In the next few images I used a mixture of my own images and photos I found of factories and pollution on the internet and made some montages:

Using photoshop I montaged my own image with the one from the internet and changing the opacity to make sure the factory was visible through the second image however I felt like it was missing something and I wanted to add an aspect of nature to show what this pollution was damaging.

I added my image of apple trees to the smoke/emissions from the factory to represent what the air pollution is damaging and kept the image in black and white to represent the issue in a way that portrays air pollution in a negative light.

Similar to George Marazakis’ image I laid out my image in a similar format with similar spacing. For example we both have a rocky foreground and man made buildings/factories further back with the cloudy sky as the background. However in George Marazakis’ image he has fog in front of the factory whereas in my image in front of the factory is rocks giving the similar effect of the factory being far away and behind something.

Both images have similar lighting due to them both being taken using natural lighting during the day and they both have the same focal point being on the industrial buildings. The buildings are similar shapes allowing them to look similar such as the tall towers and ‘factory like’ look.

In my opinion I didn’t grasp the same feeling in my image as in the one created by George Marazakis as his image is foreboding and mysterious whereas mine is very straight to the point. However I think this is down to the fact that his image was taken on a foggy day whereas mine was captured on a moderately clear day.

From my shoot I chose which images I liked the best and were the most successful outcomes and flagged the ones i wanted to keep with the P key and the ones I didn’t want with the X key and then filtered them out.

shoot 1:

shoot 2:

The topic I am interested in the most is air pollution so I have been thinking about how I can portray that through photographs.

I decided to do some research into what the particles of air pollution can look like:

This is also some microscopic images of air pollution derived illnesses and diseases:

These images show lots of different shapes and compositions that could inspire different arrangements for my images and be involved in the images I create.

I had an idea that I could construct my images of air pollution in a similar format to the shape of these microscopic images:

I have chosen to focus on air pollution and its effects.

Some Effects of Air pollution

• Respiratory and Heart Problems.
• Child Health Problems.
• Global Warming
• Acid Rain
• Eutrophication
• Harmful To Wildlife
• Depletion of the Ozone Layer

Types of air pollution:

• Visible air pollution is pollution that can be seen. For example the smog you see over a city and smoke are forms of visible pollution.
• Invisible air pollutants are less noticeable, but they can be more deadly. Examples of invisible air pollutants include sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides.

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.

Mandy Barker is a British photographer whose marine plastic debris work has received global recognition. She has worked with scientists and aims to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the oceans, showing the harmful affect on marine life, climate change and even humans – influencing the viewers to take action and make change.

She grew up collecting shells and driftwood on the beach and now she collects plastic. Working alongside scientists and researchers, she transforms data on ocean plastics into collages of pollution. By pairing aesthetically pleasing images with the ugly facts they represent, Barker hopes to encourage public outcry and change.

“Cleanups are brilliant to remove the plastic that’s there,” she says, “but we shouldn’t be needing to clean up. We should be stopping it from actually entering the ocean. That’s the most important thing.”

Her work interests me as I like the way she combats the plastic waste issue in an artistic way to make it appeal to a wider audience helping her share the message.

Her SOUP series is made from “plastic soup”—the debris floating in water, which constitutes 30% of the total plastic pollution that enters our oceans. (The other 70% sinks.)

This image is powerful as the black background contrasts the vibrant, garish colours of the plastic displaying the sheer amount of waste she collected. It is formatted in a way that, without further inspection, could be seen as just an artistic image however when you take a closer look it is revealed that it is in fact a demonstration of the issue of single use plastic and its effects on our environment. This therefore relates to the Anthropocene topic as she is combatting this issue and aiming to educate on the negative effects this man-made waste is having on our planet and ecosystems. The use of smaller pieces as well as larger ones gives the affect of distance representing the quantity and scale of this issue also almost giving the look of space and shows the correlation to the size of the universe with the scale of the issue.

For these edits I used images from the landscapes project and some images I found on the internet.

This first image was inspired by Edward Burtynsky and his images of plastic waste so using an image of my own and one I found of plastic pollution from the internet I used photoshop to edit them together showing the extreme cases of plastic waste in our oceans but displaying it on a local landscape to make the image more impactful.

This image below shows two images of industrial sites layered representing the change industrialisation has had on our environment and the black and white filter represents that in a sad and hopeless way.

In this image I added some factory chimneys into the sea to represent how natural landscapes are being imposed upon by industrialisation.

Edward Burtynsky is considered one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. He is known for his global industrial landscapes that represent over 40 years of dedication to witnessing the impact of human industry on the planet. His images are included in the collections of many museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, the Tate Modern in London, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.

“My earliest understanding of deep time and our relationship to the geological history of the planet came from my passion for being in nature.”

“We hope to bring our audience to an awareness of the normally unseen result of civilization’s cumulative impact upon the planet. This is what propels us to continue making the work. We feel that by describing the problem vividly, by being revelatory and not accusatory, we can help spur a broader conversation about viable solutions. We hope that, through our contribution, today’s generation will be inspired to carry the momentum of this discussion forward, so that succeeding generations may continue to experience the wonder and magic of what life, and living on Earth, has to offer.”

— Edward Burtynsky