I want to present the theme of anthropocene through landscape photography and altered landscapes through using photo-shop to edit my images.
I want to take photos of jersey beaches and very open landscapes as well as taking photos of tall buildings in Jersey and photoshop them on top of the beaches and bay areas to show how it would look or how it probably will look like in the future with buildings all along the coast.
I wanted to do landscapes as I think it fits into this topic the best as it shows our world like beaches, something that we humans havent ruined yet or built on top of. Then by adding edited buildings on top using photoshop and taking inspiration from altered landscapes I think it will be an interesting way to present anthropocene and how we humans change the world.
moodboard of ideas;
my first chosen photographer that I am going to be inspired by for this exam/anthropocene shoot is Jesse Treece
some examples of her images;
about- The artist only makes use of scissors, glue and vintage magazines and books and creates with these tools nostalgic scenes and surreal landscapes. Every image tells a different story that you can get lost in for hours. Jesse Treece himself even calls his work slightly disturbing. His images somehow made me think of science fiction and horror movies from the 70s.
His idea is to create artwork that excites and surprises no matter what the current trends or moods are. He’s mainly into old newspaper comic strips, dystopian sci-fi novels, crazy architectural drawings, designs from the 60’s and 70’s and works of artists like Salvador Dalí and Hayao Miyazaki. By this and his preference for the process and the look of handmade collages, he turns his inspiration into something unique and original. Being basically self-taught except for some not very serious art classes, Jesse Treece became a central figure in the underground collage art movement and was even recently included in AnOther Magazine’s list of the top ten collage artists in the world. He somehow manages to mix regular and absurd, beautiful and disturbing, science and nature, large and small and puts together these familiar imageries to create a whole new picture.
my second chosen photographer that I am going to be inspired by for this topic is Felicity Hammond
some of her photography;
Felicity Hammond is an emerging artist who works across photography and installation. Fascinated by political contradictions within the urban landscape her work explores construction sites and obsolete built environments.
In specific works Hammond photographs digitally manipulated images from property developers’ billboards and brochures and prints them directly onto acrylic sheets which are then manipulated into unique sculptural objects.
Recent awards include, British Journal of Photography International Photography Award: Winner 2016, Catlin Art prize: Finalist 2015, Magnum and Photo London Inaugural Photographer award: nominated 2015. Saatchi New Sensations: Finalist 2014.
Being inspired by both these photographers will help me achieve my final ideas and images. As I chose one photographer who focuses on manipulating landscapes by hand and combines nature with large buildings and cities and the other photographer who edited and manipulates her landscape images digitally
I used my own style which implements photography (a photo which it took), and 3D modelling in Blender. Then edited it in Photoshop.
I planned to make an image based on climate change, rising temperature, and deforestation.
I planned to use the freedom tree, as was make of metal, therefore it wouldn’t burn in a fire. I chose fire as it was a heat source, which represented rise temperatures. After, there would be no trees, signifying deforestation.
First I took a landscape into Blender, modified it, and changed the land, and scaled up mountains, where I would Photoshop the Freedom tree onto. I added many trees to the landscape. After I added fire to the trees and, put a camera-raw filter the change small details in Photoshop.
This is the final image after all the Photoshop:
It is called, “Freedom Tree 2072”, due to the rapidly increasing changing climate, I created an exaggeration of the future if rising heats is ignored. It is based off of the Freedom Tree in town; my image, which is in the middle of a forest fire. I wanted to show how the man-made, metal tree was not affected by the fire, compared to the burning natural forest around it, with CO2 gasses giving the sky a hazed look, due to the smoke. Hopefully, it can visualise the serious impact of climate change!
I was awarded a prize for this and it is getting featured in an exhibition in, Liberty Wharf on May 13th-15th.
These were the photos that took to represent the “New Topographic’s” on the Highlands/Hautlieu photoshoot.
I mainly took straight-on photos of the buildings and sheds/warehouses around the area.
I used multiple exposure bracketing on some of them to get a more dramatic image.
I edited these images in Photoshop ACR / Camera-Raw.
My favourite is the bottom left image, as there is a contrast between the bright blue sky and the dirty building. And lots of detail in the texture of the metal.
New topographics was a term created by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar repeated aesthetic, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscapes, a human-environment with the natural terrain hiding in the background.
Image taken by Robert Adams, Mobile Homes, Jefferson County, Colorado, 1973.
What was the new topographics a reaction to?
It was a reaction to the increasingly suburbanised world around them, and a reaction of idealised landscape photography that raised the natural elemental.
Rut Blees Luxemburg – (Case Study 1 / Night)
Rut Blees Luxemburg was born in 1967 is a German-born photographer. Her technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. She experiments with exposure time and low light conditions to get an image that captures the night life in the city.
As you can see, Luxemburg uses warm colours and reflections in water puddles, which creates a unique view of her scene. Also, experiments which long exposure.
Analyses Of One Of Her Images :
All the lighting in this image is artificial, due to it being night time. It seems that there is a tungsten tone in the lights, as there is a orange/red tint on the surface that the light hits. This means that the image has a warm temperature to it, as the colour red is represented by heat. There is also a washed out green colour to the buildings in the back, most likely caused by the reflection of the flood lights on the football pitch. The colours are muted, which gives off a serene atmosphere as it feels abandoned. Although this isn’t the case as motion is captured by using a long shutter speed, this makes it so the car lights show as a long red or white lines; depending on what way the car is driving. Since, it is night the camera will not overexpose the image, as there is no natural sunlight, therefore she would of been using a high ISO, eg 800-3200. There is a high depth of field as all the image is in focus, and also Rut Blees Luxemburg displays a wide range of tonal values, achieved by including and showing a light source and shadows under the overpass. There are many horizontal lines and geometric shapes in the image. The horizontal lines suggest a feeling of rest, because objects parallel to the earth are at rest. In this landscape, horizontal lines also help give a sense of space and attention to the 3D aspect to help visualise that the image was taken from a high place. As she is a tutor at the Royal Collage of Art, this may mean that she has a higher status position over her students, which is why the image is taken higher up.
Where Can I Take Night Urban Landscapes?
Mood Board
Photo-shoot Plan
Night photos – (Contact Sheet)
Final Night Photos (Titled)
Go.
Roundabout turn off.
Crossing.
Roundabout.
Overpass.
Above the tunnel light trails.
My Image Comparison To Luxemburgs Image – Venn diagram
Overall, my I really like my image as it captures motion and, I have created a unique pattern with the buses lights. The colours are vibrant and the bus lights are in focus, which is the main focus point in the image. As I used a high aperture the still lights appeared as stars. For composition I go low to the ground the shoot more upwards, the lights from the bus fill up most of the image. The image is balanced and exposed perfectly even thought it was taken at night time.
Stephen Shore – (Case Study 2 / Day)
Stephen Shore’s work has been widely published and exhibited for the past forty-five years. He was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz.
He has also had one-man shows, his most rememberable at : Los Angeles; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Art Institute of Chicago.
In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art opened a major retrospective spanning Stephen Shore’s entire career. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
When he was in New York; in the early 1970s, he sparked new interest in colour photography, and in the use of the view camera for documentary work.
Analyse Of One Of His Images:
This image shows a busy American street in 1975, Shore’s took this image next to a gas station, which had a wide view over the streets. The image is bottom heavy, which means that the viewers eye is directed toward the bottom half of the image, compared to the empty blue skies.
The contrast of a busy, chaotic street and the clam, tranquil mountains in the background, signify the difference between man and mother nature. Even thought the mountains are small they are still present. The fact that the mountains don’t take up a large portion of the image shows that the industrial and urbanising world is taking over natural land.
The main colours in this image are red, blue, and white. That just happens to be a colours in the American flag. It can suggest that Shore’s is proud to be an American citizen, which he displays through his work of photography.
Overall, I think this image mostly basic, with a normal “street photography” composition, that doesn’t use any objects/techniques to grab the viewers eye. The colours are normal, but mostly blues, which gives off a cool feelings, despite being in a desert in Los Angles. Although, I do like how Shore’s has captured the history of America, by including the old cars, and billboards, (not digital).
Where Can I Take Night Urban Landscapes?
Mood Board
Photo-shoot Plan
I plan to walk around town and take photos of unique buildings and scenes that I find. I would go to Weighbridge first then maybe, round the back of the tunnel to La Collette then finish off at Millennium park and the small streets round there.
Urban Day Photos – (Contact Sheet)
Final Photos
Analyse–(Shores Vs Mine)
This is my final image I chose, as I feel that it linked to Stephen Shore’s style the best.
Similarly, both the image capture a historical value. My image captures the liberation statue, and Shore’s capturing change over time.
Both, include nature in a build up urban environment. In my image its the flowers in the foreground, and Shore’s its the mountains in the background.
Also, both use vibrant colours, except mine has a more vibrant summer feel. However Shore’s uses a smaller colour range, compared to mine which uses bright yellows and ultra blues.
Overall, I like mine more as there is more of a focus point; being the statue, this is achieved by using a unique composition with the flowers to almost “frame” the statue. To draw more attention to the statue I used a lower aperture to blur the flowers.
Anthropocene is a term which is used to define the geological age that we are currently in, spanning from 2.6 million years ago to the present day, described as the time period in which humans have had the most impact and influence on this earth, including the environmental and climate status. Many artists and photographers also use this term, in order to categorize their works into the style that investigates and focuses on how us humans are altering the earth, and how it will affect us in the future. This is usually presented in many different ways, whether it be in the form of landscapes, portraits or abstracts.
From “Plastic Currents” Series – Naomi White (2012)
Naomi White is an activist artist and educator who’s work focuses on ideas at the intersection of political ecology and photography. White’s aim in photography is to bring to light the issues that humanity is creating for the planet and the detrimental health of our ecosystems. She also documents the social issues of racism and the capitalist model of domination between unequal societies. White has achieved awards such as the PDN’s Objects of Desire Award, holds an MFA in Photography and Related Media from SVA in New York, and has participated in exhibitions throughout North America and Europe, as well as having her work published in The Brooklyn Rail, Fayn and Uncertain States. Naomi White is currently the Chair of Photography at the New York Film Academy in Burbank, California.
From “Plastic Currents” Series – Naomi White (2012)
“Shipwrecked V” – Naomi White (2017)
“Arguments with a surface VI” – Naomi White (2018)
Analysis of Naomi White’s work
From “Plastic Currents” Series – Naomi White (2012)
This image by Naomi White is part of her series which she developed in 2012, named “Plastic Currents”. The image depicts a plastic bag, lit with intense, harsh studio lighting in order to provide an almost abstract affect. This series was part of a movement created to raise awareness for sea pollution and the overall harm that humans have created to the planet.
The lighting in this image is extremely harsh, creating very intense highlights and shadows that are projected throughout the curves and folds in the bag. The lightest areas of the image can be seen around the edges of the plastic bag, which creates a jarring juxtaposition between the light and dark tones. The lighting is artificial and has been created using studio lighting, presumably projecting from underneath the object as the raised sections of the image are in darkness.
There is no use of line in this image, although the object that is being photographed, there is no form of repetition. On the other hand there could be said to be an outline to the object, as the bag has been crumpled and the outlining of the bag has various points of light and dark shading.
There is no form of repetition within this image as the focus of the project is to raise awareness of sea pollution, rather than creating abstract patterns.
Although the object is man-made, the shape of the object is still some-what organic and curved as the photograph has been taken of the bag out of it’s natural state in which it was first made.
The depth of field is impossible to state as the background is compiled of simple empty, negative space. The only representation of positive space is the bag itself, though it still has very little detail and only consists of folds and juxtaposing shadows and highlights.
The texture of the image is contrasting, as the rippled folds in the bag create a slightly rougher texture when compared to the flattened sections of the bag which display a smooth texture. However the representation of texture is not the main focus of this image.
There is a range of tones from dark to light within this image. The darkest areas can be seen mainly towards the centre of the bag, however they do begin to form strands of darkness as the viewers eyes cast away from the centre of the bag. The lightest areas can be seen around the edges of the bag, where the plastic material is less concentrated and therefor can let in more light.
There is a rather uniformed colour palette within this image, as it consists of whites, blues and blacks. the colours are saturated in some areas of the image as the man-made plastic has an artificial blue tone to it. The dominating colour in this photograph is blue, but this is juxtaposed with the dazzling white background and the intense black shadows. If the image were in black and white it would become more abstract as the plastic material could not be detected and the viewer may mistake it for another material such as paper. This would mean the aim of the project would not come across quite as prominent as the audience would struggle to work out the type of material being photographed.
There is a very simple composition to this photograph, although it does not purposely follow the rule of thirds. The focal point of the back is found mostly within the middle third of the image, with the remaining thirds being filled with negative and empty space. The image is rather unbalanced as the majority of the positive space is concentrated into the centre of the image.
Anthropocene: The unofficial current geological age, the period during which human activity has been the major influence on the climate and the environment.
Humans as a whole impact the physical environment in many ways: overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Even the basic things like plastic use/waste can impact the environment majorly. These changes have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water which are global problems.
Yao Lu focuses on his concern about the changes of the environment and the consequences of modernisation in china leading to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. Also showing the difference between past and present through using aspects of the traditional Chinese style of painting to create similar images. Lu creates his photomontages in circular, fan-shaped and scroll-like frames.
At first glance they look very harmonious with the old traditional buildings and small figures walking in nature, but the beautiful mountain scenes are actually dump sites which have scaled out of proportion.
His photographs serve as a warning to the viewer about the consequences of large-scale transformations for the society.
View of the Autumn Mountains in the Distance, 2008
Dwelling in the Mount Fuchun, 2008
Autumn Mist in the Mountain with Winding Streams, 2007
Yao Lus’ images are based on landscapes in China which he recreates with waste scenes and landscapes to make a final composition of a very scenic, calm and peaceful atmosphere. It clearly shows the impact of waste on the environment and tells the story itself with the precision of composition, line, density and its framing, which are all the elements in painting.
When taking my own photos and creating my final images I will take similar landscapes but with cliffs/coastlines incorporated with piles of waste in dump sites, to get the same effect of the calm peaceful scene, which when you look closer you notice the dumpsites.
Vilde Rolfsen
Plastic Bag Landscapes series includes structures, formed by discarded bags found on Oslo’s streets, being transformed by light to make shapes resembling snow scapes or icy caverns. The plastic bags used for the project are all sourced from the street.
“I want people to stop and think about the plastic cups lying around and blowing away. No one cares, because it’s normal’.
When taking images for this series Vilde Rolfsen wanted to take ordinary objects out of their usual context and place them into an artificial environment to create awareness around the issue of plastic waste to the land and oceans, more specifically the use of plastic bags. Rolfsen also hopes her work will remind people to think more about their own consumption patterns.
Vilde Rolfsens’ images where she takes ugly plastic bags and turns them into beautiful images creates an atmospheric impact as they have a lot of movement in them and look very much like the water/sea.
I will take plastic bags and other waste and photograph them with different coloured lights to get the same wave/movement effect. I also want to attempt to make them look like the sea or different landscapes rather than just different coloured plastic bags.
I would also merge the two photographers ideas together and make a landscape with the plastic bag as the sea or even clouds/wind.
‘Jeremy Carroll is an artist and professional photographer who wants to change that (water pollution) by bringing the problem to the forefront of people’s minds. In order to illustrate what plastic pollution is doing to fish and sea mammals, he created an exhibit called “Entanglement.” It depicts humans entangled in the waste that is most commonly found in seawater and along beaches’ – thegreenparent.co.uk
Jeremy Carroll mainly focuses on closeup portraiture and abstract images displaying the effects of marine pollution. He shows the effect of the plastic in the oceans by wrapping it around the model, symbolising how it can trap and endanger marine animals in the same way. Jeremy Carroll chose this subject to tackle because he believes that marine pollution is a big problem and that his photography may highlight this problem and help reduce this pollution in the oceans.
Jeremy Carroll is a London – based artist and photographer who aims to raise awareness of the Earth’s growing plastic pollution problem by photographing his subject with various plastic objects such as fishing nets, ropes and plastic bags. His 2017 exhibition ‘Entanglement‘ depicts human beings caught up in the waste which is commonly found in seawater and along beaches. With the way things are going, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation predicts that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Carroll’s approach to this pressing international issue is to allow his human subjects to take the place of the various marine life which is constantly being affected by the plastic in the world’s oceans, such as turtles, dolphins, and sharks. By doing this, he hopes that more people around the world will be convinced to reduce their intake of single – use plastics and switch to more environmentally friendly and sustainable alternatives.
NAOMI WHITE
Naomi White is an intersectional feminist, artist, and educator, working on ideas at the intersection of political ecology and photography. Focusing on the transformative power of photography to affect desire and change, much of her work questions how we can shift our focus away from the current racist, capitalist model of domination to one of equity and collective voice, for the sake of all people, animals and the planet. Her work has been shown throughout North America and Europe, and is held in both public and private collections. White’s work draws from a diverse background in art history and film, investigating themes of identity construction in our camera-bound world, focusing on how photography affects materials, memory, and culture.
“New Topographic”, a term coined in 1975 by William Jenkins which referred to a photographic movement undertaken by a group of American photographers whose works had a similar look – mostly uniform, black and white urban landscapes.
Some of the photographers associated with this movement where Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher.
Bernd and Hiller Becher
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz
Nicholas Nixon
Nicholas Nixon
Robert Adams
Robert Adams
The movement captures mans impact, they photographed urban landscapes such as garages, parking lots, warehouses in a similar way to how early rural landscape photographers would shoot natural landscapes.
As environmentalism took hold of the public conscience in the 1970s landscape photography began to capture natural landscapes and human activity as a singular connected body.
New topographic pieces captured the essence and beauty of these depressing, mundane, industrialized landscapes. This aura created around the aesthetic of these images is an ironic juxtaposition to the unease the photographers felt about mans erosion of the natural environment. This was represented in their work from the emotional disparity they created in their pieces with a lack of human presence, flat contrast, lowkey tones, centred framing and unassuming depth and lighting.
On the other hand this divide they portrayed between man and nature was done with aesthetic precession. The Artists that made up the new topographic noticed how there seemed to be a sense of obscenity around photographing these urban landscapes. There was a sort of fear man had around looking at its own creations. They wanted to highlight this by photographing the urban and providing it with an aesthetic… The photographers created beauty in these images by shooting from a unique viewpoint. They shot with a deadpan aesthetic in mind and looked for sharp angles or structural elements.
