Observe, Seek and Challenge

Exam Paper- Pages 4 & 5

I highlighted quotes I believe are significant as well as adding my own notes about the ideas I have for my project. One of the quotes: ‘the human desire to seek and explore the unknown’ was in my eyes a perfect portrayal of the topic- since I would like my project to be a exploration of something that is different to my everyday life. Moreover, ‘the diversity, complexity and geometry of nature’ I found was also interesting, as it puts into perspective the many different layers of nature photography. Another quote ‘Artists frequently use metaphors in their work to disguise the messages; some are blatant some are obscure’, implies how the use of metaphors and indirectness is important in photography, since it what causes each project to be individual. The theme description also outlined many points of interest, such as nature, society and landscapes, which proved to be useful when developing my own ideas.

I thought of three main ideas for my project: stereotypes (specifically surrounding gender), abandoned (historical) locations and animals (specifically cats).

Stereotypes are one of the biggest flaws our are society and I think it would be interesting to create a project that challenges gender stereotypes and seeks out why and how they are created. I could take self portraits for this project- linking my work with artists such as Claude Cahun and Francesca Woodman. I would also link this with places- abandoned as Woodman tends to use as her background. I could create portraits as well as landscapes- the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum being a place I could focus on. Woodman focused on femininity as well as mental health, which could be something I could explore. I would use a slow a shutter speed to create blurry and multiple exposure photographs, in Woodman’s style.

Next, Jersey is a island with many different interesting places, that are very significant in relation to it’s history. It would be interesting to develop a project that investigates such places (like the war tunnels, the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum in St. Saviour, etc.) and challenge why their existence- why they were created but also closed, left, abandoned). A photographer which would inspire me for this theme is Matt Ememett- his portfolio Forgotten Heritage Photography being pictures of abandoned places- capturing their diverse beauty.

Lastly, my final idea would be about animals; their day to day survival, our impact on them. I would like to capture detailed, micro photographs of them that captures their beauty and the complexity of their life. A more specific idea would be to focus on cats (found around Jersey) and it would focus on how they view our world/ their point of view, how they observe, seek and challenge the world. I could include photographs of cats themselves as well as landscapes from low angles, exploring how cats physically see our island. I could create dreamy, detailed images- romanticising their life or I could take harsh images- perhaps in black and white, capturing the reality of their lives. Walter George Chandoha is a inspiration as throughout his career he photographed cats over and over again, capturing beautiful pictures of the animals. Jo Stephen takes beautiful, dreamlike landscape photos and he could be my inspiration for the style of my photographs. Another photographer, Ekin Küçük, created a project called Cat Fever which captures black and white pictures of cats in their natural environment (the streets of a busy city), capturing the harsh reality of cat’s lives.

Mind Maps

Moodboards