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Photobook Research

This photobook appears to tell the history of a family in a particular place, which I was able to gather despite not being able to read the text. It's interesting in its use of very different elements placed next to each other, the old documents and family photos next to these almost jarring flash photos that bring us into the present, giving the sense that things haven't necessarily changed for the better. The pages with the old photos use a lot of negative space, making the viewer search for the images as though uncovering history, as opposed to the present-day ones that fill the page. It uses the hourglass editing technique, beginning with a satellite view and zooming in.

I love how this book highlights elements of a place to tell it's story. The things it depicts are mostly very ordinary, but it's in these ordinary things that he builds an impression of the place for the viewer. The book shows the wearing of the environment and the visual evidence of human interaction with the landscape, as well as nature interacting with and ageing human structures, a great way of showing history through photos. The exposure is low and the photos were taken on cloudy days, which gives it a dark and ominous feel.

This photobook zooms in on a family on a farm. It captures the beauty of the environment around them and their interactions in very not very conventionally attractive photos, exposing the rawness of their life in a relatable manner. The rawness of the people and interactions matches the wild land it takes place on. It places the photos together in a way to make the viewer draw parrels between the images.

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Peter Black

Peter Black's work caught my eye for the storytelling he portrays through his photographs of place. His compositions are often unconventional, with objects being half out of frame, or the horizon not being straight, but it's through these techniques and attention to composition that he manages to create a feeling and highlight aspects of a scene. By leaving objects cut off, he allows the viewer to wonder and gives the impression that your eyes are scanning over a scene and noticing a detail.

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Photobook test I made in class following the hourglass technique inspired by two cars one night. I can't upload PDFs here so I can't upload the photobook but here are the pages. I tried to get as many angles and perspectives of the car as possible to show different aspects of it. The book finishes and starts on the same image, giving it a circular narrative. I want to use this way of storytelling further in future, it's so effective for drawing you into a moment/subject and back out again.

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Introduction to My Brief

For my assignment I want to document the history of St Heliers through what can be seen today.  It’s very hard to find information/evidence of history pre the late 1800s (probably for a reason), but there’s a lot of more recent history that is evident through buildings and the features of the land.  Both my Grandmothers grew up around the area and my parents have lived there for 16 years, so though I don’t know as much as I would like about the area I have a lot of connections to it and know a bit about it’s history already.  Through this project I want to learn more about the history of this place while documenting evidence of this history.  I’m very aware that history is always moving on and these places will not be the same forever, so hopefully my documentation can be a piece of history in itself.

A Short History of St Heliers 

The St Heliers area was Inhabited by several iwi, taken over by Ngāti Whātu from it’s previous inhabitance and gifted to Ngāti Pāoa by Ngāti Whātua in the late 1700s, who it was bought off by the British crown as part of the Kohimarama block in 1841.  It was initially developed as a farm by settlers, and developed as a suburb after the building of Tamaki drive in the early 1930s.  

Locations/things to explore and photograph

The Library - built in 1926 and converted into a library in 1931 around the time tamaki drive was built.  Probably also has more resources on the history of st heliers and/or old photos.

Tamaki drive - could explore the ways it has effected the landscape, going further into Kohi and Mission bay. 

The sand and rocks - the sand at St Heliers beach was brought there from Paraki in 2004 (which was a big betrayal to learn as a child) and looks very different from the original sand you can see at the end of the beach, which is separated by some concrete rocks (which I also spent a lot of time climbing over thinking they were natural as a kid).

Post war houses vs new houses - down my street about a third of the houses (including my parents’) were built by hand by ex soliders returning from WWII.

The Police Station - I can’t find a date for when it was built, but I know it’s old.  It got sold from the police a few years ago and now has act branding all over it.

The Wharf - There was a big wharf, much like the one at Okahu bay until 1930 when it was demolished.  There are some really cool old photos of it which I could recreate

The Morten Bay Fig Trees - trees are an amazing indicator of history, there are two huge morten bay figs at the west end of the beach that were planted in the 1920s.  They are light up with coloured lights at night which would be interesting to photograph

The Benches on the Boardwalk - many of the benches have plaques dedicated to notable locals

More recent history, there’s a little garden on Vale rd that I walk past to get to the beach that this lovely old lady lived in until a couple of years ago that has all these beautiful flowers and little garden gnomes and decorations that I’ve always loved and when the new owners came in they kept all the decorations and kept planting flowers which is so sweet.

I plan to talk to my Mother and Grandmother about more history/locations they may know about.

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Exploring night photography.

I was going for a walk the other night and there was a snail on the driveway that was light up by a street light, which felt very relevant to the ideas I'm exploring for this breif, so I took some photos. It was really hard getting good in focus photos when it was so dark, the snail photos definetly could have benifetted from a large depth of field. I decided to lean into the underexposed look a bit, which allowed the patches of light to stand out.

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Photos I took at the wintergarden. I was there with some friends and was more getting some more practice rather than getting photos for my assignment. I was mainly exploring interesting light and colour.

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Notes on Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

This film documents how photography has been used throughout the history of black people in America. Photography’s ability to present images from a place and time that appear to be real is very powerful and has been used for conflicting purposes throughout the history of African-Americans.

The exhibition of photos at the Paris Exposition of 1900 is a good example of how photography can be used to portray a community in a particular light. The exhibition displayed images of African Americans in a prosperous light, conteracting the sterotypical and animal-like exhibits of Black people shown in previous fairs. Displays such as this were very powerful for bringing humanity to the image of Black people. Photography was also, on the other hand, used to document lynching of African Americans in the south during the early 20th century. In doing so these photographers normalised and were participants in these horrible acts.

Photography was used to document people and families whose stories had otherwise been untold. It brought humanity to slaves by showing their faces to the world. It gave representation and belonging to people who had been told they didn’t belong, and attempted to displace the depiction of Black people at the time, both for Black and White communities.

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Traer Scott - Natural History

In her series Natural History, Traer Scott captures taxidermied animals in museum exhibits along with the reflections of visitors to see the animals on the glass. Something about the frozen expressions of the taxidermy contrasted with the very much alive people observing them is very interesting. It speaks to the human interest in nature, and yet forced separation of humans from animals.

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The Altered Landscape

1. Element No. 11 - Baltz, Lewis 2. Tree, Allowed to Grow Through Boardwalk, Corkscrew Swamp, Florida - Crowther, Dawn-Starr 3. Cache Creek Levee Line - Allen, Stuart 4. Colorado Springs, Colorado - Adams, Robert 5. Ngauruhoe and Rock - Barrar, Wayne

This collection of photos, taken by different photographers at different times, portrays the way landscapes have been altered by human activity, aiming to spark discussion about land use and the environmental impact of human construction. There's a lot of juxtaposition of natural forms against man-made forms. Photo 1 is maybe my favourite from the collection. It shows the speed of the cars, or the business of human activity juxtaposed with the stillness and stability of the tree in the foreground. The road appears to almost forcibly cut through the trees. I like how it highlights and creates a story from a random weed on the side of the road that probably isn't noticed very much. I'd love to experiment with something similar in my photos. The second photo shows a hole made in a path for a tree. This image could be taken as the forest being swallowed by the path and a tree remaining, or as a depiction of how man-made elements bend around nature and and allow the tree to grow through it. There's the added layer of how the path is made from wood. Photo 5 shows a landscape without any plants or animals, with the only life form being the silhouette of a person in the house. To me, this photo shows the loneliness of a completely human-constructed landscape. Really interesting and well done composition. Photo 6 shows a pile of rocks reflecting the shape of the distant Mt Ngauruhoe, showing how the shapes of nature are present throughout human construction, or perhaps how those shapes are destroyed leaving only a pile of rocks.

All these photos are very relevant to my project and I will be taking inspiration from.

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Storytelling in Two Cars, One Night

This short film was very effective at portraying a specific feeling with very little. The stillness of the kids in the cars watching the adults in the pub is emphasised by the sped-up clips of the pub cut between normal speed clips of the kids in the cars. The interaction between the boy and the girl is very simple, and in being so simple feels very genuine. I wrote down the shot types used, which start out by establishing the scene and giving a more distant view of the kids. As the boy and girl, and therefore the audience, learn more about each other, there are more close-up and extreme close-up shots, which pull the viewer in. As the girl leaves there are more wide and mid shots, taking us out of the scene. One of my favourite shots was a sped-up mid shot of the adults where a line is traced in the path of their cigarette and is left after the people leave, showing the energy of the people lingering. It's cut between a close-up of the girl, showing how she's observing it. Another of my favourite shots, which was shown a couple of times, was the girl looking at the ring. The shot uses a narrow depth of field, with the ring in focus and the girl's face being slightly out of focus, which shows the viewer both the point of view of the girl, zoning in on the ring, and allows her face to be visible showing that she's observing it. This shot makes her giving the boy the ring at the end feel impactful.

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15 photos collected for presentation for formative

When choosing these photos I looked for images that best conveyed the specialness of the place I live, mostly focusing on plants animals and light. The photos start farther from my house at Okahu Bay, and slowly moves closer to my house, finishing with a close up of my dog in my bedroom, bringing the viewer on a journey into my place in the world.

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Positioning Statement for Formative

I found it quite a daunting task at first to try and show the interesting things about where I live, I’ve lived in the same house for as long as I can remember, but I find it hard to feel connected to this place.  I’ve used the past 5 weeks of work towards this brief as an exploration of what I love about the place I live.   Over the past few weeks as I’ve gone about my life I’ve taken note of the things around me that bring me joy and tried to capture what I like about them.  Having taken quite a few photos now, I’ve noticed a big theme in these photos is my love for nature.  My cat sleeping on a couch, the seagulls at the beach, the blossom trees, the pawprints in the sand, these are the things about the place I live that make it really special to me.  Another layer to my exploration is my awareness that my time in this place is nearing a close, and I won’t be here forever, making my documentation of the things that have surrounded me throughout my childhood feel all the more special.  Going into the next phase of exploration I want to lean into the life around me, and the plants and creatures that often go unseen.  I want to continue to use light as a feature of my photos, using it to highlight the specialness of the subjects.

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One of the Photographers shown in class who stood out to me was Ngahuia Harrison.  I love her approach to people and nature in her photography, capturing how the two interact and are connected.  Ngahuia states her biggest influence as her whakapapa, clearly seen in her work through her depiction of family members.  Exploring how her iwi connects her to the land.  There’s a soft quality to a lot of her photos, having been taken on film, that makes them feel like a dream or a memory.  Ngahui is able to capture the connection of her subjects to the land and their ancestors in a suburban environment.  Her exhibition Costal Cannibles highlights the importance of the land to her as a Māori woman and the tragedy of this land and body of water that was once so deeply cared for being mistreated.

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For my week 5 SDL I went back to St Heliers beach to get more photos of the sea and buildings. I really like the photo of the road, It feels very dynamic and I like how it gives context to the vibe of St Heliers. I also like the pigeons under the taxi, I feel like it tells a story. I tried to capture the movement of the water as it came into the shore and flowed over the rock pools.

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Week 5 workshops experimenting with aperture and reflectors.

I found it hard to keep the exposure right as the aperture went up in the darker scenes, which I later learned was because I'd forgotten to change the ISO. Working with the reflectors was really fun, it's amazing how much difference they make when they catch the light, and how different the portraits look with the different sides. On a lot of the photos using the white side the side of the face with the reflector is just as bright as the side facing the sun. I really liked the gold side for making the faces look warmer.

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I was looking through my tumblr and realised I forgot to upload my photos from week one. It was a beautiful foggy day and I stopped in Okahu bay on the way back from uni to take photos. I really love how the low cloud makes the background look hazy. Being week one I was struggling with the exposure a bit and had I done it now I wouldn't have so many over exposed photos. I tried to show the peaceful atmosphere of the scene by highlighting the things I found interesting. I captured another of my favourite things about Auckland, the sea.

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A Different Light Exhibit

The A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa exhibition showed the conception of photography in Aotearoa and how it was used to portray different facets of the country.  I really enjoyed seeing this exhibition, something about seeing a photo of people from so long ago humanises them in a way impossible in any other medium; making it a very powerful tool.  It was interesting to see how much has changed, and yet how much has remained in both the scenes and the photographers' intentions.  

The first photo I found particularly interesting was the portrait of the Thompson family (photo 1).  The photo is an opalotype on translucent glass which gives it a soft quality.  The most interesting aspect to me is the painted eyes on top of the print.  It’s fascinating how even in 1893 when the photo was taken, people have been manipulating images to look the way they want them to, bringing out something perhaps even more human than the photo itself.

The second photo I found interesting is an albumen silver stereograph of the Auckland domain from 1861 (photo 2).  It’s so interesting how different the domain looks, covered in bush.  The medium of the stereograph allows the scene to be captured in 3 dimensions, freezing that moment in time.  

A similar thing can be said about photo 3, a cyanotype of the cold water baths white terrace, a natural wonder that was sadly lost only a few years after this photo was captured.  The caption of the image describes how the huge glass plate negatives had to be carried on horseback all the way home, which made me reflect on the photo I took in two seconds on my phone to document the photo.  The amount of effort put into the production of these photos makes them feel all the more precious.

Photo 4 drew my attention because of the painting next to it.  Though the painting is beautiful, the photo makes the town feel so much more real.  I was really struck by looking between the painting that feels like something about of a fairytale, and the actual imprint of the light from the town so many years ago.  

The last photo drew me to it because of the intimacy captured in the photo, it clearly captures the peace and love of the father and daughter, the light falls on the face of the girl and the side of her father highlighting their connection.  They aren’t perfectly posed, the girl has her eyes closed and the father reads his book, appearing to be a candid moment, whether or not it truely was.  It is unlike the very stiff, carefully constructed photos seen in many other photos of the time.