I chose this case study from the exam booklet, relating to my work.

I will be taking photos of different abandoned buildings/ bunkers/ old places and anything I think relates to my project of capturing derelict locations.

Here is a list of artists and their work that I am inspired by. I plan on taking photos similar to these:

Byron Sansivero

Michael Eastman

Robert Polidori

This mood board has been inspired by some of the photographers I saw in a photography exhibition in Paris. it includes images by Rene Groebil, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ralph Gibson and Cindy Sherman plus many more.

IDEAS:

This is my first basic idea that I might choose

Still life photographer – I like this artists images for capturing objects that link to family, which connect with the ‘seek’ part of this topic. I want to seek into the lives of my family members to seek and observe their past.]

Alec Soth

Rita puig serra costa – where mimosa bloom

julian german

André Kertész

For the portraits these are some of the photographers that I like the editing style of:

Dorothea Lange

Diane Arbus

Robert Frank

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Because I want to capture a full story of my family, I will also photograph places, inside and out. I like Henri Cartier-Bresson’s style of photographing spaces.

Key aspects for these shoots/ images will be light. After studying Rinko Kawauchi, I have learnt the importance of light, and the emotions it draws.

Different lighting techniques:

Rambrandt

Butterfly

Natural

Studio

Different angles: above, underneath, sides

Bright/ dark

FILMS:

I also like the idea of making short films for each family member

For this week, I have decided to take inspiration from the 2nd starting point given in the exam paper, which is shown above.

Rinko Kawauchi

Rinko Kawauchi was born in 1972, in Shiga, Japan, and graduated from Seian Women’s College (now Seian University of Art and Design) in 1993.

Her work explores the subtle aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which is defined by Wikipedia as ‘a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.‘ This means that it focuses on details, textures, and gestures that are often overlooked by us in the haste of everyday modern life.

It was close to melting point, and one could see the lake if one passed through.

Silence had spread out there; no waves, no sound.

I thought I might fall in by accident if I stared too long; I thought the glacier might devour me. I got scared and began to look around for what was missing. Where could I find the centre? Where will I find this circle, where can I dig up this gold?

And after a while I realised:
It can only be found on the surface.
Yes, I searched for the sun within a glacier.

—Rinko Kawauchi, to accompany her series “Search for the Sun,” 2015

I would like to take inspiration from this artist because it is not the usual style of photography I would go for and it would allow me to explore a more unknown (to me) area of the medium. I think it would be fun to get creative with this style. I like Kawauchi’s images because of their beauty in simplicity as well as their careful composition – they are created to stimulate pleasure of aesthetics.

Clare Gallagher, William Eggleston, Josef Sudak

The other artists mentioned on this page of the exam paper offer a more open brief when added to the work of Kawauchi.

Clare Gallagher‘s work focuses on the domestic life, highlighting the struggles faced by women, and especially mothers, in the home. Her images are simplistic and show only everyday, mundane items, but in a thoughtful and stimulating manner, especially when combined with her philosophy.

William Eggleston‘s photographs are characterised by their playful palette and imagery relating to the urban landscape of the American Midwest and its inhabitants. His images are exciting and colourful; they connote the consumerism and suburban lifestyle that populates the history of this area.

Josef Sudek‘s images are inversely dark and sophisticated. Shot on black and white film, the mise-en-scenes capitalise on the struggle between light and shadow. His work focuses on the mundane too, but uses drama to exemplify the lack of mundanity.

Moodboard:

I aimed to dissect and analyse the topic title as a whole, segregating each word into their own category and Including photos that somewhat resonate with them and also match the sort of photos I wish to take.

Ideas:

• Observe: I can take pictures which are landscape, showing a scene or view of somewhere in Jersey. Jersey does get some very good sunsets at evenings, in all sorts of colour varieties. Another thing I could take landscape photos of are different views and angles of town and the several estates dotted around Jersey, making reference to my estate photos I took during my Anthropocene project, which I also believe are some of my best photos taken. I’d like to have my photos focus on the world and society as a whole, just people getting on with their day and going about life, getting up to all sorts of activities and events.
• Seek: For this, I am not sure, to seek something you would have to want something, and we people all want something different, and often a lot more than just one thing. It could involve exploring the world to see all sorts of places, achieving a goal such as climbing the highest mountain or competing and becoming the champion in a worldwide sport. Or simply to find meaning in life, which is at the same time virtually impossible. To encapsulate these sorts of things in one photo would be difficult, but I could make photos that can enable anyone who views them to make their own interpretation on it, and apply to themselves and what they want. Something like taking photos of someone who is showing an emotion, but with their identity hidden, perhaps with a colour being shone onto them to reflect their emotions. Similar to my photoshoot a while ago which I named “Headshots”.
• Challenge: I want to make photos that go against the norm and equilibrium. Something new that people haven’t seen before. This could be of something abstract, full or empty of colour, contrasting or simple, confusing or straight forward. I could take photos of something that people see everyday but never take notice of or appreciate.

Some photos I’m taking inspiration from are:

For my fist shoot it is going to focus on gender and the male gaze, how males view and see females. I am going to try capture the emotions that this brings upon females, i will take photos of body parts like collarbones, shoulders, spine and side profiles.

OBSERVE

Mind map:

“When we stare at people, we’re actually just observing them, trying to better understand them, because there is something we find interesting in that individual!” – link

SEEK

Mind map:

For the theme ‘seek’, I think the best area to focus on would be seeking out new areas whether they are physical, personal, or theoretical. There are so many broad areas this could include as once you start looking, there’s more to seek out.

CHALLENGE

Mind map:

Throughs out my project I want to include more abstract views of colour. I think that in many of the images above they look as if they are been set up however, they haven’t which it what I want to try and achieve in my photoshoots. I think that this makes the images more engaging and and gives them more detail for the viewers. From this they can discover the detail and whilst my images will hopefully tell a background story, they can also use their imagination to add their own. I think a main focal point for me when taking images will be vehicles. I think that these are a good subject to photograph especially when it comes to colour. Whilst they may not look the same anymore as they have developed hugely, I still believe they will add to my project and make a great image. I am also going to look for more odd colour objects that may not jump into our mind when first thinking about the sort of things that we would typically see. I hope that these images will add to my project and give depth to it.

Observe, seek and challenge

Observe

-Notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant

Seek

-Attempt to find something, the desire to obtain or achieve (something).

Challenge

-A call to prove or justify something, to dispute the truth or validity of.

Exam paper pages 4&5

I read through this article and underlined quotes of information I thought was interesting and useful. This includes ideas for the theme of our project but also artists who I want to look into. The route of my idea started from the starting quote I picked out from this article. ‘The human desire to seek and explore the unknown has driven artists to look for fresh inspiration’. The words ‘explore the unknown’ instantly made me think of abandoned buildings, prehistoric places in Jersey, stone circles ect.

The theme of ‘seek’ has interested me the most as I feel there’s a lot of topics to explore under it, for example, religion, unknown places, childhood, caves, street art/ murals and so on. I think the main topics of my project will be abandoned buildings, showing how nature has taken over forgotten/rundown places and possibly secret locations that are less known, although this might be hard in Jersey as it’s a small island and most places have been explored. However, I am going to experiment with this and see what I come up with.

Mind map

I created a Mind map with a range of ideas on to pinpoint all the possible topics I could explore. This opened up my ideas more.

Mood board

I created a mood board for the general theme of ‘observe, seek, challenge’. It is made up of a number of images representing different themes such as identity, social public, places of worship, location/travel, abandoned buildings, discrimination, stereotypes, animals ect.

For my final exam project based on the brief of ‘Observe, Seek, Challenge’, I want to explore the practice of street photography and immerse myself and my images in the individual style of each city I visit.

This is important to me because I am lucky enough to travel to numerous cities fairly frequently with my mum and so I would like to portray these cities in the way that I see them. As I already have quite a good archive of images from various cities I will use these, but I also plan to build on them with three more photoshoots in Edinburgh, York, and Jersey. I think that this should result in a contrast between the more busy cities such as Paris, New York, and Athens and the smaller cities and towns, such as York and St Helier.

I plan to present this in a photobook – but not a printed one. I plan to print the images at a 6×4 size and then put them in a typical photo album/scrapbook you can buy from a stationery shop to create a homemade effect, like images from a family holiday.

I will begin by editing and selecting my existing photoshoots and then I will make new photoshoots, before editing them all. I want to take traditional street photography style images, like my artist references do, of people and life in the cities. I would also like to create images that do not contain people, and instead show the city’s architecture and style, as I feel that this is just as important in encapsulating the feel of a place.

The cities I have already photographed are Paris, London, Amsterdam, Athens, New York, and St Malo. I am not sure yet whether I will present the images all together in a specific order based on complementary images or whether I will present them in chapter-like sections for each city to show the travelling between them.

I do not think I will choose to manipulate my images with photoshop, however I will be editing them slightly to create a more professional look and create more links with my artists (who shoot in black and white).