Keld Helmer-Petersen (1920-2013) was a Danish photographer who became internationally known and recognised for his abstract black and white photography. He grew up in Copenhagen and began his career in photography in 1938, later experimenting with the contrast in industrial areas and architectural constructions that he later became acclaimed for. He was inspired by both German and American Modernist photography of the time, both of which saw architecture as a structural device and the camera lens as a way of capturing the rapid changes in society.

His most well-known images and the style that he is credited for uses a very high contrast to remove any of the mid tones and transform the image to become almost unidentifiable as the object or scene that it captured. His images most often use strong lines and bold shapes to make for an interesting photograph, and for the most part, they were taken in highly industrial zones in urbanised cities.

He first made his name in photography with his book 122 Colour Photographs in 1948, then went on to publish more, Frameworks: Photographs, 1950-1990 and Keld Helmer-Petersen: Photographs 1941-1995. Whilst he was very well known for his later black and white photgraphs, he actually began to achieve fame through the colour images in his first book, which stayed with the same themes of urbanism, minimalism and the modern world, but often focused more on specific details of normal objects than the iconic high contrast images he produced later.

OWN IMAGES:

For this photo shoot the artist which we followed was Keld Helmer-Petersen.

Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer,whose fame was surrounded in the years of 1940s-1950s for his abstract colour photographs.

Here are some examples of his work:

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My Attempt

For the Black Light I chose my favourite images that I could find, here I tried to find some that have already got contrasting colours as I knew that this would look well.

Here using Adobe Photoshop, I started by finding my my chosen images then following the steps below it created the following effect.

I then chose the Threshold that I worked best with my image.

I then rotated the image until I was happy with my result:

Here is the finished edit of my first image.

Here for the next few images I followed the same process to achieve my desired effect.

I quite like this image due to the silhouette and the contrast between the light shining on the wall and our shadows.

I again like this image due to the harsh contrast between the colours as this reminds me of the artists work.

In this image I cropped out the car as I wanted to focus on the Road marks against the colours of the tarmac.

I chose this image as It was already taken at an angle and I liked the detailing that is shown through the branches and the leaves.

This picture was taken through a Light Microscope, I like the scale bar shown as it almost resembles a mouth.

My Favouite Image

Out of all of my image i had to come back to my first image, due to the image rotation, I think it makes the image resemble an optical illusion.

i took this photo in town. I found it incredibly good.

Ansel Adams became a well know photographer of the American West, particularly Yosemite National Park, using his work to promote conservation of wilderness areas. At age 12, he was given his first camera during his first visit to Yosemite National Park. His iconic black-and-white images helped to establish photography among the fine arts. His photography favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph.

Between 1929 and 1942, Adams’s work matured, and he became more established. The 1930s were a particularly experimental and productive time for him. He expanded the technical range of his works, emphasizing detailed close-ups as well as large forms, from mountains to factories.

He and Fred Archer developed an exacting system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a deeply technical understanding of how tonal range is recorded and developed in exposure, negative development, and printing. The resulting clarity and depth of such images characterized his photography. This is how he achieved his dramatic photographic effects.

The zone system is a technique which allows photographers to translate light into specific densities and negatives which gives the photographer much more control over the look of their final product. Adams gained exposure by touring with his photographic works, giving seminars and publishing books.

Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who achieved widespread international recognition in the 1940’s and 1950’s for his abstract colour photographs.  He is internationally acclaimed for his images of structures, patterns and details found in industrial areas, city scapes and nature.

He established himself as a photographer of architecture and design. Simultaneously, his artistic work shifted towards the more abstract, as he found inspiration in German and American photography as well as international abstract art.

“A strong leaning towards extreme simplicity and graphic clarity in carefully composed compositions, often silhouetted, but more often than not containing subtle greys in contrast to pure black and white.”

Helmer-Petersen was born and grew up in the Østerbro quarter of Copenhagen. He started taking photographs in 1938, when he received a Leica camera as a graduation present. At an early stage, he became aware of the trends in international photography; in the 1940s he subscribed to the US Camera Annual and in this period became familiar with German inter-war photography, which had developed at the Bauhaus and in the Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) movement.

The international prospect and an interest in contemporary art and architecture contributed to the fact that at the age of 23, Helmer-Petersen, as one of the first Danish photographers, began to work with an abstract formal language.

Architecture and design played a great role in Helmer-Petersen’s work, both professionally and as an artistic field of interest. From 1952 to 1956, he worked with photographer Erik Hansen, after which he established his own studio specializing in architecture and design photography, in 1956. In the decades that followed, he worked as a photographer for his generation of architects and designers.

Helmer-Petersen is primarily self- taught in photography but studied at the Institute of Design in Chicago in 1950-51

Since 1955 the photographer has run his own studio, specializing in architecture, design and industrial photography. He has also taught photography at the Royal Academy of Art, Copenhagen, since 1964, and at the Department of Art History, University of Lund, Sweden (1978-79). In the 1950s Helmer-Petersen lectured at several schools of design, graphic art, and arts and crafts in Copenhagen.

Awards he won

• 1981: Thorvald Bindesbøll Medaljen
• 1996: Nationalbankens Jubilæumsfonds Hæderslegat
• 2005: Fogtdal Photographers Award, Denmark
• 2011: Forening for Boghåndværks Hæderspris

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When out taking photographs for my landscape shoots, I tried out exposure bracketing, which is when you change the exposure. This means that you have a selection of photographs, of the same subject, at different exposures, going from over exposed to under exposed. Using exposure bracketing means that you can merge them together, on Photoshop, to create a highly detailed and impressive image, that you would not be able to create with a single shot.

hdr image one

These are the images I used to create this merged image.

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I feel this image, that was produced, was the best, as it has the full range of tones, and was exactly how I pictured it to be when i took the photographs.

hdr image two

Here are the images that I merged together to create this image.

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I don’t think this turned out as well as the first, and this is purely down to the fact that the images the I took to make this HDR image, are not the greatest and are lacking interest and colour. This means that the image produced, is not going to have a full range of colours.

hdr image three

Here are the images that I merged together to create the image above.

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I think this image, that was produced, could be improved, meaning when I take my next of images, I need to quick in taking the photographs, at different exposures, because then the clouds won’t move as much, and the light will not change dramatically either. If I did this next time, then I think the strange orange space will disappear.

Overall, I would definitely do HDR imagery again, using exposure bracketing, because you get some very interesting and intense photographs produced.

Previous shoot:

Shoot 1– Jersey

Shoot 2– Colchester

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Lewis Baltz styled images.

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I produced these images during the shoot in the style of one of Baltz’s images from my previous case study (as pictured below). I aimed to produce a ‘frame within a frame’, adding depth to the image.

Both images have a ‘spot‘, which helps to dissect the images as Baltz did. The canister on the left image diverts the focus as the yellow colour catches the eye of those looking at it, resulting in the viewer revisiting different parts of the image multiple times. The green potted plants and white light act as the ‘spot’ for the image on the right.

Best images:

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Editing process:

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Using the perspective cropping tool on photoshop, I straightened the image out, making the sides of the wall parallel to the frame of the image. I decreased the saturation of red hues within the granite and highlighted the bluer hues of the image. I then experimented with black and white filters, making the blues completely white whilst contrasting it with a range of tones throughout the wall and stairs.

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For this image, I decreased the exposure for the background behind the structure and edited the levels of RGB and Red tones within the image to make it more vibrant.

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I didn’t change much with this image apart from enhancing the reddish hues in the road and buildings behind which is contrasted by the yellow marks in the pavement.

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I decreased the brightness to -29 and increased the contrast to 39 to make the view through the doors more defined, allowing it to become more of a main focus within the frame.

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I increased the green hues using the colour balance tool on photoshop.

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I increased the saturation to bring out the yellow of the gas canister to increase the contrast against the blue trimmings of the door.

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Firstly I increased the contrast, I then used the healing brush tool to decrease the harshness of the street lighting.

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I rotated and cropped the image to straighten out the horizon, decreased the brightness of the image to -38 and finally set the contrast to 28 to isolate the artificial lighting of the landscape.

Project evaluation

Personally I struggled with the elements within this urban landscape project. Whether to involve members of the public in my images or to avoid them proved difficult for me. I mainly focused on different shapes made by the architecture I came across, such as the rounded appearance of the bell tower and the shopping trolley section in a local car park.

Looking back at the project I would further expand the range of my images by photographing more urban scenes in the dusk and evening , capturing artificial lights from neon signs as an example or exploring the same scenes I’d previously visited during the day to see how the lighting at night altered the overall mood and atmosphere produced by the images.

Final image

My chosen image has a wide tonal range, produced by the use of natural lighting the photo was taken in. The stairs and granite have darker tones in comparison to the walls and door. The overcast sky helps to form lighter tones in the background that can be contradicted by these elements. The darkest point in the image is apparent in the top third: a fence with barbed wire wrapped around it. This dark fence further contrasts the white door and beneath it. This begins to create a narrative, making the viewer question what’s beyond the fence and whose actions have led to its placement.

There is a main focus on the structure in the middle third; on the small building like structure, the wooden banister and stairs act as a sort of leading line towards the door, drawing the viewer’s eyes and focus to the center of the frame. The flat wall next to the stairs help to create depth within the image.

There are three main textures within my image that help with its success. The most prominent texture within the composition is the cladding surrounding the door. The vertical lines on the door add tot he contrast apparent in the photo. A second, more subservient texture is the smoothness of the walls which compliments the rough texture of the granite as they differ a great deal.

Dynamic tension can be seen by the different directions of components within the image. The stairs in the background of the image and the direction of the steps up to the door aid in this, drawing the viewer’s eye out of the photograph, in contrasting directions.

There is a sense of ambiguity within my image. As well as the barbed wire fence, the slightness of the structure in the center of the image is amplified by the features of a larger building beside it. This begins to make the viewer question the function of the building. The lack of detail on the door also adds to this, as it questions whether the building have a practical purpose or not.

I felt this image proved most successful due to the simplicity yet curiosity it arouses. The small area could have easily been overlooked but having photographed it, the building itself is intriguing.

Keld Helmer-Petersen is a Danish photographer who is well renowned for his work with abstract colors in photography. The work he excelled at was with his ‘black light’ work which is very simple and defined, consisting of only a strong black and white, silhouetting the edited image causing it to become abstract. The images of his have been taken of, usually, “ugly” objects and eye-sores such as scaffolding or barbed wire. The images are unique in terms of the high contrast that causes abstract lines and features to become bold and eye-catching. He has also used this technique to create interesting landscape images that I have studied and tired to imitate myself.

Helmer-Petersen was born and grew up in the Østerbro quarter of Copenhagen. He started taking photographs in 1938, when he received a Leica camera as a graduation present. He was inspired by Albert Renger-Patzsch, the experiments at The Bauhaus in Germany and by Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Art Institute of Chicago. He achieved fame for his colour photographs but he also published several books of black and white images that explore dramatic contrasts of tone.

In some, we are only presented with images that are black and white. All mid tones have been removed. He created and found these images, using both cameras and flat bed scanners to achieve the effects he was looking for. These books are beautifully designed and encourage us to consider the space around the image and the accompanying text as integral to the meaning of the work.

MY PHOTOGRAPHS/DESIGN PROCESS

I used Photoshop to create similar images to that of Helmer-Petersen’s work. I aimed t crop the images to create make them more abstract, however aiming to not lose quality while digitally editing.

Using the threshold tool in photoshop allowed me to create an contrasted image similar to that of Helmer-Peterson’s.

I experimented with other images, however the density of each image affected the threshold tool significantly, making the image much more abstract and difficult to comprehend, (as seen below):

Natural aspects, such as dense trees and leaves also made the process difficult, hence why natural landscapes didn’t create the right result I was looking for during the experimentation process.

Final Image