Before commencing with various shoots and photographic inspirations I decided that I would be suitable to research various ideas that I could use as my theme for the topics of variation and similarity. Here I will be exploring five different stances I can taken regarding the given subject, and how I could go about taking images of the intended areas and their uses, these are my choices:
Empty Spaces/Full Spaces:
Here I could photograph empty/full car parks, using the lighting present there to create aesthetic and contrasted results. This can be done to more effect in enclosed parking areas such as the ones present in town, where a more cramped and urban feel is created. I could also make use of the empty car parks at night in the open, using the odd lamppost’s lighting as a means of casting an eerie feeling upon the surrounding area. A photographer who I could explore this with is Denis Felix, someone who explore the abandoned landscapes of areas in homes and buildings. Also done by photographer Johnny Joo, he capture the areas of society that have moved on, leaving natural to reclaim the land previously used. I could use monochrome photography for this as it could allow for a more unnatural feel to come across when viewing the photos.
Textures/Patterns:
For this idea I could explore the variation of patterns and textures within a variety of different objects present in different landscapes. By presenting everything as more abstract and aesthetic it could not just visually please the viewer but also provide an insight into the hidden world that can be portrayed by these surfaces, where you perspective can be warped depending on how you see the object. Photographers that I could use for this idea are Paul Sanders, someone who looks at the structure of objects and photographs them in an aesthetic and original way, and Edward Weston, a photographer who uses macro photography to capture textures and patterns of architectural and natural subjects, in both the environmental and man-made world.
Animals:
Regarding the idea of animals I thought the variation of species would be a great topic due to Jersey having one of the worlds most famous endangered species zoos in the world, Durrell. By photographing a large variety of different species side by side it would provide a huge insight into how evolution has occurred and the different features and characteristics of each one. Some photographers that I could study for inspiration for this idea are the photographers Martin Bailey and Tim Flach. What I liked was their style of separating the subject from the backdrop using Photoshop or a black cover which really brings out the aspects of the animal they intend to capture.
Natural Formation Of Objects:
Here I wanted to explore how the formation of natural objects found in our everyday environment. By using macro photography it could highlight the hidden patterns in things that we view all the time, by photographing a variety of different plants etc like a topography it would give symmetry and aestheticism to the viewer who could see each image in a larger picture when compared to the other images taken the same way. The photographer Karl Blosfeldt I felt was a particular inspiration for me as he used topographics to capture the tips of plants using macro photography, which he would then display side by side so that they increased the overall interpretation of how the style of photography is viewed.
Abstract Landscapes:
Finally for this topic I wanted to look at how the various landscapes in Jersey could be viewed using abstract and unique perspectives regarding the formation of the area. Here I would have to look at the vivid colours and contrast them against more stark and ugly aspects of the area like concrete and walls, using telephone boxes, lines and brightly painted areas to do so. Some photographers that I would like to study for this are Sigfried Hansen and Ricardo Cases, who both use vivid colours to portray the landscape in a vibrant and interesting way that draws the viewer in through aestheticism and symmetry.
Overall when looking over the chosen ideas I found that the abstract stance of separating the subject from its environment really appealed to me the most as it presented me with alternative methods of showing my work, leaving the viewer to purely focus on that one subject. These are most evident in the topics of animals, natural formations and texture/pattern, giving me the opportunity to explore this style the most.
Some of the ideas above consist of variation such as buildings, animals, shops, lights, people, city landscapes, coast landscapes, natural environments and roads. All of these topics for me would be accessible to photograph in Jersey due to its wide range of varying landscapes. Personally the appeal of variation in animals for me would be the most effective, especially since Jersey has a world-renowned zoo that looks after endangered animals.
Looking over the examples present the topics I found most interesting were comparisons between natural objects and the form of human bodies, natural objects and their influence of the man-made world and similarities between random objects and surrounding environments.
The German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher, who began working together in 1959 and married in 1961, are best known for their “typologies” which are grids of black-and-white photos of variant examples of a single type of industrial structure. The couple traveled around Germany taking images of the industrial building from the same distance and angle so when the images where arranged they all looked very similar. At first glance someone may mistake the images for being the same image when in-matter-of-fact they are all different images.
