Lewis Baltz- analysis

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These pictures have been taken by means of American photographer Lewis Baltz in 1972, and are the 1/3 set of prints in an version of three. They shape section of Baltz’s Prototypes sequence that he had begun in 1965, taking snap shots of the post-war industrial landscape. These featured stuccoed walls, parking lots, the aspects of warehouse sheds or disused billboards baked in the regular Californian sunlight. Within these works Baltz remoted normal geometric forms, developing a anxiety between the simplicity of the constructions depicted and the ailment of the subculture from which they emerged.

New Topographics 1

What is New Topographics

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

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

What was the New Topographic a Reaction to?

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

Lewis Baltz (Case Study 1)

Context

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

The New Industrial Parks by Lewis Baltz (577PH) — Atlas of Places

Technical

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

Visual

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

Conceptual

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

Where Can I Take Photos?

Plan

PhotoshootWhereWhenWhy
Industrial and Urban (day)Finance centreSaturday 20th MarchTo create images inspired by Lewis Baltz
Industrial and Urban (night)Alleys and harbourEaster To create images like Gabriel Basilico

Contact Sheet

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

My Outcome

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

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS- Anthropocene Experimenting & Developing

When it comes to editing, I wanted to try a few things. My raw images are quite bland, and I wanted to make my images pop a little more.

I chose on of my favourite ‘Bed’ images to experiment on first.

I started by turning the image fully black and white- this was to make the background monotone for the waste to stick out. Then, using a history brush tool, (brings back the original state which would be colour) I recoloured the waste.

This was the outcome. I think it looked quite cool and at the same time looked normal. The background was already quite monotone but making it fully black and white made it stand out that little more. I liked it alot but i wanted to experiment some more.

To do so, I decided to completely change the colour hue. I eventually chose the hue that resulted in turquoise and purple- it made the setup look more unnatural. I like this because the way we are polluting the ocean is unnatural in itself.

I continued and did this to a few other images that I liked and this was the oucome.

Looking at them altogether made me realise that the colours look a little too similar- I like it a lot but I just wanted to try different hues in the different photographs.

I also like this outcome but it just comes to putting these images together and finding out which sequence and colours look best when presented.

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS- Anthropocene Selection

To begin, I chose 3 images from each shoot- the ones I believe were the most successful and the ones I would like to work with.

I chose these 3 from my bathtub shoot. Image 1 was originally larger but I chose to crop it down as there was too much unnecessary space, therefore taking the focus away from the message. Image 2 is more of a low view in the tub- the taps aren’t on show and all you can see is the drain. I liked this image due to the simplicity and it may make viewers look and think about what it is- however I did use flash, creating this lit texture in the tub which I personally dont think looks good. Image 3 is my favourite out of the three images. The taps create good contrast and I like the diagonal angle as well as the curve in the tub, creating a modern style and interesting composition.

These 3 photographs are all quite similar however I like the angle of image 1 and 3. Like in my bathtub photos, I like how they are taken at an angle. In image 2, the angle is straightforward, there are a few things that look ‘in the way’ such as the plant and wardrobe and it looks uneven. When taken at an angle, you cant tell.

My plate images are my favorite ones, I love the lighting and how the plastic reflects it. Image 1 was taken before I added cutlery. I have a glass dining table so when I tried to take images of the plate on the table it looked tacky, so I used my floor- although image one visually meets the aesthetic, viewers may not be able to know what they are looking at- so out of these images I like 3 the most. The cutlery is clear and on the plate as well as the waste. In image 2 the light is a tab bright and the fork is not fully in view.

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS- Anthropocene Shoot 1 & 2

For the photographs above, I filled my bathtub with a few inches of cold water and dumped some trash that I had collected onto it. This included Plastic bags, wrappers, cans and bottles. I realised that there wasn’t a load and taking pictures of the whole tub didn’t quite reach the ‘exaggeration’ I was hoping for so I bunched it all together and took close-up photographs to make it look fuller. These contact sheets are to show my most relevant photographs.

For my bed photoshoot, I kept the trash mostly in the same place, only testing different angles and viewpoints so that i would have a variety to choose from. My main idea was to keep these images quite simple, this is because further on I would like to edit them using photoshop and eventually put them together as a final result and I don’t want it to be too crowded.

Using just plastic bottles and cans on my plate, I thought this would be a great addition to my ‘what if it was me?’ idea. Not only are we polluting the ocean, this affects many food chains within it.

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS- Anthropocene Action Plan

For the theme of Anthropocene, the era of which humans have made significant impact on earth, I have chosen to work with the idea of pollution in the ocean. Instead of taking a straightforward response such as photographing waste on beaches, my idea is to put humans in a sea creatures point of view and ask the question: what if it was me? Although Jeremy Carroll portrayed the struggle of a sea creature through portraiture, where she tied up and restricted people in her photographs, I would like to take a more object based/ maybe abstract approach. My main idea is to collect trash for a short while and place it around my home in places where I personally feel most comfortable. I take pride in keeping my home clean and tidy so this will specifically apply to me and others like me. My places of comfort will be representing the ocean- home to all the sea creatures. The plastic waste that I place around will represent the invasion and discomfort we place upon those creatures. When it come to how these photographs will turn out, I would like to use photoshop to edit them in interesting ways, perhaps changing the hue for a ‘cool’ result- but not too much to distract the viewer from my message.

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS- Anthropocene Case Studies

Jeremy Carroll

“What would you do if you found yourself trapped in a dangerous material that you just couldn’t wriggle out of? It’d be a pretty desperate situation, but it’s one faced by our marine cousins on a daily basis: entanglement in plastic – millions of tonnes of which end up in the ocean each year – affects hundreds of species. To try and make this tragic result of our litter more relatable, an artist has come up with a new exhibit that brings the situation a bit closer to home.” Jeremy Carroll’s exhibit, appropriately entitled ‘Entanglement’, depicts humans caught up in waste typically found in seas and along beaches. Photos include a person with fishing nets around his neck and shoulders, and another with their head and arm caught in a plastic basket. The striking photos act as a stark reminder of the issues sea life faces as a result of our inadequate approach to marine plastic prevention.’ While many of us feel saddened by the harm inflicted on marine wildlife, many people still take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to justifying the use of disposable, single-use plastic products.

These photographs were taken in a studio using studio lighting, you can tell due to the bright white background. Photograph 1 is of a male wearing a snorkelling kit tangled in what looks to be the type of rope found on beaches which were previously used to hold buoys down as well as small boats. The bright green rope is tied tightly around his neck and his head is tilted up, as if gasping for air. There is also some form of red and yellow plastic that is tied around his breathing tube which could also be a reason of why it seems that he cannot breath and here is a longer rope tied around his upper body, which is visibly tight due to his skin and fat puffing out. In the photograph his skin looks like its glowing and smooth although he is a male (males stereotypically are portrayed as tough)- this could be to show the delicacy of a fish for example as well as that stereotype not applying to sea creatures. If it were tied around a fish they would most likely be in excruciating pain due to their fins and gills.

Brett Stanley

‘Brett is an underwater portrait photographer who has been doing this for over ten years. He loves being under the water and adding photography to that is just a bonus. His natural calm nature in the water really shows through and helps his clients to feel comfortable, which is the first aim of any underwater shoot. Whilst based in Los Angeles, USA, the Australian born photographer travels frequently and relishes the chance to work with new people and new locations all over the world. Always looking to innovate, Brett has built custom equipment and perfected his techniques to make every photoshoot the best it can be.’

I will be focusing on one specific shoot with documentary filmmaker Christine Ren who has a unique set of experiences and skills: she has degrees in marine affairs/policy and biology, worked as a ballet dancer and is an experienced diver. When she decided to combine these personal attributes to make art advancing ocean conservation efforts, she ended up with some intriguing results.

‘Blind Spots’

This particular photograph by Brett Stanley is of a woman underwater, blindfolded in a ballerina costume. She is holding a red shopping cart full of plastics of which are floating out of the cart and all around her. This represents how even when we as human beings do a normal daily/weekly function such as shopping, the plastics in our cart slowly make their way into the ocean. Another point I thought about as to why the woman is wearing a ballerina costume could only be because she is a ballerina in real life, however, in my mind ballet is a very delicate and beautiful sport, showing that even the finest people in the world are causing destruction to the ocean blindly. The background is a dark sea-blue representing deep ocean and in the background you can faintly see plastic bags, as well as the midground, where the woman is, with a mixture of different plastic items such as bottles, containers and wrappers. It looks as if the woman is leaving this trail of plastic behind her. In the foreground there is one particular thing that stands out which is the white plastic bag with a yellow smiley face that reads ‘Thank you Have a nice day!’. I believe that this was placed there on purpose to be ironic and slightly humorous. The bag originally says that as a thank you note to the person that attended the store, but now was staged to make is seem as the ocean has pushed this bag into place, ironically thanking the human race for polluting it with their trash. The photograph was actually taken in a pool by ocean lover and photographer Brett Stanly, and the woman in this photo is Christine Ren who has degrees in marine affairs/policy and biology, worked as a ballet dancer and is an experienced diver. She contacted Brett in the hopes of making art advancing ocean conservation efforts and together they made this photograph. The one I am writing about now is called ‘Blind Spots’ and the reasoning is to show the majority of the populations apathy towards plastic, and how we are blindly polluting the ocean. As mentioned, the photograph was taken in a pool and therefore was staged- as you can see there was a lot of work put into this image which shows just how much they wanted to get this message out perfectly.

The photographer stated that he used Aquatica Housing and Sea & Sea lights, so he used proper underwater lights designed for this purpose, In the photo, the lighting that stands out is shining down onto the woman in a streaky form, as if the sun was putting her in the spotlight. It is quite delicate lighting, representing the delicacy of nature.

Comparison

Jeremy’s work is all about ‘what if it was you being strangled by plastic waste?’. He is putting humans in the position of the oceans population- graphically showing us what we are doing to the ocean in a way that people could understand. On the other hand, Brett is showing us what we are doing in a passive-aggressive viewpoint- instead of being graphic, he is saying ‘this is what you are doing anytime you go shopping’. However both of these photographs are clearly about ocean pollution- in Jeremy’s photograph the man is wrapped in rope that we probable have all seen laying around on a beach as well as wearing a snorkelling mask, and Brett’s photograph is a woman blindly polluting the ocean with a shopping cart full of plastic waste UNDERWATER.

Jeremy focuses more on the creatures of the ocean whereas Brett focuses on the ocean as a whole- nevertheless they are both about ocean pollution.

CONTROLLED CONDITIONS- Anthropocene Intro

What is Anthropocene? The word Anthropocene is derived from the Greek words anthropo, for “man,” and cene for “new,” coined and made popular by biologist Eugene Stormer and chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000. The formal definition to this word 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.’ so, it is the era of which humanity impacts the earth substantially – an era we are in now. Many say that this began during the industrial revolution, the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840 when human activity had a great impact on carbon and methane in Earth’s atmosphere. Others think that the beginning of the Anthropocene should be 1945. This is when humans tested the first atomic bomb, and then dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The resulting radioactive particles were detected in soil samples globally.

On the Anthropocene, and debts of gratitude and solidarity: reflections on  a lecture | English
Anthropocene sits on top of Holocene, but is not an official unit of geologic time.

ANTHROPOCENE

PHOTOGRAPHY CONTROLLED CONDITIONS 
MON 24TH – THURS 27TH MAY 2021 

Groups 12B + 12E Periods 1-5 Mon 24th May and Tues 25th May

Groups 12C + 12D Periods 1-5 Wed 26th and Thurs 27th May

  1. Select, edit and arrange final images
  2. Complete all relevant and supporting blog posts
  3. Add final images to print folder
  4. Frame up / mount all available prints
  5. Review blog and make improvements

“ANTHROPOCENE”

We have included a mini-unit to help you explore further opportunities within photography. We will spend time looking closely at this and discussing ideas with you…

Remember…your stimulus for the Controlled Conditions is…

ANTHROPOCENE

  • What is Anthropocene?
  • How and why should we tackle this topic through photography?
  • Use your skills and knowledge to date to tackle and approach this theme. ie: abstract, portraiture, identity, landscape, studio based photography etc. – YOU DECIDE!

DISCUSS

Now watch this and discuss the way in which photographers have responded to this theme…

Blog Posts to make :

  1. Define “Anthropocene” and explain what it is.

2. Add a mindmap and moodboard of images, ideas and trigger points on your chosen genre ie: portraiture, studio (object or portraiture), abstract, landscape etc.

3. Choose two photographers that you feel explore Anthropocene through your chosen genre of photography that interest you and create a CASE STUDY on both and then compare them using a writing structure to help you. https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo22al/2020/08/21/the-formal-elements/

(These photographers will directly influence your final outcomes re : MOCK EXAM)

4. Organise and carry out your photo-shoots !!! You MUST complete a minimum of 2 PHOTO-SHOOTS (100-200 photos) in readiness for the mock exam itself. Responding to the theme of Anthropocene in your chosen genre.

5. Edit, select and develop your photographs and post contact sheets.

6. Produce a comparative analysis between one of your photographs and an image of one of your chosen photographers – discuss similarities and differences.

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7. Develop your ideas through your images by editing, making decisions, reviewing and refining – selecting your collection of images or image as your final response to Anthropocene.

8. Ensure your write an evaluation that comments on your original intentions (what you set out to do) and how your realised those intentions. Is your outcome successful? Comment on strengths and successes.

LANDSCAPE – urban / industrial

You could be clever and think about creating landscapes that relates to your commentary, see Vilde Rolfsen’s work on Plastic Bag Landscapes.

And Yao Lau, who creates contaminated landscapes using landfill sites and mounds of derelict rubble.

Some suggestions for you to look at…

  1. Edward Burtynsky…nature transformed through industry
  2. George Marazakis…humanity’s effect on Earth
  3. Sebastiao Salgado…documentary photographer and photojournalist, respect for nature while also sensitive to the socio-economic conditions that impact human being
  4. J. Henry Fair…uses pictures to tell stories about people and things that affect people.
  5. David Maisel…radically human-altered environments.
  6. Camilo Jose Vergara…documentation of American slums and decaying urban environments.
  7. Andrew Moore…the effect of time on the natural and built landscapes.
  8.  Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre….modern ruins.
  9. Yao Lu… contaminated landscapes – created  from landfills and mounds of derelict rubble.
  10. David T. Hanson… waste land.
  11. Troy Paiva…”Urban Explorer” investigating the ruins of “Lost America”.

Obviously, you can also use past photographers we have looked at throughout the landscape unit, especially industrial and urban landscape photographers. (see below)

  • Alexander Apostol
  • Bernd & Hilla Becher
  • Donovan Wylie
  • Edward Burntsky
  • Frank Breuer
  • Gerry Johansson
  • Joel Sternfeld
  • Josef Schultz
  • Lewis Baltz
  • Charles Sheeler

OBJECT – studio lighting

You can also use your skills to produce an object based project. Looking at how objects might reflect the theme of Anthropocene. ie: single use plastics, disposable objects, waste, rubbish etc.

Barry Rosenthal – collection of discarded plastic objects.

Jerremy Carroll – choked by plastics in the ocean.

Naomi White – beauty in plastic bags.

Sophie Thomas – found, discarded plastics/rubbish.

Steven Gallagher – plastic bag topology photography

Mandy Baker – marine plastic debris

PORTRAITURE

You might decide to explore Anthropocene through the genre of portraiture photography. How you do this is up to you? Below are some images that may challenge the viewer! Draw them into thinking about Anthropocene and how or what has been altered by human impact on Earth.

Craig McDean – coloured plastic/fashion portraits/masks

Nick Fancher – distorted vision/image

Alexandra Bellissamo – relationship between nature and mankind.

Vika Pobeda – fashion photographer using plastics as props

Darian Mederos – distorted view

ABSTRACT

You may focus on and wish to respond through the genre of abstract photography. Look back to the photographers from your first unit or discover new ones. Below are just some images to help you to engage in the topic.

The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans.

The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time.

THINK

What and where are you going to photograph and how you are going to take your images!!

Is it out and about, indoors, setting up your own lighting, collecting objects, photographing people, looking for abstract imagery etc.

Contacting Ronez quarry and gaining access to take photographs? Explore the industrial areas around La Collette – power station, recycling centre? The impact of farming on the land – plastic sheeting, poly tunnels etc, etc. Collecting washed up plastics from the beach. Asking family and friends to photograph them etc.

WHAT do you want to visually comment on?

•Plastics •Open cast mining •Urbanisation (concrete jungle) •Deforestation •Mass Wastage •Non Recycling •Disposable Society (‘throw away’) •Land Erosion •Climate change •Over population •Poverty (social divides) Rich/Poor •Climate change •Ozone layer •Natural Resources (fossil fuels – oil/coal etc) •Industrialisation – POLLUTION air, ocean, light etc.

The period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

The IMPACT humans have had on the PLANET.

Where in Jersey is it anthropogenic?

  • Open Cast Mining – Quarries: Ronez, St Peters Valley, Sand Quarry St. Ouens
  • Power Stations – La Collette, Bellozane Sewage Treatment
  • Urbanisation – St Helier: Grands Vaux, Le Marais Flats, Le Squez etc.
  • Mass Wastage – La Collette recycling centre
  • Disposable Society – La Collette recycling centre – refrigerator mountains etc
  • Land Erosion – farming industry: poly tunnels, packing sheds, plastic covered fields etc. Old Glass Houses
  • Over Population – poverty/social divides: Social Housing sites. Car Parks, traffic etc.
  • Industrialisation – La Collette area, Bellozane, industrial estates. Desalination Plant, German Fortification (WW2)

Follow the 10 Step Process and create multiple blog posts for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :

  1. Mood-board, definition and introduction (AO1)
  2. Mind-map of ideas (AO1)
  3. Artist References / Case Studies (must include image analysis) (AO1)
  4. Photo-shoot Action Plan (AO3)
  5. Multiple Photoshoots + contact sheets (AO3)
  6. Image Selection, sub selection, review and refine ideas (AO2)
  7. Image Editing/ manipulation / experimentation (AO2)
  8. Presentation of final outcomes (AO4)
  9. Compare and contrast your work to your artist reference(AO1)
  10. Evaluation and Critique (AO1+AO4)