For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness – Julian Germain

This book is composed of eight years of photos, and archived a series of images of a old man living life, reflecting on the past years. Based in a small coastal town.

Why?

First meeting Charles Snelling because he was selling flowers. Julian Germain knocked on Snelling’s door, having seen his sign in the window selling flowers. The house and car were also intriguing for Germain, brightly coloured and eye-catching. Having met Snelling through simply knocking on his door it was the start of a 8 year long friendship, documenting Snelling’s life both past and present. Germain wanted to capture Snelling, an interesting man in his own light, unfiltered, real. The book is a note on friendship, the photos taken have an informal feel, the type friends would take and share. Carefully curated to show the real Snelling, unfiltered, from his memories to passions taken from a viewpoint of friendship rather than a photographer. The portraits cover a series of things, from Snelling’s gentle life style, unapparent to the modern world, surrounded by colour, flowers and beloved memories of his wife. The work is aimed to be evocative, captured the joy Snelling had for life and the freedom he felt exploring in his later years in life. A large part of the book is based on the loss of Snelling’s wife, Betty, her presence is throughout, whether it is snapshots of old photos of the pair or the brightly coloured flowers they both loved dearly. Germain focused on accurately documenting Snellings life, filled with music, memories and passion, showing the world an example of how to live life. ‘We cannot personally invent life; we have to follow someone’s example.’ Germain found Snelling helped him in may ways, a clear mind to learn from in a commercial world. There doesn’t need to be winners and losers as the modern world suggests but a life filled with colour, memories and freedom.

Julian Germain

Julian Germain is a photographer, a story teller. Based in Northumberland but his work has been featured all around the world, including Sao Paulo, MASP, London and the Photographers’ Gallery. Germain’s most well known work is this book and his ‘Classroom Portraits’. ‘For every minute…’ is a book based around Charles Snelling and details of his life from highly emotional moments like reflecting on his late wife to the joy his brightly coloured, Robin Reliant brings him. Germain’s ‘Classroom Portraits’ is a still Germain’s signature style, intimate reflections and experiences on peoples lives, hoping to share how to escape the commercial lifestyle we are all encouraged to live in the modern world. Often Germain works with found photographs, allowing for the viewer to have a further understanding of what and why Germain is photographing the subject, what their life and experiences has brought to Germain’s.

How Germain took the photos

Each image is made up of elements, nothing is done without reason. Germain takes a friendly approach, but his skills remain professional, balancing images well, knowing when he can allow for small flaws like off kilter angles or soft focuses to add to the reality of documenting someone’s life, life isn’t perfect so the photos need to reflect this. Unusually Germain, not only includes Snelling’s own photos in scrapbooks, but holds them to the same weight as his own, providing a rich insight into Snelling’s life in a way he couldn’t do as not Snelling himself. Germain’s work is complimented with Snellings photos and Snelling photos are referenced within the work. Germain ensured he included many photos of Snelling himself, either composed portraits or snapshots of a memory. Some of the portraits, are composed in a way similar to fine art, centred, simple subject focus with a snippet of a passion, or often linking to a scrapbooked photo of Snelling or one he took. Technically, Germain is a very talented photographer, focused on his best outcomes, what is the most beneficial to the narrative. Many of the photos in the book are taken with a shallow depth of field, a ‘fine art’ style. Germain used colour, a huge part of Snellings life to show that it is a huge part of Snelling’s life. Within the work it is clear the love Betty and Charles’s put into their photos is reciprocated through the passion Germain has for his work. Carefully composing his portraits to include small details like flowers, colours, and lighting developing the narrative of Snelling.

One of the pages is a scene of Betty holding a plant taken by Charles’s Kodak Instamatic. Then on the right, is a photo of Charles holding the same camera, a soft focus on himself and the camera being in focus. This is a key example of Germain’s technical style, re-living the moments found in found photos. Furthering the emotional effect of the photos. Within the book there are elements of ‘snapshots’ where Germain has replicated the style of Betty and Charles’s own photos.

The Book Itself

The title consists of the majority of the text, the book otherwise only containing a brief afternote from Germain. However, over the years Germain has shared further details on the time he spent with Snelling, the photos themselves and small stories and memories he created with Snelling. There is no apparent need for text in the book, the photos themselves are compelling enough, covering small interactions, revisited memories, everyday life.

It was published by MACK, in 2005, five years after Snelling had died. Containing 80 pages 23.5cm X 28cm in size, specifically a reference to matching one of Snellings original photo albums. Adding another small touch of Snelling to the book. The cover is a hardback with a cloth cover, one printed with flowers similar to the wallpaper featured in some photos. Having a 1970’s design bodes well for the contents of the book, full of colour and passion. When first opening the book the first pages are of Snelling’s photo albums, a strong impression for a sentimental, emotional story to come, these scrapbook inserts act as milestones within the book, structuring the narrative for the viewer and providing a personal insight into the story not just from Germain’s point of view.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was an artist, essential to the impressionist movement. He has a unique style, repeating paintings of the same area, focusing on different things or different lights changes, these were called stacks and helped shape his style.

Monet was the oldest child of a grocer, spending much of his childhood on the Normandy coastline. His father took over the ship chandlering business, allowing Monet to gain access and knowledge to every part of the Normandy coastline, learning each detail and how nature responded. He became known for his art at 15, drawing caricatures and pencil sketches of sailing ships, both deep in details and technical understanding. As he grew up, his aunt (an amateur painter) began to train Monet. However, his final style did not begin until he met Eugène Boudin who taught Monet about the idea of painting outside of a studio. This shaped Monet’s work for the next 60 years to come, looking at how to ‘transform perception into pigment’.

Monet and Impressionism

He was essential to the impressionist movement as he created a new world of painting, instead of the traditional reconstruction of memories and sketches in a studio Monet painted in the scene itself. He inspired others to create outdoors, and movement inspired by light and colour. Monet was never one for formal training and took to working alongside or attending informal art schools to further his skill. However, even when completing military service in Africa his art was never left behind, instead a whole new skill was learnt based on new light conditions and colours in comparison to France. Large chunks of his work are thought to be based on the romanticism paintings but a more colourful, abstract alternative. Others followed his lead, creating a movement of outdoor artists capturing light in their paintings with little attention to other elements creating the slightly abstract, bright paintings we know now as the impressionist movement.

How does photography link to impressionism?

While Impressionism is an art movement, I want to replicate it to some degree within my photography project. This could be through colours and light. I like the idea of using a sunny day and slow shutter speed to create the abstract blur of colour. Composition is not the first thought in Impressionism, which is unusual for photography however I think it will be a good prompt to get me to look at photos through a further artistic lens deepening my story rather than just getting a solely good photo.

Photo analysis 

A defining painting in the impressionist art movement, the vibrant greens distracting from the blurred lines, mixing colours and textures. It is striking to look at, a mixture of bright colours and slightly abstract lines. The scene is a pond Monet filled with water lilies himself, never planning on painting them. Once he felt he had completed the bridge and pond ‘build’ he was captivated by its colour and immersive capabilities of the landscape. The painting itself is a small, cropped view of the bridge and the water with the lilies, unlike other landscapes there is no sky. While it uses bright colours to capture the viewers’ attention and provide them with an immersive experience the colours are cool toned with pops of pinks and yellows. The frame is predominantly filled with the bridge in the upper third and the lilies in the foreground. With the bushes and taller plants framing the photo around the edge and background. It reminds me of a summer’s day, bright and cheerful using the slight abstract appearance, caused by blotted brush strokes, to force the viewer to look at the colour, the light. The impressionist movement was based around light and how it changes reflecting the natural world, Monet mastered this. 

My final project is one I am passionate about but I also think it important for others to learn and understand. Having the term ‘union’ as the exam brief caused me to think about how I define the word, at first I thought politics. However quickly moved onto the idea of the union of man and land. A union we all rely on, under documented and misunderstood. Farming. As humans we could not live without the resources farmers provide, working endlessly with very little true understanding and appreciation for their work. Following this I liked the idea of focusing on one farmer, one who still uses the traditional methods and very little technology, in a way he is closer to the land listening to its cues rather than taking a modern approach. This is tricky in a modern world, reliant on technology and uncertainty but still, he remains a constant understanding working with the land not just taking from it. To start the project I want to look at art movements like romanticism and Impressionism both look to create beautiful scenes causing big emotional moments for the viewer. I like the idea of showing the vast landscapes and creating beautiful photos, I also want to include a documentary photography style. Linking the land to the farmer, the farmer to the land. To humanise the farmer I will include snippets of his life, his work, his thoughts and stories. I find many photographers who have looked at farming before don’t focus on the farmer so much as the industry. I want to capture the union between a farmer and his lifestyle, it’s tricky to separate the two instead capturing the skills, passion and raw depth of this lifestyle on an individual. One who has chosen to not progress to current technology instead utilising a lifetime of knowledge and experience. Within the impressionist movement the artists use bright colours as a constant throughout their work, capturing a scene through small details. Similarly in my work I will pull colours together throughout the shoots, from the red of the particular tractor brand the farmer uses, to smaller less noticeable elements. Highlighting the small parts of a bigger story. Using the contrast of the colours will highlight the harshness of the lifestyle it is brutal but equally one of the most fulfilling life’s you could live. 

“Impressionism is only direct sensation. All great painters were more or less Impressionists. It is mainly a question of instinct.”

What is Impressionism?

Impressionism is a 19th century art movement produced in France, notable by its visible brush strokes and emphasises light. A main characteristic of the work is the bright, colourful paintings normally of nature, like meadows in summer and wildflowers. The movement was considered revolutionary, new to the time period as it captured light, in a completely new way, focusing on its changing element and the colours it created. It began in the late 1860s when artists like Renoir and Monet began to paint landscapes and waterways, adjusting their colour pallet to light, sunny bright colours unlike the previous type of landscape pairing that used muted browns, greens and greys. Completely changing the style, for example in the shadows instead of using blacks and greys they used complementary colours to the rest of the painting, greens and yellows. Perfectly outlined scenes became blurred lines, creating a more abstract look to the style. Compositions became warped into bright, sunny blurs of beautiful landscapes (and further into the movement streets and railroads) completely changing the dark, gloomy landscape style that had been used for years before hand. The movement is also associated with philosophy, specifically the Avanade Garde movement. In simple terms, impressionism looks at the union of human perspective and light, how it changes what it really is.

Impressionism artists

Many of the artists were in their early 20s exploring new techniques, new ideas. Art studios were common practise at the time but as the movement progressed more artists took to painting outside looking at the scene they were capturing. In fact, multiple artists like, Gleyre closed their studios and took to moving to wherever their subject was. Théodore Rousseau was another artist who took inspiration from the Fontainebleau Forest, devoting himself to capturing the reality of the forest in real time, capturing even the mundane details. They were young and tried to capture the ‘impression’ a landscape or person left on them rather than an accurate depiction.

Technique

When it comes to actual technique, the impressionists used bigger brush strokes, less focused on precision and more on the colours. They also used much lighter colours than the previous art, bringing new bright yellows, pinks and greens as their main colours. In leu of having abandoned traditional art techniques they also refused the 3D style much loved by other artists instead wanting to focus on colour and light. Painting an ‘impression’ not a tangible thing. This did lead to many criticisms from other artists, ones with a more traditional manor of painting, saying the slightly abstract appearance was ‘seemingly amateurish quality’ and ‘unfinished in appearance’. Impressionism records the mid century shift in styles in Paris, deciding the new public enjoyment and scenes of the cafes.

Painting outdoors is not specific to Impressionism, but they were the main pioneers for the idea. Claude Monet, the most well known impressionist artist with soft colours, painting multiple times a day to catch different lights and damp paint layers upon damp paint layers to create a deeper abstract look. ‘Plein air’ became common within the impressionist movement, showing the new change in painting, encouraging emotional depth rather than technical prowess within painting.

Impressionism in use outside of painting

Impressionism isn’t just in the art world, it is used as a term through out the world. Music was another big industry with an impressionist movement, influenced by the change in visual arts. Writers like Émile Zola started to try and replicate the emotive, human perception rather than true to life realities of his scenes, similar to the painters. However, while influenced by impressionism the writing style became known as ‘Naturalism’ seeking to convey the emotions and appearance of the world to a certain individual.

Science was progressing in the start of the impressionist era, it was starting to understand that what the eye sees and what the brain understood it as, is different. Leading to the impressionists trying to capture what the eye sees, shapes, colours and more importantly light. This included changes in weather, (Claude Monet painted the same scene multiple times a day to capture the changes) light and colour. The art was not based on what the brain saw but what the eye saw.

Union- the action of joining together or the fact of being joined together, especially in a political context.

Synonyms

-joining -merging -fusing -unity -combination

Opposites

-separation -parting -disunion -disassociation -conflict

This is the exam theme, it is fairly broad, however a main association for the word is something powerful. For my project I want to create a powerful, unique project, this till leaves my options open whether I focus on a person, a subject or a style I am not sure yet. I will create a mood board and mind map to start defining ideas before I then do further research into art, artists, photos, photographers and other useful research.

Mind Map

Having been given the theme of Union, after researching the term I created a mind map, one looking at different ideas, from photoshoots to subjects. This helped create a base for where I would start. Having this means I can then pick whichever things interest me and start to research them. I found I added colour and texture, this was from looking at photobooks I liked ones that had strong sensory elements, adding deeper feel to the flat photos.

Mood Board

Once I completed my mind map I had multiple ideas but one that stuck out was the farming industry in Jersey, the union between man and land. More so the more traditional farming in Jersey, creating a further union between old and new. It is an important topic not enough people understand the industry, many completely under estimating how much of a lifestyle over a job it is. Before I decide on my photoshoots, narrative etc I want to do some further research on photobooks, topic choice, other people similar projects. This will help influence where I take my project and how it will create the most impact.