Rural Landscape Photography focuses on photographing areas that are left mostly untouched by mankind, instead focusing on shapes and compositions created by nature. A lot of rural landscape photography is taken in the countryside, in large green fields, however images can be taken in almost any environment, be it woods, mountains or even seaside cliffs.

Early rural landscape images would have been taken by scientists and explorers while on expeditions. These images could be used to show the people back home what the place looked like, as well as to document animals and plants in that area.

Romanticism is an artistic movement that was most popular from the late 1700s to the mid 1800s, it consists of multiple kinds of art, like painting, literature and music, but it can also be applied to photography. A large focus of Romanticism is appreciating the beauty of nature, as well as the rejection of artistic values of the time.

Paintings that are a part of the Romantic movement tend to have a big focus on ornate landscapes, making them both beautiful and terrifying, their size swallowing the small figures placed on the canvas, known as the sublime. In Edmund Burke’s book, Philosophical Enquiry, he connects the emotions felt towards the sublime as experiences of awe, terror, and danger.

Romanticism came as a result of the Age of Enlightenment, a period of time where Western ideals began to shift from religion towards science. Romantic artists questioned the sense of order and rationalism pushed by Enlightenment, and the relationship between nature and humanity is often explored in Romantic work.

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Eliot Porter was an American landscape photographer, best known for his interesting landscape photographs. His pictures were inspired by the work of Ansel Adams, another photographer known for photographing the sublime. Porter’s style was very bright and colourful, with compositions reminiscent of old paintings from the Romantic era.

An image taken by Porter during his travels. The image is split almost perfectly with the rule of thirds, the stone arch and the brown dirt dividing it horizontally, while the two thin trees divide it vertically. It looks almost like a gateway, if the viewer was actually there, they may get swallowed by nature itself. The image is peaceful and still but still unnerving, perfectly able to capture the feeling of the sublime. The colours are bright like all of Porter’s work, the blues, greens and greys contrasting the warm dirt in the rough centre of the image, with small bits of yellow hinted throughout the picture. The shadows are deep, once again fuelling the fear of the sublime, and the trees through the arch look as if they go on infinitely. Nothing in the image is manmade, making it seem as if they are trapped in the natural world, with nowhere to go except through the arch.

Rural Landscape Photography

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.

13 Types of Landscape Photography:

• Seascape Photography
• Mountain Photography
• Forest Photography
• Cloudscape Photography
• Astrophotography
• Panorama Photography
• Time Lapse Photography
• Long Exposure Photography
• Star Trail Photography
• Sunrise/Sunset Photography
• Night Photography
• Representational Photography
• Abstract Photography

Below are shown some landscape images that have been photographed across Jersey CI at many different beaches and locations. All images have been taken of the sea and beaches because Jersey has very nice beaches and has many good places to take photographs.

Jersey Landscape Photography Moodboard

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Romanticism Photography

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Romanticism – a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.

Romanticism originated in Europe during the end of the 18th century, but it’s still well and alive today. Contemporary Russian artist Anna Razumovskaya manages to capture the romantic style of Renaissance portraiture in her own, modern way.

Anna Razumovskaya work examples

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Landscape photography shows the spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes. Landscape photography is done for a variety of reasons. 

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Fay Godwin

Fay Godwin first became interested in photography in the mid-1960s as a result of taking pictures of her young children. Alongside early portrait work, she developed a sophisticated landscape practice, often collaborating closely with writers to produce in depth surveys of particular rural topics or regions. Her photography has sometimes been linked to a tradition of romantic representations of the British landscape, in the manner of Bill Brandt or Edwin Smith. But, as a socialist and active environmentalist, Godwin makes the land in her photographs reveal traces of its history, through mankind’s occupation and and intervention.

Fay Godwin started her professional career as a portrait photographer and in the 1970s and 1980s photographed a wide range of literary figures. During this period her poetic black-and-white interpretations of British scenery also established her reputation as one of Britain’s most accomplished landscape photographers.

“I’ve been working with the land for most of my life; walking it and photographing it. And I love it to bits.”

She collaborated with a number of writers and photography and literature were combined most successfully in Remains of Elmet (1979), a collection of poems and photographs produced in partnership with Ted Hughes. Her later work—particularly after receiving a fellowship from the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television at Bradford in the 1990s—was characterised by an increasing use of colour and semi-abstract compositions of natural forms.

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Two of Fay’s cameras were on loan from the British library, and displayed at the National Science and Media Museum in 2010, showcasing how she created her works. There are two of Fay Godwin’s cameras on display—a Hasselblad 500C/M camera fitted with a Planar f2. 8 50mm lens and a Leica M6 camera fitted with a Summicron f2 35mm lens. Both of these cameras would have been used to produce some of the images included in the exhibition.

A folder containing Fay Godwin’s original negatives is also added to the display, open at the page containing her negatives for the Flooded Tree image. She made careful notes on a pencil sketch of the photograph to remind her how best to print from the chosen negative. These notes show areas highlighted to ‘hold back’ and others which need additional exposure. Such detailed attention resulted in the final exhibition print, framed and on show next to the display case.

“I like photographs which leave something to the imagination.”

This image of Fay’s is black and white. There is strong contrast between the light and dark tones in this image – for example to the left of the image there is an area of darkness in the tree. This deeply contrasts the bright white clouds in the background of the image. The bright white sky separates clearly from the middle and foreground with the clever use of colour. Also in the middle of the image, there is a clear use of line and shape. The fields with strong lines through them create a sense of repetition in the image, as the lines continue to the foreground, becoming wider. This adds depth and dimension to the image, and creates an unusual scale and size to each part of the picture. The grain in this image also adds to the rough texture of the fields. This is a moody image and quiet feeling image, with the black and white effect creating a desolate and lonely composition.

Don Mccullin

Don McCullin is considered to be one of the greatest living photographers.. For the past 50 years he has proved himself a photojournalist without equal, documenting the poverty of London’s East End, or the horrors of wars in Africa, Asia or the Middle East. He is an incredibly versatile photographer, capable of beautifully arranged still life, soulful portraits and moving landscapes.

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Following an impoverished north London childhood blighted by Hitler’s bombs and the early death of his father, McCullin was called up for National Service with the RAF. After postings to Egypt, Kenya and Cyprus he returned to London armed with a twin reflex Rolleicord camera and began photographing friends from a local gang named The Guv’nors. Persuaded to show them to the picture editor at the Observer in 1959, aged 23, he earned his first commission and began his long and distinguished career in photography more by accident than design.

In 1961 he won the British Press Award for his essay on the construction of the Berlin Wall. His first taste of war came in Cyprus, 1964, where he covered the armed eruption of ethnic and nationalistic tension, winning a World Press Photo Award for his efforts. In 1993 he was the first photojournalist to be awarded a CBE. At home he has spent three decades chronicling the English countryside – in particular the landscapes of Somerset – and creating meticulously constructed still life all to great acclaim. Mccullin’s landscapes feature dark, moody skies that provoke feeling within the viewer – they are often of waterlogged fields and misty landscapes, which feature a clever use of water reflections and shadow. Yet he still feels the lure of war. As recently as October 2015 Don travelled to Kurdistan in northern Iraq to photograph the Kurds’ three-way struggle with ISIS, Syria and Turkey.

“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”

Don Mccullin

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was an American landscape photographer, most well-known for his widely influential photos of the Yosemite National Park. He created the Zone System, a photographic technique for determining exposure in black and white photos.

Adams was inspired by photographers who specialized in mostly expedition photography, for example Carleton Watkins, Timothy O’Sullivan, and Frank Jay Haynes, who worked with large bulky cameras and set off into the wilderness carrying their equipment on mules. Adams first visited Yosemite in 1916 and began taking photos there not long after.

His subject was the awe he felt in nature, the humbling exaltation he felt in the wilderness, whether manifest on a huge or tiny scale. In the early 1930s, other photographers and critics complained that the world was going to pieces while people like Adams and Edward Weston were photographing rocks. Adams responded in a letter to Weston that “Humanity needs the purely aesthetic just as much as it needs the purely material.”

IMAGE ANALYSIS

This is one of many photos taken by Adams at Yosemite National Park. This photo features the zone system, with 1 being the shadows reflected from the cliff and 8/9 being the moon which is one of many focal points in the photo. It features not only different shades but also different textures, with the rocky cliff face and the smooth effect the shadow has created. My favourite part of this photo is the moon in the background, as that is what immediately caught my attention even though it is arguably the smallest detail in the photo.

Adam’s role in photography has played a key part in influencing how photos are taken. The creation of the zone system helps distinguish different settings of exposure in black and white. Adam’s love of photography helped him create the image he wanted to see in his mind then recreated it in his photos, inspiring other landscape photographers to do the same.

Landscape photography is a type of photography that captures the beauty of nature, bringing the viewers into the scenery, setting, and mood in these outdoor locations. Most landscape photos are taken in colour to capture features like the sky or colours of nature, but I have chosen to look at photographers who shoot in predominantly black and white – I prefer this because i feel like it captures more emotion.

Light is by far the most important element of a landscape photograph. A photograph of a stunning location taken in harsh mid-day light will fall flat. A photograph of a boring location taken at that perfect moment when the light is magical will turn into a unique and memorable photograph. Another important feature is composition – whilst taking the photo there are key things to think about such as texture, colours, shapes and frames.

IMAGE ANALYSIS

This photo was taken by Ansel Adams of a wind-damaged tree in the mountains. The dark branches and leaves of the three juxtaposes the light background of the sky, most likely taken on a sunny day. The tree casts a shadow on the floor again contrasting the bright background whilst the light from the sun illuminates the silhouette of the tree.

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These two photos show the difference between a poor landscape photo and a better one. Depending on aesthetic the left photo could be considered good, but the blur and poor choice of lighting makes the focal point unclear. However, the photo on the right is clear and has two major focal points – the tree and the lighting in the background – the colour contrast between the tree and the sky plays a major part in making a good photo.

Ansel Adams

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Fay Godwin

Fay Godwin was a British photographer born in 1931, Belin, Germany. She was most known for her black and white landscape photographs of the British countryside and coast. In 1961 she married publisher Tony Godwin and together they had two kids. Fay Godwin’s interest in photography developed in the mid 60s as a result of taking pictures of her children. She was less active in her last years due to her health and in December 2004 she had her last interview with David Corfield for Practical Photography in which she blamed the NHS: “The NHS. They ruined my life by using some drugs with adverse affects that wrecked my heart. The result is that I haven’t the energy to walk very far.”

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Eliot Porter

Eliot Porter was an American photographer born in in 1901, Illinois, United States. He is best knows for his colourful photographs of nature. Porter’s interest in nature was fostered by his family from a young age as he began photographing his family’s island property as a youth in Maine, before going on to study chemical engineering at Harvard University. After he graduated in the mid 30s, his brother (Fairfield Porter) encouraged his latent interest in photography and introduced him to Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz.

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Experiment 1:

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I first edited both photos exactly how I would with any of my images and I then added each image on two seperate layers. I went around the reflection of myself in the mirror with the lasso tool and copy and pasted it onto a new layer. I then deleted any unwanted parts so that I would just be left with the image of myself that I outlined. I then aligned it in the mirror and I turned down the exposure and shadows so that I would blend in better with the other image. When I first pasted the cut out section into the other image, it appeared too light as they both have different exposures, so I adjusted it slightly as to have the same intensity of light.

Experiment 2:

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With this photograph, I first edited the original photo to a black and white version and after I carried out that process, I blurred out my face. Once my face was blurry enough, I scribbled over my face with the brush pen in white and draw the top surgery scars in light grey where my chest is. I then decided to write “This is freedom” to signify that these surgeries can be freeing for trans people.

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Here are some edits I tried doing for this image, just to figure out where I wanted the writing to be placed.

Final experiments:

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Claude Cahun

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For this photo, I was heavily inspired by Claude Cahun’s. I feel as if my work is somewhat similar to theirs as I have maintained the fact that my image is black and white which Cahun’s is too. I have also followed a similar theme in the sense that they both signify gender identity and are positioned in a similar way, such as sitting down on a chair.

Landscape photography is a type of photography that captures the beauty of nature, bringing the viewers into the scenery, setting, and mood in these outdoor locations. Rural landscape photography refers to photographs taken in less populated areas like the countryside. They can often contain architecture (like urban landscapes) however, rural landscape photography focuses on the life and elements found in the country side. Some of these elements are: trees, mountains, animals, trees, lakes, cliffs etc.

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