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ANTHROPOCENE, Controlled Conditions

anthropocene additional artist references

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BARRY ROSENTHAL

Barry Rosenthal a fine art photographer and sculptor. He studied photography at the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio and at the Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, New York with notable photographers Emmet Gowin and George Tice. “Found in Nature”, started in 2007 as an offshoot of his botanical work, has evolved from miniature collections of found objects into large-scale images that represent ocean borne trash. By using a combination of sculpture and photography and breaking down the found object trash into themes of type, color or whimsy, Rosenthal is able to bring awareness to the global issue of ocean pollution.

DARIAN MEDEROS

Cuban prodigy, Darian Mederos’ work focuses on the ubiquitous human face.  Emotive and replete with meaning, our faces encompass the vast human experience, revealing everything at once or nothing at all. Even in concealment there is nuance. Our expressions cross borders, race and culture, they are a common thread among humanity. Mederos attended his first two years of art school at Leopoldo Romañach in his hometown of Santa Clara, Cuba. Always striving to do be better, he applied and was accepted to the much-lauded, and oldest art school in the Western Hemisphere, La Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, in Havana, Cuba.

Controlled Conditions, Independent, Resource

anthropocene case study + comparison

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JEREMY CARROLL

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. 

ARTIST COMPARISON

Controlled Conditions, Independent, Resource

what is anthropocene?

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The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropocentric, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydro-logic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans. The word combines the root “anthropo“, meaning “human” with the root “-cene“, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time. The Anthropocene is distinguished as a new period either after or within the Holocene, the current epoch, which began approximately 10,000 years ago (about 8000 BC) with the end of the last glacial period.

ANTHROPOCENE IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Many photographers around the world have used Anthropocene as a stimulus and a trigger point for various projects, which for the most part aim to create and spread awareness on several issues such as climate change, plastic pollution, poverty, urbanisation, overpopulation, and open cast mining.

‘ Burtynsky’s latest exhibition, The Anthropocene Project, is directly influenced by the proposed new geologic era ‘Anthropocene’ – introduced in 2000 by chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Jozef Crutzen, to represent a formal recognition and acknowledgement of the “human signature” on the planet. Experts argue that the end of the current epoch has been marked by striking acceleration since the mid-20th century of carbon dioxide emissions and rising sea levels, the mass extinction of global species, and the transformation of land by deforestation and development. Burtynsky hopes to demonstrate this. “Scientists do a pretty terrible job of telling stories, whereas artists have the ability to take the world and make it accessible for everyone,” says the 63-year-old. “We are having a greater impact on the planet than all the natural systems combined. I’m trying to let people know that.” ‘

Independent, Resource, Task

the new topographics

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“New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” was an exhibition that epitomised a key moment in American landscape photography. Many of the photographers associated with new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by man-made subjects. Their aim was to find the beauty in the plain and ‘ugly’ streets of America. It was a reaction to the conflict which took place over the late twentieth century, which saw outrage that natural landscapes were being replaced with large, industrial buildings.

FRANK GOHLKE

Frank Gohlke ( 1942 – ) is an American landscape photographer. Gohlke was one of ten photographers selected to be part of “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape”, the landmark 1975 exhibition at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. During a career spanning nearly five decades, Gohlke has photographed grain elevators in the American midwest; the aftermath of a 1979 tornado in his hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas; changes in the land around Mount St. Helens during the decade following its 1980 eruption; agriculture in central France; and the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan. Gohlke′s photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Amon Carter Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

IMAGE ANALYSIS

Grain elevator under repair – Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1974

This photograph by Gohlke is entitled ‘Grain elevator under repair‘, which avoids any confusion about what the photograph is of. The lighting used in this image is natural and appears to be coming from the left hand side due to the way the various shadows are falling across the image. The brightest parts of the photograph are the white portions of the cars, which directly contrasts with the dark tones of the road and the shadows. There is a lot of repetition present in this photograph, which can be seen in the vertical lines in the background of the image, as well as the horizontal lines of the car tops, the workmen in the background and the pavement and road. The contrast between both the vertical and horizontal lines creates an interesting composition for the viewer, with each one seemingly juxtaposing each other. The shapes in this photograph are mostly geometric, for example the cement slabs on the pavement split up by straight lines and the large cylinder – like shapes in the background of the image. There is hardly any negative space in this photograph, as the whole frame is taken up by either the building in the background or the cars in the foreground. The smooth and slick texture of the cars directly contrasts with the rough and harsh texture of the pavement as well as the building in the background. Gohlke has captured this image in black and white which allows for certain features of the image, such as the contrasting tones and small details like the cracks in the building to be accentuated and exaggerated.

Independent, Resource, Task

rural landscape photoshoot

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ACTION PLAN

LOCATIONS – North coast cliffs ( Grosnez, Plemont, Portlet ), St Ouen’s ( sand dunes ), rocky beaches ( Archirondel, Green Island, La Hocq, La Rocq ), fields.

WEATHER / LIGHTING – Foggy, misty, sunny, bright, rainy, cloudy, stormy, windy, overcast, sunset, sunrise.

CAMERA SETTINGS / VIEWPOINTS – Bird’s eye, worm’s view, straight on / eye level, through trees, ISO, shutter speed, different exposure levels.

ARTIST REFERENCES – FAY GODWIN

MY RESPONSE – CONTACT SHEETS

FINAL IMAGES

EDITING – BLACK AND WHITE

ARTIST COMPARISON

When taking my photographs I tried to always refer back to Godwin’s work, and I went to places and locations which looked similar to those in her own images. For example, in the photograph above I shot in a field that looked close to the one in her own image. There are many similarities between these two photographs, one being that the landscape is sloping downwards in both images. Fay Godwin has captured the slanting landscape in the background of her photograph, whilst in mine it is in the foreground. I aimed to keep my image as real and unedited as possible just as she had done in order to give the viewer a real depiction of the environment that I was in. The weather conditions in the two photographs are very similar, with the clouds in the background creating a moody and melancholy atmosphere. Additionally, the white colour of the clouds contrasts with the darker tones of the trees and the grass. The lines that appear in both of these photographs are natural and curvy, which shows how the environment hasn’t been touched or changed. If this was the case, there would be straight, rigid and repetitive lines, which is something that Godwin wanted to avoid in her images. I think that my final photograph successfully shows influences of Fay Godwin’s work, and that both images portray the same mood and feeling to the viewer.

Independent, Resource, Task

rural landscape case study

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FAY GODWIN

Fay Godwin (1931 – 2005) was a British photographer known for her black and white landscapes of the British countryside and coast. She produced portraits of dozens of well-known writers, photographing almost every significant literary figure in 1970s and 1980s England, as well as numerous visiting foreign authors. After the publication of her first books he was a prolific publisher, working mainly in the landscape tradition to great acclaim and becoming the nation’s most well-known landscape photographer. Her early and mature work was informed by the sense of ecological crisis present in late 1970s and 1980s England.

IMAGE ANALYSIS

Godwin has used utilised the natural lighting available to her in this photograph, and has avoided using any form of artificial lighting as the image was captured in an outdoor environment. There is a range of tones in the image, varying from dark and almost black in the grass, and much brighter ones in the sky and clouds. Additionally, the photograph being captured in black and white adds to the contrast between them. However, the colours in this image are not entirely black and white as they fall somewhere in the middle, which still leaves the photograph feeling natural and untouched. Godwin has positioned herself in the middle of the pathway in the photograph, which has lead to leading lines being presented to the viewer, drawing their eyes to a singular focal point (where the pathway meets the hill in the background). This focal point is also in the centre and the middle ground of the photograph, which again draws the viewer’s eye to this particular point. We can see that there is repetition present in the photograph in the grass in the foreground as they are all positioned in the same way. The texture of the grass is also still clearly visible through the image, and the rough surface contrasts to the soft look of the clouds in the sky as well as the smooth look of the hill in the background.

CLASSWORK – EVALUATING A PHOTOGRAPH

This photograph is of a path leading to a reservoir in the countryside and is aptly named ‘Path and Reservoir’. It was captured in Yorkshire in 1977 by Fay Godwin. Godwin was known for being a part of The Ramblers, which is Great Britain’s leading walking charity that celebrates the pleasures of walking and aims to protect the places people love to walk. They believe everyone, everywhere should be able to experience the joy of walking and have access to green spaces to walk close to home. It is very possible that Godwin took photographs such as this as a way to show her love for the countryside and her evident disdain at the growing privatisation of the environment by big businesses. In the foreground of the image there is a wooden path which leads to the middle ground of the photograph and draws the viewer’s eye to the dividing line in the middle of the image. Perhaps it was her intention to use the edges of the pathway as leading lines towards the middle of the photograph, thus creating a focal point for the viewer. which is the edge of the hill that the path is on. She appears to have kept the photograph as natural as possible, probably as a way to give the viewer a realistic depiction of the countryside that she is seeing. She has also captured this image in black and white, which may have been an artistic choice; this was taken in 1977 when, although coloured cameras were available, many photographers still chose to shoot in black and white. However, the photograph is not completely black and white, as different hues of tones can be seen in the grass and the hills in the background. We can tell she has used natural lighting as the photograph is of the outdoor environment. Godwin most probably placed herself in an intentional position when she took the image. There are multiple curvy and natural lines in the image, shown by the dividing lines of the fields in the background and the clouds in the sky. This could emphasise Godwin’s intention to show the natural landscape in an organic and raw way, as it has not been made straight, rigid or repetitive by humans. I think that Godwin wanted the viewer of this photograph to feel inspired and in awe of the natural beauty of the countryside.

Independent, Resource, Task

what is romanticism?

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Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak from 1800 to 1850.  Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution. The movement focused on intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe.

In the visual arts, Romanticism first showed itself in landscape painting, where from as early as the 1760s British artists began to turn to wilder landscapes and storms and Gothic architecture. A number of British artists at home and in Rome, including James Barry, Henry Fuseli and John Flaxman began to paint subjects that were at odds with the strict decorum and classical historical and mythological subject matter of conventional figurative art. These artists favoured themes that were bizarre, pathetic, or extravagantly heroic, and they defined their images with tensely linear drawing and bold contrasts of light and shade. William Blake, the other principal early Romantic painter in England, evolved his own powerful and unique visionary images.

ROMANTICISM IN LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

Independent, Resource, Task

landscape photography – introduction

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Landscape photography shows spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes. Rural landscape photography focuses on photographing outdoor areas which are not densely populated, and have been left relatively untouched by humans. These photographs often include trees and greenery, wildlife, and different outdoor environments.

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHERS

Ansel Adams ( 1902 – 1984 ) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. Adams’s first photographs were published in 1921, and Best’s Studio began selling his Yosemite prints the next year. His early photos already showed careful composition and sensitivity to tonal balance. In letters and cards to family, he wrote of having dared to climb to the best viewpoints and to brave the worst elements. 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.

Nadav Kander ( 1961 – ) is a London-based photographer, artist and director, known for his portraiture and landscapes. Kander is best known for his Yangtze – The Long River series, for which he earned the Prix Pictet Prize. Kander never photographed further than twenty miles from the river itself. He was named International Photographer of the Year at the 7th Annual Lucie Awards in 2009 and has also received awards from Art Director’s Club and IPA in the USA, from the D&AD and the John Kobal Foundation in the UK and Epica in Europe.