Gustave Le Gray

Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884) is known as the most crucial French photographer of the nineteenth century because of his technical alterations in the still new medium of photography, his role as the teacher of other noted photographers, and the exceptional imagination he brought to picture making.

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. He was born on the 22nd of February, 1955 (and is now aged 67 years), in St. Catharines, Canada. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of industrialization and its impacts on nature and the human existence.

He is seen as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet.

“I can go into the wilderness and not see anyone for days and experience a kind of space that hasn’t changed for tens of thousands of years. Having that experience was necessary to my perception of how photography can look at the changes humanity has brought about in the landscape. My work does become a kind of lament”

– Edward Burtynsky

The Anthropocene Project

“We have reached an unprecedented moment in planetary history. Humans now affect the Earth and its processes more than all other natural forces combined. The Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to investigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth”–https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/the-anthropocene-project

Along with Nicholas de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky set out on an adventure around the world (visiting every continent but Antarctica) to photograph the most compelling and ‘impressive’ sites of human impact on the environment. They also used this journey as a time to review on what these changes caused by us really signify.

Image Analysis

This one of the photographs that Burtynsky took while on his journey around the world for the Anthropocene Project, capturing a palm oil plantation site in Malaysia. The photo shows two sections of land, a dirt road separating them in the middle, creating a leading line. The left half presents a desolate field, the nature clearly being destroyed by the machines driving around the curved roads, preparing the soil for planting or maybe the photo being taken just after harvest, uncovering the destruction of the land beneath.. The right side shows a field that has a lot more green covering the dirt, perhaps not yet harvested plants. The main leading line running through the image leads us to the top of the photograph, guiding our eyes to the untouched forest at the base of the fields and creating a sense of depth in the photograph. The rural forest in the back creates a straight horizon line across the top half of the image, creating contrast within the picture and portraying the seer destruction humans have caused for their own wants. Furthermore, another area of contrast is the comparison between the bleak, washed out colours of the destroyed land and the lush, dark greenery of the undamaged forest. The composition of this piece is also a very interesting aspect, causing it to appear as though there three very different sections, almost the three stages of deforestation in one photo. Moreover, the symmetry of the picture is very effective, the road splitting the photo down the middle. The area of focus is the middle as that is where all the roads meet.

What is it? a time when the environment is affected by human activities enough to create a distinct geological change.

Born in Oslo, Roslfsen graduated from Kingston University with a first degree Bachelor in Fine Art. In her project ‘Plastic Bag Landscapes’ Vilde photographs plastic bags she finds on the streets, by lighting the bag and using different coloured cardboard. She shoots them in a way that creates an imaginary landscape, with a hidden meaning that raises awareness about climate change. This project was to raise awareness of the throw away culture, and Roslfsen hopes to remind viewers to look more closely at their own consumption patterns. Growing up in Norway, her natural thought was to re-create mountainous shapes in this project, reflecting what could be lost/ ruined by the increasing impact of climate change and waste pollution.

“I wanted to do a project to draw attention towards this issue (…) So I landed on creating a body of work where the images are aesthetically pleasing to look at, and the viewer can make up their own minds when they see what the image is.”

I like Rolfsen’s work as it isn’t the typical photography used to raise awareness about climate change. She captures beauty in what is usually seen as an ugly piece of waste. This set of photos also gives the viewer control over what they see, and what impact they feel from it. If I decide to shoot an abstract photoshoot I will try and include this in my work.

Mandy is a British photographer, who is known ford her international award winning photography. Her work involves marine plastic debris, and she works with scientists trying to raise awareness about the plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. She wants to highlight the harmful effect on marine life and climate change. Published in over 50 different countries, Barkers work has been included in the National Geographic, TIME Magazine, The Guardian and many more. Her work has also been exhibited world-wide, and her book ‘Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals’ was selected as one of the Ten best photography books of 2017. She has gone on many expeditions, such as joining scientists on a sail from Japan to Hawaii to examine the accumulation of marine plastic debris from the Tsunami. Barker has spoken internationally about her work, attempting to engage people with plastic issues. She says that engaging the younger generation is key to her practise to inspire change, and Barker has  taught multiple workshops worldwide  with local communities and schools. She states “The aim of my work is to engage with and stimulate an emotional response in the viewer “.

I like the way she photographs the waste and creates a shape/ flow with it. I might attempt to do this if I do a studio shoot.

Comparing Rolfsen and Barker

At first glance, it seems that the two photographers contrast in their work. Rolfsen uses bright colours with lots of light, and barker has darker more intense images. However the meaning behind them is the same. Both artists are collecting waste, and attempting to raise awareness about the global issue of waste. They both have quite different formal elements such as texture. Rolfsen has the same texture throughout the image, whereas Barker’s image has hard, soft ridged and more textures in. The lines and repetition also contrast because Rolfsen’s photo has repeated lines throughout creating an overall shape on the image, but Barker’s has repetition in a different form. Here subjects are all unique and there are no lines. The images were taken from different angles, the first is side on, the second is a birds eye. They are similar in the idea that they both have bright colours. Overall the images formal elements are contrary to each other, but the meaning they hold are the same.

Jaromir Funke

Jaromir was known for creating clearly focused studies of simple objects around the 1930s. He then turned to the production of carefully arranged still life photos, emphasizing abstract form and the play of light and shadow. Although his work was not to do with the environment, I like his style and feel I could possibly use that to photograph waste. I would use the studio to create the right lighting and have a simple backdrop.

PHOTOSHOOT PLAN:

WHAT?

I will be taking pictures of plastic that I have collected from my house after a week. I have also got some friends to collect some plastic they would usually throw out in the bin. However I will also be photographing one time use cans and items.

WHERE?

I will be bringing the plastic into school and taking the images in the photography studio to get the full professional effect seen in both Barkers and Rosenthal’s photography.

WHEN?

I will be taking these images in the week of Monday 16th ready for the following week for the mock. This will give me time to edit and take multiples pictures of different objects.

HOW?

I will be using the school cameras. When I get to the studio I will try out multiple lighting techniques to see which ones fit with my objects. I will use black cardboard to make the objects more visible.

WHY?

I have decided to make my project based on plastic to spread awareness on how much plastic is wasted, furthermore I will be highlighting how much plastic and cans are used in a week and then incinerated which further damages the environment.

Mandy Barker displays plastic objects that she’s found on beaches on a large black velvet background with a soft, natural light. The photographs are often a collaboration of multiple photographers works put together for the sole purpose of Barker’s piece, varying from specific categories of objects such as footballs, containers and fixtures – or objects sorted by colours and hues. She creates shapes by using photomontage to piece each image together, using rough outlines from the objects, formed by the constant repetition of similar or identical shapes. Barker also forms textures and depth using the sizes of each object, adding a 3D element to her work, as most of the textures with plastic objects are familiar to the modern world. The darkest areas within the image are always the black velvet background – it is portrayed as an endless abyss, which poses more importance when on the subjects of the photo when comparing them to the large negative space. The compositions are often unbalanced, with a varied density of items throughout the image, it usually leaves a more sparsely populated area in one half or corner of the photo.

WHO IS BARRY ROSENTHAL?

Barry Rosenthal a fine art photographer, is also an urban archaeologist and sculptor.

He studied photography at the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio and at the Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, New York with notable photographers Emmet Gowin and George Tice.

– INFOMATION FROM THIS WEBSITE

MOODBOARD:

WHAT IS ROSENTHAL TRYING TO HIGHLIGHT IN HIS PHOTOGRAPHY?

The artist, Barry Rosenthal, uses sculpture and photography to express his distress about plastic pollution in the oceans. His project, “Found in Nature” graphically displays collections of found objects pulled from the shores.

HOW DID ROSENTHAL START THIS PROJECT?

While scouting for plants at the shore, Rosenthal came across ocean borne trash which rode in on the waves. He cleaned the beach of trash and liked what he had picked up. The objects were changed by the elements of sun, sand and sea. He was compelled to bring the issue of plastic pollution in our oceans to the forefront of climate issues. Titled, “Found in Nature” his seminal series of photographs highlights how plastic is with us forever.

IMAGE ANALYSIS:

This image by Rosenthal is stationary with the repeating pattern of the empty green containers. The lighting is hard and equal through the images which suggests it was taken by studio lighting. The black background emphasizes the colour green of the empty containers. The colour green has connation’s of greed, rebirth, and money, however recently it can also have connotations of recycling. However even though out plastic consumption is still rising and further destroying Earth people still throw rubbish on the streets disregarding the space around them. This image that Rosenthal has taken shows the affect and how much plastic is being wasted.

A seascape is a photograph, painting, or other work of art which depicts the sea, in other words an example of marine art. The word originated as a formation from landscape, which was first used of images of land in art. A constructed seascape is a seascape that has been either digitally or manually altered, to suit the artists vision.

Gustave Le Gray

Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray was a French painter, draughtsman, sculptor, print-maker, and photographer. Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884) is known as the most important French photographer of the nineteenth century because of his technical innovations in the still new medium of photography, his role as the teacher of other noted photographers, and the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making. He developed the idea of taking two pictures with different exposures and putting them together to create one final piece. He was born on the 30th of August, 1820 in Villiers-le-Bel, France and he died on the 30th of July, 1884 in Cairo, Egypt.

Comparison

The Great Wave, the most dramatic of his seascapes, combines Le Gray’s technical mastery with expressive grandeur. He took the view on the Mediterranean coast near Montpellier. At the horizon, the clouds are cut off where they meet the sea. This indicates the join between two separate negatives. The combination of two negatives allowed Le Gray to achieve tonal balance between sea and sky on the final print. It gives a more truthful sense of how the eye, rather than the camera, perceives nature.

Both could be described as landscape pictures. What kinds of landscapes do they describe?

Le Gray’s picture shows us a rural and quite aggressive shot of the ocean, presenting us with a landscape photograph capturing the waves hitting the rocks on the beach. Our eyes are immediately drawn to the gushing waves at the base of the photo, ignoring the seemingly insignificant architecture further up. Moreover, Talmor’s piece includes many different landscapes, showing different textures and tones throughout her work. They describe many different aspects of the wild ocean and beach, portraying the coastline in a completely different way that we would normally view it.

What similarities do you notice about these two pictures?

Both pictures include aspects of the ocean, showing the audience how the artist views the coastline. Both pieces include a lot of tone, capturing both the darkest and lightest tones in their pictures. Both photos also show the reality of the ocean; its carefree nature and aggressive behaviour by capturing it in a specific way.

What differences do you notice?

Le Gray clearly tried to hide the fact that he has created a constructed seascape by perfectly blending the two photos together whereas Talmor embraces her style by creating interesting pieces with cuts that stand out in the image, causing her image to appear as through a weird puzzle. Furthermore, Le Gray focused on the ocean as a whole and Talmor focused on smaller details, adding them to one outcome.

What words/phrases best describe each of these landscapes?

Le Gray’s photo has a very bold appearance, his photo embrasing the beauty of the ocean in its aggressive and wild form. His piece consists of an open landscape with nothing holding the ocean back. On the other hand, Talmor’s consists of a more abstract approach, capturing small and easy to miss details about the coastline. Her pieces are much more modern and different.