Charles Sheeler-

Charles Sheeler was an American painter and photographer, credited as the creator of Precisionism painting and as a master photographer. His work is very geometrical, showing the common shapes in modern industrial buildings. They are also black and white, with high contrast and intense shadows.

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This is a comparison between Sheeler’s image and one of my own, both depict some part of an industrial structure in black and white. They both use harsh shadows and lighting, however mine appears more like a silhouette while Sheeler’s is immensely detailed. Mine also appears to have cooler tones, while Sheeler’s appears warmer. His would have also been done using physical film while mine was taken digitally, along with the editing. His also shows a lot more of the surrounding environment while mine is more close up and abstract.

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Mood board:

Mindmap:

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Mood board for places in Jersey:

I particularly like photographing places that include very industrial aspects or places that look deserted and desolate. They aren’t particularly aesthetically pleasing compared to typical stunning sceneries, but I find them to have a very unique beauty to them. They show off the beauty of destruction created by mankind and animals included, showing that we need to push forward for changes.

What is Anthropocene?

Anthropocene is the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

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

The Anthropocene is distinguished as a new period either after or within the Holocene, the current epoch, which began approximately 10,000 years ago (about 8000 BC) with the end of the last glacial period.

Edward Burtynsky, a very well known photographer for his Anthropocene photography collection, stated that “These were the naturally occurring phenomena governing life’s ebb and flow. Now it is becoming clear that humankind, with its population explosion, industry, and technology, has in a very short period of time also become an agent of immense global change.”

What does Anthropocene mean to photography?

Edward Burtynsky introduced “The Anthropocene Project” which he presented as being a multidisciplinary body of work combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to investigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth. 

These themes are presented in visual aspects so that a larger impact is brought across among the public as they’re physically seeing the problem. Writing as such makes it slightly harder to believe that these environmental problems are true, whilst imagery is a lot more powerful due to it displaying actual footage that these people have seen.

Many other photographers take the approach of not actually photographing real like images, but instead taking something damaging from the environment, and including it into the photography in a way that brings forth a harmful image to show what our world is becoming.

Anthropocene

The word ‘Anthropocene’ was first used by biologist Eugene Stormer and chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000. Anthropocene is the current geological age where humans have the most influence on climate change and the environment due to their constant terraforming, mining deforestation and a heap more.

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Anthropocene is the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time. Examples of Anthropocene include littering, global warming, habitat loss and animal extinctions.

Anthropocene in photography.

Photographers use their ability to show the world the damage they are creating. People may not realise the situation, so it is important for photographers to use social media and other sources to broadcast images that represent Anthropocene.

 is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth regarded as constituting a distinct geological age

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Anthropocene in photography

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Why explore Anthropocene through Photography?

Photography is a good outlet for Anthropocene research because most of the time the effects that humans have on the earths climate and landscapes is visual in the form of reduction i.e deforestation & terraforming, as well as development of buildings which eventually formed city’s and mega cities- which can be well documented over time through the use of photography.

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Issues with Anthropocene

One of the main problems we face with regards to humans impact on earth is overpopulation. Population growth is also important because it affects the Earth’s ability to withstand climate change and absorb emissions, such as through deforestation as land is converted for agricultural use to feed a growing human population. We are currently adding more than 80 million people a year to our global population. This ultimately leads to humans footprint on the earth growing larger and larger, because there is currently a housing crisis (plus the increased rate of material extraction it takes to solve this crisis)- and with such exponential increase in the population every year it leads to increase in the extraction of resources from the environment. These resources include fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal), minerals, trees, water, and wildlife, especially in the oceans; as well as cities becoming ultra dense areas of concentrated emissions- negatively affecting the climate leading to global warming which is what is causing rising tides, increases in extreme weather, loss of habitats and ultimately the demise of our planet.

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Capitalism’s Effect On The Planet

The world being mostly Capitalist in that most country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by states- usually leading to large company’s and corporations adopting un-ethical practices to save money such as illegal dumping of dangerous waste, deforestation and illegally high emissions.

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Photoshop Ideas

Laura Romero

Spanish photographer living in Mexico takes photos in the urban city landscapes,

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Comparison

One piece I will consider for my exam is a board filled with old photos of Jersey alongside new photos of that area to show the change humans have brought upon Jerseys landscape- particularly focusing on the development and land reclamation around Castle Quay La Collete.

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