Josef Sudek was best know for his photos of the streets of Prague and dubbed the poet of Prague for this very reason, However, He started out his life as a bookbinder and getting his certificate at the age of seventeen. Sudek began to experiment with a box camera and became fond of self portraits. Taking his camera with him during the acts of world war two he produced three albums, however he lost his right arm while serving. After the war Sudek turned to photography.

Heavily influenced by Impressionism, Pictorialism, and Czech Poeticism, there is a romantic flow to Sudek’s images where the glass and roses meld into one to transform what once may have been mundane, to have a grace in which would have gone unseen before. In every image the light has been carefully used to add a glow to the subjects.

“Everything around us, dead or alive, in the eyes of a crazy photographer mysteriously takes on many variations, so that a seemingly dead object comes to life through light or by its surroundings….to capture some of this – I suppose that’s lyricism.”

Josef Sudek

Sudek used objects such as flowers, egg shell and glasses of water to carry meaning through his photographs. He would often work with material in his studio, sometimes on commission but in later years as photographic exercise and investigation. His still lives were undoubtedly inspired by his large collection of paintings, books and by his relationships with painters in Prague.

Snapseed edits –

Using the app Snapseed on my phone, I was able to use their filters to create both a realistic depiction and more time-period based aesthetic of some of my images.

Lightroom & Photoshop –

Gun Crew:

Before:

Using the Image without me as a base Image the aim was to recreate the original photograph by layering the different positions of myself to replicate the look of the gun crew. By syncing the images to the same editing settings I aimed to create the old Yellowish texture and hue photographs from the past contain.

With this image as my reference, I tried to recreate it to the best I could.

Editing:

Using the following settings I was able to create the desired aesthetic that makes use of its low tones to contrast brightly against the limited but bright light.

Outcome:

Now edited I was able to merge these images to replicate the original image using photoshops object selection tool to layer the images of myself into one.

After:

Overall I am happy with the outcome of this Image. With the overall composition creating an interesting story, I find my inspiration from both the the original reference Image and the artist inspiration from Paul M Smith are faithfully recreated in my own piece of work.

Ammo Inspection:

Before:

Like the previous Image, the aim for this image was to create a scenario that would occur within the life of the fortress. With the Bunker being remade to look how it did 80 years ago, this helped create the immersive aesthetic which I believe added to to its overall mise-en-scene through the additional use of props and costumes.

Editing:

Using the following settings I was able to create an contrasted tone of stone grey’s and almost a sand-like white, to me this was creative in its own appearance, whilst still paying homage to the older appearance of photographs of that time.

Outcome:

From this I was then able to repeat the process of using photoshops object selection tool to create ‘clonified’ versions of myself.

After:

I Like this outcome as it recreates a plausible scenario which would occur within the bunker, with difference In headwear and accessories I feel that this image helps to separate the 2 ‘Me’s’ and creates an detailed level of immersion.

Crew Room:

Before:

With the more serious areas of the bunker being covered I thought I’d try to cover the more relaxed types of images you’d see in a bunker such as communal living and sharing the limited utilities offered.

Editing:

Using these settings I tried to create an Image with some colour, with the warmth of the photographs already with its brown and orange wood panelling as a backdrop, this acted as a stepping stone to achieve this, through the following edit settings

Outcome:

After:

With this intended candid style, I feel it creates an interesting atmosphere and aesthetic to the image, with the me on the right having a partially obscured face, like some of the other images I have made, to me, it creates a level of realism to the peculiar concept of Paul M. Smiths work I have chosen to base my images off.

Spent cases room:

Before:

With these Images here I wanted to try and continue this intended candid style, with some minor influence from Henri Cartier Bretton with use of motion blur. With the centre image, this was inspired by this photograph in particular.

‘Behind the St. Lazare’, 1932 – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Editing:

Using the settings shown I created the basis of tone, shadow, high lights and etc. This was to create that ‘Stoney’ colour like within Cartier-Bressons photograph.

Outcome:

Now edited I could now merge them into an image to create another ‘scenario’ photo.

After:

With the use of different props, poses and uniform diversity I feel as if this shows a creative mise-en-scene into the idea of my project and how I aim to show the lives of Jerseys occupiers in World War 2.

Command Phone:

Before:

Straying away from some of the multi-crew photographs I’d thought I would try some individual shots as sort of filler photographs between the main edits.

Editing:

Using both a gradient filter an exposure brush, I touched up on some details I thought were lacking towards the left side of the photograph.

After:

With a section of my influence based on the work of Michiel Peters, I aimed to recreate his images that feature a low-saturation to create a sense of drama and grittiness.

Field training:

Before:

With this image being a large one to recreate, I tried my best to copy out the poses and appearances of the individuals of each man within the original photograph of the training exercise.

Editing:

Using a blank image of my location as a basis, I edited it to my liking and then applied these settings to the set of images I wanted to implement into into it.

From this, I then used photoshop to merge them into one by cutting out myself into layers and piecing them together.

Adjusting them slightly to fill the gaps I then flattened the image to make it whole.

After:

As a result, this is what turned out:

Overall, I am very happy with this image, as editing the multiple ‘Me’s’ proved to be quite difficult. There is still some minor faults such as repetitiveness with the headdress and of course myself however this came at the expense of uniform accessories such as other hats or caps they would have worn. Cropping of the feet to was also hard, as wind direction and changes made from moving about made the lower parts seem less in quality compared to the upper, however if decide to crop by the calves this can be avoided.

Combat Exercise:

Before:

With these Images, I aimed to show my inspiration from Paul M. Smith and his series ‘Artist Rifles’. With his photograph of multiple clones of himself making an assault charge, I found that replicating this would be perfect within the types of battle trainings the Germans had on the island.

Editing:

Editing these images, like the ones previously, I applied them to my selected photographs.

Outcome:

After:

Placing the various me’s, I find it has resembled the photographs of Paul M Smith and his similar creative choices regarding his series ‘Artist Rifles’ very well.

‘Artist Rifles’, 1997 – Paul M. Smith.

Interlude Photographs:

With the edits making up a lot of the book, I will add some filler ‘interlude photographs between the scenario images I made. These images don’t include to much of the clone process.

Before:

Editing:

Using these settings, I tried to replicate the colour and tone of the ammunition room photograph.

After:

Overall I am happy with the outcome of this photograph as I find that it acts a good example of the more ‘regular’ experiences they got up to which, now we can still relate to such as shaving.

Mickie Devries lives in West Michigan close to Lake Michigan shoreline. Devries focuses on documenting her own children, as she believes ‘to be a child is a magical thing’. She is inspired by children and how they grow and learn new things. She likes to photograph these moments as she wants to preserve and document them. However I am going to focus on a small project she done within her photography where she has created ghost-like images using various camera settings.

I am mainly going to take inspiration from Mickie Devries from the way that she achieves her ghostly looking photos within this small project of hers. I also like how the images look in black and white and I may also use that idea within my photography.

How to create ghostly photos:

1 – First you I will need to use a tripod, this is so that the photo is clear as I will be using a slow shutter speed of around 15 seconds, this is what Mickie Devries uses to create her images. She also states it is best to take these images in low ambient light.

2 – Next I will adjust my aperture to around f/8 as this is the same setting as Devries.

3 – Focus is then switched to manual with the subject in the frame, this is so that I am able to focus on the subject when I end up taking the photos.

4 – Next I will remove my subject from the frame and have my subject walk slowly into the position once I’ve pushed pushed the shutter button. Once the subject is in the position I will press the shutter button and have them freeze.

Intention

My intention with this photoshoot is to explore the female identity and my own identity through this photoshoot as well, just how Justine Kurland found her own identity through her work. I am going to explore the female identity and present all different female identities through my work. I want to present that the female identity isn’t just what is stereotyped, but it can be whatever you want it to be. In ‘Girl Pictures,’ Justine Kurland states that, ‘Cowboys, sailors, pirates, hitchhikers, hobos, train hoppers, explorers, catchers in the rye, lords of the flies- you name it…’ She is stating that the girls in her book were all these things. She has done this, so that she can present to the viewers that they too can be whatever identity they wish to be, no matter how different or not socially acceptable it may be. I also want to present this in my work, so that I can portray to my viewers that identity is just what you make it, instead of it being what makes you.

Through this work I also want to investigate into different stereotypes and present images that oppose these stereotypical ‘norms.’ Justine Kurland presented these girls ‘in the dominion of boys’ and ‘they were trying on a version of themselves that the world has thus far shown them was boy.’ She did this, so that she could combat against female stereotypes, so that she could present to the viewers that these stereotypical ‘norms’ aren’t just what we should be allowed to be and do, but instead girls should also be able to do anything a boy can do and act in a way that a boy would. I think this is a really important message and I want to display this message well in my work, by presenting the young girls in a more rambunctious, ‘boy like’ manor, combating these stereotypical ‘norms.’

However, I want to make a twist on Justine Kurland’s work, for my own work, and I intend on doing this, by showing a larger spectrum of stereotypes, and showing stereotypes, that are not being combated. For example, I want to display these young girls following these female stereotypical norms, just how Cindy Sherman presented these stereotypical norms, because I want to display to the viewers, and to all other young girls that may see these images, that your identity can be anything you make it, and you don’t have to feel like you have to oppose these stereotypical ‘norms’, if that is who you truly are and what your identity truly is.

I always want to explore youth through my work, just like Justine Kurland did in her ‘Girl Pictures.’ As I said I also wanted to explore my identity through this project, so to explore these two things I am going to be looking back into my youth, or my ‘Girlhood’ and replicating some of the activities I used to do in my teenage years. This will help me explore youth, especially my youth and it will help me explore my identity, to see what stereotypical ‘norms’ I followed, or didn’t when I was younger. This will also help me compare my identity back then, to it now. I think youth is also a really important aspect to explore, because Justine Kurland’s whole book was based off this idea of youth and ‘girlhood,’ so to also put a twist on her work, I am making my work more internal to me, by making it relative to my youth, ‘girlhood’ and my life. I also think that youth is a very important development stage, which helps to build your identity, so I also think it would be interesting to compare my youth, to the youth shown in Justine Kurland’s book, ‘Girl Pictures.’

Ideas

During my review and reflect of all my previous blog posts and topics, I discovered that I much preferred taking pictures of people rather than landscapes, whether that was portraits, tableaux images, or street photography. However, I think portraiture is my biggest strength and what I enjoy the most.

I also found the topic femininity and masculinity a really interesting topic that I found I could write a lot about. I find researching and creating different stereotypes in my photographs the most interesting part, and I really enjoyed making my images fight against these different gender stereotypes. I really enjoyed this topic, because as a women stereotypes is something I hear and see a lot of and I feel like I could do a lot for this topic and write a lot about it, because it is so internal to me and my identity. I also enjoyed how in this topic Claude Cahun for example explored her identity, by becoming a more masculine version of herself and I feel like if I were to do something related to this topic I would also be able to explore my identity.

Artist Research Thoughts

I enjoy how Justine Kurland’s images are of young girls, because I am myself a young girl, so this is something I really relate to and is internal to me, so I feel like it would be easier for me to gather my friends to create similar images. I also feel like I could produce better images, as the topic of ‘girlhood’ is so much more internal to me, as I am experiencing my girlhood right now. I also like how she also fights against stereotypes, b getting the girls to ‘try on boy,’ which I feel like I would be able to do and create up to standard images. I am also going to explore female stereotypes, as well as opposing female stereotypes, because this is how I am going to put a twist on my photos, compared to Justine Kurland’s.

I am also going to be using the same photographic technique as Justine Kurland and Jeff Wall, which is producing tableaux images, that look like candid images. I am going to create these tableaux images in scenic outdoor environments and capture normal social interactions, that I would do in my youth. I am also going to pull ideas from the activities and the settings used in Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures.’

For my photoshoot, I am going to use Justine Kurland for my main inspiration, but I am also going to pull ideas, concepts and compositions from Jeff Wall and other Historical paintings. I am doing this, because both Jeff Wall and Justine Kurland pulled compositions, ideas and concepts from famous paintings.

I am going to pull composition ideas, such as the fore ground, middle ground and background, as well as using the rule of thirds and other compositional ideas, because Jeff Wall and Justine Kurland have used these compositional ideas, and I think they have worked very well. I am also going to use similar visual elements, such as tone, shape, patterns etc. that they have both used.

Photoshoot Plan

Justine Kurland- Girl Pictures

Examples of my youth:

During my teenage years, I went out with my friends a lot. Some of the outdoor places we would go, would include:

• Harve Des Pas Beach
• FB Fields
• Fort Regent
• St Brelades Bay
• Frigate
• People’s Park
• St Ouens Beach
• La Marrais
• Town
• In my car
• Georgia’s shed
• Campfire

The reason I am only choosing places which are outdoors, is because during my youth, I had more fun and did more things, while I was outdoors, instead of inside. I also wanted to keep the setting of my images still quite similar to Justine Kurland, because I think the images will relate to ‘Girl Pictures’ more, and will come out of a better standard visually.

During my youth I did many different activities including:

• Jumping off the Lido at Harve Des Pas
• Swimming in the sea
• Wave surfing at St Ouens
• Playing hide and seek at La Marrais
• Camping at St Ouens
• Have BBQ at the beach, or in gardens
• Picnic
• Get a snack/ meal
• Tan/ chill with a book
• Make a campfire

Other place ideas:

I also wanted to include settings that were used in ‘Girl Pictures,’ because I think they are visually pleasing settings, and they really help display the combat against stereotypical norms, because a dirty woods is not usually associated with femininity. Some places I have decided to include are:

• Street
• Public Bathroom
• Field
• Woods
• Barn/ shed
• Lakes/ rivers/ pond
• Mountains/ cliffs
• Walkway path
• Sandunes
• Roadside
• Under a Bridge
• Reservoir
• Rocky coast

Similar Places in Jersey:

• Cycling path along the avenue
• Snow hill, St Ounes etc.
• Field- nans garden
• St Catherines woods
• Georgia’s shed
• Sandunes
• Underground bit at harbour
• Resoviour
• Cliff paths St Brelade
• Beach
• Fort Regent park
• St Brelades campfire

Stereotype Ideas:

Female Stereotypes-

• Use of makeup in my images
• Doing hair
• Emotional shots eg. crying
• Using colours such as pink

Male Stereotypes-

• Strong eg. use of weights
• colours such as blue
• Emotional shots eg. anger and violence
• Messing around

To fight against these stereotypes, I will have girls do these male stereotypes, so that I can present girls acting like boys, as well as girls presenting as more feminine, because these were some activities I did in my youth and they just happen to be more feminine.

Narrative of different Image Ideas:

• Playing on swings in a park
• Running down the street
• Getting ready/ washing in a public bathroom
• camping
• smoking
• eating ice cream/ other snacks
• Making fires
• Shooting glass bottles
• swimming
• playing catch
• Fighting/ boxing
• Hula hooping
• Playing an instrument eg. Guitar
• Blowing bubbles
• Catching sweets in mouth
• Reading books
• Walking a dog
• Climbing trees
• Washing feet in a river
• Picking flowers
• Fixing a car
• Roadtrip
• Sand castles/ lying at the beach
• Roasting marshemellows
• Climbing fences
• Sledging down the sandunes

Tools/ props needed:

• Make up
• Perfume
• Hair brush
• Soap
• Cigerettes
• Snacks
• BBQ
• Glass bottle
• Toy gun
• Balls
• Hula Hoop
• Instrument
• Bubbles
• Books
• Car
• Bucket and spade
• Marshmellows
• Sledges

Composition

Different compositions that Justine Kurland and Jeff Wall used included compositions from famous paintings, so I am also going to pull ideas from famous historical paintings to create some of my photos. I am also going to pull ideas, concepts and compositions from Justine Kurland’s work and Jeff Wall’s work.

Some example of historical paintings that I am going to pull ideas, concepts and compositions from are below:

Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s world 1948.

I want to take inspiration from these paintings, not only because they have a good composition, but because they also tell a story, which I could tell through my photographs, but make it applicable to modern times, and to the subject of identity and youth, because that is what I’m exploring.

Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret, The Burial of Manon Lescaut.

For this historical painting, I am going to take a picture of the same composition and actions. I am going to have one of my friends lying down being buried, like the women in this image, and have another friend burring her, but the concept behind my photograph is going to be different to the concept of the painting. In the painting the man is burring the women after she has died, but in my photograph I am going to make a modern version of this painting, and I am going to relate this photograph to my theme of youth. I am going to do this, by having the concept of my image being too young girls playing at the beach instead, because this is something I used to do when I was younger.

Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s world 1948.

For this historical painting I am going to use the same composition and setting as this historical painting and I am going to position my model in the same way. However, I am going to try and find a daisy field, so that she could be picking daisies in my photograph, instead of the concept of the painting. In the painting, she is looking into the distance at a faraway farmstead and a cluster of structures, and she is portrays the artist’s neighbor, who was unable to walk due to polio, so she would drag herself around.

For another photograph, I am going to take inspiration from Edouard Manet’s painting above, as well as the photographs Jeff Wall and Justine Kurland have made by pulling concepts, ideas, and compositions from Edouard Manet. I am going to do this, by creating a similar setting and composition as they all have. I am going to do this, by going to a scenic outdoor area that is similar to the settings they have used, such as a woods, and I am going to use the same compositional method that they have all used, with a person in the foreground, middle ground and background.

To take inspiration from these images in the best and easiest way, I am going to print off these historical paintings and my chosen artists photos, so that I can visualise what I am trying to create while I am out on my photoshoot, and so I can see them side by side.

I am also going to be focusing on my composition quite a lot throughout all my photoshoots, as I am taking inspiration from Jeff Wall, Justine Kurland and famous historical paintings. Some examples of compositional tools I use are the foreground, middle ground, background, rule of thirds etc..

I am also going to be focusing on the visual elements that I can present in my photographs, and the visual elements that are being used in the historical painting, as well as Jeff Wall’s work and Justine Kurland’s work.

List of Visual Elements:

• Colour
• Tone (light & dark)
• Texture (surface)
• Shape (2D, flat)
• Form (3D)
• Pattern (repetition)
• Line
• Space (3D concept)

• What you want to explore?
• Why it matters to you?
• How you wish to develop your project?
• When and where you intend to begin your study?

Interpreting the exam themes; OBSERVE, SEEK, CHALLENGE the topic which I wish to explore is Human and Family Connections, the main artists references which I chose to take inspiration from is Astrid Reischwitz which storytells from a personal perspective, Joanna Piotrowska which focus on psychological narratives which explore human relations and Alicja Brodowicz which combines elements of the human body with elements of nature a well. In terms of my final outcome I would like to produce a photobook that presents all my different ideas and photoshoots that relate to one another in a sequence. I want each page to feel like a story and for the viewer to understand as it progresses.

For my personal project I want to explore themes of nostalgia, family, ageing and changes throughout life when it constantly changes. These topics matter to me as having a multicultural background the topics follow me as it grow and become older, especially dividing both my Polish and English culture into daily life with speaking the languages at home vs in education/the workplace. For me family consists of mostly older generational European members growing up in Poland, living in The Netherlands as well as South England with conflicts over family, relationships, life, world war etc. I wish to develop my project by taking photos of different peoples skin and how it ages as part of formulating the topic of Human and Family Connections. As well as taking photographs of nostalgic archival images from my parents family album including photos of them when younger and other family relatives. For my first couple of photoshoots I want to include photos of my parents, my family and separate photos of elements that are sentimental to a specific time in the moment of the past e.g. the type of flowers my mum held on her wedding day, the type of car my dad used to drive, the jewellery she would wear when I was younger , the type of embroidered table cloth that would be laid out for breakfast with Polish folk art decorated etc/ things that remind her of home, belonging and both their lives.

Swindells started taking photographs while at university in Sheffield, inspired by a 1982 exhibition of Derek Ridgers’s nightclub portraits at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. After graduating, he moved to London and got a bar job in a club which he later got fired from for taking pictures. In 1985, he started taking club portraits. Since the early 80’s Dave Swindells has been documenting London’s most influential club, rave scenes and nightlife. As Time Out Clubs Editor from 1986 – 2009 he had exclusive access to nightlife and its shifts in youth culture, styles and attitudes. Dave Swindells captured on film what it meant to be raving during the late 80s and 90s. Starting off by taking sly photos on the dancefloor instead of working behind the bar, he quickly moved up in the world of nightlife press. Swindells remained Time Out’s Nightlife editor for over two decades, getting not only an insight into capital rave scenes over time but experiencing first-hand the birth of acid house.

In the case of acid house, overwhelming numbers of clubgoers defying the police to dance all night at huge, illegal parties eventually led after new laws failed to contain them to a gradual loosening of the draconian restrictions on both club opening hours and the sale and consumption of alcohol in the UK. These characteristics have also made the nightlife scene hard to record. There are technical issues for photographers in clubs, but also issues of trust. Swindells has been able to take candid pictures in clubs like Shoom because he made himself part of the culture by turning up night after night, year after year, bearing witness without ever being intrusive.

This is a mood board of my favourite Dave Swindells images. I have chosen these images because I like how there is a mixed variation of images, for example there are people who are posing and looking at the camera but there are also people that haven’t acknowledged it. These images show nightlife through the 80s and 90s and to me show a large difference is culture, fashion and styles from then compared to now, for example the hairstyles, outfits and behaviours. These are things you wouldn’t see in the youth culture now in clubs therefore I want to contrast this and show my own version of the youth culture nightlife in my photoshoot projects.

I have chosen to analyse this image of a man in a crowd of people who stands out from the other people. He is in the centre of the image making him the focus, also the bright pink jumper he is wearing makes him stand out compared to the crowd of everyone else wearing white and black. Another thing that stands out in this image is that everyone in this image is wearing denim jeans, this shows a large amount of the fashion at the time. To me this image represents the youth culture and fun during the 80s and 90s nightlife scene.

This image is of a group of people who are raving and partying in a nightclub. this image is different from the other one as the people have acknowledged the camera and are smiling at it. I liked this difference from some of the other images because it shows the reality of what would happen if people saw someone taking a picture of them, it shows that they are having fun and wanted to have their picture taken which is a realistic factor of going out with a camera and pointing it around when drunk people see it being positioned their way, they will probably smile.

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.

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.