Unsatisfied with my previous shoot in response to Darren Almound I wanted to capture another series of long exposure photographs. Again, I wanted to focus on a coastal area to capture the water as silky and cloud like. To improve on my last shoot, I will better prepare myself with lighting sources which i can illuminate my landscape with helping me to focus my subject matter better. I will also try to photograph a larger variety of angles and locations to widen the possibility of a successful image. For this shoot i want to carry on the exploration of the coastal area as a sublime environment due to the intense emotions it can create with the beauty and danger it entails. To achieve better photographs I intend to capture images on a still evening to ensure there is no wind to disturb the camera whilst taking a long exposure picture. To create a shoot that will slightly differ from the last one, i will create pictures at sea level yet still incorporate the contrast of the soft water and sharp rocks.

Contact Sheet

Edits

Overall I am happy with this photo-shoot which was influenced as a result of seeing Darren Almounds ‘full moon’ project. As well as the initial idea of getting long exposure shots i also incorporated shots taken at a natural shutter speed for the day lit scene. To achieve the long exposure shots I used a variety of shutter lengths but was most satisfied with 30 second ones as it gave the greater effect of the silky water. I used an ND filter to help reduce the amount of light entering the lens and allowed me to shoot at longer shutter speeds without it getting over exposed. Using lightroom i made subtle adjustments to my images with regards to the lighting and colors to create a more intense and beautiful scene completing the sublime environment which was my aim.

Narrative: What is your story?
Describe in:

3 words – Humanities environmental presence

A sentence – Showing the Utopian view i have of the world and displaying how this is conflicted by the way in which humans are treating the land.

A paragraph – I want my book to have a hard back cover that will feel professional and secure, keeping my book well kept together. I will include a standardized A4 landscape formatted pages throughout to ensure the pictures are a big enough size to bring out details. I will use a variety of design layouts throughout the photo-book such as full-bleeds and centered photographs that create a white boarder. Varying the styles will help to engage with the audience and keep them interested in the important messages that i am conveying about the environment. My photo-book will consist of mainly images rather than adding text as I believe the text will not add value in connecting with the audience. My narrative will consist of two clear opposing views on the world from an Utopian and Dystopian  perspective. The Utopian ideas will be portrayed by beautiful landscape images of the sublime environment that surrounds us here in Jersey. I will then incorporate some manipulated images that really exaggerated how beautiful the natural land is to clearly show these Utopian values. The above will take up the first half of my book followed by the dystopian ideas which will give the viewer a sense of how we are manipulating the environment and creating problems. This will include raw and manipulated images mostly including buildings to show a sense of urbanization that is the main factor contributing the the wreck of the natural land and other environmental issues.

Landscapes without memory is a book by Joan Fontcuberta who is best known for exploring the interstices between art, science, and illusion.  In Landscapes without Memory, Fontcuberta has co-opted a piece of computer software originally designed for military or scientific use in rendering three-dimensional images of landscapes. The software enables the user to build photo-realistic models based on information scanned from two-dimensional sources—usually satellite surveys or cartographic data. The result gives the user the illusion of navigating in three dimensions which had previously been visualized only as a flat image.

Fontcuberta created the two series that constitute his Landscapes without Memory. In the “Landscapes of Landscapes” series, Fontcuberta feeds the software fragments of pictures by Turner, Cézanne, Dalí, Stieglitz, Weston, and others, forcing the program to interpret a variety of landscape masterworks as “real.” The contours and tones of these painted and photographic landscapes are transformed into three-dimensional mountains, rivers, valleys, and clouds. In the “Bodyscapes” series, Fontcuberta uses the same software to reinterpret photographs depicting fragments of his own body. The result producing a wild, virtual- fantasy world. 

The technical aspects to the include simply embedded images on the traditionally right hand side of the double page spread. For the most part, the images take up the whole A4 page with a landscape orientation apart from 4 images that take up only half of the A4 page. I think the idea behind taking up the full A4 sheet is to show how Fontcuberta feels the fantasy landscapes should be endless and carry on throughout the way. However this is juxtaposed with the knowledge that the consumers have in the way that there are clear deformities to our land where humans have destroyed it. The pages on the left hand side are not completely empty as they have a small print of the image that has been interpreted by the technology as well as some text. The text helps to further convey the narrative of the book and give some context too.

There are very few images in black and white which allow for a more realistic interpretation of the concepts. I think this helps the viewer to really connect with the pictures because we don’t view the world in black and white. All the pages in the book are consistent, using the same style of white paper which juxtaposes with the images which alter each page with contrasting environments and colors. There are a total of 96 pages including the pages with text and pictures which is supported by a hard cover. To me, this photo book is essentially a narrative about how the crisis of the landscape today is bound up with a sense of the loss of natural space.

My first response to Tanya Deman and the conflict between urban landscapes and the natural land. I wanted to show a direct juxtaposition between natural land and urban landscapes by combining them together to show the effects that humans are having on our natural environment. With an edit time of around 2 hours I decided only doing this one edit however i will follow it up with more.

Original Photos

Editing Process, Layers and Steps 

I think this edit has been successful in showing a clear impact that humans are having to our natural environment. Clearly the city scape built up on the beach is unrealistic however this use of over exaggerations helps the viewer understand that these buildings are destroying nature. With how the development of urban areas is increasing, i think it is a huge concern for our rural areas staying rural. Through images like this one, i believe it will help people understand this problem and in turn help to reduce the densely vastly growing urban landscapes.

Tanja Deman’s art is inspired by her interest in the perception of space and her relationship to nature. Tanja’s works, incorporating photography, collage, video and public art, are evocative meditations on urban space and landscape. Observing recently built legacy or natural sites her work investigates the sociology of space and reflects dynamics hidden under the surface of both the built and natural environment. Tanya Deman’s recent photo compositions have taken the relationship between the built environment and natural landscape to its illogical extremes. The dreamy (uh, nightmarish perhaps) images depict familiar urban forms like skyscrapers and highways, dropped into precarious mountain terrains.

What most interested me about Tanya’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 having to nature and the environmental problems we are enhancing/creating. This is really intriguing to me as I have a strong interest in preserving our environment and keeping it untouched by humans. As a response to this work i intend to create compositions that clearly highlight a significant comparison between the nature and urban landscapes.

I think the image above 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 buildings, one day we will have no natural land to see. Therefore going to the theatre is the only way that people can see the natural land due to the destruction of it. 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 theatre performances. However most interpretations will follow the intended message of the photographer about having respect for our natural land and bring a realisation of the harsh man made urban development.

For this shoot i want to portray a woodland area as sublime. I intend to focus on the woods from two perspectives, one being positive and this shoot being negative. I intend to do this by simply taking portraits in a woodland area and direct my model to show signs of fear which will show the psychological emotions that this sublime area can connect with. The concept for this shoot is to show the emotion experienced as a result of the surrounding that the person is confined to. I believe combining the eeriness of the woodlands, with the model and her facial expressions will help to portray the pain and stress for the sublime. This shoot will give the viewer an indication of how powerful this sublime environment is in connecting with humans emotions and perhaps influence the viewer with a certain emotion too.

Contact Sheet

Edits

Overall, I believe this shoot has been successful in showing the forest as a sublime environment. I believe the images help to show the emotional interaction gained as a result of ones presence in this environment. Specifically I tried to focus on the negative impacts of this area and later i will explore the positive impacts. To further develop and enhance the influence of the forest as creating fear and distress I will use a surrealist method and manipulate my images. I believe from the moody/dark tones in the edits i have been able to portray the forest as a dangerous place however i believe it would be interesting to exaggerate this using a surrealist approach to really show a sense of distress.

Analysis

Overall, i think this image has been my most successful out of this shoot. I think that the composition has worked well with my model placed in the center which indicates that she is the main subject. By framing her in the middle, it allows the viewer knowledge that she is the most important subject in the image which immediately connects the viewer with the person allowing them to interact with her emotionally. I think that the backdrop has worked well in portraying the sublime environment as a feared place due to the eeriness that the trees create. With no leaves on the trees a sense of death is present which creates this influence of danger. This is then mimicked through the feared body language that i have directed my model to do which overall creates this scary environment. Furthermore, within the editing process I have de-saturated the image as a whole and completely removed the blues and greens to create this moody vibe. I ensured to crush the whites to reveal grey tones which enhance this fearful mood.

Unsatisfied with the previous artists I had looked into for my essay I decided to take an alternative route and focus in on two new artists yet with similar messages. I was much more inspired by these two artists work and I felt like i could connect with their photographs on a more personal level than the other photographers which stimulated my willingness to change. The artists which i have chosen to now study are Darren Almound and Tanya Deman and i have therefore amended my first paragraph in relation to these two visual artists. This can be seen below.

Red-done First Draft with new photographers.

The area which I have chosen to study is the sublime and the political debate about how land is used and the destruction that urbanization is causing to the natural land. This has been a reality since humans first existed. The land and how it is used is important to me as I believe it is vital to keep the earth natural and not ruin the sublime environment with man-made features. My initial passion for this subject is due to the environmental issues that I am aware of and the rapid increase in urbanization which is heavily contributing to it. Photographers that explore the sublime environment are often giving the viewer an insight to a landscape that is rare and the experience is uncommon due to the destruction humanity is causing to them. This area of study that I have chosen to look at 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 Darrem Almound and Tanya Deman that I will be analyzing. Both of these photographers use 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 in portraying the land in relation to their perspective of it. 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. While Darren Almound focuses on portraying the sublime directly by capturing extraordinary scenic shots, Tanya Deman uses a manipulation approach 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. In relation to Tanya Deman I will explore a particular image of hers which links directly to the ideas that Darren Almounds 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 Almounds project focuses on. The reason i chose to focus on these two artists are due to the similar political issue they have tackled yet the differeing approaches they tackled it with.

On a recent gallery trip with school, we had the opportunity to see some of Emily Alchurch’s work at the CCASM Modern and Contemporary gallery. Emily was born in Jersey in 1974 and was educated at Jersey Collage for Girls and later studied Fine Art at the Kent institute of art and design and the royal collage of art in London too. She has since established an international reputation for her complex and intricate photographic compositions.

Using inspiration from old paintings, Emily Alchurch works with photography and digital collage to re-imagine the paintings landscape from a contemporary perspective. The old paintings work as the framework for her to build her image and explore around architecture, place and culture to emerge, combing present day with a sense of history. On our visit, a representative of Emily’s work spoke to us about how she goes about creating these masterpieces. He told us that her starting point is an intensive encounter with a city or a place, to observe and absorb an impression, and gather an extensive image library. From this resource, hundreds of photographs are selected and meticulously spliced together to create a seamless new fictional space. Each piece of work represents this journey into a single scene in order to focus on a social narrative.

As we saw at the gallery, Emily presents her work as light-boxes which enhances the photographic work immensely and almost creates a window into another world. Quoted from the Artist herself, “Using the original image as my map and guide, I source and photograph buildings and landscapes, which I use to recreate the scene from a contemporary perspective”.

Analysis

When we visited the gallery, this image instantly drew my attention and captivated me. I think it it visually pleasing and very well constructed with a large depth of field and so much to look at. The use of paths act as a leading line to direct the viewer around the image and I believe the archway is inviting for the audience to look deeper into the photo.  Overall the light tones, dreamy colors and overall fantasy constructed landscape, creates a unique piece of work which is captivating for the viewer to look at. I think that the incorporation of contemporary signifies such as the flying drone, are effective in showing Emily’s present perspective. There are many indications throughout all of her works on her standpoint in society and how she views the community.Celebrating the legacy of the architect Sir John Soane, Grand Tour II presents Joseph Gandy’s vision of Soanes unbuilt projects, as if they had been built. By photographing examples of existing neoclassical architecture around the UK, Allchurch collated a comprehensive ‘kit of parts’ from which to construct Soane’s designs. These composite buildings are placed in a hybrid Arcadian landscape comprised from numerous English gardens, the mountains of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and Scarfell Pike in the Lake District. The inspiration for this piece can be seen below. 

• Essay question:  How is the work of Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta and Fernando Maselli questioning the politics of environmental issues and the way in which we treat our earth?
• Opening quote;
• Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?

The area which I have chosen to study is the sublime and the  political debate about how land is used and the destruction that urban environment is causing to the natural land. This has been a reality since humans first existed. The land and how it is used is important to me as I believe it is vital to keep the earth natural and not ruin the sublime environment with man made features. My initial passion for this subject is due to the environmental issues that i am aware of and the rapid increase in urbanization which is heavily contributing to it. Photographers that explore the sublime environment are often giving the viewer an insight to a landscape that is rare and the experience is uncommon due to the destruction humanity is causing to them. This area of study that I have chosen to look at 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 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 Fernando Maselli and Guilliaume Bression and Carlos that I will be analyzing. Both of these photographers use 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 in portraying the land in relation to their perspective of it. 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. While Maselli focuses on portraying the sublime directly by capturing extraordinary mountain ranges, Fernando Maselli and Guilliaume Bression focus on humanities destruction to the world that is eliminating any recollection of a sublime environment.

• Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. Link to powerpoints about isms andmovements M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Personal Study

• Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

For this shoot I wanted to really focus in on the sublime environment and exaggerate it to seem truly special and create an appreciation for it. I tried to capture a softness of the water with a strong juxtaposition from the rocks being hard. This creates a  conflict of pain and beauty that creates the sublime environment. To achieve this I have decided to complete a photo shoot where I take  long exposure photos using the sea and other water feature’s to create a tranquil atmosphere as the water will come across as misty and cloudy. This will portray the sublime as even more calm and beautiful than it originally is which will stem my audience into appreciation for the natural environment. For this shoot, I have mainly been inspired by Darren Almound but I will incorporate aspects of the research that i completed on Fernando Maselli too. I will take a similar approach to Darren Almound and try to plan my shoot in relation to the full moon to allow me to get successful photos at nighttime to produce a surreal mood that is different at nighttime than daytime.

Contact Sheet

Edits

Black And White Edits

For my next shoot i want to carry on the exploration of the coastal area as a sublime environment due to the intense emotions it can create with the beauty and danger it entails. To achieve better photographs i intend to capture images on a still evening to ensure there is no wind to disturb the camera whilst taking a long exposure picture. To create a shoot that will slightly differ from this one, i will create pictures at sea level yet still incorporate the contrast of the soft water and sharp rocks.

Analysis

The above image is my favorite image from this shoot, mainly due to the composition and overall moody tone within the landscape. Following Darren Almound’s ‘full moon’ project, I too took this picture under a full moon. Although the outcome does come across as it being day-time, I feel as if there is a more tranquil and almost sinister vibe that is subtle within the image. Compared with the first image at the top of this post which were shot in broad day light, this image is a lot softer and calmer which helps to exaggerate the sublime. The biggest challenge when capturing this image was focusing the subject due to it being very dark. To achieve an adequate focus I directed my assistant to walk down the cliff face and shine a spot light onto the nearest rock faces whilst I focused the the camera. I used a 30 second exposure with an ISO of 650 and my aperture at F/4. Overall I believe this image and the shoot has been successful in portraying the natural environment as sublime and as an accurate response to Darren Almound. Following on from this shoot I intend to create another possible shoot similar to this one however in a different location and also introduce a model into the sublime environment and use the figure to reflect emotion towards nature. The key emotions i intend to reflect are the feelings of freedom and peace.