I explored the environment and area of where I lived to stat the project. This also links in to a depiction of my own environment that i am surrounded by. As I discussed in my specification, I was looking out for land and areas that showed the conflict between man made changes and the natural landscape. I picked a late time of day where the lighting was soft and natural, I didn’t use flash at all to keep the lighting as natural as possible, but with the overcast weather it made the images more flat. For my next shoot I will pick a time where the weather is sunny to evoke a brighter more intense lighting. Above is a contact sheet of the photographs. I tried a variation of landscape and portrait photographs.

In the above photographs, they were all taken in the same area, you can really get the sense of human presence in these photographs but with an eerie absence of people. I wanted to focus on roads and paths that have eroded thru ought the soil but still featuring the rich green grass growing on the sides, showing the regrowth nature creates. The overcast lighting makes the pictures appear very straight forward, leaving the viewer to focus on the physical features of the image, similar to that of a documentary image, the flat lighting stripped the photographs of any creative narrative, they work well as a series, but do not leave any mystery or sense of poetic ambiance. The photogrpah top right reminds me of the photograph by Richard Misrach ‘Abandoned Trailer’ which depicts a selection of rubbish and abandoned debris surrounding a lake. Similar to Misrach’s photograph, my photographs portrays the dramatic effects on the land caused by society. I brought the highlight levels down to bring out the texture in the sky as well as evoke a more eerie ambiance similar to that in the work of Richard Misrach.

In the above photographs I wanted to look at the harsh difference between the smooth road and the rural landscape. The above photographs work well as a series as well as evoke a narrative of travel, where the viewer follows the photographer’s journey.

The above photographs all share a romantic influence such as with the use of flowers in the last two photographs and the focus on vast landscapes. Similar to the first few photographs, there isn’t really a narrative evoked in these photographs, the photos focus on the more obvious features as opposed to a deeper narrative and meaning.

I tried a selection of very straightforward compositions that allowed for lost of information and captures the whole landscape. I used the rule of thirds such as in the first photograph above, the electricity box if focused in the third section of the photograph. I have also placed the horizon in the centre, making the photograph more straightforward similar to the genre of new topographic, which is often described to have a very formal or banal aesthetic.

The photos above show a slightly romantic influence with the use of flowers. I like the influence of people in these photographs, the tractor marks in the mud and the boxes reflects the agricultural side, the flowers add a very poetic influence. These are my favourite photographs of this shoot for the juxtaposition and connotations between the mud, which shares negative connotations of dirtiness and unpleasantness and flowers which share positive connotations such as passion and beauty.