The Book

This is my final book, I went through multiple versions, some focusing on colours, some textures but I found they lacked the story. This final version highlights the finer details in the story, shown by different photos, different compositions and different non literal lenses. The theme union was the cause of this project, I wanted to show the connection, union, between man and the land. Farming is the best way to show this as it one of the biggest ways we interact with the land and do our best to maintain it. It is also essential to human life, without farmers there is no food. Within my project I focused on one farmer, Raoul who uses more traditional equipment and methods. The book is an end picture, a summary of this. I spent three days photographing him, his farm, the land and listening to his stories, learning to understand the land around us and how he works to work with it. When I started to edit the photos I split them into the different photoshoots, allowing me to see how I can tell his story through my photos. A huge part of Raoul is his Massey Fergusons so I started my book with Raoul working, this allow the viewer to understand the books point from a point of view of the public who have a rough idea of what farming is. I then went into the tractors, the farmers passion but also deeply involved in his lifestyle, this also allowed me to set up my consistent red mentions throughout the book. Once the viewer has understood a bit about the tractors, and got a sense for the more traditional style of them and therefore the traditional maintenance of them I went into photos of the land. From landscape photos with typical Jersey features like granite fence posts to rows of potatoes, one of Raoul’s main crops. This gives the viewer an insight into rugged Jersey landscape that Raoul works with. Going back to the tractors briefly then showing how they are maintained using a lifetimes worth of skills and knowledge as well as workshops full of tools. A lot of the workshop and tool photos are in black and white, this helps highlight the age and point out missed details, like the wood work shop being the old dairy. Or the wear to the wood panels, covered in tools and useful things. Raoul is a very organised person, as are many farmers who have to get the precise day to plant or the right mm to shave off a tractor part. I wanted to show this with his tractor parts, the way they are organised or labelled, adding smaller details like potato crates and old photos alongside his to add back a personal feel. The final pages of my book highlight the overall farm, the viewer, having seen an insight into the details now has a reflection of what they normally see to remind them just how little they might understand about farming. It was important to me that I added a few of the stories I was told at the end, stories that would otherwise be forgotten but hold important parts of history.

The Link To Union

Throughout the project I focused on how I could express the union of land and man. This photo is an example of how I captured it. With three layers, the foreground being farmed land, the middle being a greenhouse but on natural ground then the background being wild unkept looking trees and rugged grass. It looks like a simple photo but it holds many details and is important to the project, especially when paired with other photos.

Another link I made to union, the union of man and machine for Raoul tractors are very important but they will always require a lot of work. I kept these two in colour because the carboard pulls to the two photos together, showing how they are linked.

Inspired by impressionism I created this photo. I liked the idea that it forces the viewer to see the connection between man and the land as the blur blends the two together. You can still see the differences but they are one.

Link To Research

Alexander Mourant

Alexander Mourant and his ‘on Living stones and reaching’ project was my main inspiration behind this project. His blunt style capturing the simplicity of the details, but having heavily researched his work and the history behind it before completing the project. He also adds chunks of text to help the viewer understand his work. I liked the idea of explaining the photos and used it on my final book page to tell the viewer about details only I knew when looking back over certain photos. It has helped add a connection to the book for the viewer as they can read about the smaller details, why that photo was taken and the significance it has.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was also a large inspiration behind the project with his work during the impressionist movement. Monet used bight colours and blurred lines, I used high contrast black and white, motion blur and the colour red as a theme throughout. Having researched Monet’s work I understood the impact of colour and ‘expression’ rather than just technically good work. This has helped draw an authentic feel to the book and make the images powerful with bright colour and high contrast, forcing the viewer to look.

FOR EVERY MINUTE YOU ARE ANGRY YOU LOSE SIXTY SECONDS OF HAPPINESS- Julian Germain

This book was what I researched and based my book style on, while it is two different subjects and content. I used the same idea, pairing images, continuous important details throughout, in Germain’s book it was flowers and bright colours in mine it was Massey Fergusons, the colour red and potatoes. It helps keep the viewer focused on the true book subject and not just look at the photos, keeping the narrative alive. Germain also used a simple cover, featuring the continuous themes, which I liked the idea of but used my own version obscuring it slightly with the tractor being over grown.

The cover and back cover, I wanted to use black and white photos as I felt it had the traditional, but powerful feel to them I want the book to have. The cover looks like a hedge in a field until you look closer and realise it is a tractor that is over grown with a hedge and over plants. However it still has a cover on as an attempt to protect it as it is loved but just no time to look after it well. This hints at the life of a farmer, trying to look after everything but running out of time so doing his best. I also like that it is clearly an older tractor hinting at the more traditional techniques the farmer uses, that will be featured throughout the book. The back cover is very simple, a black and white photo of birds flying, I like the simplicity. It hints at how at the end of the day farming is just trying to work with nature and explore the freedom it has, to bring new life and get rid of old while still having a direction. I haven’t put a title or author name on the book yet.

Final Pages

Summary

Overall, when creating the book I looked to place corresponding colours together, mini stories, metaphors and additions to the bigger picture. I linked certain things throughout the book, like the colour red and the organised chaos that is this farm. While still keeping to my original theme of farming, especially in a more traditional manor. A true union of the land and man. Many of my pages are full with the photo, some however require white boarders to add breathing room in the book. Stopping it getting too busy and overwhelming the viewer. It is an important story to be telling, the long hours and lifetime of dedication to still have just as much work tomorrow. I hope the book captures this, introducing the viewer into the story through familiar scenes, farming then showing the reality of it, workshops full of tools to get the tractors to run before they can go near a field.

Alexander Mourant

Alexander Mourant is a photographer and creative educator, based in London originally from Jersey. Published in many articles and exhibitions, both local and world wide. Within Jersey he has received grants for his work, developing history and local knowledge. One of his more noticeable projects in Jersey being his ‘On living stones and reaching’ as well as receiving grants in the UK and wining awards for art pedagogy. Alongside his photography he is an accomplished writer, contributing to the C4 journal, a platform in which photography is researched, explained and analysed and looking in depth at photos books.

Before being where he is now, he got a BA in photography and then also a MA in photography, developing his deeper understanding of research and love for the work. Although predominately based in London now and other UK areas in the past, he was originally from Jersey and is often the basis of a lot of his work. While he is a photographer he also is a lecturer of photography at Kingston University. His work is deeply researched, understand and explained before he actually completes the photo taking portion of his ‘study’ into a topic. He often combines his photography work with writing and performance, encouraging the viewer to take a deeper look at the project. Often his projects are collaborative, like the experimental sensory drawing classes he ran, creating a wider project, a mural designed and created by many based on one idea. Mourant keeps a running theme of nature and agriculture through out his work from carving trees to create unique sensory experiences telling natures tales to his ‘On living stones and reaching’ project.

‘On Living Stones and Reaching‘

‘create an earthwork for the sake of an image alone’

How to Plant an Image, 2020
Super 8 film, colour, silent
For projection, digitised HD
Duration: 8 minutes, 9 seconds

Mourant’s work style is autobiographical, documenting often well researched and thought out things. Hinting at deep connections to his work, the effort put into the understanding and research of his topic to then document it correctly and leave the correct expression on the viewer. Often known for his expanded research, he regularly uses methods created in the land art movement. Mourant himself states he wants the work to be a reflection of ‘temporality, spatiality and reflexivity’ a new way of understanding the world around us, closely linked to his common agriculture themes.

This project is no different, ‘On living stones and reaching’ based around Jersey agriculture and his own family history he delves deep into the Jersey Royal farming process. The presentation of the project is unusual, being read first look second. However, this is realistic to Mourant’s style, focusing on how to best describe the scene to the viewer , adding history, context and explanation before presenting the photos. The project compares the similarities of the land and photography. Going back to Jersey after coming across the idea when writing about Land art during his BA, Mourant felt the representation of ‘souvenir’ of the site or event’ was wildly inaccurate and enraging. He responded with his project, with deep exploration, research and understanding to each section, enhancing the viewers experience, forcing them to understand and not glance over it. This sparked his idea for this project as he wanted to respond to his own autobiography, looking at his family history and the history with the land. Drawing similarities between photography and the land, plants, agriculture. In the same way photography needs light, time and minerals so does the land. It was not a short project, in fact Mourant wanted to extended the project and take his time, pushing himself further into the project and its research. The project was created during covid 19, when Mourant was forced to come back to Jersey and live a slower pace of life, examining each detail. During the creation of this project he kept a diary, notes on the season, the project anything he felt could add depth to his work and the viewers understanding of it.

Further inspired by Henry Fox Talbot’s work of early ‘photographic drawings’ said to have inspired Anna Atkin’s cyanotypes of ferns and algae. Adding a deeper link the Mourant’s connection of nature and photography as many said early photographic drawings were ‘born in the garden’ due to the subject matter and the drawings needing light and water. Talbot also kept a photography journal documenting tips and experiments, what worked, what he thought, wat he wanted to change. Mourant holds a similar attitude to Talbot’s understanding of nature and that a camera is not a tool for documenting the world but a ‘agential recipient of nature’s marvels.’ Although, Mourant was a labourer at the time, he chose not to reflect himself in that way in the project, instead pulling out the artist side of him. The project took Mourant back to his roots, a small acre field in Trinity, steeped in family history, while getting him to explore the older photography techniques, ‘returning photography to the garden it came from’.

Photo Analysis

I picked this photo as it is a great overall representation for the project. Highlighting the photographer, (self portrait) the environment and the bluntness of the project. Mourant himself is framed in the centre, potato creates scattered to his left showing the rows left to plant, his gloves on the floor and headphones hanging on his shirt. All give the impression he has simply stopped in the middle of a working day to take this photo, which is true, highlighting the reality of the project and its unfiltered approach. The photo itself hasn’t been edited much, potentially some simple colour adjustments but nothing huge as that would distract from the point of the project, to take ‘photography back to the garden’. It is a simple photo but there is something profound about the way Mourant is starting into the camera, addressing the viewers, relaxed in his environment shown by the one hand in his pocket. It summarise the project, showing the field it was shot in, the photographer, the reality that is agriculture. Within my own project I would like to include similar photos, ones that show the bare reality, bringing it back to the land that sustains us and the people that look after it. Mourant’s approach is strong, using straight angles, forward photos getting the point across but in a way that shows the amount of research that has gone into it.

Having selected the best prints I then used photoshop to create a virtual gallery with the photos, pairing certain photos together. For example on the first one there is a photo of the haybarn on the left wall by itself, the next wall has three photos two portraits and tractors, giving a summary that this is a farm. It also hints at who the subject of the project is, showing him working surrounded by photos of his farm. The second gallery was a tryptic presentation of black and white photos, a look into one workshop on the farm/old dairy, a wider shot of the farm itself and then a photo of tractors that have been left in a field for a while due to the busy lifestyle a farm demands.

The Narrative

• knowledge, tradition, passion
• a small insight into Raoul, a Jersey farmer with a passion for traditional methods and Massey Fergusons
• Using a book format, I want to show the viewer how farmers their ‘job’ is a lifestyle and a passion, if it wasn’t they wouldn’t be able to do it. Raoul still uses older techniques than most other farmers, in Jersey on a less commercial farm, preserving his tractors and the lifestyle produced by generations of his family. By showing this in a book I hope to show the union between old and new as well as farmers and the land.

Design

• How you want your book to look and feel –
• Paper and ink I have selected premium lustre paper as a lot of my photos have deep detail and soft lighting so its important to have high quality ink and paper to preserve the photographs.
• Format, size and orientation I tried a few different book styles, before settling on a portrait 20X25cm book, allowing for my portrait photos to fit well and having to stretch the photos less to spread across a double page.
• Binding and cover– I will use a dust jacket as it is reminiscent of the style of many of the things in the photo. I think it will also add to the feel of the book being less modern.
• Title– to be defined
• Design and layout – I will use a mixture of shots, but I like the idea of completing almost a tour of the farm. Starting as what Raoul does and him working, to going around each room/barn exploring each element. This will work well with the way I have taken the photos with including linking shots (certain colours, food cans) in each room.
• Editing and sequencing – the editing will remain similar throughout the book, keeping continuity within the narrative. As narrative progresses the the editing remains the same either saturated, bright colours or high contrast black and white, with a focus on enhancing the textures in each photo. Having a mixture will allow for my influence from impressionism to show, while still having the black and white will create a union of both colour styles, one looking at textures and one looking at colour. Both equally important for this project.
• Images and text – I won’t have text throughout the book, but I hope to put a page, possibly the back page with certain photos and notes of the stories I was told while photographing. It would go against the style of the book to not include the stories and rich history but I don’t want the book to become a history book so it will work well having one page of multiple photos and text captions.

Book Design Mood Board

Having looked at blurb I have created a mood board of book covers I like. Most of them are black and white using a simple photo as the cover, something that sums up the book without having too much detail. There is a couple with smaller photos on the cover adding emphasis on the title, however while I like the covers I’m not sure it will suit my book. I also liked the red text on one, it helped the title stand out against the colour photo cover. All of these designs are image wrap covers, the option I will likely use for my book.

I chose these images as I felt they were a good summary and insight into the project. Some highly tonal black and white photos of the farm to a portrait, showing the subject of the project and then one photo linking back to my impressionist inspiration. I will try and arrange the photos on PowerPoint to give myself ideas on the strongest way to present them. Looking at how to benefit the photos and tell stories within the overall picture, give the viewers an intriguing summary of the project.

I have chosen to present them with different angles and shapes, drawing the eye to each photo, following the sequence. From two stand alone images as they didn’t fit with the others but tell an important part of the story, to images presented as a tryptic. Some presented as a straight line, others presented as a diagonal trio as otherwise the photos looked too busy next to each other.

Photoshoot Plan

What?- Having completed 3 previous shoots this one is a catch up for any photos I missed or any I think will add to the narrative that I noticed I was missing using editing. It is a mixture of portraits, small detail shots of tractor parts and more photos of the wood workshop/dairy.

How?- Using my 50mm lens will allow me to get closer, or capture images I couldn’t with a long lens. I will start in the barn working my way up each level before the going into the wood workshop/dairy.

Why?- These will be important photos for the book, they are ones I felt I was missing in my previous shoots. I felt I missed human connection with a portrait that was composed rather than a natural. Also a few of the tractor parts, I liked the compositions I saw on the last shoot but the lens was too long to capture it.

Contact Sheets

This is the contact sheets of the last photoshoot for the minute. It is a variety of shots I felt were missing from the previous photoshoots. I used a different lens to my 70-200mm I had been using, this photoshoot was done mostly with a 50mm 2.8 lens.

Having looked at the previous shoots I noticed I didn’t have a formal composed environmental portrait. So I set this one up, using the same tractor featured in the working photos from the first photoshoot and asking the subject to stand next to it. He then put his arm on it like he would when talking to someone. To get a good angle I picked a low angle to keep not distort the tractor when using a 50mm lens. To edit it I made basic adjustments to correct the exposure.

Edit Two

I liked the way the seat, steering wheel and number plate filled the frame on this shot. To get it to fit with the rest of the photos I increased the contrast while decreasing the exposure. This brought out the deeper colours in the photo, highlighting the age of the tractor and the textures of the sack and plastic bag on the seat.

Edit Three

Similarly to the last edit I increased the contrast while decreasing the exposure. This photo was slightly too bright to fit with the rest having been shot at f2.8 so I decreased the highlights on the sliders as this reduces how bright the pillows are.

Edit Four

This shot even on a 50mm lens was a close cropped frame. I used the centre of the shelves to highlight the harsh lines and show how organised it is even if it looks chaotic. The things on the shelves aren’t as easy to make out, instead dark in contrast to the lighter wooden cross. I like the harshness of the contrast, making a highly tonal image to fit with the rest of the project.

Edit Five

Again by choosing a high contrast, tonal photo it fits with the rest of the project. I used the highlights to enhance the photo, the highlights add to the shot, highlighting the tire treads, tractor parts and wood.

Edit Six

This photo is a great over view of the barn. It gives an insight into the farm, having the foreground filled with the metal elements and the background continues on filled with reds and oranges linking the previous photos and the owners love for Massey Fergusons. I just increased the contrast while decreasing the exposure to get a balanced image, fitting with the rest of the project while still highlighting all the details in the scene.

Edit Seven

This was originally over exposed but to get the textures to stand out I reduced the exposure and increased the contrast and shadows, bringing the texture back to life in the photo. Removing the overexposed parts of the photo.

Edit Eight

I felt this shot was important to include as it has details, the tractor in the back ground, the potato crates in the foreground and then the bright food cans again making the link to the other photos that have the same food cans.

Edit Nine

This is a different photo from the rest of the photos from this shoot, I liked how it had the greenery, pulling the tractors and landscape together. The busy top corners of the photo build a frame for the tractor and field. The red contrasts well with the range of greens. I reduced the highlights while increasing the shadows to enhance the depth in the photo.

Edit Ten

I then went back to detail shots, this is a cow headcollar in the dairy turned wood work shop. The partitions are clear in the corners of the stalls for the cows are visible in the photos. I like the black and white as it removed the yellow tone and enhanced the soft background with the strong lines from the headcollar itself, pulling the focus back.

Edit Eleven

This photo captures the work shop, the wood work shop. Having used the 50mm lens I made use of the 2.8 aperture as the lighting was only yellow, artificial lighting the lower aperture benefitted the photo capturing all the details without noise. However this did create an overexposed image, so I used the sliders to reduce the bright light, while still keeping the details. I also reduced the yellow lighting by moving the yellow slider down to the blue end, neutralising the photo.

Edit Twelve

This photo has two large lines on either side of the photo, framing the saw as a small glance at the work shop, creating interest for the viewer. I like the black and white on this image as it highlights the piles of wood at the back, the details on the saw and removes the yellow lighting.

Final Photos

This is a mixture of different photos, some linking better than others, some seemingly completely random. However, these are all photos I had planned to capture, whether it be a composition I had seen on a previous shoot but not had the lens to take it well. Or a photo I wanted to redo from a previous shoot as the outcome wasn’t what I wanted. This mixture of photos encompasses what I’m trying to do with the project, give an insight into Raoul’s life as a farmer. I needed another portrait but a pose one, one in which Raoul was acknowledging the camera. Adding an understanding about the camera, and its importance in the documenting of him and his lifestyle. Having researched the photo book, ‘for every minute…’ I noticed there was a big association with colour and texture, this is also something I liked the idea of from my mood board. So within this shoot I focused on connecting details, repeated textures and photos I could subtlety reference throughout. Like the food cans, bright in colour but if the viewer isn’t looking they will miss the constant reference, it is also a pun to a degree, showing the circularity of the trade, from soil to can to being used to farm the soil in some way again.

What?- Having covered the details of the equipment and how to keep it running as well as an insight into Raoul as a person and him working. The next step is to cover the Jersey specific side of farming, the old granite farm house style and the traditional jersey equipment like, an apple crusher. I also want to take some of the landscapes to add further context about the farming and the land that is surrounding the farm.

How?- I will use my canon mark 5iv with my 70-200mm lens, this gives me range on my zoom length, allowing for a bigger or smaller depth of focus. I will use a range of angles, for the landscapes, low angles often complement the photos adding in the missing foreground, where as an eyelevel shot on buildings will stop distortion.

Why?- Adding details about the farm and surrounding land adds deeper basis to the book, further describing Raoul and his lifestyle. How the land and manmade work together, creating a happy medium, the union.

Contact sheet

This photoshoot I focused on landscapes and buildings, I noticed I lacked context shots, photos of the farm buildings itself. I need these photos for the project to further add to the point of farming to some idea has been around forever and will stay in some form forever.

Edit One

This photo has different angles intersecting with each new building. The colour image is strong but the black and white, high contrast, highlights the granite brick work, and the intersecting lines of each farm building. I think it is a nice summary shot showing the size of the farm and traditional Jersey granite buildings.

Edit Two

A photo of traditional equipment was important that I got, this is an apple crush. I photographed it through a hedge adding softness to the shot working with the continues curve of the crush. I left this photo in colour as then it shows the colour of the granite, the rows of potatoes behind and the granite of the building in the corner.

Edit Three

I saw this scene and loved it, I took multiple images of this scene to get what I could see I wanted in the photo. The old tractor having the hedge growing over it and then the empty expanse of the field. I changed the photo to black and white to create a stronger image, using the high range of tones I have used in other black and white photos I have increased in the depth of the sky, outlining the clouds, and the grass tuft next the wheel is now visible.

Edit Four

Having noticed I was missing landscape photos, I took some. The editing I used required not only using the sliders but using masks, by using masks and brushes I could create depth and drama in the photos. I found with the season being early Spring the trees were still bare which did mean the photos looked slightly off, by enhancing the grass and stream it has drawn the attention away from the jumble of tree tops.

Edit Five

I saw this scene and thought it would be a great photo as the horse was interested in what I was doing so looking at me, and there was a field in between. I like the link from the horse to the land to the apple crush. It will also break up landscape photos showing the life within the landscapes. To edit this image I increased the exposure, making the horse more visible and then removed the cars as it made the shot look busy and not as distant. The overall look of the photo hints at the connection between nature and the land, horses would have been used to farm the land many years ago as well so it has a circular feel to the photo.

Edit Six

By itself this is not a strong image, however it will add to the book over all as it hints at the land before the farm, while the farm is the subject of the photo. The natural world attempts to cover it. It needed basic adjustments like masking the sky and exposure increase. It draws the connection between farmers and the land, how they try to work in union.

Edit Seven

This photo, is a bit different to the rest. However, I like the freedom of the birds flying and the branches add to the composition of the photos.

Edit Eight

The composition of this shot was important, linking the age and the granite of the farm properties to the land using the granite gate post, out of focus in the foreground. The yellow daffodils will link well to on of the previous photoshoots, securing the circular feeling essential in a book about farming and keeping the old ways alive. It didn’t need much editing, just simple adjustments to correct the colouring.

Edit Nine

This shot was adjusted to highlight colourings of the green hay barn doors and the hay trailer. It also brought out the pink in the granite. I used the edge of the building to create a line between the nature in the background and the manmade in the foreground.

Final Photos

These photos aren’t striking on their own but once paired with the rest of the project will play an integral role in the telling of the narrative. There are a mixture of black and white, detailed, wider angles. I picked details like the tractor tracks in the grass and the perfectly straight lines of potatoes planted as it gives an idea of how farmers alter nature. I also took photos of nature swamping the manmade. By including sections of history and older parts of the farm I have continued to tell the narrative of the older farming techniques as well as the unique elements of this farm itself.

Photo Shoot Plan

What?- My main focus for this shoot is details, specifically in the barn where most of the tractors an equipment is stored. On the previous shoot I covered a summary and Raoul at work but I didn’t look at the peacefulness or at least the quieter parts of the lifestyle. This also includes Raoul’s passion of fixing older tractors, a hobby essential to his farming technique, using older tractors in a more traditional manor. There is a particular brand of tractor Raoul uses, Massey Ferguson, using the red of these tractors will become a statement point in the book, pinning down a small unchanging fact in an ever-changing industry.

How?- Using a canon mark 5iv with a 70-200mm lens will give me range to capture smaller details like the parts of each tractor while still having enough wider angle to capture the overall picture. I won’t have any artificial lighting with me as I will be climbing ladders and ‘exploring’ the farm. Meaning it is important to get my settings right, I will also shoot on RAW to allow me more editing depth.

Why?- Having captured the tractors and Raoul at work I want to show the quieter part of farming, the essential but currently unused equipment. I also want to show Raoul’s hobby, fixing tractors, to add a further human element to the book. The way Raoul stores equipment reflects how he works, neatly, organised and I think it is important to capture this attention to detail as it shows a further connection between how Raoul works in union with the land, listening to its every need.

This shoot focused on the tractors themselves and some of the equipment. As there are nearly 50 good photos, while I will edit them all I won’t put all of them on this post. Instead I’ll pick significant shots, detailed editing or other photos I want to explain.

Edit One

This is an interesting photo, I struggled to take it with the barn being dark but having to take the photo from the outside left it open to being over exposed. I adjusted my settings till I got an image I knew I could edit. I liked this photo as it frames the tractor well, hinting at what is in the barn. To edit I reduced the exposure, increasing the depth by reducing the highlights. I also cropped and reangled the image as it was off centre. I like the intensity in the shot and the depth in the background while having the empty foreground.

Edit Two

This is the first one from inside the barn, there was a little natural lighting from the sky lights so I needed to compensate with my aperture. The lens I was using only reduced to f4 however it worked well. I chose to get wider angled shots to try and show how many tractors and parts there are. I used simple editing to enhance the image picking the reds to be the main part of the photo.

Edit Three

This detail shot adds to the story, most farmer will have a preferred tractor brand, this one being Massey Ferguson. While red in the Massey colour the rest of the photos in the barn clearly show the abundance of red so this one I wanted to focus on the writing by changing the photo to black and white. In the foreground there is another tractors steering wheel this then cuts off the rest of ‘Ferguson’ it adds to the photo as people have to guess the rest of the brand which is easy enough. Or if its not it shows how little people know about the industry that sustains them.

Edit Five

I then went outside to where more tractors are stored. This photo was composed to show the other tractors around it having the wheels in the foreground out of focus. I like the snippet of hedgerow in the background as it adds texture. I chose to keep this image in colour to show the rust. I made basic adjustments to the images to deepen colours adding more depth to the photo.

Edit Six

I like this photo, it reminded me of previous research I have done looking at KEITH DOTSON’s abandoned cars in a forest. While this tractor isn’t abandoned so much as run out of time to fix it, it has an interesting appearance, especially in black and white. I increased the contrast as it adds to the photo, enhancing the disappearing into nature of the tractor.

Edit Seven

This photo is a detail shot, I liked all the oil cans lined up next to each other all red, like the tractors as well. Once I’d increased the exposure to show more of the image I tried it in black and white, but I found I preferred the shot in colour. The background is busy, full of oils, tins and other bits all in brightly coloured packaging.

Edit Eight

I then went into one of the workshops, an essential part of keeping the old ways going is being able to fix using the old techniques. A skill many people do not have now. This is part of one of the metal lathes, machines used to carve metal into shafts for equipment. I increased the exposure and contrast to create a high contrast tonal image, fitting to the other black and white images I have.

Edit Nine

Following the metal workshop I went into the wood workshop, which used to be the dairy. This shot has many elements within it, I like that it has the old cow headcollar, hooked on the old milking partitions, while having the tools for other parts of farming. I chose to make the image black and white to show the detail, for example it highlights the calendar, with the date 1988 on it. This is another way to show the age of the farm and how things haven’t changed as much as some of the more modern farms have. It also reflects how busy farmers lives are, to have multiple full work shops with scraps of history remaining.

Final Images

This photoshoot went well, I have plenty good photos some hinting metaphors, some simply showing the age, and some to try and get the viewer to understand how farming isn’t just a job so much as a never ending lifestyle, essential for everyone. I like how there are a mixture of shots showing how things are fixed, unfinished projects, and how much time runs away with you. I do think I need to add additional images, like a product of the lathe and a wider shot of the dairy, these will enhance the narrative I’m telling. Similarly to my first photoshoot, I have a range of black and white photos, some worked better in colour, some in black and white, a couple of images it’s important for them to be in colour. Making fundamental points in the story.

Photoshoot Plan

What?- I will photograph Raoul, the farmer, working on a field. This includes the tractor, the equipment, Raoul himself and other small details for the project. Having researched the impressionist movement I want to try some slow shutter speed movement photos as I think this will create interesting, bold photos that I can use to carry colours through the rest of the project.

How?- Using a canon mark 5iv and a 70-200mm lens I will compose photos based around, the lighting, the intent and natural moments. To create slow shutter speed photos when I reduce the shutter speed I will use a lens cover to reduce the harsh shadows and the potential over exposure common in slow shutter speed photos.

Why?- This is a strong starting point for the project, referencing how I saw Raoul when I was growing up, what he does and how he does it. It is a summary shoot, covering an introduction to the farmer and his lifestyle. It provides a link between the farmer and the land, demonstrating the UNION of the two in a way even people who don’t know much about farming, can see the true passion and hours it takes to create a union between land and man.

Contact sheets

I took a variety of photos, showing the details and the bigger picture. The lighting was harsh so I used settings that compensated for this, while keeping in mind the yellow of the flowers. I also used a range of techniques from different orientation to slow shutter speed motion blur.

Edit One

This photo, while not being directly linked to farming or Raoul helps add to the spring farming idea, the dog in the photo is ‘posing’ with his toy with a tractor and 4×4 in the background. Dogs and cats tend to keep themselves entertained on farms and yards, this photo shows that. I chose the black and white as it complemented the photo, although I did keep a colour version in case it will fit better in the book as it still a nice photo in colour, having the leading line of the curve.

Edit Two

I loved this shot with the tractor in the background and the tree/post framing the shot. The photo is an portrait that shows the subject walking and moving the marker. Making for a dynamic, informative photo. I liked this image in colour but the tree is less noticeable as I couldn’t crop the image down without removing the central lock on the subject.

Edit Three

This is a busy photo, I framed it with all the background as I wanted to show the many elements of the environment, I did however remove the one post as it looked odd sticking up from the closer focal length posts. I then used the sliders to lower the exposure, adding depth back into the photo and enhancing the green grass and yellow flowers.

Edit Four

This is a simpler photo, just showing the field being fertilised, I like that you can see the fertiliser, and that the tractor is almost perfectly between two posts framing the subject. The house in the background helps add context and build a story as it is made of classic Jersey Granite surrounded by fields and hedge rows. This is a good base image for the story.

Edit Five

Having taken this shot through a fence I have the fencing lines in the photo, this adds to the photo, leaving the viewer a deeper understanding of what it feels like to be witnessing the farming around them. This was a simple edit, bringing the colour in the shot back to life using the sliders.

Edit Six

Inspired by my research into art movements I wanted to try some slower shutter speed photos to add to the story. I created this photo, I think it gives the never ending feeling of farming which is what I wanted, to show that farming is always going to be important. I like how the flowers make a sea of yellow/gold and then the darker colour of the tractor contrast it. Even the fencing wire adds movement to further the never ending feeling. Editing wise all I needed to do was reduce the over exposure by moving the exposure slider down as when using a slower shutter speed the photos will appear over exposed.

Edit Seven

A simple detail shot to tie photos together is what I needed in this part of the shoot, I had a few photos with this bag/marker in so I wanted a shot of the markers to highlight them. The bags had patterns and flowers on and I wanted to compose the image to show more than one, showing how they were being used as markers. It only needed slight adjustments to correct the colour.

Edit Eight

This is a longer range shot, using the building and fence post to frame it. I noticed I hadn’t got many straight on shots so I wanted one as it will help the book flow if I put the dog photo and the portrait in. It also emphasises the tractors shape with the roll bar being portrait.

Final Photos

Overall I have a good selection of images, focused around the work being done to the fields to maintain them. This is a core part of my project showing the machines being used and Raoul working. Having a mixture of black and white and colour images allows for a variation in tones, textures and compositions. There is different techniques used in each shot, from how I’ve framed them to how I have picked which moment to photograph. I am lacking finer detail shots, however I plan to get these in the next photoshoot. Having researched ‘FOR EVERY MINUTE YOU ARE ANGRY YOU LOSE SIXTY SECONDS OF HAPPINESS’ I wanted a mixture of shots, some composed, some natural, using the environment like I have with the low angles using the daffodils to enhance each photo. Inspired by the impressionist movement, I used a slow shutter speed on some of these images, creating bright colourful slightly abstract photos. Forcing the viewer to focus on the photos and what is hiding behind the blur, also creating the circular farming feel. Continuing onwards no matter what, it also provides a nice base of colour I can them link through out the rest of my book.