Since the tsunami and the nuclear catastrophe of March 2011, Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression have made regular visits to the region of Fukushima, Japan, and especially to the “no man’s land” around the stricken power station. Their visits mix posed situations along with a documentary approach. The title of this project is ‘Retracing Our Steps‘. I think that the street photography/documentary photography style that has been introduced in these photographs make the photographs more interesting as they appear to come from the view of an average person. An interesting point of view would be to see more dramatic photography approaches as this area is unseen by many so to explore it in multiple ways could be successful.

Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta and Fernando Maselli have a common link in their approaches throughout their photographs as they intend to capture and document what the world is like in places that ordinary people wouldn’t visit without a strong purpose. Both of their photographs contain elements of staging in them as Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta may place subjects to make photographs more intriguing and Fernando Maselli rearranges photographs in his studio to create the setting that he wants.

A contrasting feature in the works of Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta and Fernando Maselli is that Maselli focuses on settings untouched by humans in order to show the aesthetically pleasing sublime of nature, wheres Bression and Ayesta look at the destruction of a man-made city.

I think that the purpose of this project is to document the damage that can be done to a once over-populated city and how environments change without the presence of humans.

Analysis

The below photograph by Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta uses the natural light of the evacuated ‘no-mans land’ to create shadows and contrast within the photograph. The shadows created by the frame of the windows replicate the Japanese text onto the walls creating a feeling of a natural average environment – which contrasts with the fact that this area has been abandoned. There is not a massive tonal range within the photograph but there are enough tones developing throughout the photograph such as the contrast between the light sky and the dark cafe. A short-medium depth of field appears to have been used in the photograph as the subject in the foreground is in focus but the forest in the distance is slightly out of focus. A fairly low shutter speed of 1/40-1/80 will have been used in this photograph along with a low-medium ISO as the cafe gives a dark environment with not much light so the lens needs to be open for more time in order to allow more light to enter.

This photograph is not overly colourful but the touches of colour that it uses is very effective, such as the red flag against the blue sky contrasting with the dark grey/brown of the cafe. The darkness of the cafe creates a contrast against the light outside which further pushes the image of a deserted cafe. There is quite a 3D effect of the photograph as the seats and the subject in the foreground create an immediate viewpoint for the eye as opposed to the deserted area in the background. The cropping of the photograph allows for the subject to be placed on the left vertical line in the rule of thirds which create a more aesthetically pleasing photograph from the viewer and tears the photograph slightly away from the documentary photography genre and more towards contemporary photography.

Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression composed this photograph after making regular visits to the region of Fukushima, Japan, and especially to the “no man’s land” around the ruined power station. Their visits mix posed situations along with a documentary approach, which is clearly seen in this photograph as they document how quiet and deserted the area is whilst setting up as a posed photograph. This links to political landscape as it shows the artefacts that humans have left behind but it also shows how the land has become a quiet place left to nature. It looks at the impact of humans on landscapes and how they change it.

I think that the purpose of this photography is to show how quickly and dramatically urbanised areas around the world can develop in either a negative or positive way and how much land is left to be used/discovered. It primarily looks at how the humans that once populated this area have left everything exactly as they were with no signs of chaos shown.