How is the work of Tanya Deman and Darren Almoud questioning the politics of environmental issues and the way in which we treat the earth?

Introduction

The area which I have chosen to study is the sublime and the political debate about how natural land is used and the destruction that urbanization is causing to it. This has been a reality since the industrial revolution where humans are clearly contributing to the destruction of the planet. This subject matter is important to me as I believe it is vital to protect the earth and not ruin/destroy the last remaining natural habitat. Our ancestors were much better at looking after our environment which we need to be influenced from. Photographers that explore the sublime environment are often giving the viewer an insight to a landscape that is rare and evoke an experience that is uncommon. My personal study deals with political, social and cultural issues that have impacted people all across the world. Essentially, my area of study is a non-verbal communication about raising awareness of the beauty of our earth and to prevent people from destroying it. Psychologists believe that this non-verbal communication can reveal much more than words which I believe can help spread my passion for the natural environment and preserving it too. The representation of the land has been explored by many artists including the photographers Darren Almound and Tanja Deman that I have previously taken inspiration from and will be analysing in this essay. Both of these photographers explore the land to portray their views on how society treats and uses it. Within my essay I will be discussing how the two photographers have taken a different approach through their works. I have chosen to analyse the work of these two photographers due to their somewhat similar messages yet very different approaches in telling the story. Darren Almound focuses on capturing beautiful imagery of the natural landscape with a subtle conflict of pain and beauty that creates the sublime environment. Tanja Deman uses manipulation and photo montage techniques to focus on humanities destruction to the world that is eliminating any recollection of a beautiful natural environment.

For Darren Almound I will specifically be looking into his ‘full moon’ project where he leaves you wondering what words like landscape and nature can possibly mean in a world where environmental change is so rapid that both are fast disappearing into myth and memory. In ‘Fullmoon’, British artist Darren Almond catches landscapes around the globe, under the particular light of a full moon. With the shutter kept open for over a quarter of an hour, rivers, meadows and mountains are illuminated almost like daybreak, but the atmosphere is different: a mild glow emanates even from the shadows, star-lines cross the sky, and water blankets the earth like a misty froth. The enhanced moonlight fill the landscapes with a sense of the surreal or the sublime, and with haunting ideas of time, nature and beauty. Within my own work, I have taken inspiration from this project and created two photo shoots where I proceeded to keep the shutter open for between 15-30 seconds to create dream like images that can’t be seen by the naked eye. I think these images will play a major part in my project in telling the story about the conflict between pain and beauty within the environment. The harsh rocks conflict with the soft water to show this sense of pain and beauty and the rocks/cliffs act as a metaphor for the urban development occurring in other areas.

In relation to Tanja Deman I will explore a particular image of hers which links directly to the idea that Darren Almound’s full moon project portray about the ever changing land and destruction of the the natural landscape. The particular image that I will focus on has these ideas about the natural landscape fast disappearing into myth and memory which is exactly what Almound’s project focuses on. I have responded to Tanya’s work where she places urban infrastructure into nature by creating my own manipulation imagery using St Ouen’s beach and the skyline of London and New York to juxtapose.

In the late 18th Century the aesthetic theories of the sublime and picturesque emerged and inspired many landscape artists. Burke’s ideologies of the sublime were first established in the book:  A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful written in 1756 suggesting that the sublime and beautiful cannot be seen at the same time. Burke illustrated the sublime as a ‘character of a particular scene imbued it with a special quality of beauty, which was at the same time admirable and awe inspiring, but also capable of imparting a fission of fear’ (Mayer. L. (DATE) Masters of English – Landscapes. Pierre Terrail Edition, Paris Page 10). Whereas the picturesque was established by Uvedale Price, is when ‘the artist concentrated on those details which he knew would delight the viewer’ (Mayer. L. (DATE) Masters of English – Landscapes. Pierre Terrail Edition, Paris Page 10). There was a clear need to establish a distinction between the sublime, beautiful and picturesque when it came to art. The sublime and picturesque were a chance for landscape painters during the Romantic period to showcase their style of painting. The term ‘picturesque beauty’ was first used by William Gilpin for an item being neither beautiful or sublime. The pictorial qualities of picturesque landscapes are, ‘roughness, sudden variation, or broken tints’ (Rosenthal M. (DATE) Constable – The Painter and his Landscapes. Yale University Press, New Haven & London. Page 31).

Tanja Deman is a Croatian visual artist whose recent photo compositions have taken the relationship between the built environment and natural landscape to its extremes. The dreamy images depict familiar urban forms like skyscrapers and highways, dropped into natural landscapes such as mountain terrains. The more close-up shots of a theatre and stadium, seem to make a spectacle of nature’s wrath and Deman’s anger towards the mistreatment of the planet. The image which stood out to me the most was the one inside of the theatre. This is because it clearly remarks a series of messages about the destruction of our land and proposes the idea that one day the natural world will be part of history and we will have to go to the theater to view it. What most interested me about Deman’s work is how she points a surreal spotlight on the relationship between nature and humans. Her work acts as a voice to humans about the problems we are facing and the environmental problems we are creating. This is really intriguing to me as I have a strong interest in preserving our environment and keeping it untouched by humans and too want to communicate this political message through my photographs. I think that Deman’s work will be a strong reminder to the general public that we are now having undeniable impacts on the environment at the scale of the planet as a whole. This debate has sparked a new battle between geologists and environmental advocates over what to call the time period we live in. It would appear that Deman’s work agrees with the argument for “Anthropocene” a time period that is viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time. Experts argue that the Holocene is outdated which began 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age and Deman’s work would shows her agreement with this and her belief in the Anthropocene time period.

I think the image conveys a very powerful story about the relationship between urban landscapes and the nature. My interpretation of this manipulated image is that at the rate humans are developing our land with man made features, one day we will have no natural land to see. Therefore going to the theater is the only way that people can see the natural land due to the destruction of it.  Essentially her message is that the one day the natural land will be part of history and this is clearly dealing with the politics of environmental destruction. There are many other ways this can be interpreted for example, the message that nature needs to be appreciated mimicking the way in which people appreciate theater performances. However most interpretations will follow the intended message of the photographer about having respect for our natural world and bring a realization of the harsh man made urban development. There is a large tonal range within the image from the dark shadows in the foreground to the highlights in the background. The sections where people are seated, there is a use of dark shadows which I think  were purposely created to show a sense of danger that humanity is to nature. The forest area is bright with increased highlights to show the significance and importance of it. The framing and composition of this photograph is really appealing to the viewer. I like how the theater creates a frame for the main subject which is also positioned central to show the audience that it is the focus point. Also, the use of leading lines from the balcony and rows of chairs at the front help draw the viewer to the main subject. Overall all it is clear, through this image and many of her other pieces, that Deman is questioning the political issue of man vs nature and the impact that we are having on it. This is achieved through the use of a juxtaposition between the natural land assisted by urban landscapes dropped into them. These compositions depict a changing environment and creates an oddly disturbing message to us; who is destroying the natural land.

My second artist is an English based photographer, Darren Almond. One of Almound’s projects that stood out in particular was his full moon project taken in Patagonia and Cape Verde. Looking at this work presents us with picturesque images shot by the light of a full moon. To achieve the photos in his project he stood attentively by his camera waiting for clouds to clear, then used long exposures of between 12 and 30 minutes. The results are both natural and unearthly, recognizable and oddly alien. Quoted by Sean O’Hagan from The Gaurdian – “Volcanic rock emerges from a sea that looks like misty cloud seen from an aeroplane window. A river’s torrent is rendered smooth and sculptural, and the eucalyptus forest it runs through seems impressionistic and ghostly. Shadows lose their edges; they become soft and almost indistinct.” “With long exposures, you can never see what you are shooting,” Almond told The Gaurdian, “But you are giving the landscape longer to express itself.”

Almounds work in this project reminds me of the initial artists who painted with the aesthetic theory of the picturesque containing significant amount of detail. His outdoor landscapes show a connection with these ideas of the picturesque which has a deeper meaning, understood by reviewing the image to gather all the detail which is contained in a single photograph. Almond has the ability to connect with the audience’s emotions using his images to reflect environmental change with the motion in his pictures signifying the ever changing environment. Linking with the theory of the sublime Almonds images clearly have aspects of beauty and danger with the contrast between the elegant silky water and the harsh sharp rocks. It may also be seen that the motion of the sky and waves is a depiction of the force of nature that is dangerous. The vortex of sea and mist draws the audience to look at the image. It showcases the experience of awe and power which the natural elements behold evoking a feeling of fear within the audience.  My interpretation of his images is that the rocks act as a metaphor for the urban development that is occurring, a clear environmental issue within our world. The fear of the unknown is a key element within Darren Almounds work but at the same time there is true beauty within his work. His landscape work present environments devoid of human activity however we know that by looking in detail that there is a reference to the human activity in the world today. The de-saturated color scheme showcases the life which has deteriorated from presence of human interaction. A sense of the sublime aesthetics comes from the alien nature which these images represent, which do intrigue us but add a sense of fear due to the unrealistic environment which is being captured. As an audience we are free looking into Almounds landscape series, as there is large room and space in the frame. This creates an overwhelming or intimidating feel which introduce the fear factor involved in the sublime. Furthermore, the ideas of not knowing what is lurking beyond the sea or rock formation, presents us with the aesthetics of the sublime. Capturing these images in the style of the sublime clearly shows how the environment is unstable with the destruction that humans are causing to it. Despite the fact there is no presence of humans or the direct destruction they are causing to the landscape in Almounds project, through the inspiration of the picturesque and incorperation of the sublime, when the audience look in detail we can understand the messages about environmental change that he is displaying.

To conclude, over the course of this personal investigation, my own work has been inspired to capture elements of the aesthetic theories of the picturesque and the sublime. I have further taken inspiration from the photographers Darren Almound and Tanya Deman which has led to my exploration of the rural vs urban environments as well as the Utopian world too. My work on this project began looking at the beautiful natural environment inspired by the picturesque and sublime theories where i photographed coastal areas and their beauty. This was later influenced by Darren Almound which further triggered me into exploring the beauty of the natural environment whilst trying to incorporate subtle signifies of human presence whilst them not actually being there. This was seen through the photoshoot I did using long exposures to try and capture a sense of time and movement which is relevant to the change in time period from the Holocene  to the Anthropocene which links to both artists. This change in time period links to human activity causing the most significant change to the planet ever. This not only links to Almound’s full moon project in the way he portrays the picturesque but also links to Deman’s work where there is a clear presence of human activity. I mostly took inspiration from Deman’s work to create the fantasy landscape images that can be seen in my photobook. Inspired by her montage and manipulation techniques I wanted to create a utopia world from my perspective to show the viewer how I see the most ideal world. This later stemmed the urban photoshoot that played a major part in my project and book too. The idea of utopia was fascinating to me and I wanted to explore it from others perspective whilst still keeping to the ideas of natural vs man made. This brung me to photographing urban landscapes where artists graffiti their ideal world onto buildings. This not only explores the utopia from another perspective but also shows reference to humanities destruction to our planet and the urbanization that is present. Overall, it is clear to see that Almound and Deman have strong beliefs in the mistreatment of our earth and have demonstrated their perspectives of it differently yet both very effectively.

• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

https://books.google.je/books/about/A_Philosophical_Enquiry_Into_the_Origin.html?id=pdpDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://archive.org/details/gri_essayonthepi00c2pr

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/

http://www.anthropocene.info/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jan/21/darren-almond-moonlight-landscape-photography

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/darren-almond-fullmoon-article