Bernd and Hilla Becher were German photography teachers at The Dusseldorf Kunstakademie. Their contributions to typologies have influenced photographers in photographing batches of similar styles of photographs in a collection including Andreas Gurskv. These photographs are very systematic in the sense that compositions such as framing, angles, lighting and backdrops. Each industrial feature was photographed from 8 different angles, carefully measured out each time. Most of these plants photographed cease to exist, so these are now historical records of a time when Europe suffered political conflict for power through industry and mass mobilization.
Firstly I cropped the photo using the straighten cropped tool to ensure the proportions of the land were the same. This way when the land met it gave a perfect circle. For the pano-spheres I needed to prepare them for the polar filter. I added a new layer and made the height and width the same – 25×25 cm. Then I rotated the image 180 degrees . After this, I applied the polar filter and then rotated my planet according to my liking and I also adjusted the contrast and colors. I particularly like this pano-sphere as in the panoramic, the sun was at a one sided position in the sky meaning the parts of the sky that are interconnecting are darker and brighter. I particularly like this because as to me personally, it represents a clock as you go around and it starts off light, getting darker as you go through the day. For some pano-spheres I blended the seams together using the clone too. Unfortunately it proved messy to do on some where both ends of the photograph were too different and so I had to leave them how the were.
I did this because I wanted to express my theme of abstract and surrealism. Interestingly I chose to focus heavily on the surreal beauty of these pano-spheres. I believe that these edits appear almost appear as planets, with the objects within them appearing as if they make the planets up. This is interesting to me because it displays a sense of how the planets appear quite abstract with the various objects in the photograph standing out as slightly abnormal. I believe the surrealism and abstraction in these edits work well together because the abstraction appears with the colors and shapes generated from these edits and the surrealism is the fact that they appear very strange in the sense that one panoramic appears to of made a planet-like shape.
Here are a few examples of images that I’ve taken with a formalism aspect to them. I choose to edit them into black and white because it reveals the tones and shadows more.
Throughout many evolutions, including the German occupation and World Wars, Jersey has also become revolutionized and has developed its landscapes as well as it’s people over the years. The occupants who live in Jersey have recorded their lifestyle and how they have lived as Jersey has been developing. These personal memories have become something of the past, however are still kept safe for people to look back on re-live certain periods of time.
These records are kept in a place called an archive and Jersey has many of these to showcase what Jersey has become. An archive is an accumulation of historical records. Archives are kept to show the function of a person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities.
Here are some archival images of Jersey:
Records of how Jersey used to be and look like against photographic records of how Jersey is today allows us to compare lifestyles and understand more about the development of our beautiful island.
My Image of Harve Des Pas 2016
You can find more archival images of Jersey here http://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/ and here http://societe-jersiaise.org/photographic-archive
Romanticism (Romantic era/Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution.
In photography, photographers who took up the romanticist approach aimed to sensationalise the overall look of their mages by enhancing certain colours to make the image look almost surreal, glorified and they wanted to dramatize certain areas of their photographs.
It is said that “the movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that experienced in confronting the new aesthetic categories of the sublimity and beauty of nature. Romanticism was a huge step away from the subtleties of photography and instead looked very bold and striking.
In the visual arts, Romanticism first showed itself in landscape painting, where from as early as the 1760s British artists began to turn to wilder landscapes and storms, and gothic architecture, even if they had to make do with Wales as a setting. Caspar David Friederich and J.M.W. Turner were born less than a year apart in 1774 and 1775 respectively and were to take German and English landscape painting to their extremes of Romanticism.
Caspar David Friedrich – Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog 1818
Ansel Adams is an example of a modern day photographer who embraced Romanticism. Classed as the master and crucial pioneer of modern landscape photography, inflecting may of our great’s today, Adams used a black and white film in his images he captured of towering mountains, elegant lakes and snowy hills. This added an effect to each of images, differentiating his from others such as Edward Weston as it created a look to the sky which darkened the blue to a mysterious and shadowy, and quite chilling blackish grey colour that casted over the mountains etc. of his photographs. This is a romanticised example of landscape photography.
Ansel Adams
Charles Baudelaire also stated that,” Romanticism neither depends precisely on choice of subject nor in exact truth, but a mode of feeling.”
There are a variety of exhibitions and competitions where photographers are being asked to capture single images that absorb vision of the romantic qualities of nature within the landscape that surrounds them.
I firstly used the lasso tool to separate the sky from the land. This would allow me to work on the two aspects individually then bring them together at the end. It s easier than attempting to make the sky darker in colour with the land lighter in colour as a whole image.
I then made both aspects black and white and operated on the sky first. I used the brightness and contrast tool to adjust the overall colour as well as shadows, then the levels tool to perfect the levels of black, white and grey in the sky. I also experimented with curves and exposure. I then made the land the right style to complement the sky, much like Ansel Adams.
I finally used the rubber and blending tool to fix up the edges created by separating the tow aspects at the beginning. This made it look ore professional and slick.
You have until Friday 17th February to finalise your best landscape images. You can choose 3-5 images. Choose wisely…
you must show a thorough and clear understanding of your influences and inspiration (distinguishing features) (AO1)
you must show a skillful ability to capture light and correctly / creatively expose your images (AO3)
you must show a range of editing skills…that are informed by your choice of photographer (AO2)
you can explore and develop a range of images that illustrate your critical understanding of a particular kind of landscape (AO4)
Your Concept and Context
to display a higher level of learning and understanding your final blog posts must show an exploration of a theme, a topic or even a title inspired by these sub-genres
documentary…commenting on a range or type of landscape, exposing the “truth” about the areas we live in etc
surrealist…composing unreal or imaginary landscapes, possibly dystopian settings
abstract…an exploration of alternative beauty, capturing light, colour, shape, reflections etc
romanticised…a celebration of natural rawness, wonder and awe inspired by painting, poetry, drama and music
Possible titles to choose from…
Dereliction / Isolation / Lonely Places / Open Spaces / Close ups / Freedom / Juxtaposition / Old and new / Erosion / Altered Landscapes / Utopia / Dystopia / Wastelands / Barren / Skyscapes / Urban Decay / Former Glories / Habitats / Social Hierarchies / Entrances and Exits / Storage / Car Parks / Looking out and Looking in / Territory / Domain / The Realm / Concealed and Revealed
Tanja Deman and the concept of Collective Narratives
You may want to try a range of experiments inspired by these…
Presentation // grouping of images
or you may want to include animation, time lapse film or other forms of image presentation like…
Koyaanisqatsi ( “life out of balance,” this renowned documentary reveals how humanity has grown apart from nature. Featuring extensive footage of natural landscapes and elemental forces, the film gives way to many scenes of modern civilization and technology.)
The New Objectivity was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism.
Expressionism was a modernist movement firstly in poetry and paintings which originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Expressionism was to basically to present the world from a subjective perspective. it distorted normal objects and the world radically for an emotional effect that would provoke moods and ideas. However this movements ending in 1933 essentially with the Nazis rise to power.
Albert Renger-Patzsch and August Sander are leading representatives of the ‘New Photography’ movement, which brought a sharply focused, documentary quality to the photographic art where previously the self-consciously poetic had held sway.Some other related projects as Neues Sehen, coexisted at the same moment. Karl Blossfeldt’s plant photography is also often described as being a variation on New Objectivity.
Karl BlossFeldt
In 1881 Blossfeldt began his studies as an apprentice at the Art Ironworks and Foundry in Mägdesprung, Germany, where he studied sculpture and iron casting. He then moved toBerlin to study at the School of the Museum of Decorative Arts
. In 1890 Blossfeldt received a scholarship to study in Rome under Moritz Meurer, a decorative artist and professor of ornament and design. Along with several other assistants, Blossfeldt created and photographed casts of botanical specimens in and around Rome. in 1930 he became professor emeritus. There he established a plant photography archive that he used to teach his students about design and patterns found in nature.
Blossfeldt had no formal training as a photographer and used homemade cameras that he outfitted with lenses capable of magnifying his subjects up to 30 times their natural size. The use of magnification resulted in images of extreme detail and clarity. Blossfeldt photographed the natural world for scientific and pedagogical purposes and inadvertently became a modern artist.
Image Analysis
I chose this image of Karl Blossfeldts because it was the image that i had the most positive emotional response to. i think this because i really likes the simpliness yet complexity of the image and how the white background complements the detail of the patterns and curves in this image. This plant he has photographed in particualar has smooth curved lines making the image a karl photo and when you look at it it is very Aesthetically pleasing. I also think that the tonal rage in his images is what makes his images so different and take the sense of new objectivity. the leaves range from light greys to almost black which is impressive to capture in such small details. The leading lines in this image created by the curves of the image and due to the white background you are compleatly focused on the lines which take you around the plant.
