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LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY | WEEK 2 | THE NEW TOPOGRAPHICS

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New Topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape…
LEWIS BALTZ
Many of the photographers associated with The New Topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made…selecting subject matter that was matter-of-fact. Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development.
STEPHEN SHORE

The new topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

WATCH THIS …New Topographics

Photographing Urban Landscapes

  1. Research and explore The New Topographics and how photographers have responded to man’s impact on the land, and how they found a sense of beauty in the banal ugliness of functional land use… 
  2. Create a blog post that defines and explains The New Topographics and the key features and artists of the movement.
  3. ANSWER : what was the new topographics a reaction to?
  4. Choose from…ROBERT ADAMS, STEPHEN SHORE, JOE DEAL, FRANK GOLKHE, NICHOLAS NIXON, LEWIS BALTZ, THE BECHERS, HENRY WESSEL JR, JOHN SCHOTT ETC to write up a case study that will inspire your own photography.
  5. Analyse some key imagery carefully and show your understanding of the  TECHNICAL / VISUAL / CONCEPTUAL AND CONTEXTUAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE IMAGES YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO DISCUSS
  6. Here are some other suggestions that may stimulate your imagination  / Starting points for YOUR OWN photo-assignments THIS WEEK…

    • Scrapyards, building sites, cranes, restoration yards, derelict ruins
    • Stadiums, floodlight arenas, staircases
    • Motorways, railways, runways, dockyards
    • Circuit boards, pipework, telephone poles, towers, pylons, skyscrapers
    • Shop displays, escalators, bars, libraries, theatres and cinemas
    • Gardens, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, man-made beaches

    Possible titles to inspire you and 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

EXTENSION TASK

Look at how the New Topographics approach has inspired landscape photography and we document our surroundings / the way we are using and transforming the land.

You should look at photographers such as…

Research a selection of these photographers and respond with…

  • similar imagery from your own photo-shoots / image library
  • analytical comparisons and contrasts
  • a presentation of final images

Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, 1975, chromogenic color print

Analysis starters

  • Foreground vs background | Dominant features
  • Composition | low horizon line | Square format
  • Perspective and detail / cluttering
  • Wide depth of field | Large Format Camera
  • Colour | impact and relevance
  • Nationalism vs mobility vs isolation
  • Social commentary | The American Dream ?

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Edward Weston

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Born on the 24th of march 1886, in Highland Park, Illinois Edward Weston spent most his time in Chicago. At the age of sixteen be begun to take photos after his father got him a bulls eye 2 camera he took photos of the parks of Chicago. His first photo was published in 1906 and after this he moved to California and worked as a surveyor. After this he spent time as an itinerant photographer traveling door to door photographing anything of interest. The combination of Weston’s stark objectivity and his love of nature and form gave his still files, portraits and  landscapes, qualities that seemed particularly suited for expressing the new American lifestyle and aesthetic that emerged from California and the West between the two world wars. in 1932 he joined a group along with Ansel Adems, Imogen Cunningham and other photographers called f/64, the group worked together to create an exhibition. 

Dunes, Oceano, 1936 (47SO)

Textual: This photo has been taken with natural lighting due to it being a natural landscape, there are some very dark shadows which suggest the sun was bright and high in the sky. The image has a very high contrast however most of the photo is a light grey colour. which helps the texture stand out.

Visual: It is a black and white photo which is relatively bright however does have some highlighted and shadowed areas. the texture in the sand in the foreground is detailed and shows a pattern, however as you go up  and towards the mid ground the imaged the patterns become more fine and hard to see. Each layer of the dune looks different which helps them stand out and look different. The image is full of lines, for example at the top of each dune there is a shadow which helps define it and creates depth in the image.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas

First Landscape Photographs

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Planning

Camera Settings – I will use a fairly low shutter speed of 1/20 to 1/30 to allow more light to enter the lens from the darkening environment of the sunset. Along with a low ISO of 100 or 200 to keep the image high quality and to have a dark tone in the photograph. I will use a deep depth of field to ensure the whole photograph in in focus.

Lighting – I will use natural lighting from the golden hour before sunset for the photographs.

Location – I will do my shoot at Greve de Lecq.

Context – I will be using black and white, contrasting photographs in order to capture photographs in the style of the romantics.

Raw Photos

My Edits/Top 5

The Editing Process

I started off my editing process by using the custom white balance tool to find the correct white balance for the photograph (tool is the eyedropper tool on the right).I then applied the filter Fuji Neopan 1600 to create a strong, contrasting photograph that emphasises the shapes. I then adjusted the shadows, highlights, contrast, brightness and whites and blacks in order the fine tune the photograph.

My Top 5
My Favourite Photograph

For this photograph, I used natural daylight from the golden hour before sunset. This helped to create a darker image with more contrast, drama and a wider tonal range. I used a deep depth of field in the photograph to ensure that the whole of the photograph was in focus. I used a slow shutter speed of 1/20 to capture the photograph to ensure that enough light entered the lens from the dark environment. I used this along with a low ISO of 200 to make the photograph high quality but dark to create a dramatic photograph in the style of the romantics.

There is no colour in this photograph, only black and white. This is because of the style of the Romantics, their photographs would be contrasting black and white photographs with lots of drama within them. There is a wide tonal range in this photograph ranging from the darkness of the rocks to the whiteness of the crashing waves, this adds even more contrast and mystery to the photograph. The texture of the clouds and sea shows quite clearly in this photograph, this creates a more realistic image. There is also a 3D effect in this image; the layers of clouds can be seen over the sea, this is further done by the texture in the photograph. There are three horizontal lines in the clouds and sea in the centre of this image, this pattern leads the eye to it due to the aesthetic of it.

This photograph was taken in the style of the Romantics. It involves a strong black and white with high contrast as this is typically what was in their photographs. The setting is also Romanticism inspired; the Romantics would picture raw landscapes without any signs of civilization around.

The concept behind this photograph and Romantic photographs is that it helps to show the scale of us. It shows how big and mysterious the world is and how we are just one mark on it at one small point in time. It shows that there is a meaning behind everything and aesthetic behind everything, even if it doesn’t appear so.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

romanticised landscapes final images

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Final ideas for my shoot:I was inspired by Ansel Adams and Fay godwits work, this is due to the way they both dramatically emphasised the amount of beauty but also movement and sense of attention within their piece,They continually did this by their high or mid perspective.Also the use of their dark contrasting tones wihtin the pieced how they continually evolve and move throughout the piece in order to show a sense of unity to the piece as a whole. Furthermore I was also inspired by the way in which they all used lines in order to draw a sense of direct view to a specific part of the images altogether.

when taking my images I focused  more upon the dramatic Skys and a contrast of softer Skys and an idealised beauty compared to a power possessive sky.I also had an aim to to take images of the landscape and direct lines continually going through although these were not my strongest outcomes.I edited the images with some in colourful saturation and others in more tonal ranges to show a large to relation to that of the artists.I did look for many leading lines and I was able to find some but they did not correctly show a continuation in the way I would expect so were not as successful as the coastline images.

Above you can see the contact sheet of green landscapes and also the different angles of sunsets.I chose to take the photos at golden hour in order to see the changing and dramatic colours but also the darkness approaching from the right side within my images.It brings a warmth to many of the images and a great depth of colour.

you are able to see the before and after previous to editing the images and how I was able to enhance the colour to show a better detail of clouds and how to allow the reflection to be more vivid in its tone.

Here you are able to see I edited my images by enhancing the saturation and the colour of the piece,I chose to enhance the colour due to being able to see more drama and a stronger contrast between sides of the image, the juxtaposition of the lighter left side and the dramatic clouds and castle on the right.Additionally I edited the image this way due to the mirroring effect in the water surface and it looks as if a continuation of the sky.

I wanted to use the weather to evoke a sense of atmosphere snd emotion,I wanted their to be a relationship fo love within the coloured image and a sense of movement of light and attention,this is due to the stereotypically romantic choice of lighter colours and also how the sun is used to enhance from a stutter and the reflection of the sea shows a sense of peace altogether throughout the image itself. My aim was to capture the coastline and the sand dunes and how they are continuously evolving to capture different compositions and effects of light. 

overall I think this is my strongest image due to the lens of illusion and gradually forming power throughout the image.I wanted to show an understanding of reflections rising  the composition of the piece and how light can be used to suggest from and also movement to the piece itself.I took this image knowing I wanted both the light sense of warmth and other the authority of the castle and harsh clouds I used the technique of getting very high but lowering my camera so everything in the image looks level but additionally only capturing the reflection and the sky itself. I enhanced the exposure so the light so was able to progress throughout the image and used a wide angle lens in order to capture the whole angle of the image and see the size and power .These images are successfully romatisized landscapes although not edited within similar style due to the colours further down I edited my images tonally with a warmth in order to emphasis the artists styles too.  within the images above I wanted to capture a romanticised landscape in a much more vivid and and poetical extreme of colour caught within the golden hour, although I also wanted to capture a sense of clam that will soon be abounded due to the oncoming stormy strength of the high side and cloud formation.

These last images I edited in order to show the light and dark within the image and show a stinger relationship to the artists themselves. It connotes a much more stormy atmosphere all together but still effectively shoes the beauty within the landscape,the cloud in the last piece has such. strong depth and overwhelming power throughout the piece itself ,this was important because contextually it commands attention and shows how one beach can have such beauty and also dominate representing the power that nature has over people.

AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Homework Assignment

Homework 1- Romanticism in Landscape photography

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To explore romanticism i planned to visit 3 different places on different days so each image was varied with a different setting and weather. I planned to show an interest in the natural world, taking inspiration from Fay Godwin creating careful compositions and control over tonal values, light and atmosphere.

For this photograph I tried to find a path or stream to be in my image with a natural setting. I focused on the branches in the foreground of the image and left the background more out of focus emphasising the misty environment which creates more atmosphere in the picture. Fay Godwin photos mainly consist of natural environments with trees, fields and beaches which is where I went to take my images.

For my second photo shoot I decided to take my images around sunset creating a more romantic setting. Both images have clouds making them more atmospheric and interesting.  In the first photo I decreased the exposure to make the sea darker which emphasises the white and the rocks in the bottom half of the image. In the top half of the image i did not decrease the exposure, but did increase the contrast slightly and adjusted the levels to make the image more effective.

I also tried, when on one of my photoshoots, to take a panoramic on my phone to get a elongated field of view an dot get  wider view of the environment

Panoramic Photography:

Panoramic photography is a technique that stitches multiple images from the same camera together to form a single, wide photograph (vertical or horizontal). The term “panorama” literally means “all sight” in Greek and it first originated from painters that wanted to capture a wide view of a landscape, not just a certain part of it. The first panoramic photographs were made by simply aligning printed versions of film, which did not turn out very well, because it was close to impossible to perfectly align photographs. With the invention of personal computing, advancements in computer software and digital photography, it is now much easier to stitch digital images together using specialized software.

Analysis, AO1 Develop Ideas

Fay Godwin

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Goodwin was born in Berlin,and was the daughter of a British diplomat who was married to an american artist.In her later work of photographing writers she too married one called Tony Goodwin,and then later had two sons.later on in her life she become very ill in which she blamed drugs making her weaker every day. Goodwin then died on 27th May in 2005 at the age of 74

Fay Goodwin is the artist in which I am going to focus my attention of methods onto .Goodwin moved to London in order to become a portrait artist and even more significantly in order to capture famous artists and writers.Typically she captured the people in her own home and even soon herself became a published author.Her book was based upon the oldest road and ridge-way and so making her also a prolific landscape and the nations best known landscape photographer and was critically acclaimed for her early and mature work by the sens of ecological crisis present and how it made a Adriatic difference in the 1970’s. Later in her career she also started taking many images of natural forms and had many major exhibitions that toured nay areas around the world.

I chose Goodwin due to her stunning black and white landscapes of the coast and countryside and how this would be achievable to re-create and expand on in jersey.she was continually inspired when walking around and her pursuit of landscapes have taken her to highly remote areas of the British landscape but no doubt producing many beautiful pastoral scenes and contrasting urban landscapes.To me the way in which captures color and light within her images.Many of her work are captured within woods or well known british landscapes.

This is my favourite piece that Godwin has produced.I chose this piece due to the way in which the light captures the presence of nature and highlights the detailed aspect of the image,  furthermore the way in which the light also has a sense of structure in the image itself.You are able to see the contradictions line wihtin the tress that form a delicacy to the piece and how this is juxtaposing to the more rugged and textured floor but how this then continues to operate into the light, it purposes almost a path to the image that is highly successful.

contextually,the artists within this image had a scenic is to capture the light within what is stereotypically perceived as a dark and fluently feared section of a wood, she wanted to demonstrate the natural beauty in hick we live and the landscape that had a man made gate but how this has a removal from the relationship within nature and society.It emphasis how we should be placed together and how this would create a world with much light and jovial living.Techniqually:the piece was taken very accurately in order to capture the light to cover and produce lines over the whole of the image.The purpose, it was taken to show the natural beauty within landscapes and how people have to look to find the beauty in which they are continuously surrounded by

mind map:I chose the following images because I thought they successfully reprinted the way in which the photgoher capture the beauty and essence of landscapes but also the drama of Romanism wihtin the sky.She continually has an interesting main fetaure of the image weather that be lines or circles or a large dark juxtaposing tone.

Ideas I want to use in my work:

throughout my work I too want to capture the way in which she uses light to create a from and also enhance the image throughout its detail and overall finish the composition as a piece.Secondly I want to so many of her works the have a long lead of extension and a road but show a tree or an obstacle in the way, this is due to the way in which it draws attention to a specific aspect the piece but also shows a dynamic sense of dynamic composition  of lines and thirds within the piece. Much like my previous  artist Ansel Adams I will to edit the images to have the same contrasting tones of darker and lighter throughout.