Anthropocene is the scale of human impact on earth, Anthropocene is sometimes used to simply describe the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet. Geologists believe humans have become the single most defining force on the planet.
“the indelible marks left by humankind on the geological face of our planet”
Anthropocene photography focuses on displaying the effects of mankind on the Earth. Typically, Anthropocene photographers will produce images based on pollution and/or waste, the destruction of nature, and large man-made structures. This form of photography is heavily rooted in political views on climate change.
There is a project on Anthropocene, it is a multidisciplinary body of work combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to investigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth.
Lewis Baltz was an American Photographer Born 1945 who had an important role in the New Topographics movement of the 70s.
He was one of the first photographers to challenge the dominant methods of landscape photography at the time. He confronted the ideas of the “zero club” photographers at the time and along with 9 other photographers pioneered the New Topographics movement which turned photography’s perspective towards shooting urban man made features.
Lewis was trained to use photography as an art medium, to intersect with other aesthetic social questions rather than a practical form of diarizing and documentation.
Baltz grew up in one of the most rapidly urbanizing placing in the world – Southern California in the post war period. He watched the changes taking place he described it as a new world being born however not a very pleasant one.
It was a new homogenized American environment that was marching across the land and being exported. He noticed that no one wanted to confront this. This realization was the initiation of his interest in shooting the urban and igniting the New Topographic.
The above image was taken in 1974 and it is called “The New Industrial Parks” and it is part of a monographic series along side “The Tract Houses”, “Maryland”, “Nevada” and “Park City” wherein Baltz addresses cultural and philosophical questions about industrial zones and an artistic documentation of the boom in the urban landscape.
This piece relates well to Lewis’ motive to focusing on the familiar and creating an aesthetic out of the mundane. He does this by shooting a mundane building but making use of a deadpan viewpoint to create a somewhat symmetrical image with many leading lines. These leading lines create a grid like triad which splits the image vertically to comply with the rule of thirds.
The image has a shallow depth of field which gives it a 2D shape which can be an allusion to the lack of humanity which comes from urbanization.
The three slender trees on the right of the image are positioned strategically in line with the rule of thirds grid Lewis created and they add a sort of contrasting tension to the composition as they look like they are being overpowered by the colossal building behind them which consumes the whole frame. This could have been an attempt at pointing to the idea of mans impact on natural landscapes and how they are being overpowered.
The low saturation and more greyscale colours in the images convey the gloomy emotions of the industrialisation. The image also has a very wide tonal range.
I chose this photograph as my final image for this urban/industrial project due to it’s strong similarities to the work of Frank Breuer and use of the formal elements. I believe this image reflects the industrialisation of the modern world, demonstrating the ever growing mass of manufactured products taking over the nature around us. In this image I have captured waste skips using natural sunlight, which due to the sun falling behind them, has created harsh shadows underneath. I decided to photograph this landscape in such a way to connote the theme of a post-industrial capitalist society casting a shadow over the world as it destroys the beauty of nature. Additionally, these dark shadows could be compared and seen as similar to clouds of smog from atmospheric pollution, reflecting how harmful it is that this urbanisation of our world is increasing rapidly. Furthermore, I have captured repetition of thin straight lines that fall across the warehouse in the background of my image. These lines demonstrate uniformity and present the idea that the incline in modern infrastructure has lead to a homogeneous society, where things like architecture and people are robotic and indifferent. Due to the sun’s reflection on this building, the lines are highlighted and resemble structures like prison bars or cages- further connoting the concept that society is stuck in an industrial trap and locked away from the importance of our natural environment. Moreover, to imitate the work of Frank Breuer I have edited my image slightly by increasing the whiteness and exposure to mimic his blank backgrounds. I believe this editing choice has really added to the overall message of my piece, with the negative space representing how barren and empty our beautiful natural landscapes are becoming as a result of growing industrialisation. In addition, the colour palette of this image is limited, with a subtle peachy hue sweeping across it and the only pops of colour coming from the skips themselves. This relates to Breuer’s work and connotes the idea that society is devoid of originality and inventiveness through the lack of colour and repetition of shape.
Image Comparison
Frank Breuer | Containers 2002 – Compared to – My Industrial Image
I decided to compare this image from Frank Breuer’s study of ‘Containers’ in 2002 to my image of stacks of crates at the harbour due to their wide range of similarities within the formal elements. The first obvious similarity is that both Breuer and I have captured saturated primary colours as the main tones in our images. The use of the colours red, blue and yellow allude to the simple nature of how these industrial structures are becoming so normalised in our modern world, with the three most basic colours representing its triviality. The bright vibrancy of both images also draws focus to the urbanised structures, helping us understand the importance of the subject and how its impacting our world. Furthermore, Breuer’s and my image each contain repetition of geometric shapes which create echoed patterns throughout the photograph. In my image, I have captured repeated rectangle shapes which represent the uniformity and capitalist view of society- each rectangle a member of modern civilisation. In Breuer’s image, his repeated rectangles are larger and appear to be more solid stable structures- perhaps connoting the idea that our community is too set in its ways to change the clear neglect of our natural world- as if we are stuck in a looped pattern of destruction. Nevertheless, there is a difference between the types of repetition seen in each image, as Breuer has also captured it in the reflection from the puddle in the foreground of his image. These reflections could symbolise repetition from the past, as if we are being reminded of times where the industrialisation of our planet lead to some of the most devastating times in history such as pollution from the Industrial Revolution leading to a massive impact of global warming and the depletion of natural resources. Additionally, the comparison of these images highlights the difference in how our world has become even more modernised since Breuer’s was taken. For example, in Breuer’s photograph we can see a clear skyline of negative space, reflecting the barren landscapes urbanisation creates, yet in my image there are several industrial structures in the background as well as the foreground. This demonstrates how the industrialisation of our world is still growing rapidly to this day, with the two cranes in my photos background alluding to the increasing likelihood our actions and constant elimination of our natural world- though the time may be far away- will catch up to us eventually.
What – My plan is to photograph landscapes around Jersey that hold industrial structures and equipment such as storage containers, stacks of crates, roofs of buildings, commercial signs and mechanical apparatus.
Where – I aim to capture my landscape images in settings such as the harbour, Rue Des Pres trading estate, La Collette power station, the airport and petrol stations as I believe these locations will show the industrialised aspects of the island- in terms of modern equipment and destruction of nature.
When – I plan on conducting my two photoshoots during the Easter holidays, taking advantage of days where workers may not be in warehouses/on building sites in order to capture more barren deserted images. I aim on photographing my landscapes when the weather is sunny so the subject is highlighted, yet hopefully still allowing me to replicate Breuer’s bright white backgrounds.
How – In order to take full advantage of the natural sunlight I plan on experimenting with changing the F-stop number on my camera to over-expose my images when needed, I also aim to explore who changing the white balance will effect the temperature of my images, to convey different moods.
Why – I wish to mirror the work of Frank Breuer when conducting my photoshoots, showing the growing industrialisation of our world and how an island as beautiful as Jersey can still hold the derelict manufactured landscapes ruining the beauty of the nature around us.
Contact Sheets
Photoshoot 1 – Buildings & Structures
For my first photoshoot I decided to focus on capturing the industrial buildings, signs and equipment around trading estates and warehouses. I wanted to photograph the normality of technical structures and buildings around the island to symbolise the ever increasing urbanisation of the modern world.
Photoshoot 2 – Containers & Storage
For my second photoshoot I decided to focus more on the aspects of commercial business’ equipment such as storage crates, large containers, trucks, vans and skips to reflect Breuer’s series of images and draw attention to the sheer amount of industrial, desolate areas around us. I wanted to capture objects such as skips to symbolise the way the world is treating nature like its garbage, and filling our landscapes with manufactured waste.
I used my own style which implements photography (a photo which it took), and 3D modelling in Blender. Then edited it in Photoshop.
I planned to make an image based on climate change, rising temperature, and deforestation.
I planned to use the freedom tree, as was make of metal, therefore it wouldn’t burn in a fire. I chose fire as it was a heat source, which represented rise temperatures. After, there would be no trees, signifying deforestation.
First I took a landscape into Blender, modified it, and changed the land, and scaled up mountains, where I would Photoshop the Freedom tree onto. I added many trees to the landscape. After I added fire to the trees and, put a camera-raw filter the change small details in Photoshop.
This is the final image after all the Photoshop:
It is called, “Freedom Tree 2072”, due to the rapidly increasing changing climate, I created an exaggeration of the future if rising heats is ignored. It is based off of the Freedom Tree in town; my image, which is in the middle of a forest fire. I wanted to show how the man-made, metal tree was not affected by the fire, compared to the burning natural forest around it, with CO2 gasses giving the sky a hazed look, due to the smoke. Hopefully, it can visualise the serious impact of climate change!
I was awarded a prize for this and it is getting featured in an exhibition in, Liberty Wharf on May 13th-15th.
These were the photos that took to represent the “New Topographic’s” on the Highlands/Hautlieu photoshoot.
I mainly took straight-on photos of the buildings and sheds/warehouses around the area.
I used multiple exposure bracketing on some of them to get a more dramatic image.
I edited these images in Photoshop ACR / Camera-Raw.
My favourite is the bottom left image, as there is a contrast between the bright blue sky and the dirty building. And lots of detail in the texture of the metal.
New topographics was a term created by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar repeated aesthetic, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscapes, a human-environment with the natural terrain hiding in the background.
Image taken by Robert Adams, Mobile Homes, Jefferson County, Colorado, 1973.
What was the new topographics a reaction to?
It was a reaction to the increasingly suburbanised world around them, and a reaction of idealised landscape photography that raised the natural elemental.
Rut Blees Luxemburg – (Case Study 1 / Night)
Rut Blees Luxemburg was born in 1967 is a German-born photographer. Her technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. She experiments with exposure time and low light conditions to get an image that captures the night life in the city.
As you can see, Luxemburg uses warm colours and reflections in water puddles, which creates a unique view of her scene. Also, experiments which long exposure.
Analyses Of One Of Her Images :
All the lighting in this image is artificial, due to it being night time. It seems that there is a tungsten tone in the lights, as there is a orange/red tint on the surface that the light hits. This means that the image has a warm temperature to it, as the colour red is represented by heat. There is also a washed out green colour to the buildings in the back, most likely caused by the reflection of the flood lights on the football pitch. The colours are muted, which gives off a serene atmosphere as it feels abandoned. Although this isn’t the case as motion is captured by using a long shutter speed, this makes it so the car lights show as a long red or white lines; depending on what way the car is driving. Since, it is night the camera will not overexpose the image, as there is no natural sunlight, therefore she would of been using a high ISO, eg 800-3200. There is a high depth of field as all the image is in focus, and also Rut Blees Luxemburg displays a wide range of tonal values, achieved by including and showing a light source and shadows under the overpass. There are many horizontal lines and geometric shapes in the image. The horizontal lines suggest a feeling of rest, because objects parallel to the earth are at rest. In this landscape, horizontal lines also help give a sense of space and attention to the 3D aspect to help visualise that the image was taken from a high place. As she is a tutor at the Royal Collage of Art, this may mean that she has a higher status position over her students, which is why the image is taken higher up.
Where Can I Take Night Urban Landscapes?
Mood Board
Photo-shoot Plan
Night photos – (Contact Sheet)
Final Night Photos (Titled)
Go.
Roundabout turn off.
Crossing.
Roundabout.
Overpass.
Above the tunnel light trails.
My Image Comparison To Luxemburgs Image – Venn diagram
Overall, my I really like my image as it captures motion and, I have created a unique pattern with the buses lights. The colours are vibrant and the bus lights are in focus, which is the main focus point in the image. As I used a high aperture the still lights appeared as stars. For composition I go low to the ground the shoot more upwards, the lights from the bus fill up most of the image. The image is balanced and exposed perfectly even thought it was taken at night time.
Stephen Shore – (Case Study 2 / Day)
Stephen Shore’s work has been widely published and exhibited for the past forty-five years. He was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz.
He has also had one-man shows, his most rememberable at : Los Angeles; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Art Institute of Chicago.
In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art opened a major retrospective spanning Stephen Shore’s entire career. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
When he was in New York; in the early 1970s, he sparked new interest in colour photography, and in the use of the view camera for documentary work.
Analyse Of One Of His Images:
This image shows a busy American street in 1975, Shore’s took this image next to a gas station, which had a wide view over the streets. The image is bottom heavy, which means that the viewers eye is directed toward the bottom half of the image, compared to the empty blue skies.
The contrast of a busy, chaotic street and the clam, tranquil mountains in the background, signify the difference between man and mother nature. Even thought the mountains are small they are still present. The fact that the mountains don’t take up a large portion of the image shows that the industrial and urbanising world is taking over natural land.
The main colours in this image are red, blue, and white. That just happens to be a colours in the American flag. It can suggest that Shore’s is proud to be an American citizen, which he displays through his work of photography.
Overall, I think this image mostly basic, with a normal “street photography” composition, that doesn’t use any objects/techniques to grab the viewers eye. The colours are normal, but mostly blues, which gives off a cool feelings, despite being in a desert in Los Angles. Although, I do like how Shore’s has captured the history of America, by including the old cars, and billboards, (not digital).
Where Can I Take Night Urban Landscapes?
Mood Board
Photo-shoot Plan
I plan to walk around town and take photos of unique buildings and scenes that I find. I would go to Weighbridge first then maybe, round the back of the tunnel to La Collette then finish off at Millennium park and the small streets round there.
Urban Day Photos – (Contact Sheet)
Final Photos
Analyse–(Shores Vs Mine)
This is my final image I chose, as I feel that it linked to Stephen Shore’s style the best.
Similarly, both the image capture a historical value. My image captures the liberation statue, and Shore’s capturing change over time.
Both, include nature in a build up urban environment. In my image its the flowers in the foreground, and Shore’s its the mountains in the background.
Also, both use vibrant colours, except mine has a more vibrant summer feel. However Shore’s uses a smaller colour range, compared to mine which uses bright yellows and ultra blues.
Overall, I like mine more as there is more of a focus point; being the statue, this is achieved by using a unique composition with the flowers to almost “frame” the statue. To draw more attention to the statue I used a lower aperture to blur the flowers.
Anthropocene is a term which is used to define the geological age that we are currently in, spanning from 2.6 million years ago to the present day, described as the time period in which humans have had the most impact and influence on this earth, including the environmental and climate status. Many artists and photographers also use this term, in order to categorize their works into the style that investigates and focuses on how us humans are altering the earth, and how it will affect us in the future. This is usually presented in many different ways, whether it be in the form of landscapes, portraits or abstracts.
From “Plastic Currents” Series – Naomi White (2012)
Naomi White is an activist artist and educator who’s work focuses on ideas at the intersection of political ecology and photography. White’s aim in photography is to bring to light the issues that humanity is creating for the planet and the detrimental health of our ecosystems. She also documents the social issues of racism and the capitalist model of domination between unequal societies. White has achieved awards such as the PDN’s Objects of Desire Award, holds an MFA in Photography and Related Media from SVA in New York, and has participated in exhibitions throughout North America and Europe, as well as having her work published in The Brooklyn Rail, Fayn and Uncertain States. Naomi White is currently the Chair of Photography at the New York Film Academy in Burbank, California.
From “Plastic Currents” Series – Naomi White (2012)
“Shipwrecked V” – Naomi White (2017)
“Arguments with a surface VI” – Naomi White (2018)
Analysis of Naomi White’s work
From “Plastic Currents” Series – Naomi White (2012)
This image by Naomi White is part of her series which she developed in 2012, named “Plastic Currents”. The image depicts a plastic bag, lit with intense, harsh studio lighting in order to provide an almost abstract affect. This series was part of a movement created to raise awareness for sea pollution and the overall harm that humans have created to the planet.
The lighting in this image is extremely harsh, creating very intense highlights and shadows that are projected throughout the curves and folds in the bag. The lightest areas of the image can be seen around the edges of the plastic bag, which creates a jarring juxtaposition between the light and dark tones. The lighting is artificial and has been created using studio lighting, presumably projecting from underneath the object as the raised sections of the image are in darkness.
There is no use of line in this image, although the object that is being photographed, there is no form of repetition. On the other hand there could be said to be an outline to the object, as the bag has been crumpled and the outlining of the bag has various points of light and dark shading.
There is no form of repetition within this image as the focus of the project is to raise awareness of sea pollution, rather than creating abstract patterns.
Although the object is man-made, the shape of the object is still some-what organic and curved as the photograph has been taken of the bag out of it’s natural state in which it was first made.
The depth of field is impossible to state as the background is compiled of simple empty, negative space. The only representation of positive space is the bag itself, though it still has very little detail and only consists of folds and juxtaposing shadows and highlights.
The texture of the image is contrasting, as the rippled folds in the bag create a slightly rougher texture when compared to the flattened sections of the bag which display a smooth texture. However the representation of texture is not the main focus of this image.
There is a range of tones from dark to light within this image. The darkest areas can be seen mainly towards the centre of the bag, however they do begin to form strands of darkness as the viewers eyes cast away from the centre of the bag. The lightest areas can be seen around the edges of the bag, where the plastic material is less concentrated and therefor can let in more light.
There is a rather uniformed colour palette within this image, as it consists of whites, blues and blacks. the colours are saturated in some areas of the image as the man-made plastic has an artificial blue tone to it. The dominating colour in this photograph is blue, but this is juxtaposed with the dazzling white background and the intense black shadows. If the image were in black and white it would become more abstract as the plastic material could not be detected and the viewer may mistake it for another material such as paper. This would mean the aim of the project would not come across quite as prominent as the audience would struggle to work out the type of material being photographed.
There is a very simple composition to this photograph, although it does not purposely follow the rule of thirds. The focal point of the back is found mostly within the middle third of the image, with the remaining thirds being filled with negative and empty space. The image is rather unbalanced as the majority of the positive space is concentrated into the centre of the image.
