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Contextual Studies, Research

CONTEXTUAL STUDY 2: THE SUBLIME

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“awe-inspiringly grand, excellent, or impressive”

The term ‘sublime’ has been debated in the field of aesthetics for centuries. Many artists, writers, poets and musicians have sought to evoke or respond to it. The word, of Latin origin, means something that is ‘set or raised aloft, high up’. The sublime is further defined as having the quality of such greatness, magnitude or intensity, whether physical, metaphysical, moral, aesthetic or spiritual, that our ability to perceive or comprehend it is temporarily overwhelmed. The first modern approach to the sublime appeared in Edmund Burke’s 1757 treatise Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Burke argued that feelings of the sublime occur when the subject experiences certain types of danger, pain, or terror. The feeling of terror of impending death at the hands of uncontrollable nature, speaks to the power of the sublime. One may experience the sublime through many means, but it is usually explored through nature or through art. A few decades later, German philosopher Immanuel Kant modified Burke’s definition of the sublime in his 1790 Critique of Judgment. Kant considered the sublime and the beautiful as binaries, elements that possess opposite, yet complementary qualities. While the sublime is vast and obscure, the beautiful is small and definite. Consequently, in Western art, ‘sublime’ landscapes and seascapes, especially those from the Romantic period, often represent towering mountain ranges, deep chasms, violent storms and seas, volcanic eruptions or avalanches which, if actually experienced, would be life threatening.Other themes relate to the epic and the supernatural as described in drama, poetry and fiction.

The Great Day of His Wrath 1851-3 John Martin 1789-1854
An Avalanche in the Alps, a sublime landscape painting by Philip James De Loutherbourg 
Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps exhibited 1812 – Joseph Mallord William Turner
Analysis, Evaluating

REVIEW AND REFLECTION

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After completing two photographic shoots so far for my Variation and Similarity project, based around the diversity of nature and zooming in on the sublime detail, I have decided to review and reflect my current work:

How well have ideas developed?

I believe my ideas have developed to a good extent after completing thorough research of photographers, contextual studies and artists before-hand. This research has enabled me to have a clear focal point of zooming in on the four categories of nature I have chosen: water, natural forms, trees and cloudscapes.

Are they sustained and focused?

Creating a 4 shoot photo plan early on in the project has really helped me to photograph what I want in a sustained way. It has given me basic guidelines to follow so I am not taking photographs randomly and unpurposefully.

Are they reviewed and refined?

Giving myself four categories to focus on photographing has helped refine my project, as nature is such a broad spectrum with so many aspects I could look at.

How many responses/ shoots?

I have so far only completed two photographic shoots, but have spent time editing and experimenting so I will end up with the highest quality images possible. I intend to complete at least two more shoots, with additional images if I am unhappy with my edited collection and feel I require more to strengthen my work.

Understanding of composition/ considering quality of light

I have completed my first photo shoot in the day time where the light is prime so I could gain the best photographs of trees and bark patterns. My shoot location was in an area of shade due to the large collection of trees, meaning I had to use the optimum amount of light so my photos wouldn’t turn out too underexposed. I completed my second shoot of natural forms early morning as the sun was beginning to rise, and there was sources of natural light I was able to use to highlight the colours and patterns up close of my photographic subjects of flowers and plants.

What are the overall quality of the images?

I am photographing using a Canon 1300d, a camera that produces good quality images. I have experimented with using a range of camera settings, like landscape and close up, white balance and ISO.

How do I respond to research?

I have conducted research on contextual studies of abstract photography, photo-realism, the sublime, and fine art. This gave me a good pedestal to base my work off and begin photographing from. Looking at and photographing nature so up-close often leads to abstract images focusing on the patterns and colours rather than the form as a whole.

How do I relate to artists references?

I have been studying a wide variety of artists and photographers, from Hiroshi Sugimoto who I will base my 4th shoot of water on, to Karl Blossfeldt and Charles Jones, who have inspired my second shoot around natural forms. My large source of photographers who I have researched online have enabled me to look at the different ways people have responded to nature in. Instead of taking inspiration from just one artist, I intend to take source from multiple so I get the best final products possible.

How have I interpreted the exam theme?

From the specification title of ‘Variation and similarity’, I have interpreted this within the natural world to zoom in on the environment closely and look at the miscellany of nature and the intricate detail within the sublime e.g. weather patterns, plants. I have looked at mundane things that are passed off as being uninteresting e.g. trees, and have tried to photograph and emphasize the beauty and spiritual nature they hold.

I currently estimate my work to be around a level 3/4 due to having a smaller collection of primary source images, but by the end of my project when I have completed all my shoots I hope to be around a high level 5/6.

Analysis

IMAGE ANALYSIS X 3

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Image 1:

This image is a typology grid format of trees from my first shoot. I edited it in response to Bernd and Hilla Becher, who specialize in typologies. This black and white composition shows the varying patterns and markings on the trees I looked at. Editing it into black and white meant I could emphasize the tonal contrasts and shadows on each individual photograph, making them more interesting and compostionally strong. As I am looking at variation and similarity within nature, this image explores that well as it portrays the very different markings, but portrays similarity through the typology format of trees.

Image 2:

This photograph is also from shoot 1, but in a single-image format. I like this image as although it is a simple capture of woodland, the background is underexposed so contrasts well with the tree in the foreground. The high exposure highlights the moss and markings on the tree, and the leaves in the background.

Image 3:

My 3rd image from shoot 2: natural forms, is a composition of two similar photographs of a segment of rock. I positioned the rock against the white surface background to create a subtle contrast between the pale colours of the rock and the paper. My inspiration for this image is was Bernd and Hilla Becher for the composition and Karl Blossfeldt for the visual style.

Analysis, Developing, Experimenting

SHOOT 2 – NATURAL FORMS

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My second photographic shoot to gain a wide collection of primary source to furthermore develop and edit, was focused on natural forms. I captured images of plants, leaves and flowers, concentrating on the intricate detail and pattern of these forms. Adrienne Adam, a photographer I have studied has created sublime photographs of specifically the patterns of nature, therefore making her my main basis of inspiration for my second shoot. Adrienne Adam usually works in colour to highlight the vivid, bold colours of her photographic subjects, so I also did so, furthermore enhancing the contrasts, saturation, tones and vibrancy of my primary source.

Analysis, Developing, Research

O’KEEFE AND CUNNINGHAM

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Imogen Cunningham

Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to the sharp-focus rendition of simple subjects. Members of Group f/64 thought that “photography, as an art-form, must develop along lines defined by the actualities and limitations of the photographic medium, and must always remain independent of ideological conventions of art and aesthetics that are reminiscent of a period and culture antedating the growth of the medium itself”. Dismissing Pictorialism, f/64 proposed that the appearance of the photograph was more important than the subject matter. Cunningham found influence in the groups’ philosophic interest in natural forms but sought her own style. Whilst many other members of the group were mainly concerned with form, Cunningham focused on texture and light. She published an article called Photography as a Profession for Women in which she encouraged women to develop their own style in photography.

With the help of her chemistry professor, Dr. Horace Byers, she began to study the chemistry behind photography; she subsidized her tuition by photographing plants for the botany department. After graduating in 1907 she went to work with Edward S. Curtis in his Seattle studio. This gave Cunningham the valuable opportunity to learn about the portrait business and the practical side of photography. In San Francisco, 1920, Cunningham refined her style, taking a greater interest in pattern and detail as seen in her works of bark textures, trees, and zebras. As the mother of three young children, she was mainly confined to photographing her children and the plants in her garden and sought to expose the visually profound in the mundane. She became particularly interested in photographing flowers and abstracting the shapes of the petals and leaves. Cunningham undertook an in-depth study of the magnolia flower between 1923 and 1925. The importance of natural form in Cunningham’s abstract images has led to them being compared to the undulating forms in Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings. Although the two artists worked at the same time, Cunningham claimed she was not aware of O’Keeffe’s work until years later.

“ANYBODY IS INFLUENCED BY WHERE AND HOW THEY LIVE.”

Georgia O’ Keeffe

Georgia Totto O’Keeffe was an American artist. She was best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O’Keeffe has been recognized as the “Mother of American modernism”. In 1905, O’Keeffe began her serious formal art training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but she felt constrained by her lessons that focused on recreating or copying what was in nature. During the summers between 1912 and 1914, she studied the principles and philosophies of Arthur Wesley Dow, who created works of art based upon personal style, design, and interpretation of subjects, rather than trying to copy or represent them. This caused a major change in the way she felt about and approached art.

Analysis:

O’Keeffe’s dramatic use of colour palette, line and composition presents flowers in an alternative way. Her works range from abstract responses of nature, zoomed-in and almost unrecognizable, to detailed, life-like responses that emphasize the beauty of floral subjects as they come. From the curves of flower petals to the rich tones and shadows within the composition, O’Keefe looks at flowers very similar to which Cunningham photographs, furthermore responding in artistic medium. Her vibrant works with colors that glow with energy and vitality, explore the amazing and intense colours that the environment has provided in natural forms. O’Keeffe often pushes the boundaries of the art world, in some cases quite literally with lines and forms racing off the edge of the canvas, yet somehow she always manages to maintain a sense of stability and produce works that are visually engaging. Her use of a variety of media—pastel, charcoal, watercolor, and oil—combined with her sense for line, color, and composition produce deceptively simple works. Her confidence with using these elements makes her style of painting look effortless. 

“I FOUND I COULD SAY THINGS WITH COLOR AND SHAPES THAT I COULDN’T SAY ANY OTHER WAY – THINGS I HAD NO WORDS FOR.”

Analysis, Research

CHARLES JONES

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Charles Jones (1866-1959) was a trained gardener who worked at several private estates between the years 1894 and 1910. He also photographed what he produced. He created a series of gelatin silver prints of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Unusually he photographed them in isolation against a neutral backdrop so that the images highlight the distinctive features of the subject matter.  Born a year later than Blossfeldt, he worked in a similar way but with more of a focus on the horticultural detail rather than an abstract aesthetic. Jones remained completely unknown as a photographer in his lifetime. It seems that his interest was not shared with anyone outside his immediate family. He died a near recluse in Lincolnshire in 1959. Some 500 of his photographs were discovered by Sean Sexton, a collector, in Bermondsey Market in 1981 and their value recognised. He was only identified as the photographer when the photographs were displayed on the BBC and his granddaughter identified them – and promptly wrote to the producer. Sean Sexton created a monograph about the images in 1998 and Jones subsequently enjoyed wider attention as a photographer rather than a puzzle. Since then his work has been exhibited by the Howard Greenberg Gallery (10 November, 2006 – 6 January 2007)

Image analysis:

Jones’ photograph of two white roses signifies the beauty and delicacy of flowers and their natural, untouched sublime. His photographic exploration of botany and horticulture is simple; he photographs natural forms as they come against a neutral background, doing little to change their form or appearance. However, his photographs are powerful as they represent the intrinsic detail and variation within nature. This particular photograph emphasizes the tonal contrasts between the flowers and the background. The white flowers against the complimentary grey background really highlights the main subject and draws your eye to the shapes and patterns, curves and folds of the roses. His work is extremely similar to Karl Blossfeldt’s, so I aim to respond to both photographers in my second shoot based around flowers / leaves. I too will place the natural forms I find against a neutral background, along with editing my images into monochrome.

Analysis, Research

KARL BLOSSFELDT

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Strikingly modern and inherently beautiful, Karl Blossfeldt’s photographs of plants, flowers and seed heads are as appealing today, as they were when they were first introduced to the public in his two landmark books Urformen der Kunst, (Archetypal Forms of Art), 1929 and Wundergarten der Natur, (The Wondergarden of Nature), 1932. From 1898-1932, Blossfeldt taught sculpture based on natural plant forms at the Royal School of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin. In his lifetime Blossfeldt’s work gained praise and support from critics such as Walter Benjamin, artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Realism) and the Paris Surrealists. The use of botanical specimens as photographic subject matter became popular in the early and mid-nineteenth century at the inception of the photographic medium.

What made Blossfeldt’s work unique was his extreme technical mastery of photography. He specialised in macrophotography to enlarge his plant specimens and even designed a camera for this purpose. As a result, everyday garden flowers are presented in such a way that their rhythmic forms are emphasised to the extreme and the plants take on new and exotic characteristics. Blossfeldt wanted his work to act as a teaching aid and inspiration for architects, sculptors and artists. It was his firm belief that only through the close study of the intrinsic beauty present in natural forms, that contemporary art would find its true direction.

Image analysis:

This particular photograph from Blossfeldt’s wide collection of monochrome botanical studies really looks into and highlights the idea of nature being a weird and wonderful thing. At first glance, this photograph doesn’t look like a natural form and instead looks a man made and altered object. The architectural-like structure and strange curves and bends presents the interesting side of simple things like plants that are overlooked as being boring or monotonous. The very zoomed in angle once again emphasizes the detail of the form, with very little negative space in the image so the background doesn’t take away from the main focus.

“IF I GIVE SOMEONE A HORSETAIL HE WILL HAVE NO DIFFICULTY MAKING A PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGEMENT OF IT. ANYONE CAN DO THAT. BUT TO OBSERVE IT, TO NOTICE AND DISCOVER OLD FORMS, IS SOMETHING ONLY FEW ARE CAPABLE OF.”

Analysis, Developing, Experimenting

SHOOT 1 – TREES

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My first photoshoot for my Variation and Similarity project was based around trees. As trees come under the form of typologies, studied by Bernd and Hilla Becher, I have experimented with presenting my work in the style of these photographers. The basic yet effective grid format gives my photographs a clear presentation and shows a variety of my images side by side in one photo montage. Along with looking at the overall structure of trees, I have zoomed in on the closer features like bark patterns and colours, to explore my project route of variation within nature.


Research

BRETT WESTON

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Theodore Brett Weston (December 16, 1911, Los Angeles – January 22, 1993, Hawaii) was an American photographer described as the “child genius of American photography.” Weston’s earliest images from the 1920s reflect his intuitive sophisticated sense of abstraction. He began photographing the dunes at Oceano, California, in the early 1930s which later eventually became his favorite location. Brett preferred the high gloss papers and ensuing sharp clarity of the gelatin silver photographic materials of the f64 Group rather than the platinum matte photographic papers common in the 1920s. Brett Weston was credited by photography historian Beaumont Newhall as the first photographer to make negative space the subject of a photograph.

“THE CAMERA FOR AN ARTIST IS JUST ANOTHER TOOL. IT IS NO MORE MECHANICAL THAN A VIOLIN IF YOU ANALYZE IT. BEYOND THE RUDIMENTS, IT IS UP TO THE ARTIST TO CREATE ART, NOT THE CAMERA.”

Throughout the decades of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Brett Weston’s style changed sharply and was characterized by high contrast, abstract imagery. The subjects he chose were, for the most part, not unlike what interested him early in his career: plant leaves, knotted roots, and tangled kelp. He concentrated mostly on close-ups and abstracted details, but his prints reflected a preference for high contrast that reduced his subjects to pure form. In the late 1970s and into the 1980s Weston spent much of his time in Hawaii where he owned two homes. He would travel back and forth between them, shooting along the way: “l have found in this environment, everything I could want to interpret about the world photographically.” Brett Weston died in Kona, Hawaii, January 22, 1993. He was ranked one of the top ten photographers collected by American museums by the final decade of his life. His photographs are included in the collections of countless museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Photographic Arts.

Contextual Studies

CONTEXTUAL STUDY 1: PICTORIALISM

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“AS MUSIC IS ONLY SOUND UNDER GOVERNANCE OF CERTAIN LAWS, SO IS PICTORIAL EFFECT ONLY THE COMBINATION OF CERTAIN FORMS AND LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN LIKE MANNER HARMONIOUSLY BROUGHT TOGETHER.” – Henry Peach Robinson

Pictorialists took the medium of photography and reinvented it as an art form, placing beauty, tonality, and composition above creating an accurate visual record. Through their creations, the movement aimed to elevate photography to the same level as painting and have it recognized as such by galleries and other artistic institutions. A Pictorialist photograph is usually taken to mean an image that has been manipulated in some way to increase its artistic impact. Common themes within the style are the use of soft focus, color tinting, and visible manipulation such as composite images or the addition of brushstrokes. Photography was invented in the late 1830s and was initially considered to be a way in which to produce purely scientific and representational images. This began to change from the 1850s when advocates such as the English painter William John Newton suggested that photography could also be artistic. The Pictorialist movement was at its most active between 1885 and 1915 and during its heyday it had an international reach with centers in England, France, and the USA. Pictorialists used a range of darkroom techniques to produce images that allowed them to express their creativity, utilizing it to tell stories, replicate mythological or biblical scenes, and to produce dream-like landscapes.

Pictorialism was closely linked to prevailing artistic movements, as the photographers took inspiration from popular art, adopting its styles and ideas to demonstrate similarity between it and photography. Movements that were particularly influential were Tonalism, Impressionism and, in some instances, Victorian genre painting. Pictorialists were the first to present the case for photography to be classed as art and in doing so they initiated a discussion about the artistic value of photography as well as a debate about the social role of photographic manipulation. Both of these matters are still contested today and they have been made ever more relevant in the last decades through the increasing use of Photoshop in advertising and on social media. The movement led to great innovation in the field of photography with a number of the photographers associated with it responsible for developing new techniques to further their artistic vision. This laid the foundations for later advances in color photography and other technical processes.