Planning:

Concept-

For my photobook I’m basing it off of my grandparents marriage and the idea of their two very different cultures coming together and them forming this new life together as a union. My grandmother is from Germany and my grandfather is from jersey this is very important because they met very shortly after WW2 this meant their relationship was very frowned apon due to being on “different sides of history” however this didn’t stop their love and their marriage. Therefore i would like to show aspects of their culture and families but also what they have in common despite their differences for examples their love of sailing.

editing and sequencing:

For my photobook the layout is very important I would like to try and use the collages I did inspired by Christian Boltanski almost like chapters to separate my images and show what they are centred around.

Process:

For my photobook I had explored many different ideas surrounding how I wanted to present my image. For example, I originally used a single page for these collages however after looking at Duane Michals work, they use double page spreads within their photobook. I thought this would work best for these pictures inspired by Christian Boltanski as he used incredibly big canvas’s when presenting his work so I liked the idea of imitating that style.

Finished Product:

Evaluation:

Overall I’m extremely happy with how my photobook has come out. The only thing I would have liked is for it to have been a bit longer for me I initially wanted to have around 25-30 pages however I felt that I needed to cut out some of the images in order to make the book look cleaner and more effective. I’m happy with my decision to organise it by doing a collage on a double page spread and then having two pages of my own image by doing this is creates this rhyme when looking and going through my book.

editing process:

final image

Process:

This photoshoot is inspired by Christian Boltanski and his collages of different families. In order to acheive this i will be using the photos from the first photoshoot i did and will be organising them into groups ( Grandmother, friends and family, Royal Airforce, sailing, together) and editing them to be like a mood board.

Editing process:

The first thing I had to do was make a custom page on photoshop so it would be exact size of my book and because I wanted it to be a double page spread I doubled the width size from 20 to 40cm and kept the height the same 25cm

The next step is to just finalise the exact images I want to use and start arranging them on the page. I found I liked it best when i had the sizes of the images used varying I felt that it made it so i could better present and draw attention to the images i found to be most interesting and important.

Grouped images:

Grandmother-

Friends and family-

Royal Air Force-

Sailing-

Together-

Evaluation:

Overall im very happy with how this photoshoot came out. Orginally when i started the editing process i wasnt using an exact template for the size and i found that when placed into the book it didnt have the right effect i was tryung to acheive and there ended up being lots of empty space around the photos which was drawing your attentuion away so im happy with my descion to matcg it with

Process:

For my fifth photoshoot I would like to try and get an image of my Grandads camera which he used to create his images.

Contact sheet:

Editing process:

final image:

Process:

contact sheet:

Editing process:

Final image:

Process:

For my fifth photoshoot I have chosen to try and recreate some of my granddads original photos

Contact sheet:

Editing process:

Final images:

Evaluation:

Overall I’m very happy with this photoshoot editing it so that she was looking back at me was difficult due to the quality being very different but by decreasing the opacity a lot it helped blend the two images together.

Process:

For my third photoshoot I am planning on experimenting with embroidery inspired by Carolle Benitah. I will be doing that both physically (which I will be using a final images) and digitally. For this I have printed off some of the images I took in my first photoshoot and i will be printing them off onto heat transfer paper. The next step is iron the photo onto a piece of fabric (I chose to use recycled tote bags).Once the picture has been ironed on and the top layer peeled off the last and final step is to start with embroidery. For this I have chosen to do my grandparents flags behind them additionally on two separate photos I will be creating some waves behind my them to represent his love for the sea and sailing.

These will be the images I’m going to use…

Editing process:

In addition to the physical copies I wanted to do them digitally. In order to do this I will be by drawing onto the picture some I have done through using the straight line tool (the picture with the flags) as I wanted straight consistent lines. However, the others (picture of grandmother on the bench and grandad with waves behind him) I used the paint tool as the required more detailed lines with curves which I was unable to do with the shape tools I was given.

Final images:

Evaluation:

Overall I very happy with how it came out. although the waves were difficult to do use to the curved nature of them I think they came out quite well its very clear what they are meant to be. Something I would have liked to change was the flag images this is because although you can tell they are flags i wish I had been able to potentially fill in more of the background son it was more obvious.

Process:

For my first photoshoot I focused on digitalising photos from my family albums. My grandad had a passion for photography so there was lots of different options to pick from. I ended up choosing a few from each prominate stage of their lives. This included photos from when they were stationed in Kenya and Egypt; when they lived in jersey; when they went back and visited Germany etc…

Contact Sheet:

Editing Process:

In regards to editing this photoshoot was relatively easy the main aspects of editing which I had to use was the crop tool and for some of the photos I changed the exposure as a few of the originals were a little over exposed.

Final Images:

Evaluation:

Overall the photoshoot was good I feel like I got a good variety of photos displaying lots of different aspects of my grandparents lives together. I’m happy with the selection of images that I took as I have lots of different images based on different parts of their lives for examples parts of my grandads family, my grandmothers family, their kids, them going sailing etc…

Photoshoot 1

For my first photoshoot I need to digitalise my grandads photos. My grandfather had a big interest in photography therefore I have hundreds of his old photos. My whole project will be centred around these photos and exploring what I can do with them.

Photoshoot 2

For my 2nd photoshoot I was planning on focusing on the family photos I have. I would like to go through them and organise them into groups to then take pictures of those groups. I was thinking about sorting some into portraits, some from my Grandfathers time in the Royal Airforce, some of their family home etc… I want to base my first photoshoot on Christian Boltanski as he created this work to try and reconnect or learn about these families which is part of the reason I choose to base my project on my grandparents. He creates these huge pieces which will contain lots of portraits of family members which he then uses to create one big collage. I know that lost of the photos that I have access to were portraits of different family members so it will be nice to learn about everyone while I do this.

Photoshoot 3

For my 3rd photoshoot I’m hoping to use embroidery and needle work inspired Carolle Benitah. in order to do this I am planning on using old pieces of fabric and ironing my picture onto that fabric using heat transfer paper.

Ideally I would like to try and stitch signs/icons of the nationality of the persons who’s portraits it is For example if it was a picture of my grandmothers I would bases it on something from Germany. Ideally I would like to use one picture of both my grandmother and grandfather together and try and have their flag behind them.

Photoshoot 4

For my 4th photoshoot I would like to recreate some of my grandads photos. I would like to recreate some of the images of my grandmother with myself. In order to to this I will have to use a tri-pod as I will be both the model and photographer however I feel its important for me to be the model when replicating the images due to being the only granddaughter.

Additionally i potentially will edit some photos so its half my grandads picture and half mine. There is one picture my grandfather took of my grandmother standing in front on a small lake with her reflection looking back at her. I believe recreating this image but editing it so that I’m looking at the camera and my grandmothers reflection will be in the water.

Photoshoot 5

For my 5th photoshoot I would like to get a picture of my dad holding up a picture. This is a picture that has always been on display in my house growing up its a picture of my great grandfather standing next to my grandfather on a bike when he was a child. The reason I want to use that exact photo is because I would like to try and show the three different generations of the men in my family.

Photoshoot 6

For my 6th photoshoot I am inspired by Zoltan Kerenyi’s ‘windows to the past’. This means similarly to Kerenyi I will be using some of the family photos I have of when my grandparents moved back to jersey and returning to the same location. While Kerenyi superimposed his images to utilise both the old and the new I would like to physically be holding up to subtly represent more of a connection to the image. These images seem so personal showing snapshots in time and going back to revisit them which I think will work really well conceptually with my project.

Photoshoot 7

For my 7th photoshoot I’m heading down to the harbour. This is because I want to take photos inspired by my grandad and his love for boats and sailing. I’m planning on doing this through finding similar objects that I could find in my grandads original photos for example I want to find a small boat similar to what they had and maybe some seaweed based on a photo he took of my dad pulling in their boat whilst standing on a platform covered in seaweed.

Photoshoot 8

For this last photoshoot all I want is to take a picture of both my grandparents wedding rings together with their marriage certificate. This is important to me and it displays their nationality and little bits of information surrounding them.