As the image above displays, the percentage of people residing within urban and industrial areas is becoming increasingly concerning in terms of land conservation and environmental effects. This is due to the fact that as a result of mass urbanisation, it is predicted that this current 55% of the global population, living in such places, will increase dramatically to 68% by the year 2050. This constant development not only means that rural areas will become increasingly rare along with the species inhabiting them, but environmental issues, such as air pollution and declining water quality, will become far worse, far more quickly than we have ever seen.
In addition, the increase of such heavily polluted and populated areas can lead not only to worsening environmental issues, but declining mental health and well being, and also a loss of culture. This is due to the fact these places possess far more stressors, such as overcrowded places, higher violence levels and less social support, compared to areas that incorporate the existing nature into the layout and of these cities. Furthermore, these dense concrete places are a victim of their own design, as they are more vulnerable to extreme weather and environmental conditions, that such large places of development cause.
With this photo-shoot I will aim to photograph structures that are signifier of these types of densely populated urban landscapes. Although in Jersey we are fortunate to have a large amount of rural landscapes, it can be said that with the ever-growing population of the island and its need for housing, continuous development of buildings such as flats, put this nature in danger.
Plan
Contact Sheets
Here I have highlighted in green, the photographs that I think turned out best and will work well when combined with the natural landscape images. Also, I have crossed out the images in red that may have been blurry or are under or over-exposed, these are the photographs that I definitely will not edit for my final product.
Jersey’s National Park is a unique area of conserved land, that stretches along the coasts of Jersey. This protection of Jersey’s natural coastline was created in 2011, following a peaceful protest in 2009, in which 7,000 islanders created a human chain along the large stretch of St. Ouen’s bay. This protest was the result of the people of Jersey’s frustration with the constant coastal developments occurring around the island, obstructing the island’s natural beauty, and called for the government to heavily regulate any future developments in these places, to which they complied to. This conserved land now possesses 16% of the island’s land mass, due to people’s love and appreciation for nature.
However, many places are not so fortunate to have regulation’s like this in place, to protect the small portion of nature we have not yet destroyed as humans on this earth. With this photo-shoot I want to bring to attention why it is essential that places are protected from the negative impact the Anthropocene era has inflicted on the earth.
Plan
Contact Sheets
Here I have highlighted in green, the photographs that I think turned out best and will work well when combined with the industrial and urban structures. Also, I have crossed out the images in red that may have been blurry or are under or over-exposed, these are the photographs that I definitely will not edit for my final product.
Both images feature a reaction to the Anthropocene. They do this by capturing the essence of mans reckless footprint on the natural environment and man’s greed and carelessness of having to constantly industrialise and destroy the natural environment and then move on swiftly without care. This is seen in these images where the focal point is placed on the derelict structures by framing them in the centre of the composition in a symmetrical fashion.
Both images have similar structural features, they both contain many vertical leading lines created by the structures and the neutral perspective at which they are shot. Both images also contain a deep depth of field with the structures in the foreground and the clouds and various other elements stretching far into the background.
These images differ in their colour schemes as Camilo’s image features a more saturated look with a wider tonal range which creates a deep contrast in the image. The image also contains a wider range of colours whereas George’s image contains a monotone, warmer colour scheme with shallow range of colours. Georges image is also flatter in terms of contrast, it has a narrower tonal range.
Camilo Jose Vergara is a Chilean Photographer based in New York City.
He trained as a sociologist with a specialty in urbanism and this is exactly what his photography emulates. He focuses on ‘rephotography’ in series with urbanisation and the Anthropocene. This means he shot the same buildings over a span of time to document change. This is a method of documenting urbanisation and how man is constantly tweaking the environment around them.
I am most interested in his work where he captures the essence of nature fighting back against urbanisation. He shoots these abandoned, derelict buildings in the fashion of rephotography to document an argument between nature and man. This can be seen through the houses slowly degrading and the earth and plants growing around them. This captures the power of nature and its ambition to flourish juxtaposing to mans greediness and carelessness of leaving ruins to rot in, what was, a beautiful natural climate. Below is an image of the Ransom Gillis House where Camilo has captured this argument and the power of nature.
I believe the way Camilo captures these buildings is an impactful way of looking a Anthropocene. It captures humanities carelessness and the determination of nature in an impactful manner by giving it an aesthetic. The aesthetic being the series of photos where the perspective is exactly them same but there is noticeable change in the environment in every photo. This forces the thought to be made about how quickly our environment changes.
The above image is of the former Camden Library which became abandoned. There are trees growing in the former reading room of the library. Camilo framed these trees in the centre of the image with the library collapsing around them. This creates a stadium around the trees which creates tension and supports the idea of natures determination to grown through humans destruction.
Camilo used natural lighting which is coming through as streaks through the destroyed ceiling. This creates a holy like spotlight on the trees which could imply the idea of the glimpse of hope that nature holds.
The image contains high saturation on the foreground which makes the trees pop with colour but a low saturation and high contrast on the background which creates a gloomy look on the destroyed building, enforcing the juxtaposition between nature and man.
George Marazakis is a Greek photographer who has made a significant contribution to the visual enlightenment related to the Anthropocene with his photographic series, “A Cure for Anthropocene”
His work encapsulates the degradation of the environment in a subtle manner rather than a brash, “in your face” approach. His method does not concentrate on shooting the obvious, mainstream aesthetic themes such as animals entangled in plastics and inept images of geological agony that the media force feed society as a way of sort of ‘guilt-tripping’. Instead George shoots natural landscapes where subtle gestures of man’s ramifications can be seen. He seems to weave the elements of industrialism and climate change into his the landscapes rather than making them the vocal point. I feel this is a far superior way of creating awareness to the issue. It focuses on giving a neutral aesthetic to the Anthropocene. This forces the comparison process of making contrasts between the peaceful natural utopia and the traumatic dystopia that humans are inflicting on the planet. This forces audiences to use their cognition which leads to them caring about the issue more.
Another distinct element to his photography is the warm, hazy, monotone hue his images have. It almost implies the idea of the earth heating up and global warming. It also creates a slight sense of panic almost like a fire has started and orangey smoke is pouring out of his images. It develops an apocalyptic aesthetic for Anthropocene.
This subtle approach of integrating slight man made interruptions into his landscapes came about as George began to think of the Anthropocene as a disease. “While I was photographing the landscapes affected by human interactions in the middle of natural spaces, the topography started looking like a body to me – like something with the early stages of psoriasis on its skin,” he explains. “If humans are a product of nature, then we can say that we are a disease attacking our own organism, just like an immune system can attack its own body – like autoimmune diseases.” His work takes this idea of disease and spins it around to create a sense of hope by reinforcing the idea that diseases can be cured, this is imbedded in the name of his project ‘A CURE for Anthropocene’
The above image features a natural landscape with a juxtaposition of a subtle hint to mans presence in the foreground with the carved out paths almost like scars on the earth.
George uses natural lighting and he creates a narrow image in terms of colour and contrast in the foreground while romanticising the background with higher contrast and tonal depth. This creates an almost boring foreground which insinuates the mundane and banal nature of man’s degradation on the earth while contrasting this with the dramatic powerful nature of the sublime in the background.
The image is also framed very symmetrically with the paths in the foreground forming an ‘X’ which creates a satisfying aesthetic.
I have chosen to explore the concept of Anthropocene through the genre of landscape photography. I plan to react to ideas of nature being transformed through industry and venture into ideas of altered landscapes through my images. I will do this by shooting landscapes in a wider and vast perspective, of which supplies a view of the full picture. This allows a juxtaposition to be made between the natural environment and what man has interrupted it with.
I also plan to express the conflict between urbanisation and the environment by shooting derelict buildings and portraying nature fighting back against man. I plan to incorporate some abstract methods of photographing these buildings, with a more zoomed in perspective.
Below is some inspiration for my Anthropocene project:
Since I’ve finished my main piece, this is the secondary topic I’m focusing on.
LINKS TO ANTHROPOCENE
There are 2 ways to think how the galaxy and space relates to anthropocene :
The first way to think about it is that air pollution (as well as light pollution) is low in Jersey, so we are able to see the stars at night, compared to somewhere like China, where the sky is filled with smog clouds. So humans are polluting the air, which stared in 1760-1840 when the industry revolution happened, and has just kept increasing.
The second way is more dramatic and extreme, but in space the magnetic field surrounds Earth, which acts as a shield around the planet. The magnetic field is generated by electric currents due to the motion of convection currents of a mixture of molten iron and nickel in the Earth’s outer core, these convection currents are caused by heat escaping from the core, a natural process called a geodynamo. If we disrupt the process by causing global warming, and increasing global temperatures, then the magnetic field will break and crack, causing the Earth to be in danger to solar storms caused by the Sun.
First I selected my favourite images from both La Braye and Faulkner Fisheries photo shoots.
The top 2 are from the La Braye photo shoot, where as the bottom 2 are from the Faulkner Fisheries photo shoot.
Faulkner Fisheries image : ISO 200, f/3.5, 21 second shutter speed
Galaxy with lights : ISO 1600, f/3.5, 30 second shutter speed
Galaxy La Rocco Tower : ISO 6400, f/3.5, 25 second shutter speed
I took these into Photoshop, the top 2 I edited normally using the camera-raw filter, where as the bottom 2 I merged together, as 1 photo the building was light up and had a better sky, and the second photo had better foreground lights.
These were the edits I did for the Faulkner Fisheries, these are the screenshots in the camera raw filter. the top 2 were extremely similar adjustments.
The clarity/noise/texture really brought out the patterns in the constellations.
FINAL IMAGES
After editing the images in Photoshop, this is how they turned out :
Overall, all the images display star constellations, the first 2 were taken at the same time in the same place, where as the Faulkner Fisheries on was taken at around 10PM about a week later. Which is why they have different constellations. Although, I do like the constellations which you can see in the first images I took.
The foreground with the long exposure of the lights creates a contrast in colour with the dark night sky in the background. The tower in the middle image is a silhouette among the stars, which is a different approach but I still like it.
All 3 use the rule of thirds, as that technique helps focus on sky, or part of the image that fills up 2/3rds of the image.
Overall, my favourite part of all the images, is that you can actually see the constellations, and their patterns.
CRITIQUE
These images are not perfect, they can be so much better if I have better equipment. A crystal clear wide angle lens would produce a better image. A star tracking mount would work as well, and make it more clear.
DISPLAY
In Photoshop I edited my images into an empty art gallery, then added bevel and emboss and, drop shadow.
IN THE STYLE OF DILLON SAW
Saw uses image manipulation in his work, and oftenly space and galaxies are reoccurring themes. So I decided to make a piece in his style and inspired by him.
This is the work which inspired me to create my own. As you can see he makes the Moon a big part in his images.
PROCESS
I chose 3 images to use, then brought them into Photoshop and made a final piece on this topic.
These are the 3 raw images which I’m going to edit. I took a screenshot each time I did a substantial change.
First, I stared off by layering the 2 images over each other, then I removed the sky from the White House image. After I colour matched them using a colour balance adjustment layer, and increasing the purples and blues. Afterwards, I added in the Moon after removing its background. Continually, I used a layer mask to remove a part from the Moon to make it a crescent, as I felt that the pointed edges would contrast the other shapes in the images. Then I added glow behind the Moon. The finally added a camera raw filter using the setting below.
FINAL IMAGE
Overall, It turned out well. It has a nice flow to it, and all the colours match. It was very simple, but clean, which is why it has worked quite great.
I tried to keep it dark despite the foreground image being taken in the daytime, which actually kind of helped as it looks like the Moon has lit up the sky alongside the building.
The composition is decent, to an extent where the Moon isn’t dominating the sky, and the White House isn’t too big. It creates a contrast with the straight lines on the building compared to the moons curved edges and pointed lines. The Moons pointed, sharp edges could be a “threat in the sky” to puncture the Earths magnetic shield, and put everyone at risk.
The clear star constellations represent the clean air which allows us to see the stars shining at night, and can be shown as a warning to people if air pollution isn’t controlled, we’ll lose this incredible natural view.
CRITIQUE
If I could change on thing it would be the Moon. I would make it smaller, as it would make it more realistic, as in real life the moon isn’t that big when viewed from Earth.
EDITED VS RAW
The right image is my final image from Photoshop, compared to the left which is the raw images in the same layout as the final piece, with no adjustment layers or effects.
DISPLAY
I used an empty gallery and edited my image into it. I warped it to the angled wall, then added bevel/emboss and, shadow drop. This really helped me present my work. It being against plain walls has brought out the small details.
MY IMAGE VS SAW’S
Both are based along the same subject and concept. I like how Saw has used a mix of colours in his background, compared to my image which is a bit dull. Although, my image includes stars which helps identify its night time.
Saw’s use of the tree is really impactful in regards to nature and purity. Although, I feel that it is unbalance, and is only including nature. This is where my work thrives in displaying a balance of man-made buildings and natural planets and stars. This draws ties to humans, which is the main problem to all of the climate change going on around the world right now, that relates back to the idea of anthropocene.
Overall, I like my image more, despite being less colourful, as I feel that it relates to the topic more, and the goal that I set at the beginning, which was to create a piece which involved the White House with the moon above it, that symbolises anthropocene through space.
My aim is to create a piece in Photoshop in the style of Dillon Saw (the first artist/photographer I studied) an altered landscape/image manipulation, but with Sebnem Coskun’s (2nd photographer) content, which is the plastic pollution in the ocean and ocean pollution.
I envision a boat with buoys on, in the center of the ocean that has lots of rubbish and bottles floating around in the sea. You would be able to see under water and above the water.
THE PROCESS
Image selection
Making the image (showing the development)
Presenting the image
IMAGE SELECTION
Firstly, I decided to chose images that I plan to use from the Bouley Bay photo shoot and the St Brelades photo shoot. These photos would be the ones that I used to make the final image in Photoshop.
These are the photos I chose to use from the St Brelades photo shoot. The water is for the main top of the water, the seaweed I plan to have floating underwater. And the rock would be underwater on the sea floor, or maybe poke above the surface (if there is enough space).
These are the photos I plan to use from the Bouley Bay photo shoot. The headland/coast will be the background. The rocks would be underwater and the seabed. All the fishing nets, rubbish and fishing equipment will be floating in the sea. The red boat will be in the center.
The underwater picture. I checked with Mr Cole, if I was allowed to use it. It is a picture I took in an aquarium then in photo shopped everything out and only kept the underwater perspective. I will change the saturation and hue later.
Before
After
Screen grab from Photoshop
MAKING THE IMAGE
Firstly, I made a new document in a good portrait dimension, I chose portrait as I would like the viewer to concentrate on the main focus, the rubbish and pollution. Then I added the underwater image, and positioned it to fill up a bit more then half of the screen.
I changed the hue and saturation to match the next image. I also added some shadow to the top of the image to make it a little darker, On top of the brightness and contrast adjustment layer, where I made it darker and increased the contrast.
After, I added the photo of the sea from the St Brelades photo shoot, however, the sunset colours didn’t really match the whole ascetic, so instead I used the image from the Bouley Bay photo shoot, which was better. I positioned it above the underwater picture, then I made only the vertical part of the image “squished” to match the perspective I was going for.
At that point, I added a layer mask of get rid of the sky and background, using the black gradient tool. After, I changed the brightness and contrast, and hue and saturation, to match the two images together. I made the top of the sea brighter as the sun would be lighting it up. Then a added a small amount of motion blur at a 0-2 degree angle, to make it a bit smoother.
Next, I deiced to add a background, which was from the Bouley Bay photo shoot, and was the image of the headland/coastline. I put that layer to the back so everything was on top of it. I aligned it so that the water I edited was on top of the water in the background photo, which kept the perspective.
Additionally, later I will edit out the dirt on my camera; as you can see in the sky, using the spot healing brush. Then I increased the saturation of the background, to make it stand out more.
There was something off, it felt like the transition from above to below the water was to sharp. So I made a waterline from a zoomed in image of the sea I took, then used the eraser tool to make a “wave” effect. Then dragged it on to my main image, and put it on top of where the change is.
When I put it on my main image it was very blue, so I applied extremely similar adjustment layers to the water line, then added shadows and highlights to blend it into my image. I also used the eraser at 50% hardness and 15% flow, to fade the top of the water into the waterline. Furthermore, To create a sense of depth and distance, I added Gaussian blur to the waterline, to make it look like it was closer.
Following, I made some small adjustments, moved the underwater part up so that you couldn’t see the top of the water. This helped match the perspective. Afterwards, I made the edges of the underwater section darker, this made it more realistic, and created a sense of darkness, which can represent evilness. This is where ill be putting the rubbish, so it makes sense that it has a negative atmosphere, as it is a world wide problem.
Then, I added the boat in, first I had to remove the background. Which I used the eraser and magic wand tool. I temporarily made the background black to see if i missed any parts.
After I made the windows a separate part from the boat so I could change their opacity and add a reflection of the sky.
When I removed the background the trailer was covering the boat, so I used the clone stamp tool to manually fix the haul of the boat.
I added the boat into scene, I put the boat and windows on the top layers, and the duplicated only the boat and put it above the underwater picture, to get the blue underwater effect, I changed the blend mode to soft light, then after I erased the bottom of the boat (top layer) to let you see the layer underneath, to give the effect of it floating in the water.
I added adjustment layers to match the boats colour with the scenery. Additionally, I added shadows to the bottom of the boat, and highlights to the top.
After, I added a reflection on to the water of the boat, this would make it more realistic.
I added the reflection to the top water layer and waterline, I set the opacity to 15% on each so that it wasn’t a solid.
I used Filter > Liquefy to make the reflection more realistic.
I distorted the reflection using a brush with 38% pressure and 50 size, and dragging the cursor over the reflection.
I use a photo of the rocks at low tide from the Bouley Bay photo shoot, to create a seabed in the bootom of the image.
I used a layer mask and a black gradient, to fade the rocks into the water above it. Then applied some adjustments to decrease saturation and increase contrast.
I decided to add buoys to the boat, to add details, I added shadows and highlights to the buoy, then after I added a reflection in the water from the buoy.
Then used the same technique when I distorted the boats reflection, to the buoy and will keep the reflections consistent, to match the astatic.
The second buoy before and after photos, I used a different buoy, but the same techniques to add shadows and highlights.
Finally, I finished the last buoy. Then moved on to the rubbish in the water.
I started to add the rubbish into the water. I started remove all the backgrounds of the images from the rubbish photo shoot, I did this in Photoshop. First, I opened the image in Photoshop, then used Select > Subject, then duplicated the selected selection (the object), then deleted the original image.
One by one, I added each into my final image, after I used all of them I duplicated them, and merged selected layers, the flipped them horizontally to fill the other side.
After, they were arranged, I added a hue & saturation layer, to decease saturation, to give it the old, dull, washed out look.
I then needed to add the fishing equipment to the seabed, which was left behind by fishermen.
I removed the background of the net, then dragged it into the scene. I positioned it behind the rock, then used a layer mask to remove the parts that were over the rock,so it looked like it was behind the rocks. Then I added hue and saturation to decrease saturation, and the brightness and contrast to make it darker as I took the photo in daylight which is a dramatic difference to at the bottom of the sea, where there is no light.
I did the same with a tire in the center underwater.
I didn’t like this as it felt to organised. So instead, I deleted it and made and anchor coming off the boat. I used the rope from the Bouley Bay photo shot, when boat was hanging in the air. And the old anchor from the same shoot.
This was all the edits I planed, so finally, I added a Camera-Raw Filter to fine tune some of the settings and adjustments. I changed almost all the settings, these were the adjustments I made:
FINAL IMAGE– ANALYSE / EVALUTION
This is my final piece, it represents plastic pollution, which was inspired by Sebnem Coskun, using the style of Dillon Saw, and his altered landscapes/image manipulation. Overall, this is exactly what I said I was going to do from the start.
Overall, I think it turned out well! I like how it worked, and demonstrates how, we cannot see the whole plastic problem from the surface, and how we have to look at it from a different angle to see how bad it is.
This being the main piece, which I made in Photoshop. It demonstrates my editing and Photoshop skills, whilst still showing my actual photography and camera skills, as I had to envision the angles and light at which I was taking the photo. This shows how I stuck to my original idea.
I have considered how weight factors in. The bigger items such as crab nets sank, and the light plastic items floated, although some were being held underwater as there was no room the reach the surface, due to the amount of plastic in the sea.
The composition is a strength, and is good as most of the image is taken up by the underwater part, which is the main part of the image. And it holds the message that I want to get across, which is, “ocean pollution is a huge world wide problem.” I chose to do it portrait as, if I did it in landscape there would be empty space.
There is a heavy contrast in colour between the two “worlds”. The underwater section is more green, which signifies freshness and materialism, which juxtaposes the waste in the water, that varies in material, due to the type of rubbish. The sky is a nice, colorful, and vibrant blue, which is the main type of contrast in this image, other than clean vs dirty.
CRITIQUE
There are 2 things I don’t like about the image I made. Firstly, how blue the underwater part is, I would of liked it to be more green, but this is not a big deal. And secondly, I don’t like how the plastic didn’t really overlap. When I tried to overlap them some pieces got lost and turned invisible. Also, I would of moved them up to the surface more, although, I wanted to show that the boat was floating, without covering the bottom of the boat with plastic.
DISPLAY
I got an image of an empty gallery on Google, the brought it into Photoshop and put my image onto the wall. I resized it and added bevel and emboss and a drop shadow at 90 degrees. This added a 3D depth to it, therefore it looked more realistic.
On the left is my final image, on the right is that same image without and adjustment layers, shadows, and highlights. This shows how much editing I’ve done, and all the 300-400 layers there that made this piece look much better.
MY IMAGE VS COSKUN
My image is on the right, Coskuns photo is on the left.
Starting off with a Venn diagram, to visualise the similarities and differences.
As you can see both take on the same concept, which is plastic pollution and the view from underwater.
Coskun’s work being and actual photo, and mine being a digital art piece which implements photography. They shares some similarities, Coskun’s has more depth, this is because she took it deeper underwater, where as mine in the perspective from between the surface and underwater.
Overall, Coskun’s image has more of an impact, just because it is an actual photograph, so when people look at it they realise that, this is actually happening and is a real thing. On the other hand, my piece is fictional, despite being modelled and based of real references. But people know its not reality. Its more of a concept of reality, using conceptual realism. However, both imply the same message about ocean plastic pollution, and how it is a real thing.
Darian Mederos is a painter and visual artist who is known for his unique and different approach to painting. He is best recognized for his signature bubble-wrap style where he paints individual bubbles over portraits for added texture and effect. 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.
When creating the “Obscura Series”, Mederos creates something new, a photorealistic abstraction. The bubble wrap reflects light and distorts the underlying image, it is only at a distance that the works come into focus.
Alexandra Bellissamo
The relationship between nature and mankind.
Alexandra Bellissimo makes artworks that focus on “making” pictures rather than simply “taking” pictures. To make her surreal images, she uses collage techniques in combination with her photographs. In doing so, she combines man with nature to create works infused with emotion and psychology.
Alexandra Bellissimo’s body of work extends beyond traditional photograph. Her imagery explores the physical and psychological relation between nature and humans when combined through the use of collage. Her collaging process involves cutting layering and adhering photographic prints together into a single image. Bellisimo’s collages evoke a sense of empathy, intimacy and harmony when humans and nature coexist.
Comparison
Alexandra Bellisimo
Darian Mederos
Bellisimo’s images are constructed through a combination of photographs and collage. Her outcomes are black and white, crisp and sharp images with a variety of grey scale tones. Her images are taken with artificial lighting in a studio which resulted in high detailed images. Her images have a range of tones from light to dark to create highlights and contrast. The absence of colour helps to bring out the definition of her images. The arrangement and layout of her images tend to be head-shots and portraits. I believe Bellisimo’s photographs have a deeper meaning than what is seen by the eye. Her photographs show the relationship between nature and humans, it could be nature taking over humans as punishment for how we treat the planet, for example.
Mederos paints his images, in the circles of the bubble wrap he paints large strokes, it is only when you step away that the whole images comes together to reveal what is underneath. His images are very warm with a mixture of light and dark tones. Mederos paints the light that reflects off the bubble wrap to create the effect that it has been photographed with artificial lighting.
The difference between these two artists is Bellisimo photographs and collages and Mederos paints large images with big brushes that when stepped away from has masses amount of detail. Bellisimo’s images have hidden messages and send a message about nature and the world around us, compared to Mederos who paints images with large detail that do not need a hidden message to engage the viewer, his interesting and abnormal technique is enough to attract the viewers eyes.
“Sophia III” (From The Obscura Series” – Darian Mederos (2018)
Darian Mederos, born in Cuba in 1992, is an artist who focuses his work on studying the human emotion in a distorted way. Mederos believes emotion develops our human experience, ‘revealing everything at once or nothing at all’. Mederos attended the first two years of art school at Leopoldo Romañach in Cuba. He then applied to La Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in Havana, Cuba, and was accepted into the school. Darian Mederos left Cuba by himself at age 22 and flew to Miami and in less than six weeks was picked up by his gallery of record Conde Contemporary. Mederos’ work has been shown in LA, New York, Shanghai and other cities around the world. His work also resides in private collections worldwide, including London, Malaysia and Italy. I believe Darian Mederos’ work can be an example of Anthropocene due to the human life being drowned out with the use of plastic.
“The Distortion of Adoration” – Darian Mederos (2019)
“Sophia I” (From The Obscura Series) – Darian Mederos (2018)
Analysis of Darian Mederos’ work
“Embracing Doubt” – Darian Mederos (2020)
This painting by Darian Mederos is labelled “Embracing Doubt”. This painting is part of a series developed by Mederos to prove that the human emotion cannot be concealed. I feel like this series can also be seen as representation for Anthropocene as it displays the human emotion being drowned out through the use of plastic.
The lighting in this image is soft and could either be seen as natural or artificial. There is no harsh shadows or highlights being represented in this painting, however the high points of the face such as the nose and chin are softly illuminated. The brightest sections of the painting are found in the woman’s white clothing as well as parts of the woman’s face that are highlighted, like the lips and the nose. I believe the lighting is being directed from straight in front of the face, as the shadows are not cast at a particular angle.
The use of bubble wrap over the model in the portrait creates a repetition of curved line, these thin lines distort the vision of the image creating a blurry effect. These lines do not create any sort of movement or direction, however they are used as a form of repetition.
The use of repetition can be seen in the form of repetition of shape and line through the use of the bubble wrap which conceals the portrait with the repeated small circles. The repeated circles can be seen as a form of echo also.
This painting consists of purely organic, curved shapes. This can be seen in the repetition of circles and the organic curves of the model’s face. This means that there is a lack of juxtaposition within shape as no straight-edged shapes can be seen.
The image contains a shallow depth of field as the minute circles of the bubble wrap are in focus when compared to the facial features of the model behind the plastic. The area around the model’s face can be seen as empty space due to the off-white colour of the clothing, which lacks detail. The rest of the image is positive space as it it detailed with the small circles or the model’s face.
The bubble wrap in the foreground of the image has been concealed by the bubble wrap, this creates a juxtaposing, bumpy texture which contrasts against the smooth texture of the model’s face. There is a rather strong focus on texture in this painting as bubble wrap has an iconic and recognisable texture.
There is little representation of darker tones in this painting, however dark can still be seen through the hair of the model and around the eyes of the woman’s face. The majority of the tones have lighter hues to them, for example the woman’s clothing and her fair skin. The image tends towards lightness, which creates a contrasting mood compared to the inferred dark message of the painting, that being the human emotion being concealed.
The colours of this image are rather muted with a hint of vibrancy. The muted and more dull colours are seen in the woman’s face with her pale skin and the cream-coloured clothing she is wearing. Alternatively, this is juxtaposed with the vibrant, red lipstick the woman is wearing, which can be used as a focal point as the contrast is rather extreme. If the image were in black and white I believe it would add a further level of seriousness and develop the darker message of concealed human emotion. On the other hand, a monochromatic version of this image would lose the high contrast of the muted and vibrant colours. This focus would be transferred more towards the contrasting light and dark tones of the image.
The image has a rather simple composition, as although the image is artificially set up, there is a calm atmosphere to the image as it is not too busy. The image does not follow then rule of thirds and there is a lack of a distinct focal point. The composition is balanced as the empty spaces are evenly distributed between the positive spaces.
