I have also previously explored this topic of women and their role in the world whilst researching Cindy Sherman. Cindy Sherman is an independent photographer who took photographs in the 70’s. Something I find particularly admiring, is how she she took her camera and pointed it at HERSELF, instead of photographing someone else. I find this very unique and actually brings more meaning and creativity to the photos she created. This gesture then became her signature thing and showed her strong views on gender and the construction of identity through key times when opinions and personalities where particularly changing in history. She also mad many different character that she would pretend to being her photos and experiment with makeup, hairstyles and costume to demonstrate these characters.

I really like the idea of femininity and women in todays age as it is a subject that I, myself live through and endure. I can also use other young women enduring this in order to convey my message. I hope to express my theories on gender and identity and how women can be interpreted in different ways and do not need to fit a specific narrative. Analysing Cindy Sherman has aided this idea as she, herself has worked on how women can be interpreted in different ways and all the multiple narratives they can fit. Although, a difference I would like to express Is a positive light on women and how they can in, fact be strong and independent compared to an idealised view of being helpless and dependent on men.

Cindy Sherman originally studied painting and began by painting self portraits of her, in which she was herself, as characters which she would see in magazines and photographs. She then began to work on altering her face with makeup and different costume and first produced 5 images of different personas such as a clown and a young girl and many others. These photos helped to soar her fascination for impersonation and self transformation.

She then began to visit thrift stores to purchase new outfits for specific characters. She quoted “So it just grew and grew until I was buying and collecting more and more of these things, and suddenly the characters came together just because I had so much of the detritus from them. She then began to wear these different characters and at as them whilst attending different gallery openings.

Cindy Sherman’s work which was her most famous, was her Untitled Film Stills which are small black and white photos where Cindy has impersonated different female characters through glamourous and meaningful images. Throughout these film stills Cindy Sherman imitated different lifestyles and character stereotypes which shows how women and women’s bodies are perceived by the mass media and by the male gender. Whilst moving to New York, Cindy Sherman continued to role play in disguises and characters and photographed her imitations as the Untitled Film Stills. Although she took many of her own photographs, some photos were shot by family and friends. The voyeuristic perspective of Cindy’s work creates an imposing feeling on the viewer, as if you are secretly observing the character and she is always the subject of the controlling male gaze instead of the object of masculine desire.

Cindy Sherman’s Inspiration for Untitled Film Stills.

Eleanor Antin is an inspiration to Cindy Sherman’s work and she has said herself hat her Untitled Film Stills are related to the feminist performance work of the 1970s. Eleanor was an early influence to Cindy Sherman as she herself used to dress up and transform herself into multiple characters. s Her works are are considered conceptual, feminist classics such as “CARVING: A Traditional Sculpture”, “100 BOOTS”, where she created her 3 personas: The King, the Ballerina and the Nurse. Which he became particularly known for and helped her to gain fame and acknowledgement to express her message. Her multitude of characters explored the idea of roles and power, including how the artist is a subject in society. Eleanor critiques historical narratives and gendered power structures through fictional personas such as the three characters as they highlight different roles in society and hierarchies. This came in favour to Cindy as she took inspiration and decided to transform herself into different characters also. These two artists work are similar as they both use their bodies and self-representation as tools to critique identity, gender, and the roles women are assigned in society.

Eleanor Antin’s work themes consist of Identity, gender, history, the body, power, social roles, self-representation.

Cindy Sherman’s work themes consist of Gender, identity, representation, the male gaze, stereotypes, popular culture, societal roles.

Although these two artists also differ as Cindy Sherman’s work mainly focuses on deconstructing media representations of women, whereas Eleanor Antin’s work focuses more on exploring historical and social roles. I feel both these artists are essential to have knowledge on throughout this personal study as I have gained knowledge on different peoples interpretations on gender, identity and feminist views throughout history in order to create my own vision and my own message in response to other peoples work from the past.

Film Stills.

I really like Cindy Sherman’s work and I hope to find similar photographers to her to demonstrate my vision. Although In my personal study I would not include pictures of only myself but also of other women. I really like how Cindy Sherman experimented with hair, makeup and costume to portray different characters and I would like to do the same. Researching Cindy Sherman’s work has helped me to understand a historical side to the male gaze and how times have changed, but not really. Society has still created an inaccurate.

I would possibly like to do a ‘Modern Day’ take on this or maybe choose a more ‘Past’ approach, or do a comparison of them both and include different interpretations of past times and modern times and show how different females live different lives according to identity, sexuality, wealth and lifestyle.

Photo Analysis.

Technical:

The soft and naturalistic lighting in this photograph demonstrates that it is a photo from the past and is meant to display the time of the late 1970s. Which explains the low quality and slightly pixelated camera settings that are not very focused. I think that high contrast lighting, with a wide difference between highlights and shadows, brings a sense of intensity and depth to an image with dramatic qualities, which is what Cindy Sherman has done with her lots of her work. The aperture is also slightly blurred and has a higher sensitivity ISO which causes a grainier image with a lighter grey monochrome tone rather than cool colours. This black and white tonal structure has a colder impression which displays a sense of loneliness and emptiness in the image. The use of shadow and light in the Untitled Film Stills, heightens mood and tension, which isolates the subject within the frame. This dramatic lighting also helps to portray a specific genre of film such as drama, mystery or even horror. I think that Cindy Sherman’s use black and white photography is significant as it gives the images a sense of timelessness and universality, which provides the aesthetic of classic cinema.

Visual:

Accompanied with the black and white colour, this staged cinematic scene has meaning to it within its 2D format. The image has a woman as the central figure in the middle of the image with a door behind her stood in the corner of a room. There is also coats and clothing hung up to the left of the woman which has a dark black colour which attracts the viewers eyes towards the middle of the photograph, right next to the characters face. The photograph has a portrait angle which has been cropped into a tight famed rectangle shape. This framing of the images creates a cinematic feel to the photo and Her work mimics a multitude of low-budget narratives of different characters from 1950s-1960s television. Having settings such as homes, bedrooms, kitchens or streets conveys the message of domestic housewives living stereotypical lifestyles. The characters Cindy Sherman portrays are also seen as mid motion and candid to give a ‘frozen-in-time’ impression, this adds to the mystery and explains the deliberately vague stories that are without a clear plot. This frozen moment in time makes the viewer question the context, time-period and situation the character may be in whilst the photo is being taken. This image has no clear narrative unless the photo is deeply looked at and questioned. After establishing her outfit and role, the viewer is able to create an assumption on what the woman’s purpose is and it is then established that this is a small section of a much larger story.

Contextual:

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills includes contextual layers that address essential historical issues of gender, identity, and media representation. She created these photographs throughout 1977-80s, however they are based on the 1950/60s. During this period of the 70s, second-wave feminism was arising and women were beginning to challenge gender roles and opinions on women in media products were being raised as women began to question and challenge their portrayal and how they were being objectified and seen as an object to please the male gender. The “male gaze” refers to the way women are depicted in visual culture for males, Cindy Sherman chose to display her cultural and social concerns about the roles and representations of women in tv, cinema and media products. This work is technically ‘mocking’ the media as the series of images contains a female subject that is both the object and the creator of her image. The roles she portrays are characters which may demonstrate a victim, an innocent woman or a seductress. This creates a way for Cindy Sherman to control the portrayal of female objectification as the turning the camera on herself to expose the true meaning behind these roles. In this image her portrayal of a working class woman can be seen by her outfit and demonstrates the time period this photo is alluding to and women’s’ role during this time.

Conceptual:

This photo explores the male gaze. As number 80 film stills, became iconic. Chose herself for the model. Washerwoman maid in a feminist move way to redirect the male gaze to show she was in charge. Her angry expression by looking over her shoulder at us to show she is ‘done‘ and wants to find an escape from her current position as a housewife or domestic worker and move onto bigger dreams. She is stood slightly hunched and is wearing an apron and a blouse which shows the viewer that she is lower class and is ‘insignificant’. She is mid- movement and has a slightly distracted expression on her face whilst not making direct eye-contact with the camera which demonstrates her vulnerability and distraction. The message from Cindy Sherman portrays the reality of a ‘happy housewife’ who is safe and content at home when in reality, they are lonely and struggling mentally. The lack of context to this images, causes the reader to assume and create their own interpretations on the photo. The vulnerability, beauty and individuality of the character makes the audience feel sorry for the woman and feel a sense of reflection and remorse for women during this period.

Our first visit was Jersey Art centre to see Marc Medland.

We next moved to the CCA Gallery to see Glenn Perotte

Glen Perotte has been photographing Jersey for a decade, mixing commercial work with his creative photographic projects. His ‘2020:A Year in Vision’ portrait exhibition saw him capture us islanders and his 2021 ‘Remnants of Life’ saw him turn his hand to hyper-detailed still life of dream-like plants. Building on that foundation, Glen got in shape both physically and mentally to take his work to a new level this year. His subject this time couldn’t be captured in Jersey, but only at the heady heights of Mount Kenya, where Glen had been captivated by the flora and fauna on a previous visit tow years before. The landscape is hauntingly beautiful.

Glen tells us “I wanted to explore the flora of Mount Kenya, Africa’s second highest mountain after Kilimanjaro and a uniquely special place. More than a visually striking landmark, Mount Kenya is steeped in spiritual significance, revered as a sacred site by East African communities and beyond. The mountain is seen as a divine presence, drawing people for prayer, meditation, and reflection”. The focus for him was the astonishing plant life that manages to take root in this volcanic and harsh landscape of thin air and rocky terrain, sometimes by banding together and at other times finding a small niche to settle in alone. “Strange, yet wonderfully captivating, these botanical wonders exhibit adaptations honed over millennia to survive the harsh mountain environment. From bizarrely shaped succulents clinging to rocky crevices to peculiar, other-worldly ferns thriving in mist-shrouded valleys, each species tells a tale of resilience and ingenuity”. 

Then we went to ArtHouse Jersey.

At the Jersey Art Centre we saw a project by Marc Medland who creates absurdist collages with different materials. Many were 3D to create depth. One of his projects were creating crime scenes with floor plans to map out the crime, a visual collage to represent the nature of the crime and a description of the actual crime too.

At the CCA Gallery we saw Glenn Perotte who photographed plant life on his journey up a mountain named: Mount Kenya’s Rooted Resilience. These images used a HDR approach to achieve much richer depth and colour.

At Arthouse Jersey we saw two projects:

Dancing Together: A Ballad by Kaarina Kaikkonen. She arranged tops to create works of art. The exhibition we saw moved the shirts from outside into a small gallery room to create a totally different sculpture.

And the sound of colour which projected a story onto a church ceiling. There were two parts, one being the history which is the one we saw.

GIRLHOOD

James, who has been The North Wall’s Propeller Artist for two years, began exploring the idea of GIRLHOOD during the group show ‘Fourteen’ which she facilitated and took part in for ‘Photo Oxford’ 2021. As a way to understand her journey of grief, she began investigating the vulnerability of adolescence as a metaphor of how she felt straight after her father died. Since then, James has been documenting teenage girls, all born at the start of the smartphone era and in a period of transition; gradually moving away from childhood yet nowhere near adulthood. Every adult was once a teenager, and we can all add to the conversation regarding our own teenage years. James tells us, “I, probably like yourself, was invincible as a teenager, yet now as an adult and as a mother I see how vulnerable teenagers are.” The artist’s ability to capture the essence of teenage girls allows for honest and sensitive imagery. Philippa James meaning behind her photos is that lot of teenage feels like waiting for adulthood, waiting for freedom, waiting to be taken seriously. This brilliant, stirring exhibit captures those feelings as well as the excitement kinship and joy of that time, told through McDonald’s trips and post-school bedroom hangouts.

James’ work here recalls the dreamy female gazes of photographers like Petra Collins and Ashley Armitage, although intentionally more grounded and unposed. In Girlhood, the camera seems to simply bear witness rather than glamourise or caution. Her strategy pays off: the unpoised vulnerability and freedom become the collection’s chief strength.

I’m going to be taking pictures of my friends doing their normal weekend ot day to day activity, such as shopping, doing hair, doing make up etc. Also going to be taking some portraits of different teenage girls styles.

For this photoshoot, my initial idea was to go to the woods and experiment with different poses to produce a variety of images with contrasting backstories. I then felt like I could relate this photoshoot to how girl’s lives were before social media and the internet. Some of my images come across as feminine, whereas others are seemingly unfeminine. I did this so I could have a collection of images to work with for different accounts.

Edited images:

I really liked this photoshoot, because I felt it worked really well in the woods as it shows how nature can contrast with social media. I also tried to portray a clear understanding of the difference of girls when they’re on social media, compared to when they’re not. Here we can see that the subjects are wearing bright colours, and seem more natural than they would online. This also shows a clear sense of community between the girls .

For these photographs, I wanted to convey a contrasting idea around feminism. Although the subjects are wearing bright colours that portray feminine qualities, they are presenting themselves as in a masculine way through smoking, as smoking is stereotypically a male quality.

Jersey Arts Centre

Marc Medland https://marcmedland.co.uk/projects/

10 Projects

CCA Galley https://www.ccagalleriesinternational.com/

Glenn Perotte https://www.glenperotte.com/

ArtHouse Jersey

Sound of Colour ARRIVALs https://www.arthousejersey.je/our-work/the-sound-of-colour

https://www.arthousejersey.je/our-work/dancing-together

Statement of Intent

For my personal study, I would like to explore the different styles of Architecture through the ages in Jersey. I would like to do this because I am passionate about Architecture and I aspire to be an Architect in the future. I also believe that Architecture is so important and can transform the way people act and feel within a building. For this project, I will aim to capture the details and shapes of different buildings, both historic and modern. Firstly, I would like to photograph historical architecture such as the unique facades at Havre des Pas. I am interested in taking photographs of older buildings as they have great detail which gives me the opportunity to capture architecture detail photographs. A key Jersey Architect who’s buildings I would like to photograph is Adolphus Curry. Adolphus Curry is one of the most notable photographers and engineers in the history of Jersey. Curry was a member of the Societe of Jersey and played a big role in the development of the Museum and the preservation of many of the island’s historic buildings. Furthermore, Adolphus Curry was a very well-known and loved man and the week leading up to his death in 1910, there were daily updates of his health in the newspaper. Overall, Adolphus Curry was more than just a designer, he contributed to Jersey’s Community by having involvement in other things such as the harbours, railways, sports, rubbish disposal and more. Source

Buildings designed/altered by Adolphus Curry:

These buildings include:

• Jersey Opera House
• Ladies College
• DeGruchy
• St Helier Railway Station (At Liberty Wharf)
• 2-6 Queen Street
• Victoria Club, Beresford Street
• Ommaroo Terrace, Harve des Pas
• Midland Chambers
• Masonic Temple

For these images, a key photographer who I am inspired by is Keith Dotson. Here are some images by him which I would like my outcomes to be similar to:

On the other hand, I would also like to photograph modern buildings and their shapes and details. I would like these results to have an abstract approach. I will do this by thinking creatively about the angles in which I take the photographs and paying attention to the framing and composition. A photographer who I am inspired by for these photos is Alex Upton. Here are some of his photos which best indicate what I would like to do:

When reviewing my images, I would like to create juxtaposition between old and new architectural styles by finding images which I can match together. I would like to present my final images in a photobook, starting from historical, detailed architecture to modern, high-rise buildings and the juxtaposition between the styles.

Here are some examples of inspiration for these juxtapositions:

I can recreate these ideas by using images of high-rise buildings, such as Horizon Apartments and the International Finance Centre, and manipulate them by editing images of historical/old buildings onto them in Photoshop.

In addition, I would like to do a typology study of the external facades of buildings at Havre des Pas as they have a unique architectural style.

My Inspiration:

Overall, my personal study will be focused on architectural styles and details and the contrast between the old and new.

Tom Wood, born 1951, is an Irish street photographer, portraitist and landscape photographer, based in Britain. He was often known as the ‘Photie man’, as he would never forget to bring his camera around where he lived. Wood is best known for his photographs in Liverpool and Merseyside from 1978 to 2001, “on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds” of “strangers, mixed with neighbours, family and friends.” Most of his most famous photos where a 5 minute walk from his house in Liverpool, creating interesting stories in each of his street photos. The critic Sean O’Hagan has described Wood as “a pioneering colourist” and “a photographer for whom there are no rules”, while keeping it “up close and personal”.

‘I started doing portraits of these kids hanging around on drugs, or whatever, and some of their parents. It was really tough’

Here are some photos shown in various national museum’s in Liverpool:

As you can see, each image can be a very interesting image on its own, as the context and amount going on in each photo allows that. He didnt have a set way to take his photos, he used whatever he had at the time and walked around looking for interesting subject to take a photo of, some being staged and others being street photography. So many photographers grub about until they have a formula, and then force all their pictures into the same mould. Not Wood. Forever unsatisfied, never content to make a series when a single picture will do, his curiosity and his intellectual powers always fully engaged, he has roamed around making pictures of the world he lives in.

Partly due to cost, from time to time he has used old cine film and out of date film stock for his pictures. This lends a grainy quality to the film, most evident in Bus Journeys. However, his use of medium formats lends fine detail to the negative, allowing much more visual information to be revealed through the printing process. Wood has also tirelessly experimented with printing papers to create the exact colour balances and textures he requires. For him, analogue rather than digital printing, and making his own prints in the darkroom, are important. He sees photographing, printing, selection and editing as inseparable parts of the process of photography.

101 pictures- 2020

Here, I chose 2 photos from his book ‘101 pictures’, it includes many of his most famous photos from his many years of taking photos.

Here you can see five people stand apart looking towards and contemplating an artwork out of the frame of Wood’s picture. The lighting is almost oversaturated, and its cropped to only show the people looking at the picture. The temperature is defiantly on the warmer side, with more red and orange colours that blue and purple. This photo is a big contrast from his usual photos, with more upper class people being included. The fact that they are standing equally apart, disconnects this image to reality. This could also be seen as the upper class disconnecting and distancing themselves to middle and lower class people. This is further added by how everyone is lost in there own thoughts, with no connection between each of them, their sobriety of behaviour matched by their dress, which is echoed in the browns of the gallery space. Even the brown, equally spaced framed images behind the subjects matches the overall boring, repetitive theme of this image. However, the 6th subject on the left seemed to have seen the camera, giving this photo some reality, allowing this image to stay somewhat similar to his others.

This image is a more ‘traditional’ tom wood photo, taken in Liverpool, which contrasts the imaged I used above with everything, from the lighting to the way the subjects are portrayed. here, light is an essential feature of this image, with the suns patchy light illuminating four young people as they eat there chips and beans at the sea front, with a colourful blue rail behind them, adding a barrier between the foreground and background. The barrier also adds lines across the photo, drawing the eyes towards them, thus drawing the eyes towards the unrepetitively placed subjects. This uneven placement of people makes it seem real (documentary). Each person in this photo is wearing bold and brightly coloured clothes, further giving this image life and value. I think the best part of this image is the peoples faces, each being unique and funny, which makes the viewer think about there stories and the connections between them.

Sam Taylor-Johnson – crying men

Sam Taylor-Johnson, born in 1967, is a British film director and artist. She began her creative carrier with fine art photography in the early 1990s, collaborating with Henry bond and creating a pastiche of various things, like the photo taken by Annie Leibovitz of Lennon a few hours before his assassination. However, she isn’t known for her photographer work back when she was younger, rather her as being a famous film director. So why am I talking about her? its because she created a series called ‘crying men’ which shown many male actors crying in films. From 2002 to 2004, after Sam had battled breast cancer, as an ‘exorcism of tears‘ she photographed actors crying, a mix of old Hollywood actors as well as young up and coming actors at the time. It was a revealing look at some actors you may not have seen cry on screen and raises questions about how masculine vulnerability is portrayed on screen, as well as how society has drummed it into men not to cry. I think this series is very impactful to see, as actors like Michael Madsen can be seen crying, and he’s usually depicted as the ‘tough guy’ in films. Men’s mental health is becoming a serious issue that’s been overlooked for many years and only now people are beginning to take action. For example, the highest cause of death for men under 45 is suicide, facts like these brings more attention to the topic of men’s mental health.

Other photographers:

Neil Leifer is probably the most well known sport photographer and created some of the most iconic shots. I will getting some inspiration from him when I turn towards sports, specifically basketball, when linking it to masculinity. Here are some photos I like:

All these photos are incredibly dramatic, from the intense facial expressions to the detailed backgrounds, each with there own unique stories. The photo with Muhammad Ali (likely the most famous boxer of all time), is particularly dramatic. It shows a victorious Ali standing over the defeated Sonny Liston, shot during a 1965 world title fight. Leifer admitted that luck played a big part in getting this picture, since if he was positioned in a different part of the ring, it would the photo would never of been as famous. However, even with his luck, creating a photo like this requires lot of skill, as the cameras back then where not as easy to use as they are now, as well as trying to get that close to the ring side. The buzz and excitement is also been presented very well in this image, with countless camera all around the right, and the tense Ali standing in the centre of the frame.

Sophie Day is another photographer I will be getting inspiration from. She spent three years continuously photographing close male friends, amassing an archive of their shared experience. Along the way, she refined her own understanding of masculinity – a girl amongst boys, reflecting on their social codes and behaviours. Here are some photos I like:

For my personal study, my inspirations come from the work of Carolle Benitah and Philip Toledano, two artists who utilise the theme of nostalgia, family, memory and loss in order to challenge events that have occurred in their lives, specifically in childhood. This is something I want to reinterpret in my own way and apply it to my own circumstances, that being growing up with a sibling who develops Bipolar disorder.

First Idea:

My first photoshoot idea solely comes from the work of Carolle Benitah. Benitah takes images from her own family archives, such as photo albums, and uses different mediums to symbolise different events that happened which are linked to the image itself, or the people within it.

She also uses the same consistent shade of red within each image to make them all link and be cohesive in the story that she’s trying to tell – this is something I have thought about doing but with a consistent shade of blue as this is my brothers favourite colour, however I need to think about this a bit more as I am unsure at the moment. But, if I do use this inspiration, I may be able to apply this into each photoshoot so that all my images link and show a clearer reference to Benitah.

As my inspiration, I am going to go through the images that my parents have involving my brother, whether that be just him, me and him or all of us, and photograph them. I am going to do this either by using the studio or creating my own small studio at home using black card as the background so that I can crop any spaces after. If this is unsuccessful, I will photocopy the physical image itself. This is because I don’t want to tarnish the actual picture, so by creating a copy this then allows me to be experimental with different mediums – such as paint, ink, thread, glitter – multiple times. I also do have digital images from my mum, meaning that I can print multiple copies off to also be able to experiment and not be worried about it being ineffective.

Second Idea:

My second idea stems more from the work of Philip Toledano, looking at the still-life’s he took of his sisters belongings from before she died as a nine year old child. Toledano took an assortment of Claudia’s belongings and keepsakes from her childhood and photographed them using a birds-eye view technique.

This is going to inspire me in my second photoshoot, beginning with me asking my parents for everything and anything they kept from mine and my brothers childhood, with the objects ranging from birthday cards to baby toys. Anything I can find I am going to photograph in order to have a wider variety of images to choose from as this will enable me to be more selective in choosing which images are the best, link the story well enough, and carry the most meaning. If I do this well, I think this will make my photobook more emotive, and encapsulate the heaviness of this topic behind it. I am going to try to achieve the lighting technique that Toledano uses, being that he uses geometric shapes in order to add that ‘out of place’ tone within the images. However, if this doesn’t work I will be able to find a way to do it on Photoshop by merging the two images and making one in black and white and the other in colour, then cutting out my desired shape in the black and white image, finally layering the two over each other so that the shape I have created is the only part of the image that is in colour.

Third Idea:

My third category of images that I am going to use is going to be of different locations that resonate with my brother and relate to his childhood. For example:

• My house
• Football fields
• My estate
• My garden
• The hospital that he goes to

These are only just a few I can think of at the moment, however I will ask my parents where the best places to go would be as they will know from taking me and my brother.

However, I don’t want my images to just be plain landscapes that don’t really fit in with my other two photoshoots so I am going to hone in on form for these images. My second zine that I did for Jersey’s maritime museum was very focused on the form of the landscape instead of the aesthetics of it, which is why I want to use this knowledge in my own personal study, as this is a good representation of seeking out the environment around me as well as portraying the context of my brothers story better. When I go to these places, I am going to take multi-shots to be able to distinguish the best images and be able to experiment better.

Overall, a key aspect of my work is going to revolve around form and shape, specifically in my third photoshoot, however this is also going to be demonstrated in my second photoshoot in a more discreet way. My photoshoots may change as I begin to work on them next week, however I need to remember to be experimental and explore different ideas by taking risks.

I will be taking inspiration from his project based on the Myths and Legends of Jersey. Danny Richardson discovered the art of photography over 10 years ago and since then he has used it as a tool to show people the way he sees the world. Richardson specialises in creative portraiture and conceptual Fine Art photography. He wanted to create a series of images with a local twist that reflected his style of photography, which is creative portraiture and conceptual imagery. This project gave Danny Richardson a sense of nostalgia and it was personal to him, “I saw it as an opportunity to indulge the nostalgic ‘dungeons and Dragons’ watching little boy I used to be” – Danny Richardson.

Richardson was initially inspired to start this project by the stamp creator Nick Parlett who created a series of stamps based on Jersey folklore.

“We all have our own perspective on the world around us and thankfully I can use mine in conjunction with my camera to capture moments and images that reveal an authentic truth or a story waiting to be told.” – Danny Richardson

This quote by Danny Richardson sums up the theme of myths and legends well as they are just stories waiting to be told and everyone has their own perspectives of myths and legends or whether they believe them or not.

Analysis

In this photo a woman is dressed in a white wedding dress and a veil, there is then another figure in the foreground who could possibly be the groom. I believe this photo tells the story of the ghost bride of waterworks valley. Smoke machines have been used which create an eerie look to the photo. The main focus of the photo is the bride as she is positioned around the centre of the image, and the figure in the foreground draws our attention to her as they are looking right at her. There is also little saturation in the image, the main points of saturation are the bride’s headpiece and her hands, this draws even more attention towards her.

How will I respond?

I will take photographs in a similar way to Danny Richardson as they will all be based on Jersey myths and legends, aslike are his photos. I will also be taking the photographs in the location that the legends and myths are based in, this is similar to his work as he also took images based in the same locations.

Jersey Myths and Legends by Danny Richardson