Contents
- My Art Form
- My New Skill
- Skills Review
- Project Plan
- Working with a practitioner
- Research into Advertising
- Expressing my worldview through art
- Art inspired by my research
- Working on the final project
- Feedback
- Evaluation
- Skills Review
My art form and why I chose it: Photography
I have done a lot of photography in the past but I have never done an Arts Award Project based on photography. I enjoy taking photos and I think they are a good way to get a message across. This is a photo I took at edited in photography club:
My new skill: Advertising
When I did Media studies GCSE, I really enjoyed learning about advertising and I wanted to learn more about the critical theory of this and bring it into my photography. I like the combination of writing and photos in photos but I would like to know more about how adverts get and hold people’s attention and convince them to do things. I care a lot about gentrification in my local area and I feel like advertising could be used to express my opinions about this issue.
MY STRENGTHS BEFORE STARTING THIS PROJECT
- Good eye for composition
- Editing Photos
- Research
- Good at black-and-white photography
THE SKILLS I WOULD LIKE TO DEVELOP WITH THIS PROJECT
- Critical thinking in art
- Persuasive Art Works
- Time Management
- Combining art with theory
- Making a point about an important issue
MY PROJECT PLAN
To collect research I will:
- Research advertising
- Find out about photographers and artists who combined advertising and art
- Ask teachers at my school about gentrification
- Research Arts and Gentrification
- Work with photographer, Melanie Jones to find out information and develop photography skills
To plan, practise, and prepare for my project I will:
- Plan a photo shoot and find a teacher to go with me
- Practice using editing and creating adverts
- Study advertising in detail looking at people like Andy Warhol and John Berger
- Plan a shot list for my project
- Plan time for taking the photos and editing them
To create my project I will:
- Take photos in my local area
- Review the photos and select the best images
- Edit the photos
- Add advertising elements to the final images
To evaluate the success of my project I will:
- Post my photos on the school website and send a link to everyone at the school
- Ask people to give feedback on my final images
- Get feedback from my arts award supervisor
- Respond to feedback and improve the photos as I go
Working with a practitioner
Throughout this project, I worked with my arts award supervisor Melanie. Melanie is a photographer who has a degree in Photomedia so she was able to feedback on my photography and direct me towards advertising theory. We had our lessons over Zoom so I also worked with other teachers to help with the photo shoot.
Melanie’s website
I put feedback from Melanie in quotes.
EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS:
Learning about Gentrification: I searched for articles online
Learning about Advertising
Melanie recommended this book which was very useful in learning about how advertising works: Advertising Theory, edited by Shelly Rodgers, and Esther Thorson, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bbk/detail.action?docID=957708.
AIDA Hierarchy: Nintendo Switch
| Attention | When did you first notice or hear about it? In early 2020, rumours about a new Nintendo device, trailer was interesting. |
| Interest | How did you get more interested? When most of my friends were on their Nintendo Switch |
| Desire | At what point did you really really want it? When new games were releasing consistently |
| Action | What made you finally decide to get? When I realized i could play a lot more with my friends |
Involvement
There is a lot going on in the world around us. Our senses are picking up new information all the time and we can’t possibly remember and process it all. Anything that we experience is called STIMULI. We have to choose what stimuli we pay attention to. This is called SELECTIVE PERCEPTION.
| High commitment | Low commitment |
| There are big differences between the different brands | The brands are all relatively similar |
| I will seek out lots of information before I buy. | I will buy different things and eventually settle on the one I like best. |
| An advert should give me lots of information that is relevant to me. | An advert needs to grab my attention quickly |
| E.g. Car, TV show, Smart watches, Mortgage | E.g. Coke, Nike, Pasta |
Some things we buy because they are practical and we need them like toothpaste, washing powder, insurance, vegetables, practical clothes, furniture etc. These are rational purchases. Some things we buy because they are cool, fun, or because we love them like games, toys, cool clothes, cool sportscars etc. These are emotional purchases.
Adverts that show this:
 | Water effect is a good effect to use in a drink advert as it looks refreshing. Colour in the background goes with the coke. It involves people by being relatable and asking them to share a coke with friends. This is a low commitment product but it’s not very attention grabbing, it’s a bit bland. The water is the most attention grabbing thing. |
 | There’s a play on words in the text, it’s simple. Black and white photo makes the car stand out more. This is a high commitment product but the advert is not giving a huge amount of information about the car. |
 | The food is attention-grabbing because of the food and the fonts. I think the food stands out for me because there are two different types of food on the screen which have identical color to each other and the green stuff in the pasta too The colour scheme is nice and nice and it matches the pasta. It looks like a leaf that’s in the pasta making it seem. A leaf suggests happiness, spring, blooms, a leaf could also suggest freshness. |
 | The advert has a phone number and a Gmail. The advert uses the word help. It’s more about the writing on this advert because it’s a high-commitment product. It’s simple, not too much information but does show where you can get more. Call our ‘dedicated’ mortgage specialist, the word dedicate makes it seem like they are determined to help you. |
In a U.S.-based FCB grid study presented by Vaughn (1986), life insurance was found to be a high-involvement/thinking (rational) purchase decision, perfume a high-involvement/feeling (emotional) purchase, liquid household cleaner a low-involvement/thinking (rational) purchase, and Popsicles a low-involvement/ feeling (emotion) purchase. Interestingly, the purchase of a family car was highly involving on both thinking and feeling dimensions with a slight edge toward feeling.
Eric Healey – Advertising Theory
Involvement vs Emotion in adverts I found
Adverts that I Like
Cael, your research into advertising is interesting and you have shown a good understanding of how adverts can compel people to buy products. Adverts can also be used to change minds, which I think is what you would like to to in your project, so let’s look at some of the ways that adverts can do this. We could start with narrative as this often gives people a deeper connection to a product or an idea. Another way to engage with advertising in your art is to use parody, satire or irony, so you could do some research into this too.
Feedback from Melanie
Parody, Satire and Irony
Following up on Melanie’s comment, I came up with some ideas for how I can make art based around advertising
•Satire (using the style of adverts to give a message about the world)
•Collage (Using adverts that already exist to make art)
•Photography (Creating beautiful photos in an advertising style)
•Comedy (Making adverts that are designed to make people laugh)
This image is making fun of Photoshop. It’s kind of creepy how it says ‘no one will ever know’. It’s giving a message about changing yourself to not be real. It’s a satirical advert.
This advert uses irony. It’s telling you to do the exact opposite of what it wants you to do. It wants you to give the baby healthy drinks.
This is a parody because it’s pretending to be a coke advert but it is actually just a message about how in the lockdown, people were buying up all the toilet paper like crazy and it became the most important thing.
Another example of irony
My Worldview
Something I like: Impractical Jokers
American TV show on Comedy Central. Reality TV with public challenges and pranks.
I like it because it’s funny. It’s nice to see how they get on with each other and they are all friends. It’s the same 4 men in every episode. It’s very relatable to me.
What is important to me: Food and water. Happiness. Friends and Family. Not everybody has food and water; this is mostly the government’s fault. Homeless people don’t have enough to survive and this is mostly the government’s fault but sometimes it is the person’s fault if they have made bad choices. There are lots of people with less money at the moment. There is inflation and the cost of living crisis is talked about a lot at the moment. This is also the government’s responsibility.
The UK is kind of gloomy, the buildings and architecture are not good. Not nice to look at. When you think of nice places to live in London you think of West London or Canary Wharf, not Peckham. Those places look nicer. Old Kent Road is not the most attractive. Some of the civilians and citizens could treat the place more nicely and not spread litter. Things like Audi and KFC are being destroyed for more buildings which seems unnecessary and weird.
Voting: I think voting is important and I would vote if there was an election this year. How important depends on how much you care about the issues. I think the prime minister could do more, like maybe give everyone more holidays.
I also took this political alignment quiz:
1. What is the job of the prime minister and the government?
a) To make sure people have freedom to do what they like.
b) To make sure people, companies, and traditions are protected.
c) To make sure people have enough money and that things are fair.
d) I think they should get rid of the prime minister and the government.
2. How do you think money should work?
a) People should be in charge of money they make and do what they like with it.
b) People should work hard and spend their money in UK businesses.
c) Everyone should have an equal amount of money so that there is no poverty.
d) I don’t really believe in money; we should be able to trade with who we want
3. What is your view on patriotism?
a) It’s important that we are proud of everyone in our country.
b) It is good to be patriotic.
c) We should all work together to make the UK better.
d) We should not care about the UK; we should work together as humans across the world.
4. How do you feel about the environment?
a) People should recycle but the government shouldn’t get involved.
b) The government should protect the environment but still make money.
c) The environment is the most important thing, and we should all work together to protect it.
d) Individual communities should have small environmental projects.
5. What is your stance on gender equality and women’s rights?
a) Women and men should have the same rights.
b) Men and women are different, so treating them the same isn’t fair.
c) I support feminism and gender equality.
d) I don’t believe gender should make a difference (it doesn’t matter what gender you are).
6. What do you think about power?
a) The Government should have a medium amount of power over people.
b) There should be a very small amount of government power to punish bad people but that’s it. We mostly should trust people to be good.
c) The government should have a lot of power and use it to protect people.
d) The government should have no power and people should be trusted to make good choices.
7. How should society address immigration?
a) There should be restrictions on how many people can come to this country.
b) We should have a reasonable amount of people come but make sure they learn English and mix with others.
c) We should welcome everyone from other countries.
d) I don’t think countries and borders should exist.
Scoring:
o For each question answered with (a), give 1 point to liberalism.
o For each question answered with (b), give 1 point to conservatism.
o For each question answered with (c), give 1 point to socialism.
o For each question answered with (d), give 1 point to anarchism.
Tally
| Liberalism | Conservatism | Socialism | Anarchism |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
We have had some interesting discussions about his local area based on his worldview and the things that you believe in. We focussed on his idea that the UK is kind of ‘gloomy’ and this raised some interesting discussions about the local area. I was also interested in your thoughts about art though and feel like this would be a good time for you to start making images inspired by some of the research you have done. This way we can practice using Photoshop to edit photos and Canva as a graphic design tool.
Feedback from Melanie
Art inspired by research
- 3 EMBLEMATIC ARTISTS WHO INFLUENCED ADVERTISING
- PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING
- THE ART OF ADVERTISING
- JOHN BERGER WAYS OF SEEING
I read these texts and I thought it was interesting that there are parallels between art and advertising in history. Oil paintings and adverts have a lot in common. The Mona Lisa can be used to sell anything. Anything can be art if you look at it in the right way. I made some adverts in response to this.
I replaced the famous sculpture of David with a footstool using Photoshop. If you put something in a gallery, people will think it is art.
Narrative Advertising
I wanted my final artwork to tell a story so I researched narrative advertising
Tells a story about a little boy building a chimney for his block of flats and bringing everyone together at Christmas. Coke brings people together.
It’s implied that has happened to the other two kids. Fisher Price has anti slip roller skates so it’s indicating how it’s reliable and his friends have probably fallen over out of the picture. Three children and two of them fell over because they had bad skates.
Practice Adverts that I made using Photoshop and Canva
I particularly like the Mona Lisa image and that you were inspired by a quotation from one of the articles that you read. You are developing skills with Canva and I think it’s time you start taking some photos of your own. You could use Photoshop to develop the elements you have added in Canva (e.g. to make the chocolate more seamless) but I really like how you observed that the flowing nature of the chocolate graphic elements was mirrored in the fabric of the Mona Lisa’s dress suggesting that oil painting imagery has definitely made its way into luxury advertising.
Feedback from Melanie
Telling Stories to make a point
I wanted to tell a story in my artwork to try and make a point. One idea I had was to make a photo story.
Idea for a photo story
Mum and baby, happy in kitchen
3) She is shocked and devasted, she could ask her neighbors if they got the same letter and they all do.
Go to the landlord and argue with him, ‘it’s the truth, you can’t change. It’ll make the area better for everyone.
5) Moving out with her kid
6) She walks by the old building and sees fancy cars and fancy buildings and she’s all alone
In the end I decided not to make a photo story but to focus on making an impactful collection of images. But working on the story helped me to get my thoughts together.
I think the photo story is a nice idea, but quite complex given the time we have left and the availability of models to take part in your shoot. I think you have developed some good ideas while thinking about this though and that you are ready to bring your theory and practice together.
Feedback from Melanie
Working on the Final Project
I made a shot list to take photos in my local area
Date: Monday 24th June: During PE
People involved: Cael, Fiona
Subject: Gentrification
Tools: Ipad (needs to be charged and ready to go.)
MAIN IDEA: Show a contrast between the poverty of the area and the gentrifying elements of the area)
MAIN MESSAGE: Redevelopment should be for everyone
Ideas for different shots – Trying to show contrast. These are some ideas based on a Google Maps search, but you can take other pictures too.
| Example image (from Google Maps) | Ideas | Done |
 Garage near the bus stop | Could show expensive cars against not nice background | |
 New buildings that are going up | Could show that the building looks out of place? | |
Elephant and Castle (if you can make it that far in the time) | The hoarding here says ‘discover’ which is quite fancy but there are still all sorts of poorer buildings around. | |
 | Photos of the graffiti around lidl | |
 | Fancier graffiti is damaged and being taken down here. | |
 | Contrast of a fancy tower block with a less fancy tower block. | |
| Fancy restaurants or bars in run down areas? | ||
| Anything else I see while I am out!! |
My Photos
I took A LOT of photos on my shoot. I used an iPad to take the photos. You can see all of them in this folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m4jgyh1QIXIFghgov-QyK1-O0ZEvo-T0?usp=sharing
Here is a screenshot of some of them:
Picking the photos
Here is my first shoot review: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OZx0QT82t-Z7pndBBipUj4AGl9GaHUkocEmI43mqo28/edit?usp=sharing
Here Melanie and I both gave the photos a rating out of ten. This was so I could pick the best ones and get feedback from Melanie about the ones that she thought were the best photos.
Here is my second shoot review: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17lNKmxaJsxFSSgqCtNawomxXL4X0sYdwrYK1u77uEAk/edit?usp=sharing
Here I ticked the photos I wanted to include and wrote a bit about why I liked them
Editing the Photos
| Before | After | What I did and Why |
 |  | 1) The image looks good in black and white because it brings out the pattern of the gas tower. It also makes the bright day look more gloomy. |
 |  | 1) I made the image look kind of vintage and I also thing this highlights the difference between the new and old building. |
 |  | 3) I made the image cooler. This made the windows of the flats in the background look black and abandoned. |
 |  | 4) I wanted there to be a big contrast between the beautiful sky and the cramped houses. I also wanted the car to seem shiny. |
 |  | 5) There used to be a BMX track here and I wanted it to look hot and summery but like the grass had died. |
 |  | 6) I made the image cooler to make it look more depressing |
 |  | 7) I wanted the road to nowhere to really stand out. I tried lots of different set ups by this one made the road stand out most. |
 |  | 8) I cropped the image and then I chose a different one that made it look like there was more of a barrier to the houses. |
 |  | There are a lot of different cultures in this picture and I had the idea to make it look a bit like a holiday poster as a satire. |
 |  | I wanted the front of the image to look horrible and the background to look beautiful like the fence is keeping people away from nature. |
 |  | Black and white made the repeated patterns stand out more. |
I like the mix of black and white and colour here. Some of them seem a little dark but I know that you want to add to the gloomy atmosphere. When you add text and graphics to these images you could go back to your initial feelings and come up with slogans that match your overall message about development.
Feedback from Melanie
Adding Graphics
I followed Melanie’s feedback and looked back at my thoughts on my chosen images and came up with these slogans:
Image 1: Abandoned Tenants (With a heartbreak graphic)
Image 2: Huge Changes
Image 3: Haunted Flats
Image 4: Fused Together
Image 5: Lifeless (With BMX logo and ‘we used to ride our bikes’)
Image 6: No Access
Image 7: Dead End
Image 8: Stay Out
Image 9: Stay Out
Image 10: Caged for a Decade
Image 11: Endless Paths
See the next link for large versions of my final photos
Final Project: Development Should be For Everyone
Click here to see the online exhibition of my final photos
Feedback
Melanie sent the photos to people at my school and asked for their feedback using three questions I had written:
The Responses
Helen
Wow, Cael, these photos are so atmospheric! I would give them 9 as some of them are so dark it is difficult to make them out. They make me feel some of the desperation that people feel living in this area, gloomy doorways to flats and graffiti everywhere, and worse still if you are homeless. Many local people in this area have moved here from when they arrived in the UK and it is the first place they settle until they can afford to move on. Clearly these photos are not meant to instill any hope, just misery. I feel this was done very deliberately. I love the captions too, they really emphasise the message.
Cath
I personally think photographs as an art form are great and your photos are no exception Cael. I think they’re top rate. Full marks, 10 out of 10.
They are evocative of bleakness and desolation and actually make me feel angry and ashamed that people are allowed to live in this way in the 21st century in our country, a first world nation. I think the aim of the photos is to make us think about the way people are treated. The abandoned and derelict flats and buildings reflect the abandonment and neglect of our fellow human beings. I love the captions and icons too.
Oliver
1) How would you rate my photos out of ten?
Difficult to know how to rate out of ten. I would say 8
2) How do these photos make you feel?
Maybe sad, disempowered, stuck, but also somewhat hopeful because there was a strong “visual voice” behind the photos, blue skies beyond, and often I thought about the people I couldn’t see who live in the buildings and run the businesses and I could sense a social history in the photos
3) Is the message of these photos clear (optional extra – what do you think the message is)?
I thought the compositions were strong and the words of each photo worked together as a poem when in sequence and this had a strong, clear message that I took to be about decline and exclusion and disempowerment.
Selena
Fantastic work Cael. I can see how hard you have been working and these photos are amazing.
1) I would rate your photos 9 out of 10. They are varied and the titles add to the story. The representation of these photos are realistic. I relate to the experience that has been portrayed.
2) These photos made me feel sad as if there is no hope, helplessness. At the same time I felt a sense of community, people living in close proximity shops etc.
3) I think the message of these photos are about change happening, things closing down and or no access. The end of an era.
Barney
Thanks for sharing your photos, they are really moving.
1. I would rate them as a 9. I particularly like the way you have used straight lines and sharp corners in your photos and the use of perspective.
2. The photos make me feel that hope is there but it takes a LONG time! All but one include trees which for me signifies growth, hope and a resistance of nature to prevail through the deterioration. I really like the use of colour and black and white photos but my absolute favourite is ‘Caged for a decade’. This reminds me of a lot of places in South London where places have been torn down to rejuvenate and then left as the money has run out. The use of the red autumnal trees and flowers against the black tagged foreground are a great contrast and really resonate that another year has passed without any development being completed.
3. The message for me is ‘Gentrification for All’ and clearly shows that this is not what happens in reality. People being left if they are not wealthy.
Nice one Cael, hope this is of some use for your evaluation.
Shu
1) How would you rate my photos out of ten? 8 out of 10, great photos, but a couple of them need a bit of editing as they came out a bit dark. But on the whole they are great.
2) How do these photos make you feel? a bit sad for the people who live here. Captivated and intrigued byt the history that lies behind it.
3) Is the message of these photos clear (optional extra – what do you think the message is)? That it’s a deprived area, yet this one new building has been erected which suggests there are plans to upgrade the area, but then what does this mean for the people who already live here.
My Evaluation of this project
I created a photography project using the new skill of advertising. I also included the new skill of graphic design as part of advertising. I did a lot of research reading and practice artwork before getting started on the final project. When I was ready for my final project Firstly, I took photos in Old Kent Road. I took the photos by exploring the neighbourhood of Old Kent Road. I edited the photos by using Photoshop and the graphic design editing website Canva.
Learning about advertisements helped me a lot with this project because it helped me understand how they catch people’s attention and how they make the person viewing the advertisement curious. I also gave me ideas for how I could make art based on research.
The message of the final photos is to give off a gloomy and depressing vibe because the local area looks depressing when really looking around. There is a lot of development in this area, but it usually means that the people who already live here have to leave and rich people move in. The poorer people just end up going to areas that are just as bad. So the development doesn’t really help them.
I worked with two teachers who are Melanie and Fiona. Fiona helped me explore and take photos. She also taught a module on Gentrification and so she was able to talk to me about those ideas on the shoot. Melanie helped me with the practical project as she helped me to choose my favourite photos and edit the ones I chose. She also helped me with learning the theory and pointed me in the right direction.
My biggest challenge was that I had problems with technology. The problem was getting into my account on Canva to edit photos. However, every week I tried the website would give me the same error text. This slowed me down a lot. I also had trouble sometimes with the internet in general which meant some work got lost and I had to be resilient and keep working.
I overcame the challenge with Melanie because she helped me edit the photos and was able to solve a lot of the technical difficulties. She was also with me during the editing process and helped give me feedback about the lighting and the font or text to use.
From the feedback, I found that people thought my photos looked atmospheric yet misery which was my intention for the photos. They also thought the feeling of the photos was sad. It seems like my message got across.
If I did this project again, I would go to a posh area to take photos and compare the two areas side by side. The message would have been about the difference in areas.
During this project I improved on leadership because this project helped me guide others. I improved on confidence because I had to talk to random people to move out of the photos sometimes. This Arts Award has also helped me on being more determined when working on projects. I am proud of the whole project because it took a lot of effort to work on and shows how determined I was to work on this project.
Skills Review: Feedback from Melanie
| Critical thinking in art | The book used was a text book from an advertising degree. REading and responding to this involved critical thinking |
| Persuasive Art Works | Advertising theory helped with persuasion |
| Time Management | It was difficult to finish in time due to technical difficulties and absence due to illness, but in the end the project was completed on time. |
| Combining art with theory | Mona Lisa and ‘David’ images were a direct response to theory. The final images represent an understanding of advertising theory including colour theory, involvement and narrative. |
| Making a point about an important issue | Feedback from others suggests that the point was made successfully. |