These images are taken from Ronez Quarry, influenced by David Maisel’s Mining Project. There was a fence and overgrown hedges so it was quite hard to get a clear image of the quarry. If I had access to the quarry or a drone then the images would have come out better. However, considering I had limited access I think there are some images that I could select and edit.
I have chosen to focus on air pollution and its effects.
Some Effects of Air pollution
Types of air pollution:
Air pollution affects all things. Focusing on the impacts to the environment it reduces visibility and blocks sunlight, creating acid rain, and harming forests, wildlife, and agriculture. Greenhouse gas pollution, the cause of climate change, affects the entire planet.
Not all air pollution is visible so i photographed things such as cars that we know produce large amounts of harmful emissions into our environment.
I also photographed visible air pollution such as smoke from chimneys and people smoking as these are very common causes of air pollution that is visible enabling it to be photographed – These are examples of visible pollution.
Vapes – Scientists measured the air pollution produced by e-cigarettes, they found that e-cigarettes/vapes pollute the air with nicotine and fine particles this smoke contains nicotine, ultrafine particles and low levels of toxins. Vapes in general are accelerating the climate crisis by contributing to deforestation, carbon emissions, plastic pollution, water use and waterway contamination.
Cigarettes – Tobacco smoke is what is an aerosol, which is a mixture of 90% gas and 10% particles the smoke contributes thousands of metric tons of chemicals, other toxins, and greenhouse gases into our environment. Pollutants in tobacco smoke come from the high-temperature tobacco combustion. Particles in additives and paper such as (tar, nicotine, heavy metals, etc.) are found in the smoke emitted from the cigarette.
George Marazakis born in 1976 in Creta Island Greece where he lives with his wife and their son. He studied Mechanical Engineering and works for the Greek Ministry of Justice.
He takes the Anthropocene as both concept and title for a series that looks at a landscapes engendered by the greed of mankind.
“An external observer could describe it as an autoimmune disease attacking its own body”
My favourite images are his ones of the emissions coming out of factories such as the one above, as it is a ‘straight to the point’ display of the damage and the amount of air pollution we are creating. I think this makes it a powerful image as the viewer cannot avoid the photographers intensions for the image as it is a clear demonstration of the damages caused by humans.
The lighting is dim to create a somber feeling ensuring the viewer shares the same feeling of despondency as George Marazakis does towards this particular subject.
The long road running through the middle of the image for a distance symbolises the event of climate change getting closer and the effects increasing as humans continue to pollute and disregard the health of our planet and its ecosystems despite being educated on the outcome.
The factory is located in the middle of the image making sure it is the focal point of the image in contrast to the the nature around it to show where he believes our focal point should be further stating his desire for change and a focus on protecting nature.
My edits/ experiments:
I like how my first two edits above turned out as I think that the pattern makes the viewer interested in my images as it is very unique and different from others. I chose to create this edit as I think it shows how people don’t always think about pollution or climate change etc and how they look at it with a cover thinking that it isn’t as bad as people say it is. I think it shows that we don’t look directly at it and don’t do much to help make a change. If I were to do these two edits again it would swap the colours and the images as I think the dark image would look better with the white pattern and the lighter image would look better with the black pattern, however I think they still contrast nicely with the lighting.
For my second edit I chose to create this circular pattern with the image show the viewers how pollution and climate change, damaging the earth, is a reoccurring pattern and at the moment is never ending. I think that this edit turned out well as it is simple but effective and is engaging as it isn’t just a plain image.
For my third edit I have slightly moved sections of the image upwards and sections downwards alternating. I think that edit shows how Anthropocene isn’t as straight forwards as some people think and even by helping out in little ways it can help massively. I like how the edit isn’t as visible as some of my other ones and how you have too look closely to see what I have done with the image, similarly to how pollutions etc isn’t very visible to the human eye. If I were to do it again I would make it slightly more obvious.
Finally, for my forth edit I have tried to show how in this day some people etc try to forget/ cover up how we are damaging the planet by cutting out squares and moving them attempting to cover the industrial towers, however because the squared are parts of the buildings it shows how we cannot cover it up or leave it for other day. I like how the image is quite dark as it sets the mood for the theme of the image as it isn’t a happy topic.