Idris Khan is a British artist based in London who takes different social and political constructed and creates densely layered images from them. I like the way he does this because it resembles a ghostly image or a piece of art that has many construction lines.
My First Interpretation
For my first interpretation, I duplicated the tower and copied it. The outcome of the first interpretation was good however it was quite simple and did not resemble Idris Khan as much as I wanted to.
Second Interpretation
The second interpretation was much more successful than the first one, however it is still in colour and some parts are more detailed. It looks similar to Khan’s work but I need to make it black and white and try to make it resemble the ghostly feel of Khans.
Final Interpretation
The final interpretation is above and I believe is successful in resembling Khan’s work. The image is black and white and has a good tonal contrast between the lighter layers and darker layers. It resembles the ‘ghostly’ feel of Khans work and I am interested in the way his work is done. I would like to do it again in the future.
Photoshop Experimentation
I attempted to experiment with Photoshop and photo montage in relation to my images inspired by Andy Hughes.
I made the photo montages above on Photoshop. I took the original image below and took my original image. I did the same process for both images. Firstly, I took the image of plastic pollution and dragged it onto my image of the plastic bottle. I then put the plastic image behind other image and removed the section that is replaced with the plastic using the quick selection tool. I then arranged the pollution image so that the background was clearly visible and all in frame.
Gallery
Final Outcome
Evaluation
What did I set out to do? – I set out to take photos in black and white of human impact on landscapes. I wanted the images to be quite simple and have a dramatic tonal contrast.
How did the outcome turn out? – My outcome turned out well and has the features I aimed to include before taking photos.
Was it successful? – I believe comparing my outcome with an example of Gerry Johansson’s photography, it resembles it but also has some features from other photographers.
My plan for this photo shoot was to combine the work of Lilli Waters by going to a natural open landscape on a cliff near the coast, and Jeremy Carroll by using a chain to represent how animals have been trapped by the pollution in the ocean
Contact Sheet
Editing Process
I edited these images similarly to my first photoshoot, with decreased highlights and increased shadows to create a more moody image. With these images I also increased the contrast to match the a similar overall look, lighting and colour scheme to Lilli Waters images.
‘Lilli Waters (born 1983, Armidale, NSW) is a fine arts photographer whose work explores the human condition through dramatic images of the female form in haunting, windswept landscapes. A Lilli Waters image has a painterly quality, evoking the Pre-Raphaelites with macabre, foreboding elements, a jewel-like palette and a sensitive use of light. Waters makes use of translucent fabrics and long hair to obscure the identities of her subjects, suggesting that the image might be just as much a mirror for the viewer, as it is a portrait.’ – curatorialandco.com
I thought Lilli Waters work could be interpreted as linking to Anthropocene because the subject of the image is seen to be covered in a plastic like material, which links to Jeremy Carrols images of being trapped in fish netting. This combined with the location of the images being in natural landscapes further displays the anthropocentric nature of the images, humans effect (the subject) on nature (the background).
My first photoshoot was inspired in the style of Jeremy Carroll and tried to create the same effect that he did on the viewer.
Jeremy CarrollMy Image
Jeremy’s image was taken with studio lighting, where my image was taken outside under natural lighting on an overcast day. The aperture of his image appears to be moderately high because everything in the shot is crisp and in focus. The aperture of my image was around f.4 because I wanted the front of the face to be in focus but the sand and surrounding bottles to be blurry. Jeremy most likely used a fast shutter speed because of the bright studio lights, I also used a fast shutter speed in my image because of he bright natural light and to compensate for the slight movements of the camera while I took the image. Both images have low ISO as they are crisp and not grainy.
Jeremys image has bright saturated colours with minimal shadows. My image has a darker more moody colour palette with lots of shadows to create a bigger impact on the viewer.
Both images show a person being trapped by netting and other marine pollution. Both symbolise how fish and other animals are affected negatively by the way humans pollute the oceans.
The plan for this photo shoot was to create a feeling of being trapped and effected by marine pollution. This would be done by using the beach as the photoshoot location and using plastics that can often be found floating in the sea of on the beach as litter.
contact Sheet
Editing Process
Here you can see that when editing this set of images, I made them more moody to create more of an impact on the viewer. I did this by decreasing the highlights and increasing the shadows. I also changed the temperature of the image to appear cooler with more blues and less orange and reds, along with this I decreased the saturation of the image. This gives the image less colour, again creatine a more impactful image.
The meaning of anthropocene is a geological point of view in which humans have started to impact the earth’s ecosystems or even climate change that has occurred within the past years. Therefore, this word fits perfectly into photography as photographers take pictures which can be documented to show the change’s in the ecosystem on the earth in order to show the rest of the world the downfall in the ecosystems and climates changes on our planet.
Ideas (mood-board/ images)
Anthropocene
Landscapes
places that have construction undergoing or getting pictures of cranes on site.
forests that appears to be damaged which could be done by being abstract.
Places in which there are industrial buildings that cause damage to the environment through pollution.
Portraits
Someone wearing a bin as a outfit or plastics in general.
Using plastics as accessories on the model.
After a simple portrait being taken of a model, I could edit some landscapes onto them.
Altered Landscapes
Picture of king street with the pavements being sand once edited.
Picture of some flats then editing them onto a sand dune.
Taking a picture of a forest changing the bright colours into colours that represent negative emotion.
Case Study
The two photographers that I feel explore anthropocene through the genre of photography that I will be choosing is Camilo Jose Vergara and Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre. Down below will be images of the photographers mentioned.
Camilo Jose Vergara Case Study
Camilo Jose Vergara was born in 1944 Santiago, Chile who was a New York based writer, photographer and documentarian.Vergara has been compared to Jacob Rills for his photographic documentation of American slums and decaying urban environments. Vergara applied the technique of rephotographing in a series of American cities, taking pictures of the same neighbourhoods from the exact same point at regular intervals over many years in order to show changes of the neighbourhoods over time. He was a sociologist with a speciality of urbanism, Vergara used this to his advantage to show the public eye the social decay happening across the world.
As you can see from the images above that Vergara has taken, there are a series of neighbourhoods that have decayed over time. This goes to show that he was a great sociologist in urbanism as you can see from the landscapes that the images of the buildings he had taken, decayed over time in the fact that they have been broken down or even abandoned. The pictures display urbanism as in the images there are buildings displayed that either got done up and look more modern, or the building has either been taken down or abandoned. These images that Vergara has taken above fit in perfectly with the topic of ANTHROPOCENE as the images displayed show how “humans have started to impact the worlds ecosystem” due to there being wasted land or space that is taking over the environment for no reason as the buildings appear to have no use to them. Moreover, this shows how humans are damaging the environment as these buildings could very well have better use to them as possible places to make it green again in order to have habitats for animals so that they can be safe and have some better environmental living than some abandoned houses and streets.
Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Case Study
Marchand (b.1981) and Meffre (b.1987) live and work in Paris. Initially pursuing photography individually, they met online in 2002 and started working together with the beginning of their Detroit project in 2005. Steidl published The Ruins of Detroit in 2010. A second printing is planned for later this year. They are currently completing their Gunkanjima book, also to be published by Steidl, and they continue to work on a project documenting American theater’s that have either fallen into decay or been transformed entirely. Their work has been exhibited extensively throughout Europe and has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, The British Journal of Photography, Time Magazine, amongst others.
As you can see from the images displayed above from Yves and Romain took images of abandoned places which are being overgrown by the nature surrounding it. As you can see they where great in taking landscape images of abandoned places as everything in the picture is visible with use of what appears to be of natural daylight, in order to show every detail of nature taking over in these landscape images. Therefore, these images fit in perfectly with the theme of Anthropocene as you can see that humans have harmed the environment by having these wasteful abandoned buildings, occupying areas of nature like forests or fields, being overgrown by the nature around it due to these buildings being left unattended in the middle of nature having moss or vines overgrown. Therefore, this could be an impactful message to the world as people can see the damage caused to the world with wasteful buildings occupying these forests or fields as the nature growing back in these buildings is trying to take back what use to be there before the buildings where built.
Comparison
Both photographers mentioned above show the term of anthropocene as the images they have taken come across this subject showing similarities. For example, the picture that they took appear to be portrait/ landscape due to the images being of abandoned buildings that are slowly decaying throughout the years. Moreover, you can see the similarities in which the photographers had taken their pictures with the use of natural daylight and the setting’s of ISO 50, f16 and the shutter speed set at 1/500.
In terms of context behind the images they both display similarities of abandoned buildings that have no use to them as they all appear to be damaged leaving rubble behind and even just occupying areas in which could be turned to beautiful parks with trees in them or even just have the buildings knocked down in general not disturbing the environment. Moreover, both photographers present anthropocene because the images display the disturbance of the environment through humans due to the images showing abandoned buildings that are man made. This could have questions being raised to society on wether we are a lazy society or wether we don’t care about our environment in general as we just leave these buildings that are abandoned to slowly decease throughout its existence as these buildings slowly decay whilst people who walk past don’t having any feelings towards these buildings just wasting space when they could just be demolished and have use for these spaces for either society or just leave the areas alone for nature to take over and grow over these areas not causing any more harm to the environment as it already is.
Photo Shoot
Edited Images
The editing done to these images was that for the black and white ones I converted the images to black and white on photoshop and then changed around either how dark or bright a certain colour of that image was to make shadows pop out more and to create a more contrast between light and dark.
As for the coloured images, this was achieved by changing the hue and saturation on these images to make the colour I selected either really pop out or have some other colours be dimmed as they don’t have to be in the image, as shown in my images I went for the theme of red on all of my coloured images.
Compare & Contrast
My image
Camilo Jose Vergara
The photographers work that I will be comparing and contrasting is Camilo Jose Vergara.
Differences – The differences between my photograph and Camilo’s are that mine is in black and white and his is shown natural as in he didn’t edit his image for colour. Another difference is that his images shows off more contrast between bright and dark with the shadowing in his image, whereas mine hasn’t got any shadowing as the building was flat not having any 3 dimensional structure to it to make it have exaggerated shadows. Finally, a key difference is that he appears to have people in his images where as in my image I don’t have people in it. Therefore, this could go to show that the building in my image is fully abandoned and left out to rot going to show how people in society don’t care about the waste of space being preserved by abandoned buildings in the world. Whereas, in Camilo’s image he has people roaming which goes to show the building in his image is in use, not wasting space however, there appears to be graffiti on the buildings and they seem to be dirty which goes to show how the people in society are very lazy and don’t have a car for the environment as they seem to paint over it and not keep the general streets clean.
Similarities – The similarities between my photograph and Camilo’s are that we both appeared to use natural lighting as our sources of light to capture the images we taken. Also, we have both appeared to take on a dead pan pictures of the buildings that we decided to take images of across the street form the buildings. The final similarity between the images are that both buildings appear to be dirty or damaged due to the lack of care that has been given to them, due to society in the 21st century appearing to be lazy or unconcerned for the community in general as this can lead to people loosing house’s as they just deteriorate leading to it being un-manageable for people to be living in these conditions, which can lead to people overpopulating to somewhere cheaper which what appears to be the cause of Camilo’s picture where as for mine the people have already moved out and now the building has been left wasting space.
Final Image’s
The way in which i would present my images would be by having my picture up on a wall for people to be able to walk around and feel them. Moreover, I could consider on putting materials from the images like leaves or rubble so that people who are looking at the pictures could potentially touch them to get an idea of what the image feels like as well.
Evaluation
Therefore having read the history of Eugene in the reasoning as to why he done photography, this gave me the objective of showing the people who look at my images how buildings can be left derelict for no one to care of which could have better use to them. Moreover, I believe that the economy has a big impact on buildings being derelict due to the fact that as the economy goes up in any place the prices go up and cost of living especially in Jersey where it is very expensive in terms of housing, which could cause people to move away from these homes making them derelict leading to the abandoned buildings being forgotten making them relics of the past.
Overall, I believe that I was successful in presenting my objective with my images through to the audience/ people who would see my images in an art gallery, this is because I have images of abandoned buildings that have been around for a long time including the old Jersey Brewery which could be considered as a relic of the past as it is an old building that was of great use to Jersey. However, if I was to do this project again I would change the way in which I would display my images by getting images of old buildings that are now abandoned, then I would split the images in half and put them together in order to show the drastic changes in the buildings over time.
David T. Hanson is a photographer was born and raised in Montana. His photography has a strong view on Anthropocene as he chosen to photograph wasted land which suggest that he has decided to photograph manmade environments.
Jerremy Carroll is a photographer who based her work around man made items and the way they can effect living things. I know this due to her calling a series of her photographs ‘marine pollution’ this relates to Anthropocene as he is concerned about the pollution going into the margins.
Barry Rosenthal is a award winning photographer who collected discarded items of plastic and captured photographs of them to reflect on anthropecene. His series of these photographs were called “Found in Nature”, in which he started in 2007. His series had a worldwide following and has created several opportunities for Barry Rosenthal to talk about his work to a larger audience. Additionally he is also stated that ‘In today’s world, consumer goods are increasing in volume. At the same time their useful lives are shorter and shorter. Consuming without a thought of what is left behind is what we are taught.’ which highly highlights that he cares about what impacts humans have on the world.
Barry Rosenthal – found in nature
Image analysis:
Jerremy Carroll – choked by plastics in the ocean.
This image in which Jerremy Carroll has taken is very unique as I haven’t seen a photographer take photos in relation to the Anthropocene in this way as she has used items such as fishing nets to create a stigma that the woman in the photograph is trapped the same as if she was a fish in the sea relating to the Anthropocene and the impacts us as humans has on it. I personally feel that the use of the harsh bright white light adds specific details because it makes you more aware of what is occurring. I feel as if Jerremy Carroll has a strong opinion on the topic of Anthropocene as she may not have decided to take these sort of images if she didn’t care about the world. Additionally the name of the series of photographs in which she has taken is called ‘choked by plastics in the ocean’ which highly suggests that she is concerned for the well being of the fish that live in the sea. The tones in this photograph are very clear due to the bright lights being used. In addition the way in which Jerremy Carroll has structured her photograph makes the photo have more details and portrays the mood of power which the Anthropocene has over the woman used in the photo as the way in which she has structure the fishing nets and stings it almost as if she is trapped and has no power over it.
Barry Rosenthal – found in nature
Barry Rosenthal in this image uses different tones of blue which brings out the textures in the different objects. Having the background black, and the objects set in a certain way gives the photo more dynamic and draws the eye into the photo. The way Rosenthal has set out the objects used in the photo creates levels as this photo has been taken from a bird eye view. This photo which has been taken for Anthropocene relates to world wide problem of global warming and littering. As some of these objects relate to the beach like the flip flop for example, Rosenthal might be trying to make a point of the rubbish which has been left by man kind creating problems for the sea life which can become very harmful for the ecosystems.
Comparison:
Overall the two images are very similar but in different ways. AS you can see both photographers have Bothe use a different variations a blue objects throughout their photos which I feel could both relate to rubbish found in and around the ocean which has an impact on the world globally (The Anthropocene). Secondly both of the photos have a plain and dull background which makes their main focus off their photographs stand out more leaving the background being their non-focus. Additionally I also feel that these two photographs are very different to each other as Barry Rosenthal photograph is more related to just the objects and how all plastics are bad for the environment having a negative impact on the world. However, on the other hand Jerremy Carroll has based her work on how it can effect us as humans as she has used a model to represent what it does to animals in the sea as she has made the woman in the picture look trapped in the netting which surrounds her. Furthermore both of these photos relate to how tragic plastics can be for the environment.
According to National Geographic, The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.
Anthropocene focuses on the idea of mans impact on the planet, specifically post industrial evolution. In light of the global climate crisis, this topic is becoming increasingly popular to explore by photographers who aim to bring to crisis to attention. One such organisation is the ‘Union for Concerned Photographers’ or UCP who dedicate time to creating images based on the idea of Anthropocene to highlight key issues of climate change to potentially make a difference. The issues of Anthropocene are various, they range from the melting of the polar ice caps to the over abundance of plastic. These issues effect everyone which makes it even more important.
Mind Map of Ideas
I decided to base my project on fast fashion because I feel that as a topic it is much more relevant to me as I myself am guilty of using fast fashion to get cheap clothes and therefore am part of the problem. I hope that this project will help me better understand my contribution to climate change and potentially make my carbon footprint better.
I was inspired by artist and photographer Benjamin-Von-Wong, whose stunning and creative photographs illustrate the immorality of the fast fashion industry.
Work by Benjamin Von-Wong
KEYWORDS
SWEATSHOP, WAREHOUSE, STORMY,DIRTY, COLD, STORMY
FORM
The photo is a scene in a bare and grimy warehouse. From the ceiling leading to the floor is a tornado fashioned out of clothes presumably from the fast fashion industry. A woman dressed in red stands at its base. As a tornado is a type of natural disaster its reflects how the fashion industry does immense damage. This is impactful on the environment through climate change, the labourers who are payed the bare minimum and are forced to working terrible and unhealthy conditions, and the consumers who wear cheap materials that can do damage to the skin. The light seems to be natural, coming from seemingly a crack in the ceiling suggesting that the building is abandoned and creating a dystopian narrative. It leads directly to the woman indicating that she is important as well as the leading lines from the end of the ‘tornado’ leading to her. The room used is very spacious with not much in the room except the tornado and model leading to feelings of isolation and loneliness. There is very little colour except from the red of the model clothes again showing her importance to the photo.
CONTENT
The photo is reminiscent of the Dhaka garment factory collapse in 2013 that killed 1,134 people and injured many more. The vast majority of the injured and the fatalities were low payed clothes makers for companies such as Gucci, Moncler and Versace, going against the misconceptions that fast fashion is only an issue connected with budget fashion chains such as Shien or Misguided, making fast fashions impact on the environment a problem most people in the western world contribute to. The red clothing of the model connotes the dystopian novel the handmaids tail, perhaps reflecting how the lives of the workers in these factories are intensely controlled by consumerist culture in a way that seems dystopian.
PROCESS
The most challenging part of this photo seems to be prop placement of the clothes tornado. It was made from recycled clothing from the warehouse which had gone bankrupt, giving the clothes a new lease of life. It was shot on a 16-35mm f4 lens
I was also inspired by the work of fashion designers Vin and Omi who created a line of sustainable fashion from recycled materials and handmade eco fabric made from cow parsley.
Work by Vin and Omi
KEY WORDS
SUSTAINABLE, ECLECTIC, MAXIMALIST, VIBRANT
FORM
The photo is of one of the models walking for Vin and Omi’s collection at London fashion week. They are wearing a very a very garish ensemble that looks like they have had scrunchies superglued to their clothes. The look is very gender fluid which adds to the idea that the effect of fast fashion involves everyone. The lighting is very artificial, as is normal for fashion shows and completely covers the model. The model takes up the majority of the shot leaving little space for background space and subsequently making the model important. The repetition of the ruffles is very expressive and adds a variety of colour to the shot. It is in the eclectic, maximalist style which makes it interesting, if a little overwhelming, to look at.
CONTENT
The poodle symbol on the poodles head links to the shows subtitle ‘poodles and pentagrams’ which they say links to their form of eco religion ” growing out of the need to save the planet.” which links to the idea that they are not a brand but an ideology. The white undershirt beneath the ruffles could represent the purity of their intentions regarding their brand as well as the hope that they can aid in ending the fast fashion industry and in turn make the world a better place.
PROCESS
The process for creating this outfit comes from the eco material flaxley. To make this material, cow parsley and flax are women together. The models hair also links to this as it looks like poodle fur. There is a possibility that it actually is poodle fur as the pair also have an initiative called the no kill coat where they collect fur from pets and spin it into wool to use in their clothes.
Comparing my inspirations
The most obvious difference between my two case studies is that one is a photographer whilst the other is a pair of designers and therefore created very different outcomes. Von-Wong’s work is very gloomy and depressing and focuses on the effects on the people who make the clothes while Vin and Omi work to demonstrate how to fix the solution whilst also making it look beauty. Von-Wong uses his work to push a narrative but Vin and Omi offer a solution and use their work as a display of optimism that we can solve the problem of fast fashion.
Sketching ideas
My main idea is based on Barbie dress birthday cakes that I had when I was little. The concept is that my model will be wearing a corset style top and her legs will be covered by a pile of fast fashion garments, fashioned to look like a skirt. It is a portrait project but I may take some of the photos in landscape.
Shoot Plan
Who
Zuzanna
What
Wearing skirt from old clothes
When
14/05/21
Where
Home- in front of kitchen wall
Notes
collect old clothes and move furniture to create DIY studio
CONTACT SHEET
From this shoot I selected my favourite photos and highlighted them in green. A lot of the photos have background furniture such as plug sockets and artwork peaking through but I am not worried about this as they can easily be cropped out. Additionally there are quite a few distracting quite scratches in the wall being but it shouldn’t take too long to edit that out either. I had my model wear an Oh Polly dress as the bodice of the dress as it is a common example of fast fashion aimed at girls to wear once on a night out and then throw away.
Here is a selection of my best photos, shown as they were taken
Here are the same photos but with distracting background pieces cropped out and slight imperfections removed with the spot healing tool on photoshop
Using the spot healing tool to slightly smooth out the skin
I used the software Lightroom to further edit my photos. The idea was to use vibrant and unnatural colours to reflect the harsh chemical dyes that employees in clothing and fabric factories have to work with. These dyes are often damaging to the skin and cause the workers to sustain painful injuries as well as develop potentially more harmful medical conditions due to constant exposure. I used tools on Lightroom such as contrast and clarity to create a more synthetic, plasticky look resembling cheap manufactured clothes.
Collection 1
Collection 2
Collection 3
Out of all the collections, number 3 is my favourite. It emulates the pop art movement, specifically Andy Warhol, who, like me, used art to condemn over-consumption, greed and capitalism
New Idea
Another idea I have is reflective of the Dhaka garment factory collapse, in which 1,134 workers died. To do this I want to use the clothes against the model. With poses such as being crushed or strangled by the clothes. Using the same concept as my first shoot I will be using old clothes that would otherwise be thrown away. The photos will be taken in the school studio with a proper white backdrop compared to the kitchen wall I used for my first shoot when there wasn’t a studio available. Hopefully this means there will be less flaws to edit out as there were previously. Instead of full body shots, I plan for these to use the face or neck as a focal point.
SHOOT 2 PLAN
Who
Carmen,
What
Strangled by fast fashion
When
25/05/21 morning
Where
Studio
Notes
Bring clothes able to wrap around
Second Shoot Contact Sheet
From this shoot I selected 4 that I felt worked best in conjunction with my ideas. I ran into a few problems whilst shooting this. The 2 models I had arranged to shoot with were unable to come so I had to find another at extremely short notice. Another problem was with the camera, I found it really difficult to take any of the photos without them coming out extremely blurry. At first this was really annoying however when I took the time to properly look at the photos I really liked the effect the blurring had on them so decided to keep them as they are. I also think that it strengthens the narrative that the people who make the clothes for big companies like ASOS and Shein have their identities blurred.
Similar to my other shoot I experimented with colour to make my photos more interesting but this time made the colours much more subtle and understated as the photo is obvious enough with the material strangling the model. These photos have a much darker more melancholy feel to them much more reflective of Von-Wong’s work than my other photos.
Collection 4
DISPLAYING
On photoshop I moved my photos in their collections onto empty gallery space or on a white background.
Collection 1
As colour is an important aspect of this project, I decided to display this set of photos in the style of the colour spectrum, ordered as such. The photos mimics vibrant fashion campaigns, adding an ironic twist to my shoot.
Collection 2
Collection 3
Collection 4
Like with my other collections I ordered these photos using the colour spectrum and whilst I like how it turned out it seems to look like the Microsoft windows logo which ideally it wouldn’t.
Conclusion
Although the individual photos from Collection 3 were my favourite, as a collective, displayed using the colour spectrum, I think that collection 3 is the most put together and therefore my best. It effectively conveys my message on fast fashion but still manages to look like art you would display at home.
Comparison with case studies
Similarities and differences to Von-Wong
Creating something out of obsolete materials, creating a narrative based on the fast fashion industry from the centre- the place it’s made. Von-Wong’s work is a lot more gloomy and depressing than my final outcomes. He displays realism while mine is more abstract. His is much more prop based in part due to a larger budget and team helping him. His is landscape and focuses more on the scene itself rather than just the model as I did. His background is a derelict building where mine is just a DIY backdrop. His photo works as a scene to tell a story where mine uses repetition.
Similarities and differences to Vin and Omi
Both very fashion based. Use of bright and vibrant colours to show hopefulness. Mine is more pop art inspired and heavily edited whereas, because its taken directly from a catwalk it is pretty bare. Neither is monochrome, we both use a variety of colours to keep the photo interesting. The items of clothing are both similar, made up of mismatched material however, instead of recycled materials they create their own eco material
REFLECTION
Through my research into this project I have learnt a lot about the fast fashion industry and it’s deadly effect on the environment as well as the lives of the people who produce the clothing. The project has shown me how I myself as an avid consumer of fast fashion contribute to the problem and will be trying to buy more sustainable clothes from now one as well as avoiding companies that employ labourers from sweatshops in order to help combat the problems associated with them e.g the mistreatment of low level/ low pay workers and it’s contribution to climate change. If I was to do anything differently I would have done my second shoot well before the deadline so that even if things went wrong I would have more time to fix it and redo it. I would also take more photos to allow more for selection to end with a better photo. I think my photos have ended up looking really good and I’m happy the way they all turned out. I have really enjoyed this project and am confident about the photos I have submitted and feel that they fit very well with the idea of ‘Anthropocene’
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
Gerry Johansson My Interpretation
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.
I have chosen these photographers to emphasise the fact that plastic will soon be in us and this is only at fault of our own.
All these photographers have used the theme of nature or plastic in their images. Some photographers like Naomi White focus on the beauty; others like Mandy Barker and Jeremy Carroll focus on the negatives of plastic and how it is tearing apart our world ; while Alexandra Bellissimo focuses on the relationship between nature and humans, where nothing is more important than the other.
For my images I want to focus on the fact that plastic is a very large problem in our world. However, I also want to show the fact that we can live in harmony with plastic and it can be a huge help in our everyday lives.
I want to take a closer look at Jeremy Carroll’s work since he sends a very strong and powerful message to the rest of the world by explaining things in a different, maybe more traumatic way.
I also want to look at Alexandra Bellissimo’s work in more detail. This is because I like the way she expresses her opinion through a more positive and calm approach. She focuses mainly on the harmony between nature and humans however still manages to show the viewers how we are harming our planet.
Mandy Barker is a photographer who found plastic in the ocean and then waned to show how much there was by spreading it all out onto a worktop and taking images of it. This helps show the extent of how much we litter, and how so many creatures get killed.
Naomi White focuses on taking images of plastic bags but manages to show them in an aesthetically pleasing way. She manages to make them look elegant. She focuses on different coloured bags, rather than just black and white which helps make her images more appealing.
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