Overall I found my chosen stance regarding the topic of political landscapes went well. Though I was a bit unsure of what to do at the beginning, after some more research I came to a conclusion of what I wanted do and achieve in the project, looking at how consumerism impacts the environment around us through industrialization.  I found that the photographers I studied, Edward Burtynsky, Henry J Fair and Andreas Gursky proved to be great examples of what I wanted to do, with their unique photography style providing inspiration throughout the course for what I referred back to. My favorite project from them is called ‘Industrial Scars’, a book that consisted of aerial perspectives of industrial landscapes and the chemicals produced by them. This as a result led to me exploring a variety of landscapes present within Jersey such as quarries, shops and dumps, essentially the three main sectors of any consumerist industry. When I arrived at the designated area for photography I made sure to capture the subject in a straight documentary approach, a style that I really like regarding how political visions are put across, leading me to not use manipulation when editing the shoots as I wanted to keep it as close as possible to the reality I saw it as. I used Burtynsky’s style of photography to capture the landscape of the area in a more documentary style and Fair’s style to create abstract aesthetic results of rubbish and signs, and finally using Gursky’s work as a reference when photographing aisles of food and consumerist products. What I wanted from this was to present how we treat the environment in relation to the idea of our ever-increasing demands of societies needs, exploring how the present threat of wanting the newest thing leads to the destruction of landscapes not necessarily seen by the general public, but present enough to pose as a disruption to our we preserve land. As a result I wanted use straight photography as my leading cause for these topics where I would present a single sided perspective disregarding any other form of opinion as a means of causing debate and attraction the attention of the audiences.

Through the project I have explored various techniques to enhance my images such as gradients and black + white, which all the while have improved my overall skills and perspective regarding my stance and interpretation of intended matters. This project has taught me about how we perceive the issues in Jersey, whether they are seen or unseen by the eye, giving me opinions that I would have never taken into consideration if I’d never done the chosen topic, giving me opportunities to take images of things I never imagined I would do. The whole process I have gone through has given me a new understanding of how composition affects the viewers opinion and its warping of perspectives regarding my take on issues, allowing me to explore a variety of different styles that I would not have originally not used.