The image on the left, depicts a part of a derelict abandoned man made structure surrounded by nature. The picture on the right depicts old forgotten remains of a human, also surrounded by nature. Both pictures consist of forgotten dead things left by humans which have been surrounded by nature, or taken over by nature, portraying Anthropocene. The foliage of both images are a similar pinkish colour, which could be depicting the beauty of nature which contrasts well with the ugliness of the man-made parts of the photo. The differences in the photo are minimal, the one and possibly only difference is that one photo contains the remains of a human while the other contains remains of something humans have built. I prefer the image on the left as it seems to have a lot more going on, and there is more of a contrast between the natural side of the image and the man-made side of the image.
Troy Paiva
My image
Troy Paiva image
The image on the left, depicts a wooden beam which has been whitened surrounded by colourful plants and nature, this image is depicting how nature is full of colour and life while man made objects seem to be very dull and boring. The image on the right, depicts what seems to be an abandoned building in a rural area containing lots of bright colours, which could be depicting that even though the building is abandoned it still contains lots of life. Both images contain a lot of bright similar colours mostly the green colours. The image on the left depicts man made objects to be very dull and boring while the image on the right seems to be depicting man made objects to be very full of life and unique, the two images seem to be contrasting with each other in that way. I prefer the image on the right, as it contains a lot more colours and is a lot more interesting to look at than the image on the left.
After editing my best photos on Lightroom, I took photos from both shoot 1 and shoot 2 into photoshop to create more interesting and unique edits. These edits included merging different images together to create photomontages, adding a lot of colour to the images to fit the images of Troy Paiva one of the photographers I studied, changing the colours of foliage to fit another one of the photographers I studied, Richard Mosse and creating other unique effects. The images shown are a before and after view of the editing.
Photoshoot Edits
Richard Mosse inspired edits
I created the effect of these images on photoshop by changing the Hue/Saturation of the yellows and greens in the image by going to image – adjustments – Hue/Saturation. I believe this image reflects images created by the photographer Richard Mosse and creates a very unique effect. The images on the left are before editing and the images on the right are after editing. Above is the fixtures on the Hue/Saturation setting to create this effect on the images.
Troy Paiva inspired edits
I created these edits by first using the object selection tool to select all of the foliage and grass in the image, I then made everything selected a new layer. I then made the original layer black and white and edited the different colours to create a very bland effect of the human made buildings. I then edited the Hue/Saturation on the new layer to add more life to the natural landscape. Above shows the different setting I used to create these effects, below shows a before and after of the edits.
Other edits
I created these edits using the remainder of my best images I hadn’t used already from both photoshoots as well as using some parts of images I have already used. I focused on creating photomontages by using different parts of multiple images and creating one final edit with all of them using photoshop. I didn’t take much inspiration from other photographers to create these edits although some inspiration was used.
Using these 3 images above I was able to create the edit below. I did this by using the polygonal lasso tool in photoshop to select what parts of the side photos I wanted to paste into the middle image, then I created a second layer of the bottom half of the image so whatever I pasted looked like it was going behind the new layer for a more natural look. I then placed the parts of the side images where I wanted them and made them black and white. I then made the grass more colourful using the Hue/Saturation tool and this was the final product.
Using these 2 images above I created the edit below. I did this by creating a layer over the landscape and sea of the image on the left. Then I took a section of the image on the right using the polygonal lasso tool and pasting lots of that section together to create a skyscraper looking image, I then added that to the back of the image on the right to create lots of buildings on the horizon. Finally I used the Hue/Saturation tool to make the landscape look more colourful and stand out among the rest of the image.
Review of edits
Overall, I am very happy with my final edits. The edits created which are inspired by the artists I studied greatly compare to them in everything from looks, lighting and the colours seen in the images. They also fit into the theme of Anthropocene very well in my opinion. My other edits, where I created photo-montage type images, I am also very happy with. My aim with them was to create unique and cool images which is exactly how I believe they turned out. These edits also fit into the theme of Anthropocene very well also. To improve my artist inspired work, I would have during different times of the day, such as early morning or at night-time. Doing this would have given my a wider range of images to edit. To improve my other edits, I would have taken more photographs of tall buildings, building sites and natural landscapes in order to be able to create more montages with buildings and landscapes like the two above.
I first edited the final selection of images on Lightroom using the before and after view to show the differences made to the images, I changed the different contrasts, exposures, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks and changed the orientation of some of the images to make them look much better and effective. I also created virtual copies of some of the images to create a black and white version of the image as well. The images shown are my favourite images and edits of the final selection of images.
Shoot 2
I first edited the final selection of images on Lightroom using the before and after view to show the differences made to the images, I changed the different contrasts, exposures, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks and changed the orientation of some of the images to make them look much better and effective. I also created virtual copies of some of the images to create a black and white version of the image as well. The images shown are my favourite images and edits of the final selection of images.
I was able to fully complete 2 photoshoots in preparation for this exam, I followed the plan I made for the exam by taking photos of desolate overgrown buildings as well as industrial sites to portray the theme and topic of Anthropocene.
Shoot 1
I was able to capture a total of 222 photos in shoot 1 which is more than enough to work with to produce final outcomes to the best of my ability. For shoot 1 I took photos in and around the la Collette industrial site as well as up around mount Bingham.
I used the flagging technique to select the best photos from this shoot to use for manipulation and editing. After using the flagging technique, I had 81 photos to once again choose from to use for editing and manipulation. To narrow down these photos, I used the rating system to select the best photos from these 65 photos. Using this technique I came up with 20 photos to use for editing and manipulation.
flagged photos
rated photos
Shoot 2
For shoot 2 I captured a total of 321 photos to work with and narrow down to select for manipulation I also used the flagging technique for this photoshoot. For this shoot I took photos around the grounds of St. Saviours hospital as well as other derelict sites around the island.
After using the flagging technique, I came up with 48 photos as a lot of the photos were blurry or too dark or too light to be able to use. I then used the rating technique to once again narrow down the photos to use for editing and manipulation. After using the rating technique, I had 13 photos to edit and manipulate to create final images.
flagged photos
rated photos
Review of photoshoots
Although I aimed to take 3 photoshoots with at least 100 photos in each, I managed to get 2 photoshoots. Even though I only did 2 photoshoots I was able to get 222 photos in shoot 1 and 321 photos in shoot 2 which was well above the amount of photos I aimed to take. With a total of 543 photos I believe I have more than enough photos for me to create the most effective final images for the Anthropocene project. I believe the quality of the photos I have taken overall are quite good and I managed to photograph the locations I planned on photographing, a couple of photos I have taken have not come out as I would have liked as some have been blurry, too bright or too dark. Using the different filtering techniques on Lightroom I am happy with the final selection of images I will be using for editing and manipulation with Lightroom and Photoshop in order to come up with the best possible final outcomes I am able to produce.
I am planning on doing 3 photoshoots of different locations, with 100+ photos in each photoshoot. In each shoot, I am going to take photos at different times of day and different weather conditions, this will give me a wide variety of photos to choose from for manipulation and final photos.
Photoshoot 1
One of my ideas for a photoshoot is to travel to the quarry in St.Johns and take photos from the top of the quarry, the photos of the quarry are inspired by one of the photographers I have studied, Edward Butynsky. I believe the quarry is a really good response towards Anthropocene because it shows the effect of human life on natural landscape. I am going to take as many images as I can and edit them to respond appropriately to my project. These landscapes suit the project very well because it shows a clear effect and response of how nature has been destroyed and used for human advantage.
St, Johns quarry
Photoshoot 2
Another idea for a photoshoot is to photograph abandoned and desolate buildings which have been taken over by nature. I believe photographs of these buildings fit with the topic of Anthropocene very well, as it portrays nature taking back land which humans have built on, and buildings which have permanently changed the landscape. One idea of an abandoned building is St, Saviours hospital, which greatly portrays how nature has taken back an old building built by humans.
St. Saviours Hospital
Photoshoot 3
My last idea for a photoshoot is to take photos of heavily littered areas around jersey, such as the dump. I believe taking photos of a lot of litter fits with Anthropocene as it portrays how much humanity have polluted the Earth and just the amount of litter and rubbish humanity produces which infects the natural landscapes.
Richard Mosse is a contemporary Irish photographer. Using infrared film, he captures war-torn regions as well as migrant routes. Born in 1980 in Kilkenny, Ireland, he received his MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art in 2008. In 2013. The artist lives and works between New York and Berlin. His work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City.
“infra”
Mosses work has spanned over decades and it captures the beauty of war and the pollution of the world. One of his projects, “Infra” captures the ongoing war between rebel factions and the Congolese National Army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The aerochrome film the photographer uses, transforms dense green foliage into fluorescent pinks and blues. The surreally tinted backdrop, seems a psychological barometer of violence and surveillance. Mosse said in an interview, “I wanted to export this technology to a harder situation, to up-end the generic conventions of calcified mass-media narratives and challenge the way we’re allowed to represent this forgotten conflict… I wanted to confront this military reconnaissance technology, to use it reflexively in order to question the ways in which war photography is constructed.”
“The Castle”
Another project by Mosse, titled “The Castle” is a conscientious documentation of refugee camps and staging sites along mass migration routes into the European Union via Turkey from the Middle East and Central Asia. Mosse uses a thermographic camera to take the shots of the camps and refugees, which creates very unique and eye-catching photos. Thermographic cameras, sensitive to heat from human bodies rather than light, are used for long-range surveillance and the policing of borders. Mosse retools this camera technology, self-reflexively and with subversive intent. He takes conventional images of dispossessed refugees, usually represented with a humanistic eye, by depicting them as spectral presences in a peculiar landscape of half-recognizable built environments.
Mosse’ work is very inspiring to me and I am really interested in his work, the pictures he has taken which explore the theme of Anthropocene are very unique and I have not seen a photographer take photos like his before. Everything from the cameras used to take the photos, the locations of the photos and the reasoning behind the photos are very interesting to me and inspiring.
Mosse Image Analysis
The aerochrome film used by Mosse to take this shot, portrays the foliage in the image as a beautiful pink colour, rather than the usual green colour. This can be argued to portray nature and the untouched world as very pleasing and appealing to the human eye. The rest of the picture shows the world affected by humans, it contains a digger which has dug up the land, this part of the image is very bland and mostly shows the colour brown; which compared to the beautiful pink is a very boring and ugly colour, this could suggest that the beautiful untouched world once touched by humans turns into this ugly brown world. This image spreads a lot of awareness about Anthropocene and the effect the human race has had on our world.
Troy Paiva
Light painting photographer Troy Paiva has been capturing night imagery since 1989. He considers himself an “Urban Explorer” and says that his light painting photography is a by-product of his passion for investigating the ruins of “Lost America”. Troy spends much of his time alone, in the middle of nowhere, photographing abandon building and places that America has lost to time.
The sense of isolation and loneliness draws Troy to these locations, “I love the surreal feeling of wandering through an abandoned subdivision, alone, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. Your senses become heightened and you feel the weight of time.” Troy has written a few books about his time spent light painting in these forgotten places called “Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration”. and Boneyard: SoCal’s Aircraft Graveyards at Night.
Troy Paiva’s work is very interesting to me, the way he adds all of this colour to these abandoned forgotten structures and vehicles gives them life once again which really draws me in to his work. As well as this, his work is very visually pleasing. After viewing his work, it has given me lots of ideas and inspiration in my photoshoots. The subjects he photographs for his images fits into the topic of Anthropocene as, it is all abandoned human built structures which have been forgotten and left to be taken over by nature.
Paiva Image Analysis
This image by Troy Paiva is very interesting to me, it portrays a destroyed car being picked up by an arm ready for it to be fully destroyed for good. Although the car is destroyed, or dead, it is shown to have lots of colour all over it suggesting it still has life to it. This could be portraying that even when nature is destroyed by humans, it still is alive and humans will never truly get rid of nature no matter how much we pollute the Earth
Edward Burtynsky
Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of industrialization and its impacts on nature and the human existence.
Edwards lens captures rivers that run fluorescent, mountains of detritus, and arid landscapes: vivid reminders of humanity’s impact on the planet in haunting aerial photographs. “These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear,” he has explained of his work. “We are drawn by desire—a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success.”
Burtynsky’s work greatly portrays the impact of humans on the world. His photos are very inspiring to me and he is one of the best photographers I have seen when it comes to the subject of Anthropocene. His photos are taken all over the world and truly gives a perspective of just how much the Earth has been taken over by humans, his work gives me many different ideas for photoshoots and photo manipulation.
Burtynsky Image Analysis
This photo, by Burtynsky, is taken from an aerial view. This truly shows a huge perspective of the subject he photographed. A huge open space covered in farmland created by the human race. This photo perfectly portrays the amount of Earth that has been taken over by humans and fits perfectly within the subject of Anthropocene. The lighting and colours in the photo are very bland and basic, which could be emphasising the fact that we have taken over the world and there needs to be change.
Since the Industrial Revolution began, human activity has substantially changed the atmosphere. Carbon-dioxide levels are higher today than they have been in at least 800,000 years. The ocean’s pH is changing at an unprecedented rate, reaching levels of acidity that animals have not experienced in the last 20 million years. We are living in a time many people refer to as the Anthropocene. Humans have become the single most influential species on the planet, causing significant global warming and other changes to land, environment, water, organisms and the atmosphere. t is widely accepted that our species, has had such a significant impact on Earth and its inhabitants that we will have a lasting – and potentially irreversible – influence on its systems and environment
Photography is a great way to tackle the problem of Anthropocene, as with pictures you can easily and clearly display the impact our species has had on this planet better than using words. Photographs that portray Anthropocene is a great way to create awareness of the problem and create new solutions to tackle the problem as well as more people tackling the problem. Photographers have been working to spread the cause of tackling Anthropocene, one example of this is an exhibition known as “The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene”, featuring 45 artists, many of them photographers, whose work addresses human impact on the environment. The exhibition title refers to the current geological era, named the Anthropocene because most scientists consider human activity to be the primary force behind rapid, changes to the earth’s climate and ecosystems.
Examples of Anthropocene photography
Ideas of photo locations for this topic
Industrial sites
Landfill sites / the dump
Large landscapes such as the sand dunes
Heavily littered areas
heavily populated areas such as St. Helier
Ideas of different photography skills for this topic
I selected these images as my final images because they are my favourite images that I have taken, favourite edits out of the images and I believe they portray the idea of an urban landscape the best out of all my photographs. These final outcomes contain images from both of my photoshoots, five of the images are from shoot 1 and the other four from shoot 2. All of the images have been manipulated using either Lightroom or Photoshop, or both. I set out to take photos of urban and industrial landscapes, and I believe that I completed this task to my best ability. The images that I took came out very well and I am happy with my final outcomes. To improve, I could have taken more photos in my first photo shoot, or have done a third photoshoot, with more photos I would have had more to work with and produce more final images or higher quality final images. Overall I believe that I completed this task successfully
The photograph on the right was captured by Lewis Baltz, one of the photographers involved in The New Topographics, the photograph on the left was captured by me. Lewis Baltz image depicts the outside of a factory building, a stack of blocks can be seen in the image as well as a door and a ladder going up the building. My image on the right depicts a cave full of structural supports which have been vandalised with graffiti, the image portrays the impact that humans have had on nature. Both images have been shot in black and white although mine does contain traces of colour to add more life into the photo and make it more interesting for a viewer. The texture of the subjects captured in both images can be argued to be very similar also.
For my first shoot, I took photos on the cliffside of fort regent and down by pier road multi-story carpark, I also took photos behind the carpark by going along the pathway on the cliff edge. I used the flagging system on Lightroom to pick my best and favourite photos to use for editing.
Shoot 2
I took a lot more photos on shoot 2 compared to shoot 1, I once again used the flagging system on Lightroom to select my best images.
Best photos Shoot 1
I selected these images because I believe that they portray very well how a man-made urban landscape has a huge impact on nature and the natural landscape on the Earth, these were the best photos I took from shoot 1 out of the 55 photos take.
Best Photos Shoot 2
These were my favourite images from my second photo shoot, I like them the most as I believe these are the best images I took that portray an urban landscape the best.
Lightroom Edits
I used a before and after image on Lightroom to show the difference between the original image and the edited version of the image. Most of the Lightroom edits consisted of changing the contrast and exposure to make the images brighter/darker. I did this as some of the images cane out too bright or too dark and I wanted the images to look a lot more effective.
Shoot 1
Once I edited the exposure and contrast of this image, I created a virtual copy of it to create a black and white version of the image as well, which is below.
Shoot 2
Photoshop Edits
On photoshop, I experimented with introducing black and white into the images while also keeping parts of colour in the photo to create a unique and interesting effect. Original photos are on the left while the edited photo is on the right. I also experimented with a double exposure effect to create some unique and interesting images.
