How my final images fit into the theme of Observe, Seek, Challenge

Observe: Observing the use of technology around us.

Seek: Seeking nature in this world of technology

Challenge: Challenging technology addiction

How I feel

Overall I am very satisfied with how my project developed. The photobook really is a visual representation of the story that I wanted to portray and it has also been really eye-opening to me due to my in depth research about the negative connotations when it comes to technology. Not only did I chose to focus my study on technology vs nature to help other people understand about this problem but also to create some clarity with myself about my future of constantly using technology.

How they turned out

My final images look professional and I am glad that I chose to do many photoshoots to really show the effects of technology on older and younger people which very much helps me elaborate my point.

What was challenging

However I did face multiple challenges with this project which isn’t always a negative factor due to me just needing to use more creative ideas to go around these obstacles. One major obstacle was the weather in Jersey. This greatly impacted my project due to a lot of my images representing nature needing to be archive images, this is because In my photobook I wanted to create a powerful contrast between my images of technology which I wanted to present with negative connotations with a darker and more dystopian feel where as for my nature images I wanted them to be bright using the natural light from the sun and the vibrance of plants but due to the season that I did my photoshoots in It was often raining with a lack of sun and a lack of nature due to many luminous plants being killed in the winter. Another major obstacle That I faced was while developing my photobook some of the images where not as high quality as I would of liked them to be which meant I needed to make some sacrifices. Such as I couldn’t use a lot of my archived images due to them being shot on an older iPhone and some of the more powerful images that I wanted to be on a double page spread in my photobook I had to make them cover only one page or they would of printed out pixelated. Also on my front cover I couldn’t use the image that I wanted and felt would best describe my photobook as a whole from looking at it due to it again not being the right image size.

Artist references

Something I also regret looking at is the limited amount of photographers who tried to capture the same style that I was aiming for since it consumed a lot of my time trying to find artists to find inspiration from. Though on a positive note I am very happy with some of the photographers that I manged to find such as Andreas Varro and Eric Pickersgill due to our similar ideas and I found their work really captivating and inspiring which Overall gave me multiple more ideas of photoshoots than I originally had. I really admired how Andreas Varro created his work to portray a dystopian, unnatural world within his images while trying to prove a point of what our future could look like if we keep going in this direction. Where as I really liked how Eric Pickersgills main focal point of the image which was portraying technology just for it to not actually be in the photo. Almost trying to create a visual representation of how our body’s look while using devices and how unnatural it actually seems.

Developing this photobook has also helped me understand Lightroom classic a lot more than previously when developing my old book. I wasn’t very satisfied with how my photobook on nostalgia turned out as I had limited photos to captivate what I wanted to so seeing my photobook online now has installed me with much more confidence then I had previously about making photobooks and just my general photography skills.

Here is a link to my online photobook; Titled The Present

To create my Virtual gallery I used photoshop as I would be unable to do it on Lightroom classic and due to the internet ban I wasn’t allowed to use what I normally use which it “Art steps” Firstly to to pick my gallery I went onto this folder

and chose which gallery’s I liked the most. Then I uploaded my final images to photoshop.

Due to some of the images having photos on them already I used the “Spot healing brush tool” to create an empty canvas to put my images on.

I then dragged the image by unlocking the background image onto my virtual gallery

Then I pressed “Control T” to downsize the image and then i pressed “Perspective” By right clicking the image to make it look more realistic hanging on the wall

Overall I’m not too happy with the final outcomes due to the fact that I never really use photoshop so I’m not used with how to work it. I generally don’t think that these images look as realistic as my old virtual galleries did on Art steps. But doing this process has helped me become a little bit more confident with working on photoshop.

The Image above is A3 which means that it will be the centre piece of my final displays

The images above are A4

The images above are A5

Final Mounted images

To do this process I decided to use a white foam board as the background for my darker images and Black cardboard for my pictures of nature as this contrast will help the images stand out.

Firstly I sprayed the back of the images with glue and then stuck them on a foam board. Then I decided if I wanted a white boarder around my images or not so I cut the images out depending on my decision. Lastly I used double sided tape to stick my images onto the background. Overall I did enjoy this process as I like doing practical work though it was very time consuming.

I am happy with the final outcomes of my images as I presented them the way that I originally wanted. I did struggle a little bit at first as I had a blunt knife for my images of nature so the cut isn’t as clean as the others, and a few of my images I accidently got some of the glue on it so it has a few marks but I am still happy with how they turned out.

Overall I am Very happy with the result of my photobook. My aim was to create a clear story of the contrast between technology and nature and I think That I achieved this. Starting this project I had a clear visual representation in my mind of how I wanted to lay it out, which was every couple of dystopian, technology images I wanted to include a double page spread of nature to contrast the two worlds and really open the viewers eyes. I am excited to see how the book looks in person.

Throughout the book I chose various lay outs to give my pictures more personality. I managed to to this by pressing the drop down button below my page and then choosing from the various layouts that I have been given. I only did this for my images of technology as I wanted all my images of nature to be on a double page spread.

I chose this image as my front cover as I feel like its the best photo I have taken that expresses the story I want to tell. Due to the mixture of the female models attention being on their iPhone when Surrounded by nature. Originally I wanted this image to cover the front and back of the book but due to the size of it being too small I needed to select an old image for the back of my book.

For my first page I wanted to have this darker, more dystopian image on a double page spread due to it being one of the most captivating photos I have produced, But again due to the image size I was unable to do this as it would come out pixelated. So instead I choses to have the image covering only one side leaving the other side blank so the main focus is still on that one singular image.

For my Last image in my photobook I chose this one due to its difference to the others but yet conveys a strong, powerful message of how addictive technology is. I also did this to leave the viewers of my photobook with the distinctive message. Overall I wanted my photobook to related to all 3 of the verbs given such as, Observing: observing the destructive use of technology around us. Seeking: Seeking nature in todays society and Challenge: Challenging technology addiction. This image relates to the last point of challenging addictive behaviours that are frequently seen in todays society.

For my title I decided to name my book “The present” Firstly because of the irony of it as my photobook is basically describing how people are not living in the present on their mobile phones and secondly because this is the reality of the present time and how most people live their life glued to their phone.

For my photobook I narrowed down the 327 images that I took for this project into only 31

I decided to only use 31 images as I didn’t want my photobook to be too big and just a repetition of the same pictures. This helps make my final book more clear and gets the point across better. Each of my final images have a distinctive meaning.

All of the above are my photos that represent nature. I tried to euphemise them by increasing the vibrancy to make them more captivating and appealing then my other photos to really show the beauty of nature. These photos have significant meaning to me due to them all being taken in importance places such as my garden, places I used to go with family as a child and the places where I haver travelled to.

The set of images above are also important to me and my project. The meaning the I was trying to convey behind these images as how attached teenagers are on their iPhone. while blocking out reality and the world that surrounds them. The positions that I made my model sit, lay in are the natural positions that many of this generation goes in with their full attention being on their devices. The outcome of these Images where really powerful as it shows how many people are missing out on real life and while in these conditions they are not really “Living”.

The set of images again are Important to my project due to the important meaning behind them. They show how even while surrounded by nature many of this generation will still have their full attention on their phones. In two of the images I asked my models to display online images of nature while sat in similar environments, This emphasises the oblivious nature of people while on their phones and always seeking the virtual world rather than reality. These images are representations of what I see everyday in public, though in real life this type of behaviour is now considered “Normal”

The set of images above are again important to my photobook due to the meaning they convey. I produced them to show the dystopian realities of business that rely purely on technology. To help portray this I asked my male model to start working for his online business and told him to pose how he normally did. This inevitably shows the dangerous effects of spending all day on technology as it could impact an individuals mental health, I feel that the message behind these images are clearly evident to the viewer of my book which has been helped by the way I edited these images.

Lastly the set of images above are important to my photobook as it shows the effect that technology can have on relationships. To convey this message I asked my models to go on their devices ignoring and giving no attention the other model. These sets of images will inevitably also have a powerful impact on the viewer as in reality the impact technology has on relationships is often very overlooked by many which could result in separations in the future.

The photobook I used for the inspiration of my layout was “Mother” By Matthew Finn.

Mathew Finn made this book from photos he has taken of his mother over the years starting from his “Need to create stability” but due to this happening so often Finn stated that it became a “Ritual” and he couldn’t abandon it. One of the main inspirations for this book was to represent his mother as the only parent figure in his life, while his father abandoned him and his family to move on with his life. Many of the photographs are of his mother smoking a cigarette which he states is significant because on the day of his fathers funeral his mother told him that his father had remarried multiple times and had many other children, this news apparently deeply effected Finn and is where his need to create this photobook started. He felt the need to include his message at the front of the photobook before people read it to create a sense of clarity with the audience, And without the context his photos may lack meaning. Though In my photobook I chose not to include any written context I still think that the message that I was trying to portray was clearly evident to the reader.

In the back of the photobook Elizabeth Edwards wrote her account on the subject and named it “Feeling her presence” she describes his images as “not just portraits in the usual sense of the world, yet they are an account of life, a deeply humanistic response to a set of human circumstances” Which really gives the photobook more meaning when it is analysed in such depth.

I chose to use this photobook as my inspiration due to its layout, Though it can be seen as not having any relation to my photobook our formats are really similar. Finn used multiple different formats to display his images, though there are some consistencies throughout.

some of the formats he used are

Having a double page spread for one of his stronger images. Though all of his pictures are of his mother, some can be seen as more significant than others such as this image. Finn explained the reasoning behind this image in his context at the front due to his mother smoking on his fathers wedding. By Finn making this image spread across two pages it creates an insight to the audience that this is one of the main images in his book.

Similarly used double page spreads for my images in my photobook due to them also being significant to me. All of my images that are on a double page spread are my images of nature so that they are more captivating and appealing to the viewer rather than the darker images.

Having one image bigger than the other on two pages. Finn may have done this technique to try and symbolise a relationship between the two images that might not be as evident to the viewer. I like this technique as my interpretation of it is that even though the image on the left is bigger it doesn’t mean that its more significant than the smaller one on the right. I also like how even though they are very different each of the images contain the same type of wood which shows the correlation together.

On these two pages on my photobook I also made one a full bleed and the other smaller. I used this technique due to both of the images being very similar as the vocal point of them is the laptop screen. I also wanted to signify that neither one of the images are more important but yet work better as a pair than individually.

Having multiple images on the same page. Finn would have done this technique due to all of the images having a relationship with the other, Though He does not state this in his photobook It looks as if the two images on the left are his mother when she was younger comparatively to the right where it looks as if the images are of older people. This shows the evolution of his mother which he wouldn’t of been able to achieve without having multiple images on the same page.

On these two pages of my photobook I also put multiple images on the same page, This is again due to the relationship of the images and how well they work together. I also chose to use this technique as it saves space in my book as I didn’t want it to be too repetitive and waste pages.

An image on one page and leaving the other one blank. Finn may have used this technique to help not make his photobook appear as too crowded. The use of this type of simplicity can also help to make the viewer not feel too overwhelmed with images and brings the attention back to the main focal point of the book which is his mother.

I also used the same technique on these pages of my photobook where I wanted all of the attention to be on that one singular image but I also didn’t want it to appear too crowed by spreading the image across the double page. Due to this image representing both nature and technology clearly I didn’t feel the need to add another image on the left side.

In conclusion I am glad that I found Finns photobook as I feel that we have very similar ideas for how we wanted our photobook to be interpreted by the layout and though we have different meanings behind our books I was still inspired by his intent and how he4 presented his mother to the audience through just a few images of her. One similarity between our intents is that his book is clearly evident to have an emotional toll on his viewers, as is mine in the same respect that I want it to be also eye-opening to the audience and for them to be emotionally impacted by it

For this photoshoot I was inspired by Andreas Varro though I took a different turn on his style there is definitely a resemblance of our images. I tried to follow the aspect of the addiction of mobile phones in todays society

For this photoshoot Due to it being still life I decided to do it in the schools studio for the best potential lighting as I wanted to used overhead artificial lighting to evenly distribute it throughout my image. I also used an overhead camera holder as I wanted a overhead views of my objects to create the persona of someone looking down at them. My reasoning for this photoshoot is to show the increasing addiction of mobile phones in todays society and to compare it with a well known, common addiction which is Tobacco. I feel that my use of this contrast will have eye opening effects on the viewers due to the lack of knowledge in people about how addicting mobile phones can actually be.

Final edited images

I edited all of the images above on Lightroom classic while mainly playing with the highlights, whites, exposure and shadows to give them a cool tone with the darkness of the tobacco, tobacco packet and the lenses of the camera to really standout and be the vocal point of the images, this is due to these dark tones having negative connotations to the viewer to really enhance the negative and deadly impacts of addiction which overall elevates the dystopian society I am trying to represent in my photobook.

Conclusion

In conclusion I am happy with how this set of images turned out, originally I wasn’t going to do this photoshoot but as I progressed with the others I felt that it would fit the story that I was trying to tell in my photobook. Though I don’t normally like doing still-life images I did enjoy doing this photoshoot and playing with different angles and ways to position my objects.

Image analysis with Andreas Varro

The image that I made and developed on the left shares some similarities between the image on the right made by Andreas Varro. One of the similarities between the images is the use of mobile phones and combing them with other objects. The image on the right contains a hand coming out of a bullet and holding a mobile phone to symbolise how technology in todays society can be related to the death of nature and the death of socialisation between two individuals which is similar to the concept of my image where I used an addictive substance which is tobacco and but a mobile phone in its package to symbolise how addictive they both are relating back to death. The differences between our images are the lighting as Varro used dark lighting which is projecting off of the fake bullet to create the illusion of a spotlight in comparison to my image where I used continuous overhead lighting to that it was evenly distributed throughout the entirety of the image.

What you want to explore?

I want to explore the contrast of nature and technology though a documentary.

Why it matters to you?

It matters to me since I was born in 2006 and the first iPhone was released in 2007 so I have basically grown up with technology and watched it develop over time. Even though it has made a positive impact on todays society such as medicine and businesses, It has become a world wide addiction debilitating multiple people with how much time they spend in nature which has decreased more than half since the 1980s. The use of technology is also causing a world wide epidemic with the eyesight condition ‘Myopia’ which effects peoples Near-sightedness, this has gone up 26.9% since the year 2000 and is still continuing to increase. The addiction of technology is often ignored or not looked at by most people comparatively to other addictions such as tobacco, alcohol and Caffeine due to it not being perceived as ‘harmful’. It is also disregarded due to it being society’s norm. Its also something that I’m trying to improve on as I spend multiple hours a day on my phone which distracts me from real life. Every day we are surrounded by people generally hypnotised by technology and ignoring that actual real world.

How you wish to develop your project?

For my project I am planning to take pictures of people using different types of technology but in a dystopian setting with artificial lighting, and then contrast it with pictures of wildlife such as plants and wild animals which have been undisturbed by humans, to do this I am going to use natural lighting in my garden.

When and where you intend to begin your study?

To begin this study I am going to use some old pictures that I have taken over the years of different types of wide life that I haven’t used in previous projects. In the next few weeks I am going to be taking multiple images of my brother, friends using most the most common forms of technology inside and outside. and then I am going to take pictures in my garden of wildlife such as fish, birds, squirrels, plants etc. To combine the two themes I am going to take pictures of people using their mobile phones while sat in nature such as sat around a pond and under trees ect. This will also be done in my garden.

For this natural photo shoot my inspiration was Marsel van, This is due to us both taking images of wildlife in its natural state and the natural lighting that we both used.

For this photoshoot I decided to do it mid-day, I did this to make sure that it was bright outside while taking my images to highlight the shadows of the plants that I took images of, I did this photoshoot in my front garden due to its natural setting and unique nature. We have a large variety of wildlife in my garden such as multiple plants and animals.

Final edited pictures

I edited all of the above images using Lightroom classic to develop the pictures into the tones that I was looking for. All of my images of nature throughout my photobook have warm and vibrant tone and I achieved this by increasing the highlights, shadows and clarity.  Due to my Previous images of technology being dystopian I wanted to make my landscape images of nature more appealing in the photobook so that the viewer automatically gets drawn to them hence the seeking nature part in my Ideas.

Image comparison with Marsel van

The image that I made and developed on the right was produced to share some similarities to the image on the left made by Marsel van, These similarities consist of the vocal points of the images which is the water. Both mine and Vans images have warm and cool tones such as the oranges in the rainbow and the sunset and the darkness of the clouds, and we both used only natural lighting due to the photoshoots being outside and focusing on nature. Though they also have multiple differences such as the calmness of the water on the right compared to the waves and breaks in the water on the left, it is clear that they where taken in two very different settings to tell two very different stories.

Conclusion

In conclusion I am happy with the overall result of this photoshoot and I feel that I gathered a good collection of images that represent the beauty of nature in Jersey Ci.

My selection of images.

I selected the images that I wanted to use on Lightroom classic by flagging them. I also used the X and Y tool to compare similar images and help me decide on what ones I should use.