Digital Exhibition:
Using photoshop, I edited my photos onto a plain exhibition wall in order to show how I’d want my photos to be mounted. Overall, I’m content with how my final outcomes came out and think that they’d look interesting presented in the way I’ve chosen.
P1 –
P2 –
Similarities are that both me and Craig took portraits of a female model with a mask made out of a material that is seen as wasteful or has negative impact on the environment. Differences are that my image has a colour splash feel to it as its in black and white with a blue splash of colour and Craig’s has a full colour image and where I edited in the mask he used a piece of paper as a prop in his shoot.
Both mine and Vield’s images have a sense of depth to them both show different tones of blues with contrasting highlights my image is on the darker side but I feel like its still got a similar sense of airiness and light both images have a tunnel like effect in the horizon and are both images of the inside of plastic bags taken with artificial lighting which show how pollution in the ocean is a serious topic.
Similarities are that we both photographed a model surrounded by clothing items which are depicted as waste and make the images seem cluttered both our models are making straight eye contact with the camera and both images show a sense of depth and texture. Differences are my image is black and white and shot in a cantered angle to avoid the blanc open space in the background.
I decided to make a zine so that I could display a few of my main photographs for Anthropocene. I used the software Adobe InDesign, so that I could create a layout and correct size to display my zine in. My zine contains 16 pages and will showcase a variety of images that highlight Anthropocene in Jersey, showing the impact that humans have on nature and what nature is capable of doing.
Here I began with 16 blank pages as to be able to display my images throughout the zine. I wanted to present my best images from both photoshoots.
My first zine attempt
——- Aaron Siskind ———————-
| Aaron Siskind (differences) | Similarities | My own photography (differences) |
| A lot harsher texture | Both display signs of peeling wall paint off a building | A lot softer in colour |
| Contains a lot more holes and peeling paint | Both share the same colour scheme | Contains not as much peeling paint |
| Monochrome colouring is a lot harsher | Peeling paint is quite spaced out |
Both these images share a range of similarities and differences. To compare the two images, one being done by Aaron Siskind and one being done by me, I can first of all see that both of the photographs display the clear sign of a deteriorating building with peeling paint marks.
What I can also point out, is that both images share a very similar monochrome black and white colouring and tone. They’re both quite harshly coloured on the brick behind the paint and the paint itself.
Although I can also spot some differences between the two images such as Siskind’s work being a lot harsher and textured whilst mine on the other hand, is a lot softer and smoother. My photograph has presented that the peeling paint marks are very spaced out and contains not as many, whilst Siskind’s displays the marks being incredibly packed together and roughly carved out by old age.
——- Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre ———————-
| Yves and Romain (differences) | Similarities | My own photography (differences) |
| Incredibly harsh colouring on the building due to old age | Photograph of abandoned buildings | The plants block out more of the entire structure, blocking its view |
| Contains way more damage on the structure | Highlight the sense that nature has taken over the structure | Colouring of the overall image is a lot warmer than the other photographs |
| Central photograph | Taken at an angle | |
| Plants aren’t in front of the actual building | Plants are blocking a portion of the building |
Both these images share a range of similarities and differences. To compare the two images, one being done by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre and one being done by me, I can first of all see that both of the photographs resonate around abandoned and derelict structures.
I have also noticed that both images highlight the obvious impact that nature is having on the infrastructure itself. They are both being drowned in an abundance of greenery and plants. This clearly shows that nature continues to overpower humans and what they are willing to create.
Some main differences between the two photos however, are that the colouring for both images is different. My image is a lot warmer on the colouring of both the plants and the house itself, whilst the other photograph by Yves and Romain, is a much cooler tone and gives the building a slight greyer tone of colour. One other difference I have spotted, is that in the corner of my image is a huge pile of plants that block off a portion of the house, making it harder to see. Whilst the other photograph, contains the whole photograph in frame with nothing blocking its view. My photograph has also been taken at an angle whilst the other one is displayed in a perfectly central manner.
Here I have displayed my best images from both photoshoots. I wanted to include a combination of different photographs just to show different perspectives of Anthropocene, from the full sized abandoned photos, to the small scale close ups of deteriorating landmarks.
Process for final piece choices
These photographs here were inspired by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre’s series: Gunkanjima (2008-2012)
For my first photograph, I ended up photographing an old, decaying house than was almost completely consumed in an abundance of nature. I enjoyed the overall look of this house as it gave off quite an eerie sense of living, showing that eventually life will take over buildings and structures made by humans if left unkept. I wanted to only crop off a certain portion of the overall photograph as I wasn’t happy with how the full image looked on it’s own. After I cropped the image, I edited the image to my liking, being inspired by Yves and Romain throughout the process.
For my second photograph, I once again decided to choose an abandoned and decaying house as my focus for this image as I wanted to follow a similar theme to that of the first one. I wanted to capture as many of the plants in the image as possible, just to highlight how powerful nature has been towards this building. I ended up editing this photo in the exact same way as image 1, loving how it turned out.
For my third photograph, I ended up going for a slightly different approach with the style of the image and the way I decided to edit it too. For this image, I decided to take a more abstract approach as I was inspired by Aaron Siskind’s work and wanted to display mine as being somewhat similar to his. I went for a close up shot of a lock which clearly shows some rusting and aging due to its texture and markings. Aaron’s work tends to consist of difficult to complex close up images that make it hard to decipher what he is actually taking a photo of, followed by a black and white filter. I wanted this photograph to follow a similar theme and show how over time, these objects will decay and no longer be of use in the world.
For my fourth photograph, I decided to photograph a pile of mainly electronic devices that had been thrown into a trailer at the recycling unit. I wanted to capture just the sheer amount of waste that tends to occur everyday which continues to pile higher and higher, causing for pollution to become increasingly worse for the environment due to such large items being incinerated. Once again I decided to add on a black and white filter, just to make the image look a lot more dispiriting and to show the negative impact this has on the environment.
For my fifth photograph, I decided to capture the image of an abandoned looking greenhouse. This I believed was very well linked to anthropocene in the sense that greenhomes are suppose to allow plants and nature to thrive and grow much better so that the environment doesn’t stifle, but instead, the entire place has been completely given up on and abandoned, leaving the plants inside to overcome the structure and grow around everything. A place that is supposed to allow plants to grow more successfully, ended up being taken over by nature itself.
For my final, sixth photograph, I decided to take a photograph containing a variety of broken down cars. This links to my fourth photograph in the sense that it symbolises how easily humans dispose of polluting items and cause for the environment to suffer more damage and increasingly become worse.
Evaluation and Critique
Evaluation:
I am very happy with how my overall photographs turned out. I am incredibly interested in places that are decaying and almost ethereal so I was extremely happy that I was able to execute this so well during my edits of the images.
What Went well:
I believe I was able to execute what I was envisioning and was very happy with the final results of each photograph taken. I wanted to have my work heavily inspired by Yves Marchand, Romain Meffre and Aaron Siskind which I believe I was able to achieve when editing and finalising my photographs.
Critique:
What I would have done differently however, is I would have explored maybe the insides of abandoned areas more such as the greenhouse. I should have possibly researched more into certain locations to see if I was able to enter them as to get better photoshoots. I wanted to show the real aftermath of what nature can do on the inside of unoccupied areas.
Anthropocene is the unit of time, that describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystem.
In this project I am going to explore how humans effect the environment, this can be shown in many different ways for example litter is a direct way humans toxify the natural environment with harmful chemicals from man made packaging’s and products.
Edward York is a photographer that takes images of litter where it lies in streets and roads. he is most know for his image that show a “society on the verge of destruction”.
His street litter project inspired me to go out and take images of litter where I find it this relates to Anthropocene because humans drops foreign objects in and the environment showing disrespect tot the earth, litter harms the planet by adding toxins from plastic and chemicals used in the manufacture of packaging’s and products that leak in the environment meaning a less healthy environment for plants to grow. I will respond by going out around the my local areas to find litter and photograph it where it lies.
Image Analysis
I like this image because it shows how out of place litter is because it isn’t made for these environments. the contrast between the clean bright coloured, loud packaging against the dull rugged environment. there isn’t a lot of grass in this image which represent the impact that humans plastic pollution is effecting the environment.
Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who achieved widespread international recognition in the 1940s and 1950s for his abstract images. He is recognised as the pioneer of colour.
most of his image are on black and white high contrast film negatives. these images relate to Anthropocene between the hard black shapes of man made structures juxtaposing to the pure white sky that fills the rest of the image. I will respond by experiment using this effect on my images.
Image Analysis
I like the intricate in this image how the infinitely splitting branches break up the white background creating more of a flat image. this image was taken of a tree out of season becasue it has no leaves. the darker parts of the image are where the trunk is thicker, and where the the tree once grew from.
George Marazakis is a Greek photographer, born in 1976 in Creta Island Greece where he lives. He studied Mechanical Engineering and works for the Greek Ministry of Justice. He uses Anthropocene as both concept and title for a series that looks at a new epoch engendered by the greed of mankind. planet, plastic pollution, and power stations.
Image Analysis
This image uses dull colours and a bright image to convey a lifeless, meaning the there is no cure for Anthropocene and the earth will be left lifeless if humans continue having such a large impact on the environment. the image shows a concrete ruin. concrete is very hard to recycle and is one of the most used materials on the planet. this image was taken to show that what we abandon does not disappear. it was taken to make more people aware of this ever growing problem.
1 I will go to Plemont to photograph the area trying to convey a similar meaning through my images as George Marazakis.
2 I will go to a green house and take images of the inside and outside I am hoping to convey the how green house gases are effecting our planet.
3 I will go to a quarry because it is a very large area that shows how humans have taken a large area
4 I will walk around and take photos of litter that is see along my way.
5 I will go to a an estate to capture images of man made structures.
In preparation I took 641 images in 5 locations i first started by going through my images and rating them to best suit my artist reference.
Image sub selection, then refined my selection even more to get 47 images
I then started to edit my images and make duplicates to experiment different ideas on this example is an image of the quarry in St Ouen that I took from the car park above the quarry. the downward angle the image was taken provides more perspective than a affect on would have been. I edited this image until I was happy with the result then I made a duplicate to see how the images would look in black and white, George Marazakis uses colour in his images so I decided to go with the non black and white version.
I further more refined my selection down to 19 images that will then be refined further into my final images.
I really like how this image turned out after I edited it to reduce how over exposed the image is then I increased the contrast and shadows to give better definition and depth to the image. I like the way the natural blue sky contrast with the harsh spikes of the barbed wire fence. I decreased the black to give a clearer image.
I edited this image to bring out the greens of the overgrown bushes in the green house. to do this I increased the contrast and saturation. to bring out the brighter tones in the image.
This was an over exposed image of a coffee cup left to contaminate the natural environment. I used the graduate filter on Lightroom to reduce the exposure at the bottom of the image i increased the shadows and decreased the highlights to give the image more depth. the dark foreground blends into the lighter background with lighter brighter coloured flowers growing out a crack in the concrete.
I edited this image to better relate to Keld Helmer-Petersen i used the graduate filter tool again to create a better contrast between the black shapes against the white sky’s.
I experimented to better relate to Keld Helmer-Petersen, I decided his abstract style would look good on this image because of its interesting shapes created by the gaps in the leaves and the light reflecting of the glass roof that blends with the white sky. I increased the contrast and changed the image to black and white to create this effect. this effect brings out the leading lines in the image that bring your focus into the image.
I increased the tint to experiment with colour in the whole image, to appear out of its context. this brings out a more vibrant tone to the object in the image. I dislike the less natural look to this image it looks like it has been over edited.
George Marazakis image inspired me to got to this location in Plemont that reminded me of his image. my image has a slightly more colourful tone because it the location is surrounded by forest and streams that give more colour to its natural environment. the sticks in the ground have a similar shape to the twisted concrete pillars in his image. His image where taken from a lower angle which gives extra contrast to the pillars because they are on the lighter sky background. I decided to take a higher perspective of the sticks so that I could fit all of them in the shot.
His image of a green house inspired me to go out and photograph a green house, the green house that I went too was actually abandoned and overgrown. however they way the plants where pressed up to green house which is exhibited by the plants growing up the green house. my image was taken after his image so it shows how time can effect the structure of a man made building and how the environments take backs its land. the over grown bushes are a metaphor for time. time between humans effecting the land scape by putting up structures and how the environment slowly takes back its land.
Keld Helmer-Petersen image shows the line the shadow makes is similar to the lines the railing makes in my image. I like these zig zag lines to lead your focus through the image his lines are made by a straight line shadow falling on different surfaces but . however his image is of a black shadow on dull concrete steps. My image is shows the lively green over throwing the dull concrete, the railing adds more structure to the image.
Eadweard York‘s image of a contrasting coffee cup in a dark place relates to my image of a coffee cup in a more natural pace. our images are different because the subject of his image ‘the coffee cup’ is bright where as mine is been faded by the glare of the sun. my image uses the flours to juxtapose the abused natural environment with flowering growth.
I arranged my final images into this format to best portray the images in terms of size in relation to the others. I chose to make certain images larger because those image look better when superimposed next to the rest of the collection.
I then created a virtual gallery and put my images in. I did this to see what it would be like to see my image in a real gallery’s.
I like this image a lot but in the I could improve on this image next time by adjusting the aperture to get more of he content in focus. which would give better definition to the image. this image relates to the theme as it represents how humans act while on this planet this image features a barbed wire fence meaning that not all humans are on the same side which shows why we have such a big impact on the environment because humans create to many other problems on this planet that they can not deal with the wellness of this planet.
I like the angle and perspective of this image. I edited this until I was happy with the colour tones of the image, I did this to create contrast between the vibrant greens and the lifeless grey steel beams providing cover and shelter to the weeds. If I took this image now I would have taken I from more inline with the roof to get a longer effect to the image which would lead the focus in. this is image relates to the human race by showing that the plants are out growing their environment which is having a large impact on the environment (in this case breaking glass)
I like how I framed the tap with in this image. I was thinking of amore deadpan style when I was framing this image so I experimented with it in black and white which I ended up choosing over the colour copy. If I did took this mage again I would have taken more images form different distances and angles which would have given me more to explore with. this image relates to Anthropocene because it shows how humans have dug up a natural land scape and disturbed wild life so that they could have amore convenient water source.
I like this image, the shapes the railings make in this image creates a interesting effect that draws the focus into the image. when framing the image I tried to create a half an half image to give juxtaposition from the overflowing ground and the hard concrete shapes. If I took this image again I would have have taken an extra step back and positioned more of the railing in the frame to incorporate more of those leading lines. this image represents that we can have as much as on impact as we like but nature will always be in charged, as it shows in this mage the ferns over taken these hard man made structures.
I like the way the rain creates an extra shine on the metals in this image. I increased the highlights to bring out that shine just a little bit more. if I took this image again I would take it at a later time to create a darker effect use man made lights to bring out that shine even more to create even more contrast between the natural green environment. this relates to Anthropocene because it shows how that man made structures stick out in nature because they do not belong.
I like this image but I wish it had a wider view to show more of the scale of the effect we have on the land. I like the way I have edited this to bring out the saturation in the plants and have the trees fade to darkness which is a metaphor how humans disrupting natural land to create their own food, which juxtaposes the natural trees fade to black because they are being chopped down all over the globe to be turned into farmland which has a very large effect on the green house gasses i the environment.
overall in this project I feel I have done well to improve I could learn more in depth about how the camera settings can effect an image better or worse to level up the quality of my work.
I am going to provide an accurate and insightful look into what my thought processes were at different stages of production and how I produced my final images. This will hopefully result in the reader having a better understanding of how and why I produced what I have.
I was tasked with capturing the topic of anthropocene. This is defined by the effect that the human species has had on our planet. It is 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. This includes how inventions such as the motor engine have depleted the world of most of its natural resources, through the process of separating crude oil using fractional distillation to produce numerous types of burnable fuel. The combusting of this fuel has filled the Earth’s atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. My intent was to capture how we can see the effects of the anthropocene era today.
My initial first thoughts were that I wanted to show how the human race’s effect on the planet are not all bad. I wanted to show what, why and how these resources have been used effectively to create something new and creative. A good way for me to do this was to photograph new and old structures around the island. The first locations that came to mind were La Hougue Bie and the Financial Buildings located on the Esplanade containing Big Maggy’s Bike Shop. This was a result of La Hougue Bie being built over 6000 years ago, making it one of the oldest structures in the world, and is considered to be one of the best preserved remnants of the Neolithic period in Western Europe. However, when trying to contact someone to visit the site, no reply was received with no phone calls answered. As for the Financial Buildings, the second of the two has just finished construction making them some of the latest architecture on the island. This would provide a distinctive contrast of two eras of human existence and how far we have come as a species.
I stuck with this theme for both my photoshoots, one being modern and the other ancient. I did photograph the Financial Buildings on the same photoshoot as the Waterfront area, but half of the files became corrupted and I couldn’t transfer them from the camera to my computer for further processing. This resulted in much less raw material to work with than I had hoped. Regardless, I decided to do the best I could with what I had available to me. The second photoshoot ran smoothly with no interruptions or problems, providing me with enough images to produce work to a standard.
During the editing stage, I experimented with numerous filters, effects, layering techniques and profiles that Adobe Lightroom provided me with. I made sure to continuously cross reference my artist influences blog post to constantly remind myself of how I wanted the final produce to look. This lead to my work replicating the artist’s to a significant degree, which is what I was aiming for. The effect caused by layering a monochrome filter with a vintage profile over the same image proved to give the best results, as the filter would drain all colour from the image, proceeded by the profile tinting the new image with a chosen colour, taking colour schemes and lighting patterns into consideration. This allowed me to give an oldish/vintage-style effect to any photo I felt would benefit from it. This is precisely what I did for a majority of my best images as it fits the theme well. For the images of modern structures, I used a similar technique with the filter and profile, but I used a contrast preset opposed to a profile. This helped separate and distinguish the lights and darks significantly.
Overall, I believe I have successfully achieved my objectives. This is a result of me using careful consideration when planning, performing and editing my photoshoots in order to recreate my artist reference impressions. As previously mentioned, I think that the outcomes from these planned experiments have proven positive results.
FINAL IMAGES
FINAL LAYOUT OF IMAGES
GALLERY DISPLAY OF IMAGES
