Romanticism is the attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century.
It was started in 1757 during the Industrial Revolution, which is what Romanticism was supposed to be fighting against. The Industrial Revolution promoted the idea of Enlightenment, this was promoting the scientific progress of rationality and logical thinking. While as Romanticism more represented the idea of returning to nature through art such as poetry, paintings and later photography.
What is the Sublime:
Historically, the word “Sublime” evades the idea of easy definition and it revolves around many other things such as: “Judgement, feeling, state of mind and a kind of response to art or nature.” In other words, the Sublime is supposed to resemble the extraordinary and that if something that can “Compel and destroy”.
The Sublime was started in 1757 and it has been debated over what the word actually means since then. The original meaning made by the Sublimes founder, Edmund burke, was “an artistic effect productive of the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling.”.
Starting in the 18th century romanticism was the rejection to the rationalism of the ‘enlightenment’ (the movement of science and industrialisation) sparked by the French Revolution in favour of the irrational and the imaginative arts, admiring the awe of nature, and the childlike emotive qualities of people that were lost in the enlightenment. The Romantic artists tended to depict themes of nature, imagination, extreme emotions, doomed love, and the Revolutions in a glorified romanticised light.
The sublime
Calias Pier – Joeseph Mallord Williams
Snow Storm – Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps – J. M. W. Turner
In history sublime was used to describe the idea of grandeur and the extraordinary. Artist often painted large scenes of sweeping clouds or huge mountains making humanity seem small and insignificant in comparison with nature.
Edmund Burke’s “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful” provided an explanation for what both the sublime and the beautiful means with the Beautiful- being the well informed and the aesthetically pleasing, whilst the sublime is described as “that which has the power to compel and destroy us.” Burkes work was heavily criticised by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant as the book did not acknowledge the mental effect that experiencing the sublime had on someone
“To make psychological observations, as Burke did in his treatise on the beautiful and the sublime, thus to assemble material for the systematic connection of empirical rules in the future without aiming to understand them, is probably the sole true duty of empirical psychology, which can hardly even aspire to rank as a philosophical science.” – according to Kant, Burke only gathered data and left it up to others to interoperate its effect.
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.
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. Perhaps the most common is to recall a personal observation or experience while in the outdoors, especially when traveling. Others pursue it particularly as an outdoor lifestyle, to be involved with nature and the elements, some as an escape from the artificial world.
Many landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in the pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature, devoid of human influence—instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light. As with most forms of art, the definition of a landscape photograph is broad and may include rural or urban settings, industrial areas or nature photography.
During this project, I will photograph a couple of different landscapes that remind me of other photographs done by artists. I will link these photos to romanticism and the sublime, creating contrast between humans and their architecture and the wild, carefree nature around us. I will try to capture either the people or buildings in a way that makes them look insignificant, to support the romantic beliefs of nature being everlasting and very important.
Firstly i started off by editing my image on photoshop, for example edited the saturation and colour to more purple/blue. i continued to print the same two images out of the scissors and tape the difference being different tones of colour but similar. Then used the trimmer to precisely trim out sections of the picture to then use superimposition and stick the sections in line as much as possible on top.
I decided I wanted this in an A3 so went back onto Lightroom and photoshop and made sure it was smooth and sharp ready to be put into the print folder. Now I have framed it and is on display.
EVALUATION
Overall the project ‘home’, was very new to me at the start getting used to photography and how to effectively use a camera. I’ve learnt useful things such as how to use photoshop and organise my photoshoots on Lightroom. However, I need to be more creative with my photography whilst also focusing on the technique and quality of my images. I’ve enjoyed doing research into artists and exploring different styles of photography. This project has been an informative introduction to photography and has helped me understand what photography is and how it can be portrayed as ‘home’.
Constable is famous for his landscapes, which are mostly of the Suffolk countryside, where he was born and lived. Constable’s most famous paintings include Wivenhoe Park (1816), Dedham Vale (1821) and The Hay Wain (1821). His paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art however, he was never financially successful.
His work transformed the landscape painting genre and shaped the enduring popular image of the English countryside.
THE HAY WAIN – John Constable – 1821
This painting depicts a farm scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex.
land ownership – from the image we can see a man working the land however, I believe he is not the land owner he is instead the labourer working for the owner.
land use – The area of land that we can see appears to be used for farming or some form of agriculture. The pond serves as a cooling system for the horses as this picture is set in the summer where temperatures would’ve been high and to enable the horse to work in this heat they walk him through the cool water.
Class – The man in the picture is working class as we believe he’s the labourer for the owner of the land. The land owner however, would most likely be upper class as they could afford a large area of land and to employ workers.
Changing times – The picture, painted in 1821, depicts a time before the industrial revolution. This is a time the romanticists wanted to cherish and protect from the damage that factories and machinery would do to the natural landscape.
Industrial revolution – The picture was painted pre-industrial revolution which is why they’re using a horse and cart to transport things and just using the old fashioned techniques and technologies rather than machinery.