The word Anthropocene is largely used in science and was a word given to our current geological epoch, being the stage in the geological time scale where humans are having the greatest effect on the earth in an environmental and climate viewpoint.
This word was adapted by a group of photographers who began to take initiative into creating a visual perspective for how humans effect the earth.
Anthropocene focuses on concepts such as pollution, recourse mining, urbanisation, deforestation, climate change and so on, all as a result of human activity.
Anthropocene is the word used to describe Earth’s most current state, a time where humans are the primary source and most influential factor of global warming, climate change and other changes to land, environment, water, organisms and the atmosphere. For the last 11,500 years, Earth has been in the Holocene Epoch. It began at the end of the last ice age, when the glaciers that had previously covered Earth disappeared, over the years humans have built cities and achieved colossal technological advancements. Scientists are still debating the proof for the Anthropocene and are looking for what’s known as a ‘golden spike’ – a marker in the fossil record which could demarcate the Holocene from the Anthropocene. Some people suggest the Anthropocene began at the start of Britain’s Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, which created the world’s first fossil fuel economy.
Anthropocene In Photography
In recent years, photographers have taken it upon themselves to use their skills in order to capture the devastating Anthropocene state of our world. The portrayal of this destruction has been photographed through many mediums as well as just landscapes, such as portraiture, object images and abstract photography. Photographers such as Steven Gallagher and Naomi White have demonstrated their opinions and ideas on Anthropocene through capturing plastic bags, whereas Alexandra Bellissamo has taken portraiture based images to show the relationship between nature and mankind. Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky, and Jennifer Baichwal are the team which collaborated on ‘The Anthropocene Project’. The project was described as ‘a multimedia exploration of the complex and indelible human signature on the Earth’ capturing ‘the most spectacular evidence of human influence, while taking time to reflect on the deeper meaning of what these profound transformations signify’. More information on ‘The Anthropocene Project’ can be found here.
“New Topographic”, a term coined in 1975 by William Jenkins which referred to a photographic movement undertaken by a group of American photographers whose works had a similar look – mostly uniform, black and white urban landscapes.
Some of the photographers associated with this movement where Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher.
Bernd and Hiller Becher
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz
Nicholas Nixon
Nicholas Nixon
Robert Adams
Robert Adams
The movement captures mans impact, they photographed urban landscapes such as garages, parking lots, warehouses in a similar way to how early rural landscape photographers would shoot natural landscapes.
As environmentalism took hold of the public conscience in the 1970s landscape photography began to capture natural landscapes and human activity as a singular connected body.
New topographic pieces captured the essence and beauty of these depressing, mundane, industrialized landscapes. This aura created around the aesthetic of these images is an ironic juxtaposition to the unease the photographers felt about mans erosion of the natural environment. This was represented in their work from the emotional disparity they created in their pieces with a lack of human presence, flat contrast, lowkey tones, centred framing and unassuming depth and lighting.
On the other hand this divide they portrayed between man and nature was done with aesthetic precession. The Artists that made up the new topographic noticed how there seemed to be a sense of obscenity around photographing these urban landscapes. There was a sort of fear man had around looking at its own creations. They wanted to highlight this by photographing the urban and providing it with an aesthetic… The photographers created beauty in these images by shooting from a unique viewpoint. They shot with a deadpan aesthetic in mind and looked for sharp angles or structural elements.
Landscape photography is capturing pictures of nature and the outdoors to bring viewer into the scene. From grand landscapes to intimate details, the best photos demonstrate the photographer’s own connection to nature and capture the essence of the world around them. The most important thing to know , are the basic camera settings and technical information (like aperture, shutter speed, exposure, and sharpness).
The Definition of Contemporary Portrait photography is ‘A type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses.’
These are iconic portrait images from successful photographers stated up above.
portrait photography or portraiture is a type of photography that is aimed towards capturing the personality of a person or a group of people by having their picture taken in an environment that facilitates towards the person that is getting their picture taken of.
