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Barry Rosenthal case study

who is he:

Barry Rosenthal is a fine art photographer who collects rubbish from beaches and make a new purpose for it. He studied at the Dayton art institute in Ohio focusing on photography, as well as going to different workshops in New York. He take then rubbish back to his studio and lays it out on black card and takes images of it as seen below. Each of his image have a specific theme, colour, shape, or its intended use. Rosenthal use his work as a message to people about our ecosystem becoming damaged and polluted etc. More than five trillion pieces of plastic are already in the oceans and now we are adding around nine million tones each year. This is his main focus of his work, telling people about what he has discovered and what he is doing in order to try and help. Many of the pieces of plastic Barry uses have either lost their original shape, colour etc, showing who they have been on a journey before he finds them and give them a new purpose. He likes his images to have a narrative behind them in the hope that he will catch viewers attention while creating some unique images.

some of his work:

Anthropocene

What are the most remarkable effects of the Anthropocene? – SGK-Planet

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.

ANTHROPOCENE

WHAT IS ANTHROPOCENE?

Anthropocene is relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ANTHROPOCENE?

The Anthropocene is an informal geologic chronological term that serves to mark the evidence and extent of human activities that have had a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems.

MOODBOARD:

THE ANTHROPOCENE PROJECT:

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.

Another collaboration from Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky, and Jennifer Baichwal, The Anthropocene Project is a multimedia exploration of the complex and indelible human signature on the Earth.

This project is a way for photographers to emphasize the damage man-kind is doing and how it is negatively affecting the Earth.

Anthropocene Mock exam – first ideas

Anthropocene is the name for the current geological era, spanning from the first significant human impact on earth to the present day. The word has garnered attention as being a buzzword for the climate action movement, as the amount of change (most famously in temperature) that the earth has seen over this period (due to human impact) is considerable.

This is due to numerous factors, all of which contribute, essentially, to the emission of ‘greenhouse gases’, a term coined by scientists because of their ability to trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere after night falls. Deforestation, burning fossil fuels, farming, transportation; all of these are factors associated with the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Whilst these are the negative sides of the Anthropocene era, there are many endeavours being made to prevent further damage to the earth. These include recycling, using renewable energy sources such as wind power, solar power and hydro power, planting trees, creating biofuels from organic waste and the rising popularity of electric vehicle usage over those that use fossil fuels.

The human impact on the earth’s biodiversity is one of the most extreme and tragic examples of the ‘domino’ effect of the environmental issues caused during this time period. The fishing, hunting and farming industries (besides the obvious climate change and pollution) are all to blame for the downward spiral of the earth’s interconnected ecosystems. I think that the beauty of these systems is also an interesting concept which I would like to explore.

The basis of the Anthropocene epoch is however the presence of humans, at the end of the day, and the human race, despite its damaging and harmful nature, can be a richly compelling subject for a project, as proved time and again by portrait and street photographers globally. The winners of the Decade of Change 2022 competition are a great illustration of the delights of this genre, and I think there are some really inspiring images in there. They focus particularly on the effects of climate change on human communities – a topic not discussed so often. Human interpretations are, essentially, the root of all creativity and collaboration and therefore must be an important element for me to consider, especially being that it is one of my favourite and strongest genres of work.

I like the work of Andreas Gursky, it has a very honest and deadpan style; very fitting for this alarmingly important subject.

Therefore, I think that there are a wide range of options for me to build the basis of a project upon, however, being in Jersey, these are basically limited to a degree.

Best urban landscape outcomes

Final Edits

Comparison

This photo was inspired by the photographer Stephan Shore, who takes vintage style photos of urban American landscapes, focusing on the different colours in his images. His photo includes a photo taken by the side of a long road, acting as a leading line, guiding our eyes to the back of the image where the mountains are located. It was taken in 1972, when Stephen Shore set out from his native New York City to Amarillo, Texas, on the first of what would become a decade’s worth of road trips across America. I found the exaggerated cool shades in this photo very effective, as well as the way the colours portrayed the place the photo was taken (the red and blue at the top of the image having similar composition to the USA flag). Moreover, I was inspired by the lighting in the image and the gritty look of the photo overall. The image I ended up with a similar composition, the photo being taken on the side of the road and presenting the viewer with an urban landscape. The use of empty space Shore’s image (the sky) is another aspect I found very successful in making the photo look intriguing and is something I included in my own work. However, I decided to focus on the warm tones instead of the cool tones like Shore did, editing my photo in a way that enhanced the warm colours. Although this being different, I was clearly inspired by his idea of intensifying the tones in his image. Furthermore, he edited/ took his photo in a way that showed the buildings off in a crisp and clear well- whilst I decided to add to the warm appearance of the photo by lowering the clarity of my photo, blending the details together. Moreover, his photo includes a leading lune, taking us to the background in the picture where the mountains are situated. In contrast, I positioned my camera towards the urban landscape, ignoring the ocean behind me which could’ve been a good addition to the image. The mountains in the back added contrast to his image, the rural aspect of the landscape slowly being taken over by our architecture.

The inspiration for this paragraph was Robert Adams, a well known urban landscape photographer who captures repetition in his pieces, presenting our architecture as a desolate and boring design. His photo includes a flat house, with a lonely figure standing in the middle of a room located behind the large, uncovered window. I was inspired by the simple composition of his image, as it captures the building in a face on manner, the photo not showing the end of either end, hiding the true size of the house. I recreated this by taking a face on photo of building situated behind a rusty tank, not capturing either end of the house- portraying the idea that our architecture is taking over the world and we can’t even see the start or end of it. Our photos contrast in the aspect of nature, my photo including some palm trees being towered over by the buildings, while Adams’ photo doesn’t include any large plants. However, both of our pictures include a version of controlled nature (mine being the garden trees and his the short grass at the base of the image) reprinting the idea that humans are also showing dominance over the nature we leave around us, not letting it grow into its naturally wild state. His photo was also captured in black and white, which I recreated using Lightroom, editing my picture into black and white as I liked the way his photo showed off the different tones by having a very varied tonal zone. However, another aspect of our images that are different are the skies, his being a plain, calm sky with no clouds and mine being a dramatic sky with the clouds adding to the wide variety of texture in our images. This is something I could change since his photo has a much calmer appearance, letting the audience easily take in the shapes in his image (especially the silhouette) while mine is much more dramatic and dark which could distract the viewer.

Anthropocene plan

plan:

For the first part of this shoot I am going to visit different beaches collecting any kind of plastic or debris which I find, I will then set up a mini shoot and photograph what I collect, in the style of Barry Rosenthal.

Secondly, following the same route, I am going to take images inspired by him using different objects such as any odd bits and bobs around my house. For example I could use a draw from my kitchen and photograph whatever I find in it, to do this I would lay it all out on black card and make sure that I have the correct lighting. I would the the image from above like my inspiration, Barry Rosenthal, has.

Lastly I am going to photography any industrial buildings in Jersey that follow the theme of Anthropocene with damaging the earth in some way such as air pollution etc.

mood board:

mind map:

Anthropocene

what is it:

Anthropocene it was raised by the biologist Eugene Stoermer in the 1980s meaning the effect of human activity, it is a term used today to describe how our planet has become more and more impacted by humans, such as the climate and ecosystem. ‘Anthropo’ means man and ‘cene’ means new, telling us how man-kind is damaging the earth. The theory of Anthropocene claims that the domination of humans is damaging the earth causing it to move into a novel geological epoch. Some examples of it are global warming and climate change, pollution such as plastics in the ocean, animal extinction and more.

In terms of photography, photographers have tried to use their work as a way of communication to the world about how our world is changing. It focuses on the future of the earth and and ways that we can help to prevent it from becoming worse like recycling or picking up plastic from the beaches.

some Anthropocene photographers:

Mandy Barker
Steven Gallagher
Sophie Thomas
Naomi White
Barry Rosenthal