Gerry Johansson Inspired Photo-Shoot

For the photo shoot above, I went to photograph cell towers and before putting them into the contact sheets, I edited them all into black and white. The images resemble Johanssons images and after further evaluation I will choose 3 final images for this photo shoot.

Best Images Edited Before and After

To edit the images above, I lowered saturation turning the images from colour into black and white. I then edited exposure and contrast making the images darker and slightly more detail. This editing makes the images have a good tonal contrast which is what I was aiming for.

Johansson Inspired Photo-Shoot 2

For the photo-shoot above I went to a reservoir and took photos of the wall. I took the original images and batch edited them in light room so that they were black and white. I then chose which images looked the best and edited them further in Photoshop.

Best Images Edited Before and After

For the edited images above, I did the same as the previous photo shoot and lowered saturation and used contrast and exposure making the images darker with a good tonal contrast. I also used a graduated filter on the final image to make the clouds more ominous and bring out harsher tonal values.

Andy Hughes Inspired Photo-Shoot

For the photo-shoot above, I added a few images I took when taking the other photo-shoot to the original Andy Hughes beach shoot. I went to the beach and reservoir to look for plastic waste rubbish and I photographed the rubbish I found.

Best Images Edited Before and After

To edit the images above, I lowered the exposure and upped the contrast slightly to make the images slightly darker. I then upped the colours making the grass and colours of the rubbish more vibrant. I slightly cropped a few images and added graduated filter to the edges of some images to make the edges darker.

Why did I take photos of cell towers and reservoirs?

I took photos of cell towers because they are thought to be ugly and dangerous things that cause cancer. However one of the main reasons I like Gerry Johansson as a photographer is his definition of beauty. He says that beauty is different for everyone and people express themselves through it. Johansson’s definition is not something he finds aesthetically pleasing, but something he can look at for a long time. Cell towers are thought to be ugly towers polluting nice views of the sea, however I decided to take photos of cell towers to show that anything is capable of being interesting enough to count as ‘beauty’. Also I believe we need to look at things not usually associated with beauty and understand what they do before making a judgement. For example, cell towers connect family and friends across the world in a matter of seconds. They also provide internet connection so that we can do work, watch tv and shop online.

Similarly, I photographed reservoirs to bring to light the extent humanity has come to prepare for the worst so that society can continue. The reservoir I photographed is nearly 60 years old and is still standing strong. A route around the reservoir is roughly 4.5 km and the reservoir holds 938.7 mega litres of water. This amount of water is equivalent to 375.48 Olympic sized swimming pools and could sustain the whole of Jersey’s water consumption for 5 weeks. The reservoir may not be the most aesthetic structure on the island however, due to it’s important job and its colossal size, It shows the extent technology has come to prevent the worst and prepare.

Compare and Contrast

My image has features similar to an image taken by my photographer. However, I have added some features from other photographers I have covered in previous blog posts. I have taken the drastic tonal contrast from Lewis Baltz who I covered in the first new topographic blog post.

Gerry Johansson

Gerry Johansson is a Swedish photographer who photographs simple areas with straight lines. He was born in 1945 in Sweden and spent his life travelling around the globe taking photos. He photographs in black and white and his photos link to historical and social issues. Over his lifetime, he has published 30 books and at age 71, is still taking photos to this day.

Gerry Johansson’s style is taking photos of natural landscapes that have been corrupted by man made structures. His images are black and white and include open landscapes with buildings or structures.

Why did I choose Gerry Johansson?

I chose to use Gerry Johansson as one of my anthropocene inspired photographers. I chose to use him because his photos have simple subjects but complicated tonal values. The images have a lot of drama between tonal contrast, humanity and nature and old vs new. I also like the idea of taking photos in black and white so that the tonal values are very dramatic and I will recreate this with my own photo shoot.

Photo Analysis

Contextual

The image above was taken in Froid, Montana in 2017 and shows a church in the middle of fields of small grass. There are also many wooden electrical pylons either side of the church. The pylons appear to be stretching for miles through the Montana Desert. The image is in black and white and even though it was taken in 2017, Johansson has used an old camera to give the image a grainy feel.

Technical

The light in the image is clearly natural from the sun, however the light is very intense. We can assume it was taken on a clear day when the sun was high in the sky probably around midday. The tonal range in the image is very vast and the contrast is high. The image has a low ISO as the image is not dark.

Visual

The image has a good tonal contrast between the light building, grass and sky and the dark wires and pylons. The sun is coming from the left of the image as we can see a shadow on the church. There are also lighter parts of the pylons to the left and darker shadowed parts to the right. The large pylons provide a sense of repetition in the image and there are 8 pylons in sight in the image. The human impact on the empty desert displays the opposing forces of humanity vs nature. The electrical pylons are leading the eye from the main focal point and into the desert referencing the expanse of space still affected by the impact of humans.

Conceptual

I believe Johansson took the photo above to show beauty within the chaos of human nature. I believe he is also showing the effect humans are having on the planet in a positive and negative way. I believe the electrical pylons are meant to lead the eye of the viewer further and further away into the desert showing how was human impact is on the planet.

Where am I going to take photos?

As I mentioned on the post about antropocene in general, I want to go to places such as cell towers and reservoirs. I will take black and white photos with a high tonal value, using lines and shadows to create drama in my images. The images will show how nature is being affected by humans and how structures are present in landscapes.

Andy Hughes

Andy Hughes is an British photographer who works with plastic and how it affects the environment. He was born in Cardiff in 1966 and has mainly exhibited his work in the UK and US. He has also had his work used in the BBC and National Geographic. His photographs directly link with the idea of plastic pollution and the negative impact humanity is creating. He uses his photographs to bring information about pollution to light of the public and has spoken on television about the problem.

Dominant Wave Theory

Andrew Hughes’s work explores the rubbish washed up on the beach where he surfs. Despite their bad presence, these mass-produced items become aesthetic forms within the overall . By photographing everyday products in such an environment, Hughes attempts to draw attention to the unseen ,small scale pollutants of modern industrial consumerist society.

Image Analysis

Contextual

The photo is of a red lighter half buried in the sand on a beach. The photo is an example of Dominant Wave Theory as it shows an small mass produced item that would not usually be classed as having an aesthetic value. It was taken on a beach in Los Angeles in California and shows a sunset behind the lighter.

Technical

The lighting in the image is very natural and very soft and distant as the light is coming from the sunset. There is a good contrast between the brightest and darkest tones of the shadowed sand and the light sky. There is a good combination of colours with the red of the lighter mixing with the yellow of the sun. We can assume that the image was taken at sunset. The images has quite a warm tone and the lighter is in focus with the sand and sunset behind slightly blurred.

Visual

The image has a good contrast between the dark sand and the light sky creating tension between the sky and the ground. There is also contrast between the red lighter and blue/ grey sky. The sun is in the center of the image and the sunlight is being refracted and distorted by the scratched and damaged lighter surface. The red lighter combined with the yellow sunset creates a golden colour through the lighter. Behind the lighter, there are many small sand hills that bring a sense of repetition and randomness that link to nature. The lighter is in the middle of the image and is positioned at an angle that links to the idea of the sea washing it up randomly.

Conceptual

The image above links to the idea of Hughes’ Dominant Wave Theory and brings to light the detrimental effects of plastic on the planet. The surface of the lighter is also slightly damages linking to the idea that by putting plastic into the sea it is in turn damaging us. The scratches and dented surface resembles humanity being damages by pollution.

Where am I going to take photos?

I will take photos of plastic that has been washed up on a beach. I will take the photos so that the colours are contrasting and the background is slightly blurred resembling Andy Hughes and his method of taking photos.

Comparison

Gerry Johansson takes photos in black and white and his photos have a high tonal contrast which bring drama to his images. He also uses very natural lighting when taking photos. His message in his photos is that anything can have aesthetic value even the most unlikely subject.

Andy Hughes takes photos in colour and his photos have tonal contrast between dark and light but also warm and cold colours. He also uses natural lighting when taking his images. His message is similar to Johansson and it is that even small, mass produced things can have an aesthetic value.

What is the “Anthropocene”

The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the start of significant human impact on Earth and its geology and ecosystems, including climate change.

Above, I made two mood boards. One for Anthropocene in general including industrial, landscape and abandoned images which interest me and might inspire my final outcome. Then I made a second mood board just for pollution photography. I did this because the negative impact humans are having on the planet is seen by the influx of rubbish that washes up on our beaches and kills marine wildlife.

My two photographers that I will follow and take influence from are Gerry Johansson and Andy Hughes. Johansson takes photos in black and white of urban impact on nature and Hughes takes photos of pollution on beaches and creates the idea of the pollution being natural.

What is New Topographics

New topographics was a term created by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers which included Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz. Their pictures had a similar aesthetic and were mostly black and white images showing an urban landscape.

Most of the photographers linked to new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher. They were inspired by the man-made and selected places such as parking lots, trailer parks or housing and warehouses to photograph. The message in the images was how natural environments were being eroded by industrial development. The photographers found beauty in the chaos of the industrial world and how they link the complexity of the natural world to the complexity of the industrial world.

What was the New Topographic a Reaction to?

The new topographics were a reaction to the increasing suburbanised world evolving around the photographers.

Lewis Baltz (Case Study 1)

Context

Lewis Baltz was an American photographer born on September 12th 1945 in Newport Beach California. He went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute and was involved with the New Topographics with his Man-Altered Landscape Exhibition in 1975. He focused on producing black and white images of parking lots, tract housing and industrial parks. He said that when living in Monterey, where the classic photographers such as the Westons, Wynn Bullock and Ansel Adams came to photograph nature, that he was drawn to shopping centres and gas stations instead of nature. The reason this style was so unique was that no-one had done this before so it was a new way of thinking about photography. He died on November 22nd 2014 in Paris, France. His works are held by a wide range of museums around the globe including in France, England and the USA.

Technical

All the lighting in the image is natural as the image was taken in a parking lot outside some sort of store. The light is natural but at the same time harsh meaning that at the time it was taken, there was most likely either a lot of cloud or none at all. Baltz has positioned the camera so that it is in line with the parking space lines, ladder to the left of the image and the trees slightly to the left and right of the image. The image has a low ISO because the image is not very dark and it is in black and white.

Visual

The image has a good tonal contrast between the light walls that have the sun lighting them up and the dark tarmac on the parking lot. There is also contrast between the light sky at the top of the image and the dark leaves on the two trees. We can tell that the sun is coming from the left of the image because of the shadows of the ladder, electricity box and trees. The ladder, trees and box next to the ladder bring a sense of repetition and pattern because they are being shadowed onto the light wall which brings excitement and a sense of illusion. The parking lot has no cars in which is strange as usually you would see people and vehicles in the car lot which creates further tension between man and nature. The parking lot spaces are leading the eye from the dark tarmac to the light wall and from the light wall to the empty sky.

Conceptual

I believe Baltz took this photo to show what effect humans have on nature and how nature is being limited. By photographing a parking lot with no cars or people in, he is saying that we are wasting the resources we have. He is also saying that by building our parking lots and buildings where nature is, we are limiting it to grow in urban parking lots with no space. Also I believe the contrast of tone between the dark tarmac and dark leaves versus the light wall is saying that nature and the ground are being covered, cut down and forgotten about by the growing developing urban and industrial world. Finally, I believe the ladder to the left of the image is a link to the idea of freedom and nature. However there is a covering on the ladder meaning that no one can go up it linking to the idea of nature being limited and disrupted by humans. He is trying to communicate the idea of the disruption of the natural order.

Where Can I Take Photos?

Plan

Photoshoot	Where	When	Why
Industrial and Urban (day)	Finance centre	Saturday 20th March	To create images inspired by Lewis Baltz
Industrial and Urban (night)	Alleys and harbour	Easter	To create images like Gabriel Basilico

Contact Sheet

I went on Saturday the 20th of March to the finance centre along the front near Liberty bus station. I also photographed a few alleyways around that area.

My Outcome

The image above is my strongest outcome of the first photo shoot linking to the New Topographics including urban and industrial. The image I chose was of a window from below that reflects the clouds and light quite well. I edited the image so it is in black and white and so that the darker tonal values are darker. I also made it so that the different tones were edited so that they were distinguishable, linking to Ansel Adams zone system. The outcome has dark and light tonal contrast and good clarity enabling the clouds to be seen in the reflection of the windows. Finally the clouds go from being dark and angry to light and calm as they get closer to the building.

What Is Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is an act of placing two elements close together or side by side. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences.

The two original images were taken from different angles but had the same main subject. This meant that I could juxtapose them together even though they were taken from different angles. My outcome is of the newer, colorful Beauport Bay with the older, black and white image of the Bay in the center. The newer image is 2-3 years old and the older one is roughly 70 years old so it brings a good idea of compare and contrast to the image.

What is Landscape Photography?

Landscape photography shows spaces in the world, potentially vast and empty, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs capture the presence of nature but can also show man-made features engrossing on nature.

What is Rural Photography?

Rural Photography is similar to landscape photography but it captures life in the countryside and life living in a rural environment compared to an urban area.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist. Adams was born on February 20th 1902 and died on April 22nd 1984. Some of Adams most influential and well known work was his black and white photos of the American West. Adams was one of the founders of a group known as Group f/64 which is an association of photographers who were responsible for photography that utilized sharp focus and the full tonal range.

Adams developed an exact system of image making known as the Zone System with his friend, Fred Archer. Archer was another aspiring photographer who was interested in portrait photography and before his death in 1963 took portrait photography of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars of the time.

The zone system was a method of understanding what tonal range was going to be captured when taking the photo. He knew what parts of the image would be the lightest and which would be the darkest. This helped him work out what the final image’s contrast would be like.

Ansel Adams Zone System

As you can see above, Ansel Adams used his Zone System to work out what tones would be represented in the different parts of the image and which would be darker or lighter. By doing this he made sure the images would all have a distinguishable contrast with dark and light and would create drama that would make his images so much better than other images taken at the time. The reason Ansel Adam’s images were so much better than others taken at the time is all to do with his reasoning behind taking the images. At first he took them without thinking about what he was actually taking and then he saw the image he wanted to take in his mind’s eye. He then experimented with exposures and used his zone system to see what his image would be like after he developed the image.

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and musical movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and was most commonly found from 1800 to 1850.

Photo-shoot plan

To take the photos for landscape, rural and romanticism I will photograph a beach in Jersey. I will photograph the waves, beach and rocks from different angles. I want to take photos like Ansel Adams and photograph water in motion and maybe in black and white to show the real tonal contrast between the brightest and darkest tones in the image.

Photo-shoot

Ansel Adams inspired edits

To get the images above, I went through my photos from the contact sheets and found the best ones. I then used Adobe Light room to edit the images in mass so that they all represented Ansel Adams’ work.

My Final Image

The reason I chose the image above as my best/ favourite image is that it reflects Ansel Adams ideas about the tonal system and how the contrast between dark and light brings power to the image. The image is of a rocky outcrop and I made it black and white and edited it so that the clouds to the left are darker and bring tonal contrast.

David Hockney Joiner

David Hockney is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. Hockney was an extremely important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s and considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.

Hockney’s portrait photo-montages are both simple and effective which is what I would like to try and recreate with my rendition of portrait photo-montage.

My Outcome

The image below is one that I made during the Christmas break. To create this image I had to collect images from different celebrities facial features from the internet. I took Elvis’s hair, Zac Effron’s eye, Ed Sheeran’s eye, Cate Blanchett’s ear, Chris Hemsworth’s chin, Will Smith’s ear and the background facial shape and mouth of Leonardo De Caprio.

I created the image above as a test run to see if my idea of cutting out facial features and merging different features from different people worked which it did. I really like my first attempt at portrait photo-montage because it is simple but effective and has features from different people of different countries, races and genders that overlap and don’t perfectly fit on the facial template. This creates a sense of imperfection which is similar to David Hockney.

The image below is my second and third rendition of portrait photo-montage. For these images, I took photos of two classmates and myself and cut up the facial features from different angles and lighting. To make these images I collected many different images I previously took from a studio portrait project. I then took the images and cropped them so that only the facial feature I needed for the montage was showing. Next I got a base background image to use as a facial template and dropped the individual features onto the background creating the portrait photo-montage.

I like the outcomes of the portrait photo montage task because it shows a link to David Hockney Joiner with the idea of multiple pictures and identities within one person.

Double/ multi exposure

Double/ multi exposure is the combination of two or more exposures to create a single image. The exposure values may not be exact creating a ghost like figure.

Muhammed Faread

Muhammed Faread is an American/ Egyptian artist from Seattle, Washington state USA. He is a graphic designer, who is especially captivated by double exposure. Using double exposure, he explores the power of it as a form of visual poetry.

He has combined an image of a person with their hands over their face with one of their face and made it so that the image of their face is partially visible. The visibility is enough so that we can see his eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

My Edits

To make the images below, I had to get photos of the same subject in either the same or different positions, facial expressions and lighting color. I then dragged the images onto each other and changed the opacity of all the images except the back image so that it creates a ghostly shape and multiple colors.

The Best Image

The image above is the best because It has many different exposures which contrast different colours and subject positions. It creates a phantom subject which makes viewers think about which exposure is the real one. The different images used to make the image have different facial expressions showing the idea of putting on a face which is different to what she is actually feeling.

Response

To take the photos above I went to town to re-do the street photography/candid photo shoot because I believe when I completed the previous photo shoot, the images and final outcomes were not strong enough.

Best 3

The image above is one of my three best from this photo shoot. I believe the image above is good because it was taken with a car in the center of the frame. It also shows a few people walking on the pavement towards the camera and away as well. The image has a good depth and shows buildings in the background.

The image above is the second best of the three best. It is good image because it shows both people and cars parked and in motion when the image was taken. The image also has a good depth and shows more people and vehicles in the distance getting smaller and smaller as the street goes on.

Finally, I have chosen the image above as one of the best because it shows different types of people. There is a man walking on his own closest to the camera and family behind which shows variety in the subjects in the photos. I like this image the most because it shows the world in motion in the feet of the closest subject and people in the back as well.

Now that it’s over, what are my first thoughts about this overall project? Are they mostly positive or negative?

My first thoughts on the project are that I feel like it went quite well and I now have a further understanding of what a photography exam is like

If positive, what comes to mind specifically? Negative?

I think everything went well for example my research and photos etc

What were some of the most interesting discoveries I made while working on this project?

The amount of work needed to be put in and also what improvements can be done to take the photo shoot to the next level to improve my grades

What were the challenges?

Time management so how I used my time wisely giving myself enough time to explain and plan photo shoots, research and outcomes

What is the most important thing I learned personally?

That I needed to have a wider variety of photos/ photo shoots that needed to be taken with different lenses, effects, locations, weather and time.

How did I come up with my final best solution?

I saw on the blog a post about a guy called Kensuke Koike who used photography to edit photos and take snippets from different images and put them all together. This really changed my idea of how I could create identity because I could now make a final outcome that had loads of different images in one photo

What most got in the way of my progress if anything?

The time constraint as I didn’t realize how fast time goes when working

What obstacles did I overcome?

The edit I was trying to create was not working in Photoshop so I left it and came back and it brought a new light to the idea and i was able to overcome the obstacle

What did I learn were my greatest strengths? My biggest areas for improvement?

I completed everything I needed to during the time constraint. I also believe my Photoshop skills have improved and my way of showing photo shoot plans and contact sheets. I believe my areas for improvement are planning my photo shoots in advance so that weather and time aren’t problems. This would aid me in creating a wider variety of images that showcase different emotion, weather, light and feel

What would I do differently if I were to approach the same problem again?

As I have previously said, I would plan photo shoots in advance to collate a wider variety of images

What could I do differently from a personal standpoint the next time I work?

I would collect my best images to reduce the amount of time spent on going through my images to find the best

What can I improve?

I can improve knowledge on further Photoshop skills to help me create more complex images that could potentially bring my grades up and also to know exactly how to edit in certain ways so that I could explain in depth with use of screen shots how I did everything

How will I use what I have learned in the future?

Plan everything in advance and prioritize what is the most important and what should be done before the rest during the exam

WWW – WHAT WENT WELL

I believe my edits and outcomes from my 3 photographers went the best as I responded to my images and criticized and compared them to images by my photographers

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

My edits, outcomes and plan were my strengths

My time management, photos and research need to be improved

EBI – EVEN BETTER IF

I feel like I could improve my analysis, research and range of photos if I did this again or on a future occasion