MY RESPONSE TO ADAMS
As a response to the work of the landscape photographer Ansel Adams here are some of my landscape photographs in response to his. These photographs are part of a rather large amount of photographs which will be put into a ‘Romanticism Landscape’ post.
Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist who was born in 1902. His black and white photographs of the United States’ Incredible landscapes are some of the most iconic romanticised photographs all over the world, especially those of National Parks and incredible Mountains-scapes, which are widely seen all over the globe on calendars, poster prints, t-shirts, desktop backgrounds and of course all over the internet.
He was notorious for using the aperture setting f/64 in most of his work as it gave him the aesthetic exposure that he desired. This is evident in fact that he, alongside fellow photographers Edward Weston and Williard Van Dyke were the founders of the photography group named ‘ Group f/64 ‘ . The name of course represented their love for the f/64 aperture.
Here are some of my favourite photographs produced by Adams…
And here is a video which goes into depth about Ansel Adam’s life as a landscape photographer…
Romanticism as an art form, is originated from when a new generation of painters came together in order to create landscape artistic paintings for the sake of visual beauty, causing the form of art in the 1800s to become more and more realistic. This first movement was known as Romanticism, it emphasized emotions such as grief or love, leading to a deeper discovery of human emotion caused and effected by our natural surroundings. Romanticism usually creates the perfect visual landscape which the viewer could associate their emotions with or the artist/photographer can create through their emotions.
Here are some examples of Romanticism in photography…
Here is a video that helps to further understanding of Romanticism in Photography and Art…
As it’s commonly understood, landscape photography is representation of untouched beauty of nature through an image. For example a pristine mountain range shrouded in early morning fog, or a peaceful lake without a human being in sight.
In Altered Landscapes we sometimes see meadows and mountains, but they’re not presented to us only as images of beauty. Instead, they reflect how the environment has been changed by humans—often for the worse. In the altered landscaped genre humans rarely appear in the photographs yet their presence is undeniable.
Not only are altered realities/landscape photos a reference to human destruction in our world and a juxtaposition of the standardized landscape photographs but, they could also be standard landscape photo that has been altered within Photoshop or another equivalent. I believe this style can produce some very interesting and unique photographs which are highly influential in allowing an appreciation for the editing skills as well as conveying messages and telling stories.
Hannah Höch was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photo montage. Photo montage, is a type of collage in which the pasted items are actual photographs, or photographic reproductions pulled from the press and other widely produced media. T
he key themes associated within her work are androgyny, political discourse and shifting gender roles. These themes all interacted to create a feminist discourse surrounding Höch’s works, which encouraged the liberation and agency of women in Weimar Germany and today. I believe that the concept of Hoch’s work is an interesting way to portray the ideas of equality. The use of overlaying helps to give a unique and eye catching appearance to her work.
Psycho-geography is an exploration of urban environments that emphasises a playful movement. It has links to the situation international. Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. Another definition is “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities. It is just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.
Photo-shot planLocation – St Helier/ Town – Harve de Pas
Shot type – landscape
Lighting – Natural lighting, street lamps
Settings – Landscape, ISO 100/ 200
Concept – Capture Psycho-geography photographs at my chosen location
