Initial Contact Sheet

For this photoshoot, I stayed in St Helier. I took the same approach as Jamel Shabazz and I went to St Helier which is the main town in jersey, this meant that I would find lots of urban settings which I could use in the background. For this photoshoot I took exactly 100 photos.

Selection Of Best Images

Out of the 100 images I took, these 5 were the best images in terms of relating to the artist, Jamel Shabazz. Although these photos may not be the best in terms of framing and composition, I think that the almost identical relation to the artist compensates for the quality of the composition. The composition can also be changed in photoshop or lightroom using the crop tool, therefore it is not a big problem.

Original Images

Photo #1 – Raw Version

Photo #2 – Raw Version

Photo #3 – Raw Version

Photo #4 – Raw Version

Photo development

Image #1

Firstly I cropped the image to straighten it and then I resized the image to get rid of some of the empty space next to the below the model.

Adjustments Made –

Before And After

Photo #1 – Final Image

I only made slight adjustments to perfect the image, I used the portrait mode on my camera to take this specific photo. I did this because this mode makes anything behind the subject (the background) blurry which is seen often in Jamel Shabazz’s portraits. I like this outcome, although the photo does look like an action shot, it was candid and the model chose to pose like this. This exemplifies Jamel Shabazz’s work where the photos are clearly candid but don’t feel forced, that’s the idea I get from this photo.

Image #2

Firstly, I began with cropping and resizing the image, I put the subject in the direct centre of the frame to ensure that he is the focal point of the image.

Adjustments Made –

Before And After

Image #2 – Final Image

Image #3

Firstly I began with adjusting the image by using the crop tool and straightening it as the composition was slightly diagonal.

Adjustments Made

Background Mask –

I masked the background layer because I wanted the background to stand out, its vibrant colours were not popping as much as I wanted it to, due to the lack of lighting so I adjusted the contrast of the background in Lightroom Classic.

Before & After

Photo #3 Final Image

Image #4

Similarly to all the other images, I commenced to edit this image by straightening and resizing it from the top this time to get rid of blank space.

Adjustments Made

Before And After

Image #4 – Final Photo

Final Images

Gallery

Mock Ups

Evaluation

Overall I believe this has been a successful project. I set out to explore food and wine and have done so. I do wish I came up with the idea and how to execute it sooner so I would of had a little more time and could properly plan shoots and brainstormed some more ideas and attempt to experiment a little more.

I have decided that I would like to create a joiner using this one image. I have chosen this specific image as I think that it relates to the theme of union due to the display of relationships. In this image, there are many different relationships on show when you look closely such as father and daughter, friends/family, mother and daughter and father and son. These relationships link to union as union, as a noun, is used to describe when people or things come together.

I started this off my opening the image in Photoshop and creating a new guide layout. I made this guide layout 10 by 7 so that each segment would be a square.

I then adjusted the image so that it would fit the grid. I would like there to be a slight gap between each image so that the outcome will be similar to Hockney’s “Swimming Pool”.

I then cropped each small image piece by copy and pasting the whole image, selecting a piece, selecting the piece’s inverse, deleting the inverse then deselecting. I repeated this process until I had a complete image.

I then removed the guide.

I then adjusted the brightness and contrast of the different fragments. I wanted there to be a significant difference in brightness to make the final outcome more interesting and abstract.

I then made a few more adjustments to get my final result:

This result did not turn out how I had envisioned. I personally prefer it before I made changes to the brightness and contrast. I also think it would have been better if I didn’t split the little girl into 4 and, rather, displayed her as a whole as you can barely see her.

Within my virtual galleries, I made sure not to overcrowd the gallery with too many photos as I wanted them to look clean and simple to give more affect. Each photograph represents the theme of union through the combination of subjects and body parts. I am very happy with the layout of my galleries and the way I have presented union through surrealism.

Overall, I have enjoyed portraying unity through my photographs as it has been an interesting theme to work with. The main thing I regret doing was taking too little photoshoots, as I didn’t have many photos to work with. I think that my planning and preparation supported the structure of my photoshoots and editing, helping me stay organised. I believe that my editing within Photoshop is of high quality and really presents unity within the surrealist photographs.

In my statement of intent, I stated that I wanted to express unity through surrealistic images as a way to show combinations of faces and body parts. I feel as though I have succeeded this as I have used the photographic technique double and multi-exposure to create these images. I have also linked back to my artists quite well and used inspiration from them as I feel my images are similar to both Ray and Ingberg’s. To do this, I edited all of my images black and white, same as Ingberg, to reflect my inspiration from his photography. Whereas, Man Ray inspired me to combine faces with hands, using double exposure to present this idea.

Here, you can see the similarities between my photo and Man Ray’s. I have used him as inspiration to merge hands on top of someone’s face. Similarly, I also edited my image to be black and white. It is clear that I have taken inspiration from both of my artist references.

Finally, I am happy with my final images as I feel as though they link really well to the theme, and my photos clearly show the relationship of union within surrealism photography.

Write a Statement of Intent that clearly contextualise;

• What you want to explore?
• Why it matters to you?
• How you wish to develop your project?
• When and where you intend to begin your study?

Make sure you describe how you interpret the exam themes; UNION, subject-matter, topic or issue you wish to explore, artists references/ inspirations and final outcome – zine, photobook, film, prints etc.

In this project I’m wanting to focus on my grandparents marriage, their love story and their lives. Focussing on the exploration of the union between them and what it was like coming from two very different cultures at such a vulnerable time after world war 2. Cultural differences is a key theme for this topic due to my grandmother being German and grandfather being from Jersey. However for me I interpret union to be about coming together despite differences weather that’s cultural or personal differences. Which my grandparents love story is all about. I believe their marriage to be very special and they fought hard for it after having their wedding/marriage stopping 3 times.

I will be taking lots of inspiration from Christian Boltanski and Carolle Benitah when delving into this project. Christian Boltanski tends to on exploring/researching about these families when he creates his work. Whereas, Carolle Benitah uses her own family photos to try find herself and her identity. They’re reasoning behind their work resonates with me as part of the reason I choose this theme was because I wanted to find out more about my grandparents. I’m interested in learning more about their life together; their life apart; their families; their marriage etc…

For this project I’m interested in recreating some of the family photos that I have access to. Potentially even editing some photos to use both the original and my new version. There’s a photo of my grandmother standing in front of a lake with her reflection looking back at her which I would be interested in recreating and changing it so that I’m looking into the lake and she’s looking back at me or vice versa.

Christian Boltanski

Christian Boltanski is a French artist who used many mediums painting, sculpting, photography, and filmmaking. However, he’s widely known for his photography. His work tends to centre around the ideas of life and death where he often focuses on the Holocaust due to personal affiliation of his father being Jewish and experiencing what it was like to be Jewish during WW2.
What makes Christian Boltanski stand out compared to other artists is how he displays his work. He’s most known for when he enlarges his images and prints them onto fabric where he then uses hanging lightbulbs in order to make this interactive experience for viewers. Boltanski leaned into conceptual art and liked blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

One of my favourite of his exhibitions would be Luck also known as ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ from 2011. This exhibition focused on the ideas of fate and luck. He expressed this though using random images of new-born babies to represent the idea of the ‘lottery of life’. Similarly, he like bringing attention to our growing population and the fact that the worlds birth-rates are exceeding death rates. Boltanski actually has a really effective way of demonstrating that through simply presenting his audience with the daily statistics and numbers. Something that Christian Boltanski did say is that he wanted to make the audience question things like their existence with this exhibition.

Image Analysis

L’ Album de la famille D. 1939-1964

I find this image to be very visually interesting. He used 150 of his friends’ family photos to create this piece. He arranged it very symmetrically, and although each photo is so different; they all appear to be very cohesive together. He was able to create this effect purely through visual repetition of the same-sized photos and their all being in black and white.
When you look closely at this piece of work and the images within it, you start to see the imperfections of the pictures. Some appear to be blurry, not framed perfectly, etc. However, that’s a big part of the piece. They were perfect. They weren’t taken by professional photographers; it was just that family capturing their lives and their experiences.
It’s said that he created this piece as he knew little to nothing about his friend’s (Michael Durand) family so he wanted to try and reconstruct his family’s story. He liked the idea of learning about his friends family, learning the relationships between people, learning the order of pictures taken. However it did not have the effect he expected. He believed it would bring him a connection with his friends family but instead it just made him think of his own family and his memories.

Carolle Benitah

Carolle Benitah is a French Moroccan photographer who was inspired by pervious family portraits which were taken around 40 years ago. She decided to delve into ideas of her childhood so she could explore and define her identity at the time.
She spoke about the photos provoking a lot of emotion as there was “something both familiar and total unknown” surrounding these family photos. Part of her work that made her unique was the embroidery and needlework she used on these family portraits. One of the reasons she decided to explore the idea of using needlework with her images is because within society it can be considered quite a feminine skill to have and could be seen as a paragon of virtue. In her culture, it was quite common for girls to be taught by their mothers these skills in order to be seen as the “perfect woman”.
She’s manipulated these photos to re-interpret her family history. “With each stitch, I make a hole with a needle. Each hole is a putting to death of my demons. It’s like an exorcism. I make holes in paper until I am not hurting anymore.”

Image Analysis

le déguisement (the disguise), 2009

This photo has to be one of my favourite of her work. It creates this very haunting and unusual feel to it. She was able to create that atmosphere by adding the renowned red stitching. Additionally she’s intentally added these red masks on all the children’s faces whilst having them all connected together in this chaotic loop leading back to that one girl. I think it works so well because there isn’t a set way to interpret that so every individual can resignate with it weather they believe she’s trying to erase them or to show them being controlled etc… Carolle Benitah’s work completely defies stereotypical aesthetics however she’s made it her own and its now a key part of her style and its what makes images like this recognisable.

Dadaism

Surrealism

Cubism

Futurism

Expressionism

Its said that expressionism started to take off after world war 1 with many German, Austrian, French and Russian artists becoming prominent after producing work based on their experience and response to the war. However many people in Europe delved into this art movement during the 19th century due to the rapid industrialisation as people were unhappy and struggling and wanted a way to express that emotion.

Expressionism is said to be a art movement which generated in Europe in around the 20th century and it initially took the form of poetry. Expressionism aims to create an emotional response to objects or events. Artists will often achieve this through distorting their work; using strong vivid colours and having exaggerated lines. A great example of this would be Edvard Munch’s painting ‘the scream’. Expressionism tends to be a lot more individual and personal this could be because expressionism is about expressing your emotions into this new form.

front & back cover -

For the front cover of my photobook, I chose an eye-catching image of a bold sunset, where the sky is painted with hues of blues and oranges. The intense contrast of these colours creates a visual tension that immediately draws the viewer in and captures their eyes towards the book, my goal was to do this to create a strong feeling of curiosity to drag the viewer in and get them to open it. The largely dramatic tones not only represent and show the beauty of the moment but it also set the tone for the journey the viewer is about to go on when flipping through the pages. which is where they will experience a full full range of emotions and grasp the stories captured throughout the pages.

PAGE 1-2:

PAGE 3-4

PAGE 5-6

PAGE 7-8

PAGE 9-10

PAGE 11-12

PAGE 13-14

PAGE 15-16

PAGE 17-18

PAGE 19-20

PAGE 21-22

PAGE 23-24

PAGE 25-26

PAGE 27-28

PAGE 29-30

Evaluation & Overview -

For my final evaluation of the photobook layout, I am very happy with how it turned out, for the pages I designed each page to represent a new day and a new story, with every image giving off different emotions and feelings that go hand in hand with the theme of personal growth and discovery and how the photos made me feel in the moment. Starting on the very first page, my photobook takes the reader on a journey of what connections within union look like to me and the variety of ways the simple word ‘UNION’ can be put into so many different moments and relationships within our daily lives.

In the photobook, the transition from one image to the next shows a different connection sharing a quote or phrase about what each of them represent. with each photograph capturing a specific moment. whether that being the simple colours of a sunset blending together to show that union and bond or even the relationship of how a sunset brings both humanity and nature together creating memories as the two combine. or even as a third example of the mum and daughter I have in one of the images which represents the unique and special bond between them but also with the representation of the union of colours within the sunset too. I created a layout that would showcase a different storyline for each double page spread as I wanted each page to feel unique.

The overall layout of my photobook creates a different view of connections on each page as I wanted to show that there are many different ways to represent the word ‘UNION’ in our every day lives, also giving the viewer a real deep sense of feeling like they should perhaps take more time to truly focus on the connections we have in front of us daily. when it comes to the sunsets I wanted the reader to feel as though they are part of a journey, hopefully giving them the same feelings I felt while in the moment of these sunsets but just through an image.

Mock-up 1

Mock-up 2

Mock-up 3

Mock-up 4

Evaluation -

Within my virtual galleries, I have considered a variety of key elements that contribute and play a role into the overall feel and effect of my book. The themes of each of the galleries are based around the whole theme of ‘UNION’ as our overall theme for the exam project and they are a nice way of representing my images and different stories behind each image, and the photographs were taken to represent a new form of union within each set of images. Each image was chosen for its representation of our theme and how they each individually signify a different form of being united and together they tell a story about unions as a whole and how there are so many types of Union within the world. The virtual Galleries were created using photoshop using the templates we were provided with in the image transfer folder. I made sure to include features such as my extra page spreads that I used in the photobook as they were a key feature to the explanation of my images. In comparison to a real gallery, I feel like the virtual format allowed for me to be overly creative with how I presented my images but also had some down sides as I feel like I needed to have more technical skills in order to make the galleries as best as I could. However, overall I believe the gallery successfully showcases my best images and does a good job at communicating and representing the theme of ‘UNION’ to the audience.

How?

I used photoshop to create my virtual galleries. First, I selected A4 and Landscape and created a blank document.

Then, I went onto my documents and dragged the virtual that I have saved on their onto my blank document.

Then, I resized and adjusted it. Next, I selected the final images that I wanted to use for my galleries dragged them in and also adjusted and resized them.

Once I have my layout, I then click fx and drop shadow, so I can create some shadows under my images to make it look more 3D.

Then, I edit to opacity, angle and thickness of them, until I think they look good.

Finally, I repeated this for each one of my photoshoots, but I experimented with different gallery backgrounds.

Photoshoot 1

Photoshoot 2

Photoshoot 3

Photoshoot 4

Evaluation

Overall, my virtual galleries have gone well, as I have been able to display a gallery for each photoshoot, and I was able to use my editing tools to create more form in each of my galleries, so they look more 3D, rather than a flat 2D image.