Robert Adams born in 1937 New Jersey, is an American photographer who’s work is focused on the changing landscape of the American West. Adams moved to a suburb in Colorado with his family in 1954, this is where much of Adams photos and work are based. His work first became popular in the mid-1970s through his participation in the New Topographics exhibition. In the 1970s and 1980s Adams produced a series of books such as, The New West, Denver, What We Bought and Summer Nights these books focused on expanding suburbs along Colorado’s landscape, these books pictured huge rural developments but also the surviving light, size and shape of the natural world. 

Robert Adam’s work

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Robert Adams photos portray how the new post-war developments of the modern world have spilled into the old American west. The photos show above depict newly developed buildings and structures that are still surrounded by nature and the old landscape, suggesting that nature is still around us all the time no matter how much humans build. The photos are all shot in black and white, which perfectly matches the locations that they are taken in, barren and empty expanses of land with small marks of human life and buildings.

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This photograph, taken in 1973 by Adams, depicts a mobile home estate in Colorado, with a huge mountain and barren landscape behind. Its almost as if Adams has put two images together, the top being the natural landscape of the world, and the bottom half being the ugly buildings that humanity have ruined the landscape with. Like all of Adams other photos, this photo is shot in black and white, which adds to the whole image. The lack of colours emphasize the vast location where the photo is taken, and adds to the separation between nature and man-made.

New Topographics represented a radical shift of landscape photography from photos of the natural environment, to photos of the built new developing environment. Many of the photographers associated with new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made new delepoing areas of America. Carparks, suburban housing and warehouses were all photographed with beauty that they were not considered to have, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. These new topographic photographers were less concerned with portraying an ideal image of nature and were more interested in showing plainly how man has altered it.

Examples of the New Topographic images

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These images depict the difference between the natural landscape of the world, and how man-made structures have altered the natural landscape. In the images you can see man made structures that still contain natural landscapes and nature around them, depicting that even though the world has been impacted by these structures, nature still exists around them.

What was the New Topographics a reaction to?

It can be argued that the New Topographics was a reaction to the traditional photographs of landscapes taken by photographers such as Ansel Adams. These new photographers wanted to shift away from the traditional landscape photos to create new unusual landscape photographs of the new developing world, a huge shift away. These new photos of everyday buildings taking over nature, placed people into a stance of responsibility towards the landscape’s future, a branch of thought which became very popular in the 1970s.

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Artists have been painting the landscape since ancient times. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the tradition of depicting pure landscapes declined. It declined until the 16th century when artists began to view the landscape as a subject in its own right. The artistic shift happened because of a growing interest in the natural world sparked by the Renaissance. The photographic side of landscapes was greatly influenced by the rejection of The age of Enlightenment and brought on by the Age of Romanticism. Through landscape photography, the photographers can demonstrate their connection to nature and capture the interesting and great environments around them. 

Examples of Landscape Paintings

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The age of Enlightenment 1700s-1800s

European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented during the course of the age of enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. This time period produced numerous books, inventions, laws, scientific discoveries and paintings. Landscape paintings began to become more and more common throughout this era due to the new found interest in landscapes, away from religious beliefs.

There were two main styles of landscape in the 18th century, the Classical and the Dutch styles.

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The age of romanticism 1800s-1900s

Romanticism was a rejection of the Age of Enlightenment (1700-1800) where science and  rationality were rejected over emotion and aesthetic. They felt that a scientific worldview was cold so as a reaction the Romantics generated paintings which were rich in emotions such as dread, horror, and savage nature.

Examples of Romanticism landscape paintings

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Romanticism landscape paintings were a lot more dramatic and substantial compared to the Enlightenment paintings of the century before, showcasing grander landscapes that look more fictional.

Romanticism paintings started to be transferred into photographs in the mid 1900s by photographers such as Ansel Adams who became known for his photographs of the American west.

Ansel Adams 1902 – 1984

Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. Adams is considered to be one of the pioneers of photography. Adams chose a career in photography after meeting and seeing photos by Paul Strand. Adams mainly shot in black and white, this was because he felt colour could be distracting, and could therefore divert an artist’s attention from the achievement of his full potential when taking a photograph, he also believed black and white photos had a certain quality that colour photos couldn’t achieve. In 1940 he helped organize the first public collection of photographs, at the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1946 he established the first academic photography department at a California school of arts.

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Ansel Adams and other landscape photographers like him, successfully showcased the vast landscapes around them to really draw viewers in to their work. Adams liked to say that instead of communicating images, he communicated feelings in his work, It is this thought process behind his images which make them so powerful, he created these images knowing exactly what he wanted to portray, before he took the photo.

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This image created by Adams known as “The Tetons and Snake River” greatly portrays the substantial landscape of the American west. The image is shot in black and white, this dramatizes how the rural west of America looks, and adds a lot of intensity to the image making it look almost fictional. Ansel clearly waited for the perfect moment in the weather to take the image, the distant clouds on top of the mountain show a clear contrast to the lower part of the image, almost like they are two different landscapes, the lower half being a very calm landscape and the upper half being a very wild harsh landscape. This adds depth to the image and makes it much more interesting for viewers.

Analysis

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This image shows a persons different moods and identities that they can carry on their shoulders with them, and show off these different identities to different people. I was not inspired by any other artists to create this image, and used my own ideas to create it in Photoshop.

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This photo on the left can explain that sometimes people can show 2 different faces or identities when among others, the multi exposure effect shows a happy face and a sad face which can portray that sometimes people may be feeling one mood, but putting on a mask of a different mood. I was inspired by the photo on the right taken by Claude Cahun. It also features a multi exposure effect which inspired me.

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This photo on the left portrays the juxtaposition of identity, and how a persons identity can be distinguished differently from different perspectives of multiple people. I was inspired to create this image by the image of one of my chosen artists on the right, the different contrasts of the image interested and inspired me to create an image of my own which is similar.

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This photo portrays how the media and news headlines can affect a persons views and identity, the headlines pasted on the face of major events and problems happening in the world show how the information can stick to someone and convert a persons identity. I was not inspired by another artist for this photo, but instead used my own ideas to create the image.

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This photo can portray a persons single identity, and how someone who does not know them my view them from first glance. The photo on the right was taken by one of my chosen artist and helped inspire me to create this image, I found the image on the right very interesting which is why I chose it to compare to my image

Evaluation and Critique

For a first photography mock exam I have completed, I believe that I have done very well, although there were some things which could have been completed better. Firstly, I could have completed more photoshoots, I only managed to complete two photoshoots and took roughly 70 photos, which were narrowed down to about 25 photos, and then narrowed down once again after editing to about 10 photos (which I chose 5 of for the final images). With more photos, I would have been able to edit more photos and present more ideas for my final images. I believe that I chose a great artist to inspire me and compare my images to, as I found the artist very interesting. For the next exam, I will aim to take more photos so I have more content to work with to create better or more final images.

Virtual Gallery’s

I created 3 gallery’s of my final images, 2 on photoshop and one on Artsteps as a virtual online gallery.

Link: https://www.artsteps.com/view/61f116357cbad9290eac4693?currentUser

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Black and White

I first went into Adobe Lightroom to use the black and white effects, I played around with the contrast, exposure, highlights and shadows until I got this edit below.

I then exported the image from Lightroom into Photoshop, to remove shine off the face and cleaned up the image using the airbrush and spot healing brush tools by creating a new layer at 50% opacity and then merging the two layers together.

Above are more black and white edits

Above is a final edit of my portrait compared to portrait I found from my chosen artist Andrzej Steinbach.

Other Edits

I took this photo and played around with different tools in Photoshop such as, the lasso, the marquee tool, the black and white filters and the spot healing brush to create the image below. For the section with the eyes I took another photo and pasted it over using the marquee tool and transformed it into the best fitting position. I then took the photo back into Lightroom and increased different tools such as the texture and clarity to create a beard like effect on the bottom half of the face.

The final edit is placed above a photo by one of my chosen artists.

For this edit I played around with the exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, clarity and dehaze tools in Lightroom. I then exported the edit into Photoshop, where I used another photo I found off of google of newspaper headlines and pasted it onto the photo. I then used the lasso tool as well as making the image black and white to make it look more effective. I then used the blur and smudge tool to make it look more realistic. I also cleaned up the background of the image using the spot healing brush. This created the final image below.

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Using these 3 photos I created another edit in Photoshop, using the shapes tool and creating a clipping mask I added 2 of the photos into the shapes to create this edit.

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I used these 2 images and merged them together on photoshop and changed the opacity of one of them to 50% to give the illusion of a double exposure effect with a happy face and a sad face. I also edited the 2 photos in Adobe Lightroom and increased the contrast and exposure of the images to make them appear lighter as they were quite dark.

SHOOT 1

From my first shoot I selected my best images using the flagging system on Adobe Lightroom, I chose the photos based on how well they represent one of my chosen photographers, Andrzej Steinbach, the quality of the image taken and the editability of the photo

From my chosen photos I then used the rating system to choose my very best images from shoot 1 to edit and experiment with in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

SHOOT 2

I also used the flagging and rating system for my seconds shoot, to make sure I chose the best images possible for editing.

Best Photos

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These 8 photos were selected as my best images as I believe that they included the best lighting and angles out of my photos, as well as, I believe I will be able to edit these photos the best out of all of them to produce the best final images that I would be able to produce.

IDENTITY MOODBOARD

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Identity can be defined in different ways, such as, the qualities, personality and beliefs which distinguish a person. It can also be seen as the outside of a person other people can see, without knowing them, leading them to presume the identity they have.

IDENTITY IDEA MINDMAP

Identity can be influenced through many ways from family and friends all the way to the kind of clothes a person wears and the culture they come from. All these factors shown above in the mind map influence a persons identity. The factors shown above also affect different stereotypes and prejudices people have to another persons identity, such as the are they live in as well as the building they live in.

Claude Cahun

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Claude Cahun was a Surrealist photographer whose work explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. The artist’s self-portrait from 1928 epitomizes her attitude and style, as she stares defiantly at the camera in an outfit that looks neither conventionally masculine nor feminine. photos taken by Claude Cahun tend to be very dark and can portray very controversial topics.

Andrzej Steinbach

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Andrzej Steinbach was born in 1983 in Czarnkow, Poland, he lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Steinbach is interested in the signifiers of photographic portrayal and how our assumptions turn individuals into different identity’s and into different characters. Photos taken by Steinbach are mostly all black and white, and are very good at portraying the identity of the subject that has been photographed.

I used the Flagging system in Adobe Lightroom to select the best portraits I took. From the flagging system I then edited the portraits in Lightroom and then Photoshop if needed.

I used a before and after view in Lightroom to portray the changes I made to the portraits to make them look more effective

Favourite Portraits taken

These portraits show a before and after image once they have been edited in Lightroom

Diamond Cameo

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On the left is an image created by me, while on the right is Henry Mullins, another photographers example of a diamond cameo. To create my Diamond cameo photo, I took 4 different portraits and loaded them into Adobe Photoshop, where I used the circle tool to paste the portraits into the circles. I then arranged them in this order to create an effective diamond cameo similar to Henry Mullins diamond cameo.

Henry Mullins set up a studio in jersey in 1848, known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. Initially he was in partnership with a Mr Millward, about whom very little is known. By the following year he was working alone and he continued to work out of the same studio for another 26 years. Henry Mullins called the Diamond Cameo technique Multi-Portraits, and it was used under licence by him in the 1800s in his studio in Jersey. Mullins used the Daguerrotype photography technique to create his portraits

Double/Multi Exposure

Some of the first double exposure photos emerged during the 1860s as another source of revenue for photographers. To give their business a boost, they discovered how to make a portrait subject appear twice in a frame, as if they had an identical twin. In each of the pictures, the person was striking a different pose. The double exposure technique has been used throughout the 20th and 21st century and has remained popular as a photography technique up until the modern day.

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Historic examples of the double exposure technique

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modern examples of the double exposure technique

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These are two examples of a multi exposure photo effect which were created in photoshop, to mimic the exposure technique which photographers use. To create the effect, I placed the same image on top of the other and changed the opacity to 50%, and then slightly moved the image to the right to create the effect.

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is an act or technique of placing two elements or photos close together or side by side. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences of the photos. Juxtaposition is mostly used by photographers to add more interest to the viewers into their work. Juxtapositions can be used by photographers to show the contrast or difference of certain subjects such as, Rich Vs Poor, Healthy Vs Sick, Attractive Vs Ugly and Men Vs Women.

The history of photographic studios and photography dates back to the 1840s with the invention of processes for recording camera pictures, by Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre. The earliest photographic studios made use of natural daylight to create photographic portraits.

Early Pioneers of photography

Louis Daguerre 1787-1851

Louis Daguerre is credited with creating the first commercially successful photographic process known as the Daguerrueotype. It consisted of silver plates and chemicals such as iodine and bromine to create images. Numerous portrait studio’s opened their doors from 1840 onward. Daguerreotypes were very expensive, so only the wealthy could afford to have their portrait taken. Even though the portrait was the most popular subject, the daguerreotype was used to record many other images such as natural phenomenon’s and remarkable events.

Henry Fox Talbot 1800-1877

Henry Fox Talbot was an English chemist, linguist, archaeologist, and pioneer of photography. He is best known for his development of the calotype, an early photographic process that was an improvement over the daguerreotype of the French inventor Louis Daguerre. Talbot’s calotypes used a photographic negative, from which multiple prints could be made. He and Louis Daguerre are best known as the main inventors of the camera and early photography.

Robert Cornelius 1809-1893

Robert Cornelius was an American photographer and pioneer in the history of photography. He designed the photographic plate for the first photograph taken in the United States, an image of a School taken by in 1839.

I used a flagging system on Adobe Lightroom to choose what object photos to use and which not to use

Using one of my best images I experimented with Adobe Photoshop to improve the images and make them more interesting with editing

Basic Edits

I first started with just making an object photo black and white to give it an older feel to the picture, to tie it in to heritage

Further Edits