What: This shoot represents the view of abandoned places how they are merge with nature, and how nature can always find the way to fight and continue growing . When: I decided to do the shoot in the middle of the day to full appreciate nature in all its glory. Why: As in my last shoot, Im trying to make aware of the damage we are doing to the planet and especially show how nature is wise and we dont know how to respect it.
Contact Sheets
FirstSelection
Comparison
Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre
Carmen Kirchner
Both of the images are taken from the outside so there’s use of natural lights, the light is soft. The main thing on the two images are the buildings covered in green, the nature that continues to grow on these buildings. The shapes are not the same, Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre have geometric shapes on their image since the building is a repetitive pattern of rectangles mine on the other hand there more organic shapes since the rocks on the building are curvy. However in my picture, the contrast between the lights and the shadow on the building create straight edged so geometric shapes. In Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre’s image we can see shade in the building which creates depth and creates more space. There’s also negative space above the building since the photographers decided to take picture of the sky as well on the contrary of my picture in which we do not find a lot of negative space. On both of the images we can find to types of texture one soft (plants) and the other as strong as a rock we can recognize these textures by the soft lines on the plants while the buildings and the stones have stronger lines. The colour pallets are roughly the same we find grey, different types of green, blue, brown, yellow…
The current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
This is an important topic to focus on due to the fact that the decisions we make in our everyday lives can have a major impact on our planet without us even noticing until it’s too late. For example buying things that are made from non-biodegradable plastics which then causes landfills to grow and they then burn it releasing harmful chemicals in the air. Even some plastics end up in the ocean which harms the aquatic animals. Some fish eat micro-plastics which then kill them because they thought that they were eating; however they never got nutrition so they therefore die of starvation. They may also get caught by fishermen, this then leads to the micro-plastics that could have been in the fish, going into the human who is eating that fish. The world of plastic is a vicious cycle which may end up killing us all.
A group of photographers, Union of Concerned Photographers, are trying to spread the word around the world about how we are endangering ourselves and destroying our planet through selfishness and greed. This links to deforestation, where humans are destroying rain forests and woodland areas so that we can build new houses or shopping centers on them. Again, we are essentially shortening our own lives by doing this. Trees produce oxygen through photosynthesis which is what we need to survive. Through photosynthesis they also take in carbon dioxide which is what we breath out during respiration. So plants and trees help us live and we are removing them, meaning we are getting less oxygen in our body.
Not only are we hurting ourselves by doing this, we are also endangering animals by taking away their homes; for example Orangutan’s homes are being destroyed because people want to use the palm oil in their cooking.
Edward Burtynsky’s work in ‘The Anthropocene Project’ has immensely inspired me, I really enjoy the way he uses a birds-eye point of view to capture his images as I believe it connotes themes of man looking down on all he has created. Burtynsky’s use of repetition and shape in his images is also a factor I wish to demonstrate in my photoshoot inspired by him, I believe it shows the uniformity of society and hints at how the growing industrialization of our planet is leading to an indifferent homogenized world. Additionally, I believe Burtynsky’s work holds many interesting uses of shape and texture- I wish to reflect his busy images by capturing landscapes with many similar structures and buildings to symbolize the growing destruction of natural landscapes. I aim to demonstrate how humankind, with its population explosion, industry, and technology, has in a very short period of time become an agent of immense global change.
Photoshoot Plan
What – I plan on photographing landscape images overlooking urbanised scenes and areas of Jersey, I aim to capture rooftops, buildings, roads, harbours, office blocks and industrial workplaces to show the sheer amount of unnatural sites surrounding us daily.
Where – My idea is to go to the top of Fort Regent car park to capture most of my images as the view looking over St Helier shows mass industrialisation. Additionally, I plan on photographing landscapes from footpaths along Halve Des Pas to show the modernised buildings around the shore line, and also from the harbour near La Collette to shows the industrial areas of our waters.
When – I aim to capture these images on Friday 21st May due to the weather forecasting lots of sun – this will benefit my photoshoots as I plan on spending the day going to different locations inspired by my chosen photographers (Edward Burtynsky & Andrew Moore) who both capture bright images using natural lighting.
How – I plan on photographing the modern landscape of St Helier from high places eg. the top of Fort Regent – however due to this location having a tall fence blocking the birds-eye view I will have to place my camera lens between the bars to capture the landscape through the gaps in the fence – if this poses as a problem I may have to drive higher and over look town from another location.
Why – My aim in producing this photoshoot is to capture images reflecting the work of Edward Burtynsky, showing the growing industrialisation of our planet and demonstrating how systematic society is becoming; reflected through architecture and the destruction of our natural landscapes.
Contact Sheets
Selected Images
Image Analysis
I have chosen to analyse this specific image from my Edward Burtynsky inspired photoshoot as I believe it holds several interesting uses of the formal elements, successfully reflecting the industrialization of the parish of St Helier. I captured this image at the top of Pier Road Car Park, placing my camera lens between the railings to photograph the mass of buildings across the town landscape. I really enjoy the amount of repetition I have captured in this image, I believe the span of windows all lined up in rows across each building presents the idea of a uniform, unchanging society where humans are the constant source of natural environmental destruction. Moreover, the row of trees captured in the mid-left of the image shows a systematic approach to taming nature, their orderly artificial shapes are unnatural and have been photographed to suggest that our world is becoming infested with industrial ideas in architecture and now clearly nature too. In the foreground, the rectangular geometric shapes that fall across a building’s rooftop almost resemble cards of paint colour swatches, symbolizing how humans treat environments as if they are their own rooms to decorate, destroying natural habitats like they are just options of paint shades. The composition of my image shows a wide depth of field, with a busy foreground and mid-ground with the only element of negative space seen in the background- this space, with its bright blue colour, provides a juxtaposition to the otherwise bland colours seen elsewhere of white, brown, cream and grey. The colour palette of my image connotes how the urbanization of our landscapes is destroying all the beauty within them, with unsaturated shades creating a monotonous mood for the observer. As I have photographed this landscape at mid-day using natural lighting, there is a wide range of dark and light tones – the darkest falling across shadowed sides of hotels and office blocks and the lightest within the highlights of white apartments. This extent of dark and light across the image creates a high contrast and, along with the harsh texture created by the repetition of geometric shapes, develops a hectic atmosphere for the observer.
I believe the images highlighted in red are my least successful images as the shutter speed was set too slow, making the images more blurry than intended, this makes them unsuccessful as the original artwork by Darian Mederos focuses on depth of field rather than movement.
I think the images highlighted in green are my strongest images as they are more accurate recreations of Darian Mederos’ work. I also feel like they represent his focus on depth of field more, as some aspects of the images are more blurred than others.
In addition, the contrast of different race adds another factor of human relationships both uniting and separating due to the harm to environment that we all play a part in, no matter who we are or what we believe. At some point, all humans have contributed to the production or purchase of plastic, which eliminates the segregation of who is to blame for the destruction of our planet, as we have all played a part. It can also be seen as a call to action for humans to band together in order to restore nature and live harmoniously.
To edit these images I will enhance the muted tones in my photographs, in a similar way to the artwork by Mederos, and also darken the tones in order to provide a deeper, menacing message in relation to the theme of Anthropocene.
Camera and light settings
For this photoshoot, I used harsh studio lighting to achieve the contrasting shadows and highlights in the images. I set the lighting to a slightly warmer tone to recreate the muted tones and colours that can be seen similarly in Darian Mederos’ work.
For the first few images in this photoshoot, the shutter speed was too slow for my desired outcome of the images, I predict the shutter speed was around 1/30 as slight movements made aspects of the image blurry. Once I had realised this, I altered the shutter speed to a faster setting of 1/1000, so the movements in the photographs wouldn’t come out blurry. I set the ISO to 50, and I set the aperture to a lower setting of around f/11 in so I could capture a slightly more narrow depth of field to juxtapose the aspects of the image that were in focus, compared to those that were slightly out of focus.
“Engulfed” from “Plastic Currents” series – Naomi White (2012)
In terms of similarities, Naomi White and Darian Mederos’ work both focus on the use of plastic in order to create a sense of mystery and abstraction. In both these images in particular the tones of both images are rather muted and subdued. The work by White and Mederos provide the theme of Anthropocene as they use man made, polluting materials to create their work by showing them in an artistic light.
On the other hand, the work by both artists are different in the sense that Darian Mederos’ work focuses more on portrait-based work when compared to Naomi White’s abstract-focused work. Also, Mederos’ work is a painting whereas White’s work is an edited photograph. The tones in White’s image are much warmer in comparison to Mederos’ work that provides a lot of cooler tones.
Despite both works having differences that contradict each other, I think they represent Anthropocene in a similar way, as they create ambiguity through the use of artificial materials.
To display these images I could print them onto clear or coloured acetate, which is similar to the material taken in the original image. I think clear acetate would keep the colours in the similar tones as they are in my final edits, whereas coloured acetate may alter the colours and tones of the final displayed image.
I could also print the images out onto printing paper and burn the edges of the paper. I feel like this would reinforce the original idea of Anthropocene, with humans causing more harm to the environment rather than helping it.
Andrew Moore is an American photographer, born in 1957, who documents the effect of time on natural and built landscapes. His series includes work made in Cuba, Russia, Bosnia, Times Square, Detroit, The Great Plains, and most recently, the American South. Moore was a lecturer on photography in the Visual Arts Program at Princeton University from 2001 to 2010. Presently he teaches a graduate seminar in the MFA Photography Video and Related Media program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He captures his images in a journalistic, documentary type fashion, photographing landscapes where man’s impact on the surroundings is being challenged by the power of nature. I felt drawn to Moore’s work due to his talent in capturing a sort of mid-stage between industrialization and natural landscapes, the observer can clearly see elements of nature in his images- however there is also a sense of impending urbanisation creeping into each image, may it be in the background or the main focus. I wish to take inspiration from this element of Moore’s work and portray the idea of ‘nature fighting back’ in one of my photoshoots.
Edward Burtynsky
Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian contemporary photographer, born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharines, Ontario. He received his BAA in Photography/ Media Studies from Ryerson University in 1982, and in 1985 founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging and new media computer-training centre catering to all levels of Toronto’s art community. Early exposure to the sites and images of the General Motors plant in his hometown helped to formulate the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the collective impact we as a species are having on the surface of the planet; an inspection of the human systems we’ve imposed onto natural landscapes. Burtynsky’s work really inspired me when researching different Anthropocene photographers as I enjoy the way he captures repetition throughout his images with an interesting camera point of view, I wish to reflect the way he captures our world’s rapid industrialization through landscape photography.
Burtynsky was part of the team with Nicholas de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal who created ‘The Anthropocene Project’, in an extract from Burtynsky’s essay, “Life in the Anthropocene” he wrote “we hope to bring our audience to an awareness of the normally unseen result of civilization’s cumulative impact upon the planet. This is what propels us to continue making the work. We feel that by describing the problem vividly, by being revelatory and not accusatory, we can help spur a broader conversation about viable solutions. We hope that, through our contribution, today’s generation will be inspired to carry the momentum of this discussion forward, so that succeeding generations may continue to experience the wonder and magic of what life, and living on Earth, has to offer.”
Image Comparison
1 – Andrew Moore | 2 – Edward Burtynsky
I chose to compare this image taken by Andrew Moore to one of Edward Burtynsky’s images as I believe they both hold similarities and differences with their use of techniques in the formal elements. Moore’s image was captured at Via Blanca, Cuba in 2012 and Burtynsky’s was released in ‘The Anthropocene Project’ in 2018. The first clear similarity is that both photographers have captured leading lines produced by roads that draw the observer’s attention through the images, creating a sense of movement and energy. Moore’s leading line is straight and thick, guiding the observer’s eye into the distance and background of the photograph- Burtynsky’s image also leads them to the background, however his captured line is thin and curves around the top right of the photo. The comparison between these two uses of leading lines symbolizes how the industrialization of our planet will continue on into the future, becoming more and more accepted and normal- just as Burtynsky’s line bends and blends more into it’s surroundings than Moore’s earlier captured photograph. Furthermore, there is a similar grainy rough texture in both images, created by the busy amount of subject captured; the trees in Moore’s image create a spiky feeling however they also have a sense of serenity that produces a more calm atmosphere, which is juxtaposed greatly with the out-of-place motorway that cuts through them.
In addition, there are also several differences between each image, for example their composition and camera point of view. Moore has captured his landscape from a lower perspective, and while it is not at eye-level, it still creates a more grounded impression by bringing the observer closer to the subject. In comparison, Burtynsky’s photograph is captured with a birds-eye point of view, symbolizing the biblical connotations of man looking down on all he has created as if he were a God. Moreover, the actual location of each landscape image is a significant difference between the photographs, with Moore’s showing the woodlands and forests in Cuba being industrialized and Burtynsky’s demonstrating the mass industrialization of cities and towns. Burtynsky’s image holds zero negative space, it’s cramped composition creates an uneasy and overwhelming atmosphere as the repetition of buildings and structures surrounding the winding road connotes the idea of a dystopian, homogeneous society where everything and everyone is the same. The trees and nature which are reflected over and over again in Moore’s image suggests that the beauty in our natural environment is still trying to push against human impact and urbanization, connoting the idea that there may still be hope. Lastly, Moore’s image holds more vibrant and saturated colours than those seen in Burtynsky’s photograph, the blue sky in the background of the image gives the impression that if humans are still destroying the planet by using fossil fuels and increasing CO2 emissions, mass industrialization will continue on into the future, however if we do something about the destruction of our world now there is hope moving forward that the environment can be saved.
“Crescendo” part of “Plastic Currents” series – Naomi White (2012)
My work
The prominent similarities between my work and the work of Naomi White and my work is the use of plastic in order to create art. Furthermore, the colours in both photographs are vibrant and the tones are very contrasting within both images. Finally, there is a strong sense of contrasting shadows and highlights due to the use of studio lighting.
On the other hand, there is also visible differences between the image created by White and my own work. For example, White only uses one colour in her photos, which creates a jarring contrast against the white background. However, because I used coloured acetate over the studio lights, multiple tones and colours are projected onto the plastic. Furthermore, my image lacks the blinding, white background that White uses in order to create an intense juxtaposition between the coloured plastic.
Overall, I believe my recreation of Naomi White’s work was successful because they carry similar ideas and messages, however I altered specific aspects of Naomi White’s work in order to make my images more unique and prove that White’s work is an ideal influence in terms of Anthropocene.
I wanted to edit my photos to explore new ideas and meanings. To create a story between humans and nature. For that I used photoshop. I decided to use different special effects like black and white, blur… For the first picture I used the lasso tool to select the middle after that I inversed to select only the outside part of the it . I choose to put the outside in black and white because I wanted to give an more sad atmosphere to it. I highlighted the objects to show the waste. For the second picture I decided to use the lasso tool again to have two parts one that is full of rubbish and the other that is clean. To create the part full of waste I cut out parts of chairs from another photos then I pasted them on my image. With these effects I want to show a side that we could have if we do not pay attention to what surrounds us. The two tests represent the waste that we live with. For the third one I decided to do something simpler I use a picture from my second shoot because it had more nature to it. I just use the blur tool to demonstrate the nature vanishing bit by bit.
Differences – The layout of both images is different as mine has a clear horizon that splits the image in the top middle thrid with a straight line, whereas Yao Lu’s is a horizon made from the mountain tops which is in the very top third. I also left most of the natural landscape in the image, however Lu covered all/most of the natural landscape with waste and netting. The colouring in Lu’s image is more muted and made of more neutral colours. Mine is muted but there is certain aspects, specifically the added waste piles where it is more graphic and vibrant. the overall style of Lu’s image is very painterly and delicate, but mine is more graphic and bold.
Similarities – Both images have the same concept of photo montaging waste in the form of the natural landscape. Both images are overall warmer toned. Also the images have been framed and cropped to be circular in the same way.
Evaluation
Even though the final outcomes I had planned in my head looked more like Yao Lu’s painterly photographs I am happy that the non-natural aspects of the image (the fishing abandoned equipment), are more graphic and contrast with the natural landscape that should be there. This gives the image more contrast physically and metaphorically in the sense that the earth is turning into a waste land because all these waste products that human kind have made and harmed the earth with are going to be the new reality as the natural landscapes are being damaged and slowly disappearing. therefore based on this I have clearly shown the theme of Anthropecene, how the earth is changing based on human error, through my series images.
