For this idea I was highly inspired by Jersey because of its love and appreciation for our beaches. Jersey beaches however, are still a victim of ocean pollution, although a smaller amount of plastic waste is washed up on our shores, the plastic waste is still a problem.
Editing
I began my editing process in photoshop, i did this as i needed to initially add more plastic onto my image.
For my exam, i will be focussing on the theme of ocean pollution. I will be expressing my ideas through portrait photography within my project, to highlight the demolishing impact of human plastic waste within the ocean and too also add an empathetic effect on the viewer by switching the marine life to humans.
My main photographer will be Andreas Franke, I will be emulating Franke’s work while including parts from Carroll’s’ and Kruger’s work.
Things to collect:
Artist 1- Andreas Franke
Andreas Franke, based in Vienna, is a passionate diver and award winning photographer. For Luerzer‘s Archive he is among the 200 Best Photographers. He is the founder, owner and chief photographer of Staudinger+Franke He worked for great brands like Ben&Jerry’s, Coca-Cola, Ford, General Electric, Gillette, Heineken, Nike, Visa or Wrigley‘s. His still life’s and his surreal effects are famous. In his pictures every little detail is planned precisely. There is no space left for fortuity. Andreas Franke is a traveller. He travels through the world and between the worlds. His job frequently leads him to several countries on several continents. So does his passion the scuba diving. In his pictures Franke crosses the borderlines between fantasy and real life.
Frankes work focuses on having a plastic free ocean.
“With my art, I don’t want to shock anyone, but rather to draw attention to a subject to make people think. I believe that humanity has learned to repress shocking images. The more frightening the pictures, the more ineffective they become in the end. Shocking images of sea creatures are not processed any further by many people. They have no relationship to the ocean, and therefore have no relationship to its living beings, and so they do nothing. Representing everything that is beautiful in this world, I show beautiful people. Representing our future, I show our next generation. I show both groups in the water among plastic garbage, which was collected along the coast of Italy in a single day. Through the next set of images I isolate individual plastic items from the first series and juxtapose them with facts to create more awareness about the extent of the plastic problem in our oceans.” – Andreas Franke
Photoshoot plan
Artist 2- Jeremy Carroll
Jeremy Carroll is an artist and professional photographer who wants to change the state of the ocean caused by man by bringing the problem to the forefront of people’s minds.
I will be inspired by these images here taken from Jeremy Carrolls album called ‘Marine Polution’ eatured in an exhibit called ‘Entanglement’.
Today’s state of Ocean pollution is affecting marine wildlife in a dramatic way. Us Humans are responsible for this disaster and we are yet to suffer the consequences. This photographic work translates the issues marine wildlife is facing in regards to marine pollution by creating a human analogy on plastic ingestion and entanglement. My goal is to open new eyes on the challenges that lay before us. – Jeremy Carroll
Jeremy Carroll is the artist and photographer behind this incredible collection of images featured in an exhibit called Entanglement that we first caught sight of on Treehugger. Each image depicts a human being caught up in the waste that is commonly found in seawater and along beaches such as discarded fishing nets, plastic bottles, grocery bags and flip flops. With the way things are going, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation predicts that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Even without hearing this shocking prediction we can tell things are looking grim with the horrifying and heartbreaking images of innocent turtles and whales found trapped in plastic or with a stomach full of garbage created and disposed of by humans. While many of us feel saddened by the harm inflicted on marine wildlife, many people still take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to justifying the use of disposable, single-use plastic products. Perhaps true empathy for the state of our oceans can only come when we imagine our loved ones caught up in these human-made messes. But empathy is only step one, the journey to cleaning up our oceans and reducing the waste we dispose will take action and conscious consuming.
Barbara Kruger
I will be taking inspiration from Kruger and her style of declarative captions and placing my own on my work to highlight the unjust human affects on the ocean and its sea life
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist known for her combination of type and image that conveys a direct feminist cultural critique. Her works examine stereotypes and the behaviours of consumerism with text layered over mass-media images. In 1979, Kruger developed her signature style using large-scale black-and-white images overlaid with text. She repurposed found images, juxtaposing them with short, pithy phrases printed in Future Bold or Helvetica Extra Bold typeface in black, white, or red text bars. Within a short declarative statement, she synthesizes a critique about society, the economy, politics, gender, and culture. Kruger merges the slick façade of graphic design with unexpected phrases in order to catch the viewer’s attention using the language of contemporary publications, graphic design, or magazines.
What is Anthropocene?
The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time.
Anthropocene represents the more recent time of the earths everchanging landscape. From urbanization to great masses of landfill, the human species has had an impact on this planet like no other species before. Anthropocene documents the human impact on this earth, reviewing the significant negative impacts on the planets changing climate and eco systems. These changes include global warming, habitat loss, changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soil, and animal extinctions.
It is widely believed that the Anthropocene began during the industrial revolution of the 1800s due to a colossal human impact on carbon and methane in the earths atmosphere. However, some people believe that the Anthropocene didn’t begin until 1945 due to the environmental impacts of humans dropping atomic bombs, especially Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. These atomic bombs left radioactive particles scattered in soil.
The documentation of Anthropocene is exhibited is many gallerys, following the work of photographers four-year collaboration between Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, the exhibitions use both new and traditional lens-based art to create an innovative and dynamic expression of humanity’s incursions on the planet.
I captured a range of images which were inspired by British Photographer, Peter Mitchell. I attempted to emulate Mitchells Editing styles by adjusting things such as, saturation, vibrancy and added a grain effect to emphasise the 1970s zeitgeist.
Mitchells images for reference
My images
In this image, I think I captured the vibrancy similar to that in various of Mitchells images.
Peter Mitchell (born 1943) is a British documentary photographer, known for documenting Leeds and the surrounding area for more than 40 years. Mitchell’s photographs have been published in three monographs of his own. His work was exhibited at Impressions Gallery in 1979, and nearly thirty years later was included in major survey exhibitions throughout the UK including at Tate Britain and Media Space in London, and the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. Mitchell’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Royal Photographic Society and Leeds Art Gallery.
I will be inspired by Peter Mitchell, in particular his photography project titled ‘early Sunday morning’ this project, which was later published as a book focused on the changing landscapes and urbanisation of Leeds, England, Mitchell captured the layers of the city’s history, exposed by the changes to the urban landscape that epitomised the 1970s and 80s. Hundred-year-old terraces and cobbled streets sit flanked by concrete flats, with newly cleared ground to either side are presented with Mitchell’s typical graphic framing.
Early Sunday Morning – Peter Mitchell
The New Topographics
“New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” was an exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography.
The term Topographics was coined by William Jenkins. The New Topographics creating a turning point of moving away from the traditional depictions of landscape photography. New Topographics placed an emphasis on the industrial and increasingly suburbanised world. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development. New Topographics gained a varied response from the public:
“I don’t like them—they’re dull and flat. There’s no people, no involvement, nothing.”
“At first it’s stark nothing, but then you look at it, and it’s just about the way things are.”
“I don’t like to think there are ugly streets in America, but when it’s shown to you—without beautification—maybe it tells you how much more we need here.”
New Topographics focused on capturing the changing world and changing landscapes, in contrast to landscape artists such as Ansel Adams who based there studies on preserving the natural landscape and used they’re images in hope of protecting these sights from industrial change.
New Topographics, although rarely containing people within the images, represented the human impact on the landscapes, through the use of man made buildings, perhaps leading people to care and concern more for the natural environment and landscapes. However, new Topographics can also be seen as beautiful. Their stark, beautifully printed images of this mundane but oddly fascinating topography was both a reflection of the increasingly suburbanised world around them, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental.
Rural landscape photography refers to “photography in the countryside” and covers the rural environment. While rural landscapes often contain architecture – much the same as urban landscapes – rural landscape photography is more about capturing the life and elements found in the countryside.
According to records, the earliest known evidence of a landscape photograph was taken between the years of 1826 and 1827. It was an urban landscape photo taken by a French inventor by the name of Nicephore Niepce.
The Age of The Enlightenment (1700-1800ish)
The age of enlightenment of ‘age of reason’ shifted art in the sense that it encouraged criticism of the monarchy. This new movement also created a theme of simplicity and elegance
The Age of Romanticism (1800-1900ish)
Between 1800 to roughly 1850 an artistic movement called romanticism, this was a artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement. Romanticism put an emphasis on emotion, and individualism within art and often portrayed an idealised version of what they were seeing, similar to how we use Lightroom to adjust colours and shadows creating vibrancy and depth.
Sublime – In aesthetics, the sublime is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation.
Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry (1757) connected the sublime with experiences of awe, terror and danger. Burke saw nature as the most sublime object, capable of generating the strongest sensations in its beholders. This Romantic conception of the sublime proved influential for several generations of artists.
Rural Landscape Photography
Ansel Adams
As the 20th century began rolling in, the world saw American photographers at the forefront of landscape photography, and this was because they had a rather vast and varied array of landscapes to photograph. There are many notable names in landscape photography, and one of the most legendary ones is Ansel Adams. He was an ardent environmentalist who advocated for the natural world and inspired people to show love for the planet by showing love and respect for it. He has produced some spectacular images of canyons and rivers, which have become a sort of inspiration point for photographers that followed.
Ansel Adams born 20th February 1902 was a landscape photographer born in California. As Well as being an amazing photographer, Adams was also an environmentalist and would use his skills to protect many national parks from being made into building sights.
Ansel Adams mainly captured the natural black and white beauty of the American West and began publishing in the 1921, by 1922 Adams ‘Yosemite’ prints were on sale by ‘Best studio’.
During the mid 1920’s Ansel experimented with the Bromoil process due to the rise of pictorialism. For many of Adams images, he used a soft focus lens and he described using it as “capturing a glowing luminosity that captured the mood of a magical summer afternoon”. In 1925 Adams has made the decision to reject pictorialism and focus on a more realistic approach of using contrast, exposures and sharpness. One of the key compositional techniques that Adams employed in many of his images was to place the horizon about two-thirds of the way up the frame. This would mean the composition was biased in favour of the landscape rather than the sky and would help to communicate the epic scale of the scene.
The genre of this style of photography is landscape. The mise-en-scene presents the magnificent Teton Mountains and impressive Snake River which creates a loud and interesting composition. The photo has been taken from a forward angle which makes the image look alluring. The colour (or tone) in this image is striking blacks and intense whites. The leading lines begin at the furthest point that we can see of the river and continue in the snake like trail. Bright lighting through the clouds reflects on the windy river, the rest of the image is captured in ominous dark lighting, the exposure of the image is underexposed due to the dark shadowy mountains. The image portrays a large depth of field and focuses on the river in front. The rivers contrast in tones provide a powerful leading line towards the ominous mountains.
Both of these images create a sense of confused or lost identity, Soltau can be seen portraying this through her use of a cut out face stitched onto the original, Cahun presents this through the character created in her image ‘I’m training, don’t kiss me’ where she is presenting an alter male ego. Both Soltau’s and Cahun’s image create a feeling of melancholy, i believe this is created through the all around sadness of both images highlighted by facial expression and a lack of colour. while Soltau’s image is a coloured photo, it shares parts of the monochrome theme with Cahun’s image. Both images have emphasis on the lips, Soltau’s work features 2 sets of lips, one on the face and one printed onto the face, similarly, Cahun’s character is captured with obvious red lips placed on a ‘male’ character, perhaps supporting Cahun’s views on sexuality, identity and expression. We can see in Cahun’s image, she has created more of a noticeable narrative, personally, I believe this surrounds Cahun’s views of gender and breaking gender stereotypes of the time.
The lighting in Soltau’s work is very soft, perhaps shot in a white studio accompanied by a flash, Cahun’s work was captured with a much stronger light, accompanied by dark features such as dark walls, dark objects. Cahun’s image creates a huge sense of being watched, through the message on her chest and the sense that her character looks as if they would be in a public environment.
What went well
For my identity mock exam project, I created a collection of images inspired by Annegret Soltau. I like the way I took my own approach to her style of work, to do this I sewed the identity into the skin of the face to create a metaphor that identity is ‘skin deep’. I focused on geographical identity including passports, maps and ID from various paces such as, Jersey, Poland and Portugal. I wanted to include multiple locations as diversity and appreciating other peoples cultures is very important to me. I believe my images turned out well and look very good with the stitching.
What I would do different
For my next project, I will start by taking more images, I photographed a total of 14 people however I only took roughly 4 images of each person, this is down to the fact that I should’ve booked the studio out or an extra hour to be able to take more images. I would also like to create a product with more of a deeper and complex meaning, although geographical identity is very important, I feel I could’ve gone a lot more in depth if I had chosen a different theme to cover and could’ve done more complex editing. I expressed more editing styles in my further editing, some of which I wish I had incorporated into my final piece.
Here is one of my images side by side with Soltaus
