I chose these as my final images because I believe that they are the best images that represent Air, land and water pollution as well as the current situation with medication and the need we have for it since the pandemic hit.
I especially believe that some of my images that represent pollution have a strong message. I used Jeremy Carroll as my main inspiration for those images as I feel as though I accurately adopted his ideas.
I also feel like I have explored more information on the current pandemic and have more of an understanding of how much damage it has done on the economy and the environment. But I’ve also found out how it has brought people together and I believe that I have shown this through my images.
Nick Fancher focuses on portraiture and mainly shoots using artificial black and white lighting. The black and white creates a dramatic feel to the image and lets off a lot of emotion. The models eyes are darker than the rest of her face which creates a dramatic feel as it feels as if we can’t properly see her or understand her.
This image relates to Anthropocene as the water can represent water wastage and the dripping represents the waste. The water drips keep running off the bottom off the image which could show that the water wastage will keep happening and going if people don’t change their ways. The image is in black and white and has a strong dark tonal range. The image is not naturally black and white which could represent the unpure water people in poorer countries have to drink everyday as they re unable to assess fresh natural water.
Darian Mederos work focuses on painting the all over the human face. He paints bubble wrap over the subjects face which reflects light and distorts the underlying image. He uses the thing layer of translucent bubble wrap to make the viewers reflect and care about the protection of the subject. The subject in this image is a middle age women which can relate to Anthropocene as it can show the older generation and how the human waste has affected them and how they have seen the drastic change in the environment and the earth over their lifetime. This can be more effective to the viewer as it feels like she was chosen for a reason and she is wiser and has more experience with this situation. The bubble wrap also creates repetition within the image and blurs the models face. The repetition can show that this problem with the plastic in the ocean keeps occurring and isn’t changing or getting better. It can also show that their is an increasing amount of plastic waste and that there is a huge amount of waste that is impacting on our environment the way the bubble wrap impacts the models face.
I have chosen these three final images as I believe they best represent the stimulus of Anthropocene, and reflect the type of photographs I had drawn inspiration from and was aiming to recreate. I have chosen all of my final images from my first photoshoot inspired by Jeremy Carrol and Darian Mederos, as I think that they are my best work and the best representation of my abilities and competency. Additionally, I wasn’t very happy with the images I produced in my second photoshoot, which was inspired by Naomi White and Barry Rosenthal. After I had completed each of my photoshoots, I decided to edit my images using Photoshop and experimented with different tools, such as the hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, and vibrance. I explored various different results and altered them until I was happy with the outcomes above.
FINAL EVALUATION
One of my aims for this project was to take photographs which I believed captured the essence of Anthropocene and present them in a way which was impactful and thought-provoking. I chose Jeremy Carrol as my main inspiration as his images are extremely poignant and shocking, which was the type of reaction I wanted to give my audience when the viewed my photographs. I think that one of my strengths during this project was my ability to think on my feet in terms of creativity when I became stuck for ideas. For example, as I went to conduct my first photoshoot, I only had small pieces of plastic which were not big enough to go over my subject’s head. I was forced to use whatever I could find as well as my own pieces, and the images turned out better than I had anticipated. I think that one of my weaknesses during this project was my editing skills on Photoshop. I think that I struggled with this aspect of my process because I had never used the programme before starting this course, and I don’t think that I am that confident yet in my ability to use some of the certain tools, for example, cutting and pasting. Overall, I think I produced some good images which related well to the stimulus of Anthropocene, and I believe I showed some competency when using Photoshop. One of my targets for next time will be to ensure that all of my photoshoots are up to the same standard, and that I am happy with all of the images I am producing.
Final displayed images forHendrik Kerstens and Vika Pobeda
Evaluation:
My original intentions for my work was to create images that related to my artists and to the idea of Anthropocene. I wanted to mainly focus on portraiture and show plastic and water wastage through my images. I wanted to show the damage of plastic waste on the marine animals and how it effects our oceans and environment and I wanted to represent purity and the lack of access to pure water for some based on peoples social class. I feel I represented this well in my mages by using many different plastic objects and used these images to distort and ‘destroy’ the models face in order to represent the damage done to the environment. Although I wasn’t happy with all the images in my shoots I picked the best ones and edited them till I was happy with the final outcome and felt it presented my intentions. Although I was happy with the majority of my final outcomes I feel I could have explored the water images more and created a more powerful image to represent my ideas more. I feel that you can see a clear resemblance between mine and the chosen artists images and can see a correlation between the ideas.
David T. Hanson is a photographer was born and raised in Montana. His photography has a strong view on Anthropocene as he chosen to photograph wasted land which suggest that he has decided to photograph manmade environments.
Jerremy Carroll is a photographer who based her work around man made items and the way they can effect living things. I know this due to her calling a series of her photographs ‘marine pollution’ this relates to Anthropocene as he is concerned about the pollution going into the margins.
Barry Rosenthal is a award winning photographer who collected discarded items of plastic and captured photographs of them to reflect on anthropecene. His series of these photographs were called “Found in Nature”, in which he started in 2007. His series had a worldwide following and has created several opportunities for Barry Rosenthal to talk about his work to a larger audience. Additionally he is also stated that ‘In today’s world, consumer goods are increasing in volume. At the same time their useful lives are shorter and shorter. Consuming without a thought of what is left behind is what we are taught.’ which highly highlights that he cares about what impacts humans have on the world.
Barry Rosenthal – found in nature
Image analysis:
Jerremy Carroll – choked by plastics in the ocean.
This image in which Jerremy Carroll has taken is very unique as I haven’t seen a photographer take photos in relation to the Anthropocene in this way as she has used items such as fishing nets to create a stigma that the woman in the photograph is trapped the same as if she was a fish in the sea relating to the Anthropocene and the impacts us as humans has on it. I personally feel that the use of the harsh bright white light adds specific details because it makes you more aware of what is occurring. I feel as if Jerremy Carroll has a strong opinion on the topic of Anthropocene as she may not have decided to take these sort of images if she didn’t care about the world. Additionally the name of the series of photographs in which she has taken is called ‘choked by plastics in the ocean’ which highly suggests that she is concerned for the well being of the fish that live in the sea. The tones in this photograph are very clear due to the bright lights being used. In addition the way in which Jerremy Carroll has structured her photograph makes the photo have more details and portrays the mood of power which the Anthropocene has over the woman used in the photo as the way in which she has structure the fishing nets and stings it almost as if she is trapped and has no power over it.
Barry Rosenthal – found in nature
Barry Rosenthal in this image uses different tones of blue which brings out the textures in the different objects. Having the background black, and the objects set in a certain way gives the photo more dynamic and draws the eye into the photo. The way Rosenthal has set out the objects used in the photo creates levels as this photo has been taken from a bird eye view. This photo which has been taken for Anthropocene relates to world wide problem of global warming and littering. As some of these objects relate to the beach like the flip flop for example, Rosenthal might be trying to make a point of the rubbish which has been left by man kind creating problems for the sea life which can become very harmful for the ecosystems.
Comparison:
Overall the two images are very similar but in different ways. AS you can see both photographers have Bothe use a different variations a blue objects throughout their photos which I feel could both relate to rubbish found in and around the ocean which has an impact on the world globally (The Anthropocene). Secondly both of the photos have a plain and dull background which makes their main focus off their photographs stand out more leaving the background being their non-focus. Additionally I also feel that these two photographs are very different to each other as Barry Rosenthal photograph is more related to just the objects and how all plastics are bad for the environment having a negative impact on the world. However, on the other hand Jerremy Carroll has based her work on how it can effect us as humans as she has used a model to represent what it does to animals in the sea as she has made the woman in the picture look trapped in the netting which surrounds her. Furthermore both of these photos relate to how tragic plastics can be for the environment.
First I selected my best images from the shoot and put them into a separate folder so I could focus on a few of the best images.
I started by cropping all my images to get rid of background that wasn’t needed to make the image more smart and effective. I did this to all my final images.c
I then changed the brightness and contrast on my images as they were all quite bright from the artificial lighting. I lowered the brightness and altered the contrast to create the look I wanted.
I then changed the vibrance of the image to create a more yellow tone to the image to suite some of Darian Mederos images. This left me with my final image.
I wanted all my images to be close up images and so I had to crop my images quite a bit in order to achieve this.
Final images:
I like the outcome of my images as I feel they represent my artists approach well and you can see a clear similarity between my images and the artists. I wanted to represent the plastic wastage in these images by using plastic objects as props in my images. I used plastic waste to distort the models face in order to represent the idea that the earth may look incorrect or different due to the damage plastic has done to the earth. I feel i represented this well in my images as the bubble wrap creates a blurred effect meaning you cant properly see the models face and relates to Darian Mederos images. I also used a plastic bag over the models face to represent all the animals that are trapped or injured by plastic that is polluting the seas and their habitats. I chose to put the bag over her head to represent her being trapped and the ingestion of plastic by animals. I also used cling film and folded the cling film to create dents to distort and change the models face, I also put vaseline onto the cling film to make it looked blurred.
Nick Fancher
Nick Fancher shoot
I used mainy different editing techniques for this shoot. For my colourful images I:
I started by overlapping the 2 images and made them fit ontop of each other perfectly.
I then changed the opacity and experimented with it to find the perfect level to create the image I wanted.
I also put most of my images into black and white and changed the exposure and brightness on all images to create the right feeling from the image.
Final images:
I used water in a few of my images to represent purity and sometimes a lack of access to water. Pure water is so important to reduces the risk of contamination of diseases and it is important when cleaning utensils and everyday items and especially important for a basic action such as washing your hands. An estimated 2.2 billion people need access to safe drinking water, including 884 million currently without basic drinking water service, this means these people do not have easy access to fresh , clean water and face the risk of catching deadly diseases everyday just from a daily necessity. Unsafe water is one of the world’s largest health and environmental problems particularly for the poorest in the world which relates to social class. Woman and young children must carry buckets full of water every few days and sometimes everyday and walk for miles carrying the heavy buckets of fresh water. In regions where freshwater must be retrieved from sources outside the home, the burden of fetching and carrying water largely falls on women. Therefore I wanted to use water in some of my images to represent this as it relates to Anthropocene as humans have caused this lack of access to water. I also chose to use barbed wire and use the holes to look through to the model to divide up the face and also to make it look like she is trapped in the wire which is what happens to the sea animals from all the waste that goes into the sea.
Hendrik Kerstens and Vika Pobeda
Initially I wasn’t happy with the outcome of this shoot so I decided to try some editing techniques to change my images to fit my aim and represent Anthropocene more.
Therefore, for all my images in this shoot I chose to use multi exposure.
I put some of the images into black and white to add more effect and improve the image , I then overlapped the images.
Then I changed the opacity to the right opacity for the image I wanted to create.
I then cropped down the image to create the final image that I was happy with.
Final images:
I chose to use the multi exposure technique for these images to create a confused and overwhelming look for the viewers. To create these images I used multiple types of waste that is typically found in the ocean and caused injury to animals whether that be the animal trapped in a plastic bag or a turtle getting a plastic straw stuck in their throat. On a boat off Costa Rica, a biologist had to use pliers from a Swiss army knife to try to extract a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s nostril. The turtle squirmed in agony, whilst bleeding profusely. Around 700 species of marine animals have been reported—so far—to have eaten or become entangled in plastic.
For my second photoshoot under the stimulus of Anthropocene, I have taken inspiration from Naomi White and Barry Rosenthal. I chose these two artists because their work is very stirring, as it addresses the vast amount of plastic objects in the oceans, such as plastic bottles, children’s toys, hair combs, and flip flops.
