The Anthropocene epoch comes from the Greek term for human “Anthropo” and new “cene”. It is a word used to highlight how humans have made an irreversible and detrimental impact to the earth which will cause a heavy influence in the future to ecosystems, environment, biodiversity, etc. This period can also be known as “The great acceleration” due to the modifications we have made to the planet through carbon dioxide emissions, ocean acidification, habitat destruction, etc and how quickly and unexpectedly these changes have came around in the last 60 years but not everyone agrees that these are enough indicators to declare a new geographical epoch. Anthropocene should be tackled through photography because it is a ever-growing, high influential community through audience and photographer, which is able to use creative ways to catch other peoples attention towards why we should be more careful of our plastic use.
Here are the different types of epochs we have already experienced:
Plastic is a key marker in the Anthropocene as plastic production is seen and used everywhere with millions of tonnes being produced each year. Due to the fact that plastic isn’t biodegradable it usually ends up littering soils, ocean beds, streets, etc which can be very harmful to wildlife. For my project, I will mainly be focussing on the effect of plastic bags and raising the awareness of how damaging they can be.
Photographers who have focussed on photographing Anthropocene –
Anthropocene is the concept that the Earth has moved into a novel geological epoch characterized by human domination of the planetary system, is an increasingly prevalent framework for debate both in academia and as a wider cultural and policy zeitgeist.
A mood board of Anthropocene related images
The Anthropocene is sometimes used to simply describe the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet. Whether or not we are in a new geological age, we are part of a complex, global system and the evidence of our impact on it has become clear.
The activity of civilization is now pushing the planet into a new epoch which scientists call the Anthropocene.
When analyzing the reasons that have caused the appearance of this new geological age, we can speak of two main causes: the model of energy production and the resource consumption model. The energy produced from coal, oil and natural gas emits large amounts of greenhouse gases, the main causes of global warming.
For its part, the growing population needs a greater use of natural resources that nowadays surpasses the capacity of the Earth to regenerate them.
In Anthropocene, human actions bring many consequences, including changes in the water cycle, imbalances and destructions in the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, the increase of extreme meteorological phenomena, the acidification of the oceans or the disappearance of the forests.
Anthropocene in Photography and Edward Burtynsky: The Anthropocene Project
As the impact of man on the natural world has become more and more obvious, many photographers and artists have produced responses to the age of Anthropocene. These kinds of images are not made just of environmental commentary, but a commentary on other manmade issues such as housing crises and poverty.
Born in Canada in 1955, Burtynsky has been investigating human-altered landscapes in his artistic practice for over 35 years, capturing the sweeping views of nature altered by industry; from stone to minerals, oil, transportation, and silicone.
A video about the project
The Anthropocene Project is directly influenced by the proposed new geologic era ‘Anthropocene’ – introduced in 2000 by chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Jozef Crutzen, to represent a formal recognition and acknowledgement of the “human signature” on the planet.
Experts argue that the end of the current epoch has been marked by striking acceleration since the mid-20th century of carbon dioxide emissions and rising sea levels, the mass extinction of global species, and the transformation of land by deforestation and development. Burtynsky hopes to demonstrate this.
The Anthropocene Project includes photographs of the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60 per cent of the mainland coast, and psychedelic potash mines in Russia’s Ural Mountains. Burtynsky says that in order to make an impact it was important to capture the largest examples of extractions of the planet, which explains why he visited a mighty 20 countries over a period of five years.
The word Anthropocene comes from the Greek terms for human (anthropo) and new (cene). The Anthropocene epoch is used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history and how human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.
epochs we have already experienced
“The Holocene epoch started 11,700 years ago as the glaciers of the last ice age receded. Geologists and other scientists from the Anthropocene Working Group believe that we have left the Holocene and entered a new epoch: the Anthropocene. Their argument is that humans have become the single most defining force on the planet and that the evidence for this is overwhelming. Terraforming of the earth through mining, urbanization, industrialization and agriculture; the proliferation of dams and diverting of waterways; CO2 and acidification of oceans due to climate change; the pervasive presence around the globe of plastics, concrete, and other technofossils; unprecedented rates of deforestation and extinction: these human incursions, they argue, are so massive in scope that they have already entered, and will endure in, geological time.” – https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/the-anthropocene-project
For this photoshoot, I went around St. Helier and took pictures of the buildings in it from different viewpoints, such as from the top of car parks looking downwards/at the horizon or at the foot of buildings looking upwards.
Contact Sheets
Contact Sheet of my Best Images
To select the best images I used the ‘Pick’ and ‘Reject’ feature on lightroom to determine which images are ‘good’ and ‘bad’, then I used the start-rating system to see which ones were the best out of those. I have settled on 11 total final images.
I copied each final image and created a black and white version to mimic the style of the photographs shown in the New Topographics exhibition.
Final Edited Images
I chose this as a Final Image because I like the way it uses distance and scale to show how large the urban landscape is in comparison to a car. I also think it is interesting how the foreground, due to the fact that the building is high up, is much larger than the buildings on the background (in terms of scale in the image), which creates a very clear divide between the foreground and the background. There is also a clear divide between the top and bottom halves of the image due to the top half being a clear blue and the bottom half having many lines and a mix of greys, greens and browns. The car acts as the focal point in the image, due to how it’s silver paint reflects light into the camera, making it the brightest part of the image. This image follows the rule of thirds as the car is positioned at the bottom right corner.
I chose this as a Final Image because I like the relationship between the car in the bottom right and the buildings that surround it. It creates a sense of life that would not be seen if the car was not there. The difference in scale between the car and the buildings also shows how vast the man-made landscapes are. Due to the fact that there are many buildings that can be seen, there are many lines in the image, giving it an unnatural look, however the road the car is on has noticeably less lines on it, creating a contrast that allows the car to be seen more clearly.
I chose this as a Final Image because I think the clear lines on the larger building on the right gives the image an urban look, however there are considerably less lines on the building than on the background of the image, making it stand out more. When editing, I made the tone of the image slightly more warm to make the greys more vibrant. I also like the way the low sun allows large shadows to form behind the buildings, while the faces of the buildings facing towards the sun are given a highlight.
I chose this as a final image because I like how the foreground, midground and background are displayed, each separated by water. The foreground contains a building’s roof and 3 people by the edge of the water, this compared to the crane in the midground creates a huge difference in scale, while the background shows a distant bay/headland which aligns almost perfectly with the buildings on the right creating a horizon line of sorts. I think the fact that the image is made up primarily of blues gives the image a unique look for an image displaying an urban landscape.
I chose this as a Final Image because I like the simplicity of the subject of the image, being simply the entrance to a car park, I think that simplicity makes the image link to the New Topographics. When editing I made the the image slightly warmer to help give the image more colour, especially in the greens and browns. I think the blue sky in this image creates a large contrast between the upper and lower half of the images.
I chose this as a final image because I thought the regular lines and shapes gave the image an unnatural look which I think represents a ‘man-made landscape’ nicely. The way that the building is cut of by the frame of the image, as well as how an upwards angle was used when taking the shot, gives the image a closed-in feel. I think that the blue sky may ruin the image’s industrial aesthetic, however the black and white version may resolve this.
I chose this as a final image because I thought the gritty, dirty marks on the walls gave the image a very industrial/urban look, when editing I increased the contrast slightly to enhance those darker parts. The straight lines and regular shapes, as well as the limited colour palette containing mainly creams and browns, also give the image an urban look. The image was taken facing the sun, with the buildings partially obscuring it, this puts the part of the buildings shown in the image in the shadows, meaning there are no parts that are obscured from the viewer.
I chose this as a final image because I think the way part of the building has a shadow cast over it and another has sunlight shining on it creates a nice contrast between those two points. I think that the piping around the building makes it more interesting to look at as it gives it extra lines to break up the plain flat surfaces of the building. Because of the sky, as well as the way the light is reflected in this particular area, there is a lot of blue within the image, which, to me, gives the image a unique and colourful look for an image of an urban area.
I chose this as a Final Image because I think the brown and cream colours of the buildings, the dirt/soot on the roof of the buildings, as well as the shape of the buildings, being made up of regular lines, gives the image a very urban look to me. I also think that the piping on the side of the brown building adds to this effect. I think the focal point of this image is the left face of the brown building, as it is fairly bright, as well as the fact that there are leading lines created from the pipes and window frames that point towards it.
I chose this as a Final Image because I thought looking at a large cityscape horizon through a wired mesh gives the image an urban aesthetic. I like the way the top, dark division of the building is enveloped by a protrusion in the wires – it helps separate it from the rest of the image. When editing I made the tone of the image slightly warmer to give the buildings behind the mesh more colour. This warmer colour, paired with the blue of the sky and the mesh, creates a nice overall colour palette, giving the image an unorthodox look in relation to other urban images.
I made this a final image because I like the way deep shadow is used to create a harsh contrast between the faces of each building. I made the image slightly warmer when editing to give the image more of a ‘golden hour’ look, which I think helps separate this image in style in comparison to other urban images. The focal point, the bright row of faces from the left, stands out from the rest of the image since it is very bright due to how it is facing the sun.
Comparison to Henry Wessel
I chose this picture to compare to Henry Wessel because I thought the viewpoints were fairly similar and both of these images use light and shadow to create a contrast between the different faces of the buildings. Since Wessel mainly took pictures in California, the skies in our pictures are different, with his appearing far lighter due to the harsh sunlight California experiences. I tried to use light and shadow to expose the faces of the building like Wessel does, and I like how that exposure creates a nice, pure white on the face of the building. Wessel’s picture focuses on a far wider range of buildings (which puts more of an emphasis on the landscape), while mine focuses on one/two buildings (which focuses on the little details such as pipes and patterns in urban environments), however in other images I have made in this photoshoot have a wider scope. Wessel makes use of plants such as trees in his images, while (some of) mine do not, I like the effect of contrasting nature with urban landscapes.
‘The New Topographics’ is a term that refers to a group of American Photographers (as well as the artistic movement) in the late 1970’s (Including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicolas Nixon, Stephen Shore, etc…) who explored an unconventional view on landscape photography, involving how humans affected nature around them.
Moodboard of Images from the New Topographics Exhibition
These photographers typically produced black and white images which are taken with a derelict, almost boring aesthetic. However, they also had their own sense of beauty in their formality, much like traditional landscape photographs, this beauty was likely derived from the regular lines and patterns created from man-made buildings, which, when paired with natural elements subtly included in the backgrounds of these images, creates a clear juxtaposition between the natural irregular shapes.
What was The New Topographics a reaction to?
In 1975, at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York, William Jenkins gathered 10 photographers whose work documented a “man-altered landscape” in an exhibition called ‘The New Topographics’. The New Topographics as a movement was a reaction to how man had impacted the natural landscapes around them, not only physically, but also artistically, which is very clearly shown in the isolated and banal aesthetic that the photographs used. Unlike photographers such as Ansel Adams, these photographers embraced the idea of depicting nature as being “altered” (the implication being negative to a certain extent) in order to get their message across, rather than displaying nature as “un-altered” to promote conservation.
In a recent review in the Guardian newspaper, photography critic Sean O’Hagan suggested that ‘they were photographing against the tradition of nature photography that the likes of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston had created’
Case Study: Henry Wessel
Henry Wessel was an American photographer who’s work was a part of the original New Topographics exhibition. Wessel’s career in photography was inspired by a book he found in a shop near Pennsylvania University which he was studying at at the time. He started photography career seriously in 1967. Wessel mainly explored the landscapes of California, due to its harsh sunlight which created dense shadows and gave his images a brighter, higher-exposure look. His photography typically creates a deadpan aesthetic which matches nicely with the works of the other photographers who were featured in the New Topographics exhibition.
Image Analysis:
This image, due to California’s harsh sunlight, is slightly over-exposed, with the only dark parts of the image being the shadows and tree leaves. This brightness gives the image a very clear contrast between the dark and bright parts of the image, in addition, the white, bright shades on the buildings are very similar to the colour of the sky, this effect is made clearer due to the image being black and white, giving the image an almost other-wordly look. Both plants and buildings can be seen in this image, with the plants having a far more irregular shape compared to the regular buildings, creating a contrast, or divide, between those aspects. The plants are also far darker in colour compared to the buildings, giving them a contrast in terms of lightness. This image follows the rule of thirds as the focal point, the dark trees, are in the bottom left of the image. While not as obvious as other photographs, the leading lines in this image, such as the cables hung between the poles and the shadow of an off-screen building, do point towards the trees.
Perhaps the meaning behind this image, like the other photographs shown in the New Topographics, is to show humanity’s affects on the natural world. I think Wessel does this effectively through his use of scale/distance, with some buildings being closer than others, and his inclusion of trees in the image.
These locations are mainly coastal landscapes, which will allow me to take pictures of the sea, cliffs and other coastal landmarks. There are also country roads and paths which I can photograph along to give the images a different feel to the coastal landscapes.
Contact Sheets
Contact Sheet of my Best Images (Unedited)
Here I have selected the images I thought were the strongest from the photoshoot, I have selected 10 final images. I made this selection using lightroom’s filtering settings.
For each image I also created a black and white version, giving them a similar look to Ansel Adams’ work
Final Edited Images
I chose this as a final image because I think the overcast, grey sky, paired with the grass on the bank, which seem windswept thus implying movement, gives the image a more chaotic look. I think it is interesting how the road on the bottom left of the image has a darker tone, while the sky in the top right has a much lighter tone, it creates a parallel/contrast between the two points. I also think that the plastic covering on the field having a similar colour to the sky creates an interesting link between the sky and the land.
I chose this as a final image because I liked its composition, with a bank/wall covering about 1/4 of the image in a darker shade of greens/browns, the three poles emerging from that in the centre and the rest of the image being a sky made up of patterns of cloud formations. I edited the image to look warmer and made the bank slightly brighter, while maintaining the stark contrast it gives to the rest of the image. Because of this warmness, I think it gives it a slightly larger colour palette that has a pleasant mix of blues greens and browns. The image was taken from a lower down viewpoint, which allows more of the bank and sky to be seen.
I selected this to be a final image because I found the way the sun, the horizon of trees and the clouds above/surrounding the sun correlate with each other to be a more grandiose scene. I think the slight glare of the sun also makes it appear larger in the image, as well as the bright rays of sunlight that are emitted off of it give it a more sublime or exaggerated look. When editing, I made the images tone slightly more warm, giving it a more exaggerated, sunset-like tone. I kept the contrast between the dark foreground and the sun, as to make the sun itself and the sky the main focus of the image, however I did make the grass slightly brighter to allow more detail to be seen.
I made this a final image because I thought the spray of water in front of the rock, as well as the general roughness of the tide, gave the image a sense of the sublime. I like the way the white part of the water contrasts with the darker tones of the rocks, which I increased slightly during editing, as it helps separate the two further. While editing, I also made the image slightly colder, not only helping to make the rocks look darker, but also giving the sea more colour. I think the way the rocks on the left and right of the image frame it quite nicely, however I think I could have positioned the camera slightly lower down to capture a bit more of the rocks below.
I chose this image for similar reasons for the image above, however I think this image is slightly stronger, due to the framing of the image being slightly better in my eyes. I wanted to keep the contrast the image above had, so I made this image colder to make the white in the water brighter and the browns of the rocks darker. I also gave the rocks themselves a greater contrast, this makes the grooves and nooks in the rocks more defined, giving it a more angular and jagged look. This image also uses a rough sea with breaking waves to create a sense of the sublime within it.
I chose this as a final image because I think the roughness of the sea, paired with the natural jaggedness of the rocks, gives the image a very romantic look. When editing, I made the tone slightly colder, to give the water a slightly more lively aesthetic, and the rocks slightly more exposed, while maintaining their contrast with the white of the sea. The focal point, the rocks in the centre of the image, contrast greatly with the water surrounding them, making them more noticeable, in addition, the rocks on both sides of the image create leading lines towards the rocks in the centre.
I chose this as a final image because I like its composition, with the rocks facing diagonally down into a narrow gulley in which a line of water can be seen, separating the two headlands. I chose to take this picture in a portrait orientation so that this relationship between the rocks and the sea remains the primary focus of the image. The colours in the foreground are somewhat dulled, which creates a contrast between the brighter/more vibrant colours of the ocean, which I made slightly more vibrant when editing by changing the tone of the image to be slightly colder.
I think this image is one of the best from the photoshoot, thus I chose it as a final image. I think the crashing waves, the irregular shape of the headlands and the clarity of the clouds gives the image a romantic aesthetic. When editing, I made the image slightly colder, giving the clouds and sea slightly more colour, I also made the headlands slightly brighter, making the lines and patterns on them more noticeable. I like the way the headland in the foreground (on the right) and the headland in the background (on the left) are separated by a line created by the sea as it gives the image more clarity in its composition.
I chose this as a final image because I like how there is a clear division (made by the horizon line) between a landscape made predominantly by straight or jagged lines and a skyscape which uses far softer and irregular lines and shapes. This difference in look, as well as the clear difference in brightness between the halves (with the bottom half being darker due to the shadows that cover it), creates a contrast between those parts of the image. I think the warm tone of the image, the blue sky with clear cloud formations and the long road gives the image an almost endless, dream-like aesthetic.
I made this a final image because I liked the relationship between the clouds and the road/banks, as they both point diagonally down towards the house near the bottom left of the image. When editing, I made the image wildly different from the others by giving it a warmer, pinkish tone, which can be seen very clearly in the clouds. I think the tone of the image paired with the soft shape of the clouds gives the image a slightly romantic aesthetic. There is a contrast in brightness between the trees and the sky, which separates the land and sky more clearly.
Comparison to Ansel Adams
I thought this image had the closest resemblance to Ansel Adams’ work because it has elements of romanticism within it, with the breaking waves crashing on the vast headlands, as well as the fact that the little surge created between the two headlands loosely mimics the river in Adams’ own image. I also think that the mountains in Adams’ image, specifically their angular shape, are similar to the shape of the headlands in my image, giving them a link in that sense. The sky in Adams’ image is slightly more dramatic than in mine, due to how there is a greater contrast between the lighter and darker parts of the clouds, while my image has less of a contrast. I also think it is interesting how the water and land have a similar relationship in both of the images, with the water being far brighter than the land, creating a contrast that clearly outlines the flow of the water.
