who is NICHOLAS NIXON and what does he do?
NICHOLAS NIXON was born in 1947, in Michigan. NIXON is known for his black and white photographs of cityscapes and portraits, trying to capture emotion, that can effect his viewers. He was influenced by 2 photographers called, EDWARD WESTON and WALKER EVANS, and worked with large-format cameras. NIXON was part of the group ‘the new topographics’, who photographed urban landscapes to display how industrial and manmade building have taken over the natural landscapes.
my favourite photographs from NICHOLAS NIXON
These photographs are my favourite, because I like how NIXON has captured repetition of the houses and how unnatural they look, compared to the free flowing elements that occur in nature. When I go to take photographs, I am definitely going to look at capturing this, and I think it looks impressive.
analysis of NICHOLAS NIXONS piece
technical
The lighting of this photo is natural, as NIXON has taken this photograph in the outdoors and has probably not used any additional lighting techniques. If you look closely, you can see how the natural light hits some of the cabins and illuminates some of the features, eg the windows. The lighting of photograph is flat, as it is quite plain. The tonal range is large, as there are very dark blacks and very light whites, and this links in with the contrast, in the sense that it is very strong.
visual
This piece was taken in black and white, and I find it makes the photograph look very effective and simple. The way that NIXON took this image means that the background, the mountain range, is viewed as being 2D, as it is flat and has no definition. Whereas the cabins are viewed as being 3D, as the edges are defined, some are illuminated, and some are shadowed. NIXON has captured this landscape very carefully, as he has thought about the composition. It is clever how the mountain range is free flowing and natural, and the cabins are angled and structured. NIXON has deliberately juxtaposed these 2 elements together to show how nature is controlled by industrial buildings, that mankind has created.
contextual and conceptual
This piece links to the era contextually, in which it was taken, in the sense that NIXON captured both a natural landscape and an urbanised and industrialised landscape in one photograph, which references the time of the industrial revolution. This is because during the industrial revolution natural scapes were industrialised by manmade buildings, which NIXON and the ‘new topographics‘ enjoyed to photograph to portray their thoughts on the enlightenment.