Lewis Baltz was born in Newport Beach, California, on 12th September 1945. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, and received an MFA from the Claremont Graduate School in 1971 which he then worked as a freelance photographer in California to then he taught photography at various institutions such as the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, Yale, the École Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the Art Academy of Helsinki. Baltz was a visual artist and photographer who became an important figure in the New Topographics movement during the late 1970s. He wrote for many journals, and contributed regularly to L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, his work has been published in a number of books, presented in numerous exhibitions, and appeared in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 1973 and 1977 Lewis Baltz received National Endowment for the Arts grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Baltz has produced many projects on commission, among them The Nation’s Capital in Photographs for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Near Reno for the Nevada State Arts Commission. Since the mid 1980s he has been based in Europe and travels extensively.

Image Analysis

In this image it shows a shallow tonal range as it focuses on the white tones rather than the black tones of the image except for the ground as it shows a black tone that is lightened.

New Topographic is a man altered landscape such as a landscape with a man made rail track leading through a forest. Many of the photographers who were included with the new topographics were inspire by the man made urban areas such as parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses. These photos featured in an exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York; this also gave the message that the natural landscape has a growing erosion by industrial development.

In both images the focus on the photos are the branches going from one side of the photo to the other, slightly covering up the background making is harder to see. They both give a mysterious look with the branches giving a perception of which way round the image is as the first image looks side ways as the branches are on their side looking like a tree and the other image is reflected so the original image could be upside down and just reflected in photoshop. I thought that the image I created is representative towards the water image as I wanted the focus of the image to be the branches and the in depth detail they have with them overlapping each other yet I wanted to create more noise in my image as I found the image was too calming and simple as I prefer images with simple chaos emerging the more you analysis it.

Editing Process

First I turned all photo into black and white to see which photos look best with this tonal range. Then after picking the 3 to 5 images I put them into a separate mini folder so I can access them easily and to be able to edit them in my lessons when needs to be. I then changed to editing the photos on photoshop as I can access that in my free time. I changed the image into black and white then proceeded to alter the contrast and brightness to give it a stronger look with a large dynamic range. This then made my image turn very abstract yet it is natural which corresponds the task in hand. I then did the same thing to the other two images but with different contrast and brightness levels to then fit the image and how I think would give the images a mysterious look towards it.

After changing the brightness and contrast I decided that I didn’t want to adjust the image too much to the point where the original doesn’t match the photoshopped one so I’m leaving it to how it is as the first image already looks abstract and the other two I am happy with the mysterious look they give.

Romanticism is an intellectual orientation that characterised several works of literature, painting, music, design, and historiography in Western culture over a amount from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Romanticism are often seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, and rationality that typified liberal arts normally and late 18th-century arts specifically. Romanticism stresses the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the ingenious, the non-public, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and therefore the transcendental.

Fay Godwin initially took an interest in photography from taking photos of her children in the 1960s, alongside that she took photos of landscape, specializing in rural landscapes. She often collaborated closely with writers to supply exhaustive surveys of specific rural topics or regions. Her photography has generally been joined to a convention of romantic representations of British landscape, within the manner of Bill solon or king Smith. But, as a socialist and active conservationist, Godwin makes the land in her images reveal traces of its history, through mankind’s occupation and and intervention. Her pictures show a readiness to reply to the flow of life, to embrace some live of the accidental effects of sunshine and atmosphere. In incorporating components of each truth and figure of speech, Godwin’s work forms one in every of the foremost complete poetic documents of Brits landscape.

Rural landscape is similar to urban but is different as rural landscape is all about capturing life in the countryside. These types of places are typically located outside towns and cities with a low population density and small settlements.

Personally I feel that rural captures life and the history of life whereas urban is more modern life.

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS

When it comes to the centre of my identity, the centre of my jigsaw puzzle I don’t have anything that I would believe that makes me truly happy as I have been struggling to keep others happy let alone myself. I wouldn’t even pin a place to my happiness as I feel like I don’t belong anywhere and every time I feel like I’m at home something changes so it doesn’t feel like home anymore.

Mood Board

Mindmap

Case Study

Edward Honaker

Edward Honaker is a a 21 year old photographer who documents his own depression through the use of self portraits, the black and white images illustrates the photographer’s experience with depression and anxiety.

In an attempt to raise awareness of the topic, Honaker says about the project: “Mental health disorders are such a taboo topic. If you ever bring it up in conversation, people awkwardly get silent, or try to tell you why it’s not a real problem. When I was in the worst parts of depression, the most helpful thing anyone could have done was to just listen to me – not judging, not trying to find a solution, just listen. I’m hoping that these images will help open up conversation about mental health issues. Everyone is or will be affected by them one way or another, and ignoring them doesn’t make things better.”

Photo Shoot

Final outcome

The use of jagged cut paper show the distress of photo, how the slips of paper are cut in different lengths and with slanted cuts which make it look messy and random which reflects how I feel in my head, messy and chaotic with no set path of directions. This links back to the photographer because h puts the strips of paper on his head to show how this links to his depression and anxiety which students tend to have when facing their exams especially with corona messing up their learning. I find that with corona messing up my learning so I find that I’m struggling, that links to the photographer because his images resemble the struggle that people have to go through whether they have mental health problems or not.