Photographing the sea: Analysing 150 years of seascapes from Gustave Le Gary to Joe Cornish.

In what way has Gustave Le Gray and Joe Cornish explored photographing the sea?

For my personal study I would like to explore how seascape photography has developed over time in the last 150 years. Firstly, I will be looking at the origins of early imagery of the sea by French photographer Gustave Le Gray (1850-1880). In comparison, I will study how these early seascape has influenced contemporary photographers, such as Joe Cornish (British). I will be analysing in depth images of seascapes produced by the chosen photographers and compare their methodologies and approach, such as, camera technology, photographic techniques and also the overall aesthetic qualities. I will be researching historical information about what inspired these photographers as well as other contextual factors. As a response I will be photographing the island of Jersey, such as; coastal areas, bays, cliffs and purely the ocean itself within different weather conditions. I will be producing a photobook representing a selection of my best images with reference to similar styles of these photographers.

A History of Seascape

The earliest known evidence of landscape imagery to be recorded is between 1826-1827. It was an urban photograph taken by a French inventor called Nicephore Niepce.

This photograph took just under eight hours to accomplish as in the earliest days of photography, technical restraints with cameras such as long exposure times would render any movement visible; making it blurry to the eye. Photographers were bound to work with static subjects, such as outdoor scenes lacking in movement. As camera technology and equipment advanced over years, higher quality images were produced. This saw the rise of Pictorialism

“Pictorialism, an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality.”

www.britannica.com/technology/Pictorialism

Pictorialism developed during the years of late 1860s. Photographers would acknowledge their camera tools and equipment as a paintbrush. Imagination and creativity was developed through photography becoming a form of art. In the 1880s a photographer named Peter Henry Emerson invented an aesthetic theory called “naturalistic photography”. Peter’s work involved pictorialism as for his photography includes an artistic approach.

The idea was to suggest photography should have an artistic expression to rise above the mechanical process of using a camera. Between the years of 1840-1900, photos were produced by many photographers using the photographic term of “daguerreotypes”

“Each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate”

www.daguerreobase.org

Daguerreotypes were rather heavy, detailed and sharp portraits. In the early 1840/50s materials used were mirror like surfaces and very fragile. They were very expensive as for the metal plating so only housed with upper class buyers. Detail within the images of daguerreotypes were wanted for landscape photographers such as Gustave Le Gray.

Images were taken of waterfronts with extreme high levels of visual info. Through the 20th century landscape and seascape photography was ruled by the Americans as they had varied, vast unchartered territory all round including impressive coastal areas. As technology improved, the photography industry became more varied for the subject matter. When photographing the sea, weather is one of the main components to what mood, emotion, and atmosphere is set in a photograph. The weather is known to be the glue that holds an image together as for how much natural light is exposed, whether it be raining, sunset, sunrise, all making a different scene each time.

Firstly I will be studying the photography world of Gustave Le Gray, a French photographer that lived between the years of 1829-1884. Gustave studied painting in the studio of Paul Delaroche and shortly after in 1847 made his first daguerreotypes. Gustave decided to stick to portraiture in his studio in France for the majority of his early photography practice. In 1857, Gustave started to produce seascape photography. Gustave did similar work to William Henry Fox, a process involving paper negatives to be waxed out prior to sensitization, therefore creating a crisper image. This process gave Gustave’s images a tonal balance and the majority of the time gave dramatic contrast in the skies.

Family and financial issues occurred and Gustave ended up in debt. A series of dramatic and poetic seascapes that bought international acclaim. Within two years, Gustave paid all debt from profit of his internationally known seascapes and landscape work. An image supporting Le Gray’s famous uprising in the photography industry can be known to be the photograph named;

 “The Great Wave.”

“The Great Wave” is known to be one of the most dramatic seascapes Gustave has produced. Technical mastery with expressive grandeur, meaning impressiveness is found within the whole photo. At first glance, clearly Gustave has used a slow shutter speed, but with this image being over 150 years old, camera equipment would be at lower expectations than the modern era of photography. A slower shutter speed can be identified by the rush of the wave coming in, appearing slightly blurry and a sense of smoothness. Although Gustave has captured the movement of the ocean, stillness and in focus static subjects have been incorporated into this image such as the shore line rocks and the pier appearing from the middle left emerging out lining up with the ocean’s horizon. These subjects matter greatly as for the contrast and quality difference compared to the rush and movement within the water. At the horizon on the far right, a line occurs where clouds and sea meet. This indicates the joint between two separate negatives, a technique known as combination printing that Le Gray perfected. Combination printing is the photographic technique of using the negatives of two or more images in conjunction with one another to create a single image. In his case, Le Gray made one image with the exposure for the bright sky and another for the darker sea. Clearly, the clouds have been darkened to set a more serious mood within the atmosphere. As for the sea, highlights are made towards the white spray coming off the waves. A more harsh approach is photographed where the middle of the sea meets the middle of the physical image. This particular part of the image includes higher levels of contrast and a higher level of clarity compared to the rest of the photograph. This invokes a more serious tone. After separating both pieces, Gustave combines the two parts together again creating his final outcome. The combination of the two negatives allowed Gustave to have tonal balance between sea and sky. This sets a more truthful sense of how the eye sees a scene, rather than how a camera perceives nature. Today you can recreate a similar image with perfect exposure by layering different images in image manipulation software such as Photoshop. However, this predicated on photographers making a set of images using exposure bracketing. Here is an example of my own work that has been cut into two negatives and combined together to make a tonal balance between sea and sky;

Another photographer such as Joe Cornish, inspired by the sea and natural  landscapes, captures quality images from the surroundings of the UK and abroad. Cornish is a British photographer, born in 1958 who travelled among other photographers throughout his life. In 1986, Cornish’s photography was accepted into the majority of more than 30 photo travel books. Currently Cornish is working and living in North Yorkshire taking photographs of the North York Moors and coastal areas. Joe states; 

“my photography is an attempt to express the most beautiful and powerful qualities of the light that i encounter”

First Light – Photobook by Joe Cornish

When planning for a photo-shoot, Cornish plans for the quality of natural light rather than visual aspects of a scene. This light usage has a prime time of use. This can linger around 20 minutes either from first light to sunrise, or sunset to last light. Another aspect of nature that Cornish uses to enhance the beauty of his landscape and seascape work is known to be the edge of weather. This is either the leading or trailing edge of a storm, where clouds meet sky in high contrasting colours, rainfall in distance or the surroundings, these all contribute to making Cornish’s photography dramatic and powerful. Cornish uses a variety of techniques when editing his images such as vignetting the corners of images to give a more ominous approach. Cornish is a fan of using colour as a source of representation towards moods, emotions and feelings. Therefore, using colour to represent moods within his photography is a technique the artist Pablo Picasso used. Cornish is inspired by Picasso in a sense of how Picasso uses colour to reflect different moods and emotion within his paintings. For example, Picassos “blue period” dramatically caught recognition throughout Europe during the years of 1901 to 1904. This period of Picasso’s life occurred as for the death of one of his friends. This so called “blue period” involved an artistic technique called the monochromatic technique. The use of one theme of colour throughout an art piece. Picasso would use blue to represent grief and despair. Occasionally warms areas with browns and oranges to give his paintings a simple realistic touch. Here are some examples of Picassos work..

Picasso used this technique to represent colour as the source of moods, emotions and feelings. This gives use viewers a physical message to how Picasso may feel. Cornish on the other hand, being a contemporary photographer, photoshop can be used to cancel and add different levels of colour to photos. Cornish uses the monochromatic technique inspired by Picasso. For example, Cornish uses the colour theme blue within many of his photographs. An example of this is seen below from Cornish.

Cornish clearly has represented the monochromatic technique using a purply blue as a main theme then warmed the image with the sunset in the background. This gives the image a tonal balance. The quality of light in this image influences emotion and imagination. With the main source of light being natural and provided by the setting sun in the background, a soft spread of yellows and oranges emerge from  the sun creating a sunset glow effect on the clouds and afar. With low falling tide, large areas of smooth sand retain enough water to provide reflections. These reflections consume the colours that beam down from above. In this particular image, Cornish seems to have a controlled amount of editing within photoshop for these strong, tranquil colours to emerge brighter than they normally would. This creates a more inviting, and intriguing mood. Half of the image Cornish has used the technique of monochromatic use of colour, following off one of his favourite influences, Pablo Picasso. Cornish has created a wintery scene of coldness as for the sand having a blue tint throughout the whole bay. A dull blue from the sea with wintery white foam indicates a raw, cold sea. Movement within the sea can be dictated where the swirl’s of water circle together near the shore in the foreground of the image. These circles yet again suggest tranquillity and calmness within natural environments. Vignetted corners darken the exposure levels and heighten shadows. This image clearly states the beauty of sunset scenery within the UK. This image is inviting as for the high vibrancies and saturation levels that blush off the sun into the clouds. As a whole, the seascape is pretty, relaxing and a formal sunsetting image. Physically capturing this image, Cornish uses a tripod, a 50mm lens, low IOS, and a low shutter speed to capture the smoothness within the moving water in the foreground.

Conclusion

Although both photographers have a major time range within each other, roughly 100 years, similarities can be found in both seascape works.

Over 100 years of camera development, there is a clear indication between camera quality with Cornish using higher tech then Le Gray. The quality of light captured in an image from Le Gray used a method to control exposure called combination printing whereas Cornish liked to used a technique called exposure bracketing (taking 2 or more photos of the same thing but in different exposure levels.) This lead on to images having different themes of colours, gradients and involved one of Picassos method of monochromatic use of colour.

Both photographers seem to have more differences than similarities in a first glance of their work. An example of this can be boldness and vibrancy within Cornish’s work compared to the dull and fearful work of Le Gray. The physical quality of the images have different ranges of resolution. Editing processes between the two photographers varied. Le Gray physically pasting images together such as different skies and seas etc. Cornish using an up to date photoshop app to apply different areas of contrast, exposure levels, tonal balance etc. All these factors end up linking to what camera equipment was available within the era of time both photographers present their work.