These first 100 or so photos were taken while I was on a train from Bournemouth to Norwich in the UK that I took in preparation for the landscape project.

I didn’t have a camera with me so I had to use my phone and was left with quite a few low quality or blurred images. I took photos of the cities I was travelling to during the day and at night, and was left with many stunning outcomes.

At this point I had travelled to Edinburgh up in Scotland, taking images of the castle during both the day and night, and of various buildings or sculptures that piqued my interest – especially in Livingston with the large shopping centres.

I’d also made my way back down to Coventry, where I had a great view from my hotel near a friend’s house, although not many of the images were that good.

I then went through all of these images and decided to only edit the ones I thought were already fantastic photographs as it was during the mock exam and I didn’t have all that much time.

I was left with these 7 results, that had a large colour palette and vibrant, glowing tones. I think the relation to Anthropocene isn’t as clear with all of these photographs, but almost all of them have urban landscapes implemented with nature – for example the images at Edinburgh castle focuses more on the nature surrounding it – which does question our ongoing connection and destruction of nature.

I think I could edit more of these images in the future, as there is quite a lot in this photoshoot that were left untouched that are still good.

Compared to Barker’s work, my piece is very similar to hers – the light in the image comes from above, the positioning of the bottlecaps add weight and direction to the image, no real patterns or repetition is really visible, most of the shapes are organic and flow into the rest of the photograph, the images have depth because of smaller bottlecaps placed in the background, there’s a large range of tone and colours, but they overall tend toward darkness, most of the colours are also quite saturated and helps a viewer to understand that the pieces are about plastic in some way or another.

On the other hand, our images differ quite drastically too. Barker’s piece feels more as if the light in the image is natural, and that this manufactured photograph was something found in nature. The lines and shapes created by the placement of the bottlecaps also feels more natural, as it flows better with the image, much like the negative space, the random density of caps throughout adding to this effect. When it comes to the colour palette of Barker’s image, the colours are a lot more saturated and full as compared to mine – it looks dull in comparison.

I wanted to create a piece of work very similar to Barker’s, and I think while I did a pretty decent job at imitating her style, I don’t believe I captured the guise of realism that she does with her work when compiling all of her photographs together, as mine still just looks like it was done on photoshop.

I took around 40 images of plastic bottle caps organised in various patterns on top of a piece of black card in the studio, with the intent to edit them to balance out most of the colours, and cut them in photoshop to create a larger piece with them in Barker’s style. Most of these images weren’t that interesting, nor did they have the best lighting until they were edited.

With these 8 images, I would be able to cut out each one in photoshop and mix them together in different patterns and shapes to create an effective piece that I could use for a final piece at the end of the project.

It didn’t really matter about the actual composition for these images as most of the work would come from editing – all I needed to make sure is that the colours of the bottlecaps were somewhat vibrant and interesting.

To create altered landscape photographs for the Anthropocene project, I would need to explore various ways that I can do it to portray a message about the environment and modern society’s impact on it as well, through mediums such as photoshop or maybe other more traditional methods.

I started with two similar images, that had almost identical compositions – a path leading from the camera lens straight off into the distance, the horizon in view, a cable hanging from a pole, and a monochrome colour palette.

I then pasted one image on top of the other, and experimented with various blending modes, which matched the greyscale tones of the photographs.

I removed the bottom half of the background image so that you could more clearly see the top layer, and was left with this as the final product.

I think that this could be good for my exam piece but I don’t know how I could implement it yet.

I started this piece in photoshop using this photograph, copying three more versions of the image and flipping each one horizontally, vertically, and both at the same time, and positioned them together to create a mirrored effect.

I experimented with different blending modes for each blending layer and was left with very prominent yellows, with some reds and blues in the background.

I flattened all of the layers into one, sized down the entire image into my canvas, and centred it.

I then decided to copy and paste another version of this shape, enlarged the new copy behind the original, and centred it. I was left with this as my final image and I am quite happy with it.

For my Anthropocene shoot, I’m thinking of replicating something similar to Mandy Barker’s work, and seeing if I can combine it with Edward Burtynsky’s work at the same time. To do this, I could create two separate pieces and combine them in a double exposure, using one piece as more of a background, and making the one I prefer more opaque.

I could use bottlecaps from various bottles that I use within my home to create something like this piece from Barker. In addition, to create the effect of wear and tear on them, I could leave them in the sun or melt them a bit to add some aging. To reduce my own waste during this project, I will use plastics from my home and from my local area that I find while walking around, like on the marshes and the beach.

I can easily go to a fabric shop and buy a large sheet of black fabric, or use a large black tarp for my background to replicate Barker’s work.

For Burtynsky, I could find a natural area on the island that’s been disturbed by construction or excavation work, and use that for a few images.

Either way, I’ll need to do a lot of exploring around the island to find good areas to get the materials I need for the exam, so I could spend some of my free time exploring the north and east, as they’re the areas I’m rather unfamiliar with.

I want my final piece to tackle issues of humanity’s impact on even the most remote places on the planet – the spread of plastic across the planet and the toxicity of it. However, I do also want to comment on the housing crisis, and more importantly, the effect it has on Jersey and the population.

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.

Burtynsky’s work on Anthropocene holds a neutral take on the situation of climate change and global warming. While it displays the absolute destruction of the natural world around us, the lighting and use of various tones leaves the viewer with a sense of indifference that leaves it to them to interpret how they receive the photograph.

Burtynsky often uses repetition with the patterns in his photographs, maintaining a similar texture that is only broken once or twice, typically by something else man-made, like vehicles, or a person. The angles he takes his photos from creates different shapes out of the landscape, but doesn’t follow anything uniform or geometrically.

The Anthropocene is a new, modern day Epoch, where the effects of human activity have impacted the natural world – a result of greenhouse gases being emitted by machines and industrial practices.

The Anthropocene project is a large-scale body of work from various artists, photographers, and scientists to display the true impact of human waste on our planet – and the need to change for a better future on Earth.

Subjects

• Cars/motorcycles
• Industrial machinery
• Abandoned buildings
• Populated buildings (in constant use)
• Plastic packaging
• Rubble/debris
• Rubbish
• Boats

Locations

• La Collette
• Forest areas
• Town – streets, car parks
• Suburban areas – St Peter, St Brelade, etc.
• 5 Mile Road
• Car dealerships
• Airport
• Harbour
• The ocean/beach

Angle/Shot Type

• Drone shot – bird’s eye or from higher elevation
• Low angles
• Wide angle
• Panoramic/timelapse shot
• Deep focus shots