PHOTO-GAME : Photography Genre Treasure Hunt

This task explores the following genres: travel, nature, self-portrait, landscape, still life, fine art, portrait, fashion, architecture. But which is which?

PHOTO GAME : TREASURE HUNT

Photograph the following…

1. A view through a window
2. Your reflection in a shiny surface
3. The back of someone’s head
4. A small object with a plain background
5. The palm of someone’s hand with the word HELP on it
6. A smile
7. A plant growing in the wrong place
8. A cracked paving stone
9. A pile of clothes
10. A close up of a computer screen
11. A map
12. The spine of a book
13. The inside of a bag
14. The sky
15. A part of a fork
16. The ceiling of a room
17. A photograph of a photograph
18. A glass of water
19. The sole of a shoe
20. A corner

Some Examples…

You will have a print out of the prompts and be given a time to photograph each prompt around the school

When you return you will be able to print / present the images

Discuss

The most interesting images

The most surprising images

The most difficult images

What makes a good image

Does it matter if an image is wrong or right ?

2. Image Analysis

As a group you must discuss this image…

1. Describe the image
2. Discuss the subject and the background
3. What is the lighting like?
4. How is the photo framed?
5. What is your emotional response to this image?
6. What do you think this image could be about?
7. You will be given the name and title of the image to help you search online for the image and its details
8. How does the information you have found change the way you view the image?

New Topographics is photographing a man-altered landscape that contrasts modern development with natural landscapes. This type of photography gives an insight as to how man-made developments were taking over nature. Unlike Ansel Adams, it shows the truth behind this issue and shows it how it is.

Robert Adams

Robert Adams was known for using the style of New Topographics in the 1970s, after releasing his book The New West and his participation in the exhibition New Topographics. He mainly photographs in California, Colorado and Oregon, where he captured his vision that was created by his joy for natures beauty. However he noticed this was exploited by the urban and industrial growth that had ruined it, and he managed to capture this in a simple yet effective way.

Robert Adams is an American photographer best known for his images of the American West. Offering solemn meditations on the landscapes of California, Colorado, and Oregon, Adams’s black-and-white photos document the changes wrought by humans upon nature. 

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His goal:

“to face facts but to find a basis for hope. To try for alchemy.”

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In these images, Adams `displays the melancholy and sombre vibe of the outskirts of Colorado at that time. In most of these images he has a main focal point, for example: the silhouette of a woman in the window, or the abandoned looking barn.

The top middle image shows the deserted country side with a few isolated houses, due to the post war America struggles. Vast distances, road networks and mobility was also a big post was America struggle; this is what Robert Adams bases his work off a lot of the time.

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This image splits the Colorado environment into two. On the bottom Adams captures the harsh edges of mobile homes blasted with sunlight; whereas, on the top of the image he presents an ominous mountain- skape with moody clouds.

The two parts juxtapose each other, representing how manhood has gradually taken over nature. The contrast between the angular shapes of the homes and the smooth mountain side creates an obvious conflict between humans and nature.

As a whole the piece works to recognize the American West as a landscape scattered with human development rather than an untouched natural environment.

“I think if you placed me almost anywhere and gave me a camera you could return the next day to find me photographing. It helps me, more than anything I know, to find home.”

ROBERT ADAMS

New Topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape

Stephen Shore

Ed Ruscha, “Every Building On The Sunset Strip”

The artist Ed Ruscha is famous for his paintings and prints but is also known for his series of photographic books based on typologies, among them Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Some Los Angeles Apartments, and Thirtyfour Parking Lots. Ruscha employs the deadpan style found in many photographic topologies. The book shown above is a 24 foot long accordion fold booklet that documents 1 1/2 miles of the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.  

Areas to Visit To Take Images

St Helier

Residential areas

Housing estates

Retail Parks and shopping areas

Industrial Area

Car Parks 

Leisure Centres

Building sites

Demolition sites

Built up areas

Underpass / overpass

The Waterfont

Harbours

Airport