with most objects and then edit these images in a variety of ways.

Femininity and masculinity

Femininity is described as: qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of women or girls. Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gracefulness, gentleness, empathy, humility and sensitivity, though traits associated with femininity vary across societies and individuals, and are influenced by a variety of social and cultural factors.

One of the artists I looked at for this project is Claude Cahun. She was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer.  She is best known today for her surreal self-portrait photographs which show her dressed as different characters. Cahun staged images of herself that challenged the idea of the politics of gender which can be seen throughout her work.

I also looked at Cindy Sherman who was born in 1952 and is an American artist who’s work consists primarily of photographic self portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Sherman was always interested in experimenting with different identities and has continued to transform herself, displaying the diversity of human types and stereotypes in her images. Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model.

This was one of my favourite sections in photography as I got to cover a real issue in society through my photographs. I found it fascinating learning about the ways women have been presented in the media throughout history and also challenging these stereotypes of males and females. This has lead me to choosing identity as the theme of my personal study as I feel I could cover the idea of femininity, masculinity and stereotypes whilst also experimenting with different things associated with identity eg your heritage and the idea of people feeling as though they need to disguise who they really are (which I didn’t get to do in this section).

Landscape Photography

Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on human-made features or disturbances of landscapes. Many landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in the pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature, devoid of human influence—instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light. landscape photography is a broad genre which may include rural or urban settings, industrial areas or nature photography.

For this project, I looked at Ansel Adams who was an American photographer and was the most important landscape photographer of the 20th century. Adams’s most important work was devoted to what was or appeared to be the country’s remaining fragments of untouched wilderness, especially in national parks and other protected areas of the American West. He was also a vigorous and outspoken leader of the conservation movement.

I also looked into Robert Adams who is an American photographer who focused on the changing landscape of the American West. Robert Adams was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1937. His refined black-and-white photographs document scenes of the American West of the past four decades, revealing the impact of human activity on the last vestiges of wilderness and open space. Although often devoid of human subjects, or sparsely populated, Adams’s photographs capture the physical traces of human life: a garbage-strewn roadside, a clear-cut forest, a half-built house. An underlying tension in Adams’s body of work is the contradiction between landscapes visibly transformed or scarred by human presence and the inherent beauty of light and land rendered by the camera. his work also conveys hope that change can be effected, and it speaks with joy of what remains glorious in the West.

I found this project to be more interesting than I initially thought as I got to explore different places around Jersey and see the vast amount of different environments all around me which I would normally take no notice to. However I found the editing process of this project to be quite boring and repetitive as I was only making the images either black and white or adjusting different settings on Lightroom.

Anthropocene

The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans. The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time.  In simple terms, it describes the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet.

For this photoshoot, I decided to photograph central London as it is a very heavily built area which I think successfully shows how human kind have expanded and built on the Earth, destroying it of its natural beauty- that has to be ruined in order to make room for these masses of buildings. I focused on photographing areas with lots of buildings joined next to one another

For this photoshoot, I decided to get to higher level grounds and take images of the view I saw before me. I noticed that everywhere I looked was very urbanized and there was a severe lack of natural landscape, highlighting to me the idea of how humans have negatively impacted the Earth by constantly expanding on it and not embracing the beauty we already had.

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.

I really enjoyed this project as a whole as I got to photograph buildings in London, which were much more advanced and grander than the buildings seen in Jersey, and different animals in the zoo which is something I hadn’t got the chance to photograph yet. I also found it interesting to learn about how much humans as a species have expanded on the Earth, leaving us with hardly any natural landscapes for animals to live in left.

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.

Like with the other projects involving photographing people, I enjoyed this section of the course as I got to photograph people being their natural self and not putting on a façade as they’re aware their being photographed and have to come off in a certain light. I also got to be very creative with my edits in this project which produced images I really like. I think this idea of the decisive moment would be a good idea to use in my personal study on identity as in these images people aren’t putting on the front they would if they knew they were getting photographed.

St Helier Harbour

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. For this photoshoot, I walked around St Helier Harbour: exploring both the old and new aspects of it.

Overall, I found this part of the course not as interesting as other parts as I didn’t find much interest in learning about cod and the history of fishing in Jersey. However, I did become more enthusiastic when taking photographs as I got to see parts of the harbour I hadn’t seen yet and got to photograph some people who worked around the area where I got to get a sense of what life was like for these people.

Mirrors and Windows

A mirror photograph reflects a portrait of the artist who made it. Its a “romantic expression of the photographers sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of the world”. Some words that are associated with mirror photographs are: subjective and naturalistic. In mirror images, the artist expresses themselves and focuses on exploring themselves as a person rather than the exterior world (as seen in windows). On the other hand, window photography is where an artist explores the exterior world through photography in all its “presence and reality”. These images help those who are looking at it to understand the world further.

I found the idea of mirror and window images interesting as I came to realise the idea of images being not just one of the two but both. For example, I could use this knowledge in my personal study as I could take an image of an object which has personal meaning to someone making it a mirror image but also a window image as the photograph itself is just of an object which is objective as first glance and looks as if it has no trace of humankind in the image but as you look deeper into the reasoning behind the photograph, you can see aspects of a mirror image too.

Alicja Brodowicz, a Polish photographer, has spent the last couple of months working on a project combining parts of the human body with elements of nature in order to emphasise our unique relationship with the natural environment as well as the beauty of the human body

She photographs the human body – the microcosm. Its’ fragments: hair, scars, the texture of the skin, wrinkles. She is also interested in individual particularities; she looks for distinguishing features and irregularities. Imperfections are my favourites.

Alicja also photographs nature – the macrocosm. The surface of water, grass, tree bark, dry leaves. She combines the two images, looking for converging lines, textures, similarities in layout, and analogies in composition between the microcosm and the macrocosm. Looking for unity between the human body and nature.

Alicja is a great fan of classic black and white photography. When she started taking photos and photographed my daughter a lot, my greatest inspiration was Sally Mann. Later also discovered Anders Petersen – she loves all of his works. She is also a big fan of Josef Koudelka, especially the photos of Gypsies. She also greatly admire Jacob Aue Sobol and Pentti Sammallahti – the simplicity and elegance of his work.

This series was different than my other projects because it was conceptual. I usually just take the camera and wander about and take photos without thinking too much about the process. In the case of this project, I usually had the idea in my head in advance, before I started photographing and even though it changed a number of times in the course of my work, the initial concept had to be there first.

She states that “The series of photos is the visual re-enactment of my ever-increasing desire of being close to nature. The older I grow, the more intense this desire is. It is also the expression of my growing concern for the environment and the human impact on it. By combining images of the human body and elements of nature I am trying to show that we are inter-connected and that our separate existence is impossible.”

Image Analysis-

In terms of this image I think it really conveys the similarities between skin and natural being vs nature discussing the notions of belonging as well, this is especially prominent in Alicja’s work and what kind of elements she presents throughout it. Looking at her work I can questions that the sequences of image and composition can have many meaning s an symbols as though the similarities in detail. Her work explores themes of identity and human emotions and I can clearly see this. In this specific image the themes of femininity isn’t really explored as for the viewer it’s unclear whether the hand and veins are of a male or female body. Words that I could describe her work is: Unsettling, Unusual, Interesting, Detailed, Specific and Personal.

I think im gonna interpret and take inspiration from her work as it relates to my project of relating skin/natural elements of the human body and how it relates to family, identity and home.

Photoshoot 1 –

Green –

(Purple stands for edited photographs).

These photos I found where clearly taken and where applicable to be able to edited for my project. These images rate around 4 or 5 out of 5.

Yellow –

These photos are good but not what I want or did fully come out as expected. These Images score for about a 3/5.

Red –

These Images were either accidental, poorly taken, test shots or other. They score around a 1 or 2 out of 5.

Other Photoshoots:

Due to the large amount of photographs I took throughout the course of the project, It would take up to much time assessing and valuing each image, for this reason the remainder of my shoots are ungraded, excluding the images I rated and edited.

Photoshoot 2 –

Corbiere Landscape shots:

Photoshoot 3 –

Outdoor German photos:

Photoshoot 4 –

Corbiere landscape shots:

Photoshoot 5 –

Outdoor German shots:

For this photoshoot, I decided to go to the photography studio and take some staged photos of my subject modelling how girls secretly feel behind their social media.

Evaluation:

For this photoshoot, I went to the studio to take some photos using a mirror as a prop. Here, the subject is reflecting ideas around beauty standards. For example, looking at her body in a negative way and using makeup as a coverup to build self confidence.

Through the use of social media, girls have grown up feeling insecure due to the presentation of fake beauty standards of other girls. On the other hand, social media can also ease many of the insecurities girls feel about their identity and relationships. Through the constant sounds of notifications and text messages, it makes it clear that they are wanted, needed and liked which gives them this feel of happiness from social media. Everything online is easy access, including both the negatives and positives.

For the self-conscious or insecure girl, technology can become a crippling addiction, not just for connection but the elusive promise of being liked by everyone. This leads to the change in personalities, growing up faster than usual, using makeup as a way to present them in a different way, and the internet can sometimes even lead to girls gaining eating disorders due to many other girls posting their bodies and editing them to make them look different to how they are originally.

For younger girls, who are more naïve than older girls, they are more likely to grow up with these values around how to present themselves in a ‘prettier’ way, or how to become more popular.

Context and concept

Saul Leiter is an American artist and photographer, during his late teens his interest grew for painting shortly moving to New York in 1946 to pursue this. After, He came in contact with an Abstract Expressionist painter Richard Pousette-Dart who was experimenting with photography at the time, to later meeting Eugene Smith, and exhibitions of Henri Cartier Bresson at the museum of modern art in 1947, was what inspired him. His abstract approaches of forms and innovative compositions have a painterly quality that stands out among New York, suggesting this through colour and reflections. Creating this effect of a painted look. Looking at his work I can see his inspirations from these photographers, for example Henri Cartier Bresson, the way the the people are captured in the ‘decisive moment’ so they are unaware they’re being captured.

“I happen to believe in the beauty of simple things. I believe that the most uninteresting thing can be very interesting.”

“I LIKE IT WHEN ONE IS NOT CERTAIN WHAT ONE SEES.” – SAUL LEITER 

https://www.1854.photography/2016/01/ordinary-beauty-saul-leiter/#:~:text=While%20Leiter’s%20early%20black%2Dand,British%20Vogue%2C%20Esquire%20and%20more.

This quote perfectly describes his style of street photography, through the way he captures photos in the decisive moment, meaning that there isn’t much of a subject or meaning behind the photograph, in a way it’s up to you how you perceive the photo. Considering the people are a central focus of the photo, it creates an interesting narrative, as its portraits of them in day to day so so its clear where they are, through expressions and poses but ‘unclear of what one sees.’ His style is seen as a poetic and painterly quality, with a keen eye for colour and composition, leading to an emotional and in-depth response from the viewer. Through each of these contrasting effects created by visual elements, work together giving this warm feeling. Featuring reflections, shadows, blurred objects create this unknown, imaginary look. I want to develop this conecpt further a it creates this surreal characteristic of the photo. It highlights this concept of ‘in the moment’ as your prensted with something unclear leading to your unclear judgement.

Leiter began to explore colour by 1948, with his main subjects being street scenes and his close circle of friends. Looking at streets around New York City 1950, he created a project in which he explored the very busy and hectic hustle and bustle of the streets, showing this through abstract forms and original compositions to street photography. This creates a unique concept behind his approach as he looks

What inspired me of his work is this busy and hectic feel that’s created, through visually seeing his bold compositions displayed through colour, lines, reflections, subjects. This reminds me of magazine covers as images are brought together in ways which portray some kind of story,

I love the abstract look about his photographs, with really bold uses of block colours that outline the structure, shown through shapes and lines. I feel this really creates an interesting and unique photo as we are displayed something different each time because the moment when its captures will never be seen like this again. The unique angles being captured through reflections in windows, to the weather conditions, how people are dressed and presented

Colour Collection

I love the abstract look about his photographs, with really bold uses of block colours that outline the structure, shown through shapes and lines. I feel this really creates an interesting and unique photo as we are displayed something different each time because the moment when its captures will never be seen like this again. The unique angles being captured through reflections in windows, to the weather conditions, how people are dressed and presented, through a whole , creates this intersting conecpt as its a diffeemt unusaul view.

Created collection/ categroires in which he fit his photoshoto into. visual elements – further develope this in my own style

https://www.saulleiterfoundation.org/color

These photos specifically showed contrast that the colours and compositions create

https://www.saulleiterfoundation.org/biography

This photo appeals to me a we are given a montage of people, through reflections.

This photo is part of Leiter’s fashion photography displayed in Harper’s Bazaar, but also a part of ‘Colour’ (one of Saul Leiter’s collection.) I love this photo, and its expressive interesting forms. The way the subjects creates these unique focal points all throughout are shown with three different peoples perspectives. One in the background, second in the mid ground and third in the foreground. This creates an interesting concept. As the main focal point the women in the blue jacket drawns us in straight away to creating interesting silhouette figures, filled with colour.

We straight away see an old yellow car with a woman standing in front looking very fashionable. The natural lighting is used with the rain and wet weather elevating the colours creating unique contrast between the focal points – the yellow car and women in blue coat. I really perfectly describes a unique composition as they create unique shadows, texture, forms emphasising the outlines and silhouettes of people and cars. Alongside this, we are presented with an interesting depth of field that’s not noticeable straight away because your drawn to the contrasting central focus (the car and person in blue dress). But when looking closer at the photo, two more people are actually shown, but only their outline creating this interesting silhouette in the background. With this interesting depth of field, they are still part of the background so not the main focus. They instead create interesting shapes and structure as they’re out of focus. These visual elements overall make a really interesting photo, emphasising even more contrast in colour, showing this structural and defined look. The visual elements of tone, colour, pattern, line, shape, work together to create this interesting compositional photo.

This photo is captured without being staged, showing you the real reality of behind the scenes in a way which you

Saul Leiter creates this interesting perception through visual elements such as colour, tone shape, pattern and composition. This photo displays old cars, people within the streets all that are all different. showing this documentary

In response to Saul leither i am ispired by his compositions and formations show through lines, shapes, structure, shadows, and reflections. I am goijng to incorpoate these elements in my work through looking at

https://www.saulleiterfoundation.org/color

https://independent-photo.com/news/the-unseen-saul-leiter

Astrid Reischwitz, a Boston-based photographer, whose work explores the possibilities of storytelling from a personal perspective. Her projects include intimate views of private spaces and reflections on her own history and values. Using keepsakes from family life, old nostalgic photographs and storytelling strategies, she builds a visual world in her work of memory, identity, place, and home.

Her project “Spin Club Tapestry” explores cultural memory by embroidering photographs, inspired by the tradition of spin clubs in Northern Germany. Astrid grew up in a small farming village, a village that is bound to its history and that stands out through its traditions even today. Long ago, village women met regularly in “Spinneklumps” (Spin Clubs) to spin wool, embroider, and stitch fabrics for their homes. She imagines their conversations as they worked, the beautiful stories that lifted their spirits, as well as the stories of sadness, sorrow, and loss. In modern times, village women continued to meet in this tradition, but shared stories over coffee and cake instead of needlework. These close-knit groups of women often stayed together until their death.

In this series, her composite images take the form of tapestries, combining images of embroidered Spin Club fabrics with new and old photographs from the village. Astrid also connects the present and the past by re-creating and re-imagining pieces of the embroidery. Spin Club tablecloths, napkins and wall hangings (some dating back to 1799) have been passed down from generation to generation. By following the stitches in these fabrics, she follows a path through the lives of her ancestors (their layout of a perfect pattern and the mistakes they made). Along the way, Astrid added her own mistakes. The fabrics also reveal the passage of time, stained and distorted after sometimes decades of use. The patterns she has stitched myself into the paper are only abstractions of the original Spin Club designs, fragments of memory. After all, memory is fleeting, and changed forever in the act of recollection. Sometimes the stitching is incomplete, creating an invitation for future generations.

“Every decision we make is influenced by our history, our environment, and the society we live in. The tapestry of my life belongs to me but is stitched through with the beauty and heartache of past generations.”-Astrid Reischwitz

She began her study of photography at the International Center of Photography in New York soon after moving to the United States. She continued her education at the New England School of Photography, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Lesley University, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. She holds a Certificate in Arts Administration from New York University. Reischwitz is a graduate of the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, with a PhD in Chemistry.

Image Analysis-The Fall of the Double-Headed Eagle

The title itself can reference the double-headed eagle, a symbol of imperial power that can suggest a narrative of decline, loss or transformation. In this analysis, the formal elements of the image, its symbolic content, and the potential meanings embedded within the work are examined.

Astrid’s composition is characterized by an interplay of contrasting colours, forms, and textures. The double-headed eagle, often a symbol of dual authority or all power governance (most famously associated with the Byzantine Empire, Russian Empire, and Austria-Hungary), likely occupies a central position in the piece. The positioning of the eagle, whether upright or falling, becomes a powerful visual cue for the narrative of decline.

If the eagle is depicted in a state of disintegration or descent, this visual may be reinforced by fragmented or distorted shapes, which emphasis the theme of downfall. The double-headed eagle is a symbol. Here the eagle is on the ground and deconstructed .Astrid may use diagonal lines or shattered patterns, suggesting motion or instability to convey a sense of collapse. Alternatively, if the eagle is shown at the moment of impact, Astrid may focus on creating a striking tension between the eagle’s once-majestic form and the surrounding chaos/ destruction. Themes and ideas could reflect the subject in the image such as the young child, in ways liking groeing up and childhood how it may have impacted them as a person and throughout their family especially as Astrid project looks at ancestors and nostalgia.

Brief –

For my Images, I plan on photographing at the K2 bunker at Corbiere. Here I will create my images inspired by the lives of the German soldiers in the conflict and retell them in the style of photographers, August Sander and Paul M. Smith. Basing my work on Michiel Peters’ World War 2 visualisations, my inspiration is to retell a story within my images, similar to how peters’ does in his work.

‘2nd Armoured in Belgium’ – 2024, Michiel Peters.

Where my inspiration from Paul M. Smith comes in, will be through the use of myself as a subject within multiple characters in a scene, such as Smith does in his series, ‘Artist Rifles’. With the bunker I’m photographing in being manned by multiple crew members, finding enough actors and uniforms proves to be a struggle, by photographing myself this will make the shoot more achievable to the look I want.

‘Artist Rifles’ – 1997, Paul M. Smith

Images to recreate –

MG Battalion 16, 2nd Company – Training in the vicinity of La Moye.

Engelbert Hoppe – The 19-year old Commander of the M19 Corbiere complex.

Horst Herrmann – The young Berliner, who was stationed in the K2 bunker.

10.5cm Canon – Prior to its construction, the 10.5 was outdoors under a camouflaged netting.

Using existing photos of the men stationed in the Bunker, my photographs will aim to recreate them closely with similar uniforms and positioning. With photos of particular locations that I can access, I am able to recreate these well, for some outdoor and others that are similar to other locations, I can replicate these with ease too.

Photoshoot 1 –

In this first shoot I will aim to create the interior depictions of life under concrete. I will also try to mimic the photograph of the 10.5cm canon in the style of Paul M. Smith where I portray each operating role of the canon crew.

Types of scenarios will include:

• Sentry duty
• Weapon maintenance
• shaving
• Polishing boots
• reading
• cooking
• Weapon drills on the canon
• Ammunition inspection

Photoshoot 2 –

In the second shoot, I will aim to create the exterior depictions of their outdoor life’s. Here I will try to mimic Michiel Peters photographs in the open environment works, of realistic settings to where the Germans would’ve gone and what they would do outside of their fortresses. One photo I want to recreate is the photo of them on field training in the area of La Moye.

Types of scenarios will include:

• site-seeing
• Walks
• Combat training – Real photo I can base off.
• drill practice – real photo I can base off.
• Portraits – real photos – Engelbert and Horst – inspired by true photos and August Sanders work.
• outdoor sentry duty

Emilie Ristevski is an Australian photographer, visual storyteller and author. She often finds herself exploring far wide around the world to create and share slow and mindful wanderings within nature. Her work is about finding the beauty in our world and she is always looking to find ways to conserve and capture the things that often goes unseen. Over the years she has developed a strong focus on sharing meaningful content around sustainability and caring for the planet. She hopes her photographs have the ability to resonate with people in some way, that they can bring sense of nostalgia, a sense of wonder, that they will make you think something, anything at all. With pieces of her mind and heart scattered all over the globe, she felt the urge for her images to do and say more with the hope that she can encourage a greater awareness of the earths beauty and ever present fragility. It is through her storytelling that she hopes to inspire and educate her audience on the importance of our natural world. She truly loves being able to share the world through her lens and allowing others to see the magic of the natural world. Knowing she has encouraged others to see the world in a new light and reignite their connection with nature and our planet is something really special to her. Emilie’s work for photography started years ago when she discovered black and white film photography in a tiny dark room. Focusing on travel for her was never intentional and while studying design at university she always imagined herself somehow in the design world, however photography was also something she fell in love with the most when creating imagery.

What inspired you to start this journey? Would you say you’ve always been a creative & where do you think this has stemmed from in your upbringing? 

“I’ve always had an innate love of creativity. Growing up I experimenting with different art forms and mediums from painting, drawing, ceramics, anything where I could create and let my imagination become tangible. The combination of travel and photography helped to me create a strong sense of story, a way to create work which felt transportive and capture the untold wonders of our planet. Somewhere between the mountains and the ocean I have lived throughout several different regions along the east coast of Australia and in someway always surrounded by nature – This is where my love and connection to the natural world first began. Nature has always been a starting place for inspiration. The continual ebb and flow of being a creative and constantly being on the move forces you adapt and see things differently, a mindset which allows myself to appreciate the hidden beauty that can be found all around us.”

Emilie Ristevski describes her photography style as “storytelling, Escapism, Dreamscapes”

Forever Wandering

Forever Wandering is a book that Emilie Ristevski published. Forever Wandering is a labour of love of many years full of countless wanderings around the globe, she poured so much of herself into creating this book and never been so exited to offer a home for her photographs to be held in a tangible form. The process of creating her book was very surreal and overwhelming and became a leering curve for her in many ways. With so many uncertainties in the world right now, she hopes her photography is able to transport to peoples mind into the wildness of our world and help people discover a depth of wonder and awe of the planet. Forever Wandering is a visual insight into our natural world, telling a meaningful story of how we can find a deeper connection with the universe and ourselves. She just wants her photography to ins[ire people and re-light everyone’s connection with earth and see the beauty that is hidden with every corner or the planet and how its amazing sharing moments like exploring the world with people you love most.