The Anthropocene is a geological unit of time, continually describing the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity began to have a significant impact until now. It takes into account the effects on the Earth’s geology, landscape, climate, limnology and ecosystems. This geologic time scale is split into hierarchical series of smaller lengths of time, descending in length of time: eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages. These units of time are composed through the classification of the Earth’s rock layers and the fossils found within them. Through this, scientists can examine the correlation between the certain organism’s characteristics of the certain parts of the geologic record – stratigraphy.
The word Anthropocene comes from the Greek terms for human (‘anthropo’) and new (‘cene’), but its definition is controversial. It was coined in the 1980s, then popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J Crutzen and diatom researcher Eugene F Stoermer. The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old while humans have been here for a much smaller scale, yet irreversible influence has taken place on biodiversity and nature, fundamentally altering the Earth’s physical, chemical and biological code. In the last 60 years, the Great Acceleration has began. This is a term used for the increasing rate at which human impacts are unfolding at an unprecedented scale and speed, causing the globe to deteriorate and become more modified, spiralling downwards. Being the most influential species of the planet, human behaviour has created a snowball effect of significant impacts not only for other ecosystems or species but ourselves too. Just a few of these are:
Carbon dioxide emissions,
Global warming,
Ocean acidification,
Habitat destruction,
Extinction,
Widescale natural resource extraction,
An increase in extremeness and frequency of severe weather conditions e.g earthquakes, tornados and storms
A popular theory is that it began at the start of the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, when human activity had a great impact on carbon and methane in Earth’s atmosphere. Others think that the beginning of the Anthropocene should be 1945 as this was when humans tested the first atomic bomb, and then dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. This resulted in high amounts of radioactive particles being detected in soil samples globally.
In photography, the scientific research of The Anthropocene is used to document and investigate the substantial impact humans actions have had on the state, dynamic and future of the planet. The burning of trees releases carbon however, when all the other trees have been destroyed for urbanization, there aren’t any nearby to take in this carbon and revert it. As a result, this carbon goes up into the atmosphere and begins to create holes in the ozone layer. This then provides the sun to be able to get its harmful rays in even stronger as the ozone layer acts as protection. This heats up the globe and continues our path down global warming. Alongside this, the burning of fossil fuels releases harmful toxins which contribute to this issue which is a result of the constant redevelopment of areas around the globe. This is a continuous cycle, especially in over-populated cities in countries such as Tokyo, Mumbai and Manila, causing people to begin moving out into the countryside/ more vacant areas further from the city to compensate for this, resulting in further destruction of natural spaces contributing to the growth of climate change. For example, in 2014 the global population was 7.3 billion however it is now 8.1 billion. If civilisation doesn’t move towards more sustainable lifestyles such as the refusal of consistently burning fossil fuels, even more dramatic changes could occur which could be incredibly life-threatening for the human species too, as if it is nature taking its revenge.
The opposing side of The Anthropocene epoch is The Symbiocene, a vision created by scholar Glenn Albrecht.This is an idea to stimulate all humans to create a future where positive Earth emotions will prevail over negative aspects, allowing the period of reintegration between humans and the rest of nature to begin. Some principles of this are:
The full elimination of toxic-to-life substances,
The complete and safe biodegradability of all materials in human use (e.g plastic)
Exploitation of non-polluting forms of safe, renewable energy,
Priority use of the renewable resources of locality and regions,
The idea of all materials becoming biodegradable is one of the many vital aspects at the moment. It is estimated there is now 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our oceans at the moment, meaning that there would approximately be 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean. The weight of this on land would amount to about 269,000 tonnes. Not only is this incredibly harmful to sea life and even species on land, but once this is ingested by the fish we eat it ends up in our own food.
Nearly one-quarter of the world’s plastic waste is mismanaged or littered. Around 82 million tonnes. This means it’s not stored in secure landfills, recycled or incinerated. One-quarter of that – 19 million tonnes – is leaked to the environment. 13 million tonnes to terrestrial environments, and 6 million tonnes to rivers or coastlines. 1.7 million tonnes of this is then transported to the ocean: 1.4 million tonnes from rivers, and 0.3 million tonnes from coastlines. The rest of the plastic waste that was leaked into aquatic environments accumulated in rivers and lakes.
For my first Landscape Photoshoot, I had the opportunity to visit Thailand and Tenerife. I particularly enjoyed capturing not not just natural elements but also a variety of cultural elements too.
From untouched landscapes to man’s imprint on the landscape –
When I initially thought about taking photos in these destinations, I had imagined that I would be capturing natural landscapes that resembled Romanticism and the Sublime. In a few of my Thailand photos, you can see that the dramatic, untouched landscape does give the impression of a Romanticism Landscape.
However, what became more apparent in these destinations, was man’s impact on the tourist destinations. How buildings and developments now cut through these once idyllic and natural landscapes.
Photoshoot 1 ( Tenerife ) –
Photoshoot 2 ( Thailand ) –
Final edited photos –
(need to find out how to get photos from phone to blog)
New topographics is the photographs of nature and man altered landscapes.
focusing on urban, residential, leisure and industrial landscapes
where did the name come from?
the word originates from “graphia” and “topo”.
what is the idea behind new topographics
New Topographics reinvented both the subject matter of landscape and the kind of response we can have to such pictures: not just awe or uplift, but a sense of responsibility like the romanticism and the sublime. As long as humans continue to develop upon nature, this will remain a vital avenue of contemporary photography.
This style was supposed to show how times were changing because the landscape they were once photographing now has man made buildings which stand in the way of the once nice background, this shows how the photographs would like to shoot straight on “dead pan” with “no emotion” so that they could draw awareness to how much construction and change had happened, this is emphasised in the black and white.
Robert Adams
Robert Adams was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1937
He photographs and has documented scenes of the american west for 4 decades, showing the effects of suburbanization. Adams’s photographs capture the physical traces of human life: a garbage-scatter roadside, a clear-cut forest, a half-built house.
Adams uses photography to express his love for the landscape and to understand how urban and industrial growth have changed it, all the while insisting that beauty in the world has not been entirely eclipsed.
“I think if you placed me almost anywhere and gave me a camera you could return the next day to find me photographing. It helps me, more than anything I know, to find home.”
– ROBERT ADAMS
Adams had been using a large 4-by-5-inch camera, which required a tripod, which produced wonderfully detailed images. But he moved to smaller, more portable formats, often making small, square images in black-and-white that are drenched in sunlight and full of sharp tonal contrast.
his objectivity isnt a lack of emotion, he does it because it keeps the truth of image and makes it look soft.all of Adams’ work is simple, but deceptively so. Since he first came to public attention in the mid-1970s as part of the New Topographics movement, his subject has been the American west: its vastness, its sparse beauty and its ecological fragility.
There is a subtle tonal quality to his pictures – a shading of light and shadow, and various gradations of the same –
New Topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape.
What is New Topographics?
New Topographics is a man-altered landscape, that can include man-made buildings, such as homes, towers, car parks etc. as well as natural environments, such as fields, mountains and beaches. The New Topographics can also just be a man-altered landscape with only man-made things.
The New Topographics photography was presented in the same way as natural/ romanticism/ sublime landscapes by many photographers.
The photos of man-altered landscapes presented man and nature coinciding with each other.
When did it become Popular?
A turning point in the history of photography, the 1975 exhibition New Topographics signalled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. This became popular post-war, because this was when society returned to normal and many more buildings/ man-made structures were built.
The Beginning of the Death of the American Dream
Many of the photographers associated with The New Topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made.
New Topographics was inspired by the likes of Albert Renger Patszch and the notion of The New Objectivity.
Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all portrayed with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development.
What was the New Topographics a reaction to?
The New Topographics was a reflection of the increasingly suburbanised world around us, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental.
Post-war America struggled with:
Inflation and labour unrest. The country’s main economic concern in the immediate post-war years was inflation. …
The baby boom and suburbia. Making up for lost time, millions of returning veterans soon married and started families…
Isolation and splitting of the family unit, pharmaceuticals and mental health problems
Vast distances, road networks and mobility
The New Topographics became popular post-war, because as all the soldiers were returning from war to their families and more babies were being made, this meant that more buildings had to be built in order for everyone to have a home and so society can return back to normal. Buildings that were damaged in the war were also repaired and rebuilt.
The New Topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
Popular New Topographics Photographers
Many of the photographers associated with new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made, selecting subject matter that was matter-of-fact.
The New Topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
Robert Adams
Robert Adams was an American photographer, who was best known for documenting both the beauty and commercialization of the American West. He was born January 21st 1928 and died March 2nd 1997 at age 69. Adams was born in New Jersey and raised in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado. He moved to Southern California in 1956 to attend the University of Redlands. He chose to major in English literature and went on to earn a Ph.D. in that subject at the University of Southern California in 1965.
About his work
When Adams returned to Colorado to begin what he anticipated would be a career in teaching, he was dismayed by the changes he saw in the landscape. He bought a 35-mm camera, taught himself the fundamentals of photography, and began making pictures infused with a love for the geography of his home state.
Robert Adams has photographed the landscape of the American West for more than forty years, particularly in California, Colorado and Oregon. His vision is inspired by his joy in nature’s inherent beauty, yet tempered by his dismay at its exploitation and degradation. Adams uses photography to express his love for the landscape and to understand how urban and industrial growth have changed it, all the while insisting that beauty in the world has not been entirely eclipsed.
Who inspired him?
Adams style of work and his work was inspired by many other well known photographers who came before him. He was especially inspired by:
Timothy O’Sullivan
William Henry Jackson
Carleton Watkins.
Other photographer, who often merged their social concerns with aesthetic ones also inspired Robert Adam’s work, such as:
Lewis Hine
Edward Weston
Dorothea Lange
Ansel Adams
His Books
Robert Adams made many books, such as:
Los Angeles Spring
Why People Photograph
Art Can Help
Turning back
As well as many other books.
However, his most popular book was a photo book called, ‘The New West,’ which included many of his new topographic photographs.
Robert Adams used Ansel Adams zonal System aswell for all his photographs, so he could get good exposure/ contrast in his black and white images. He was expired to create black and white images using the zonal system from Ansel Adams, just like he did.
Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian, said ‘his subject has been the American west: its vastness, its sparse beauty and its ecological fragility. What he has photographed constantly, in varying shades of grey is what has been lost and what remains’ and that ‘his work’s other great subtext’ is silence.
These are just some photos of Robert Adams work in New Topographics, where he includes images of man-made structure, as well as the natural environment around them, such as the trees, field or mountain.
His most Popular Work
This photo is his most popular work:
This image uses natural daylight lighting as it is taken outside during a cloudy day, so that when it is in black and white the sky is light grey instead of dark grey. The horizon line is positioned straight and above the caravan site. The image is located at a caravan site, where there is also a natural environment (the mountains in distance), as well as a man-made environment (the caravan site). This image has lots of contrast, as it is in black and white, so the image consists of a range of different grey tones. It has lots of different light and dark tones throughout. The layout of this image in split in half. The bottom half 9foreground) consisting of the man-made environment (caravan site) and the top half (background), where the horizon line is consisting of the natural environment (the field and mountain in the distance). These two very different environments are balanced and coincide in harmony.
This relates to the New Topographics, because the image presents how urban environments can coincide with nature and natural environments and how urban environments are growing more and more and can be displayed in the same way as natural landscapes. Roberts Adams took inspiration from Ansel Adams in this photo, as he used his zonal system when taking this photo, so he could get the correct exposure and contrast on his black and white photo. Ansel Adams also produced black and white landscapes. However, Robert Adams landscapes moved further away from the ‘norms’ of landscapes, which is what Ansel Adams focused on.
The concept of this photo is create awareness on how urban structures are growing in size over a vast majority of the world, but how this is not always a bad thing, as it can be just as beautiful and as much of an art as natural landscapes.
My Favourite Photograph
This image is my favourite of Robert Adams work, because it displays how man can live in harmony with the natural environment, without destroying it. This photo presents that, because it is just one church house in the middle of a natural environment and not an image of a big city for example, which ruins and takes over the environment.
This image uses natural daylight lighting as is it taken outside during a cloudy day, so that when it is in black and white the sky is light grey instead of dark grey. This image is in black and white has has contrast of light and dark tones. The main viewpoint is the small church in the middle of the field as it presents the balance and harmony between man kind and the natural environment.
This relates to the New Topographics, because the image presents how urban environments can coincide with nature and natural environments and how urban environments are growing more and more and can be displayed in the same way as natural landscapes. Roberts Adams took inspiration from Ansel Adams in this photo, as he used his zonal system when taking this photo, so he could get the correct exposure and contrast on his black and white photo. Ansel Adams also produced black and white landscapes. However, Robert Adams landscapes moved further away from the ‘norms’ of landscapes, which is what Ansel Adams focused on.
The concept of this photo is create awareness on how urban structures are growing in size over a vast majority of the world, but how this is not always a bad thing, as it can be just as beautiful and as much of an art as natural landscapes. This photo especially expresses how urban environments are not always destructive as there is one small man-made church in a vast natural environment, which is still there and protected.
Lewis Baltz
Lewis “Duke” Baltz was an American visual artist, photographer, and educator. He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s. He was born September 12th, 1945 in California and died 22nd November, 2014 at age 69, in Paris. He worked as a freelance photographer in California and taught photography at various institutions, including the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California (Riverside and Santa Cruz), Yale, the École Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the Art Academy of Helsinki.
About His Work
His best known work was monochrome (black and white) photography of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which highlighted his commentary of void within the “American Dream”. Lewis Baltz produces photographs in series focused on a particular theme or geographic area and usually publishes them in book form;
The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California (1975)
Nevada (1978)
Park City (1981)
Sites of Technology (2007)
WORKS (2010)
The Prototype Works (2011)
Candlestick Point (2011).
etc
His work, like that of others associated with the New Topographics, challenges the nineteenth century tradition of western landscape photography. Baltz’s perception of the landscape necessarily reveals the effects of twentieth-century culture and suburban development on the nation’s topography.
Lewis Blatz also created typology photographs, which is photographs that share a high level of consistency and Baltz most commonly took these typologies of large buildings in urban areas.
Who inspired him
Lewis Baltz started photography at age 12 and his early influences were Ed van der Elsken, Wright Morris and Edward Weston and frequented camera shops, especially William R.
His photographs
New Topographics:
Typologies:
His most popular work
This image was one of his most popular images, because his most popular images were his black and white photographs. The lighting used was natural daylight lighting, because the image was taken outside on a cloudy day, so that the sky would be a light grey, instead of a dark grey, like it would be on a sunny day. The image has high levels of contrast and lots of black and white tones (different shades of grey) throughout. The main viewpoint of this image is the old, dirty house.
This relates to the new topographics, because the photograph shows how urban man-made buildings and things can be taken as landscapes in the same way and style as natural landscapes are. This image may also show how houses were early post war, before they had been rebuilt and fixed. Houses would be like this post war due to the destruction of the war and bombings etc. The meaning behind this photo was to show that no matter how ugly, or worn down the man-made things/buildings are they can still be portrayed as beautiful, just like natural landscapes.
My Favourite Photo
This image is my favourite image, because it displays man-made structures coinciding with nature and living in balance and harmony.
This image uses natural daylight lighting, because the image was taken outside on a cloudy day, so that the sky would be a light grey, instead of a dark grey, like it would be on a sunny day. The image has high levels of contrast and lots of black and white tones (different shades of grey) throughout. The layout of this photo had the man-made structure in the background and uses the grass as a leading line towards the man-made structure, which makes me believe that the man-made structure is the viewpoint.
This relates to the New Topographics, because the image presents how urban environments can coincide with nature and natural environments and how urban environments are growing more and more and can be displayed in the same way as natural landscapes.
The concept of this photo is create awareness on how urban structures are growing in size over a vast majority of the world, but how this is not always a bad thing, as it can be just as beautiful and as much of an art as natural landscapes. This photo especially expresses how urban environments are not always destructive as there is one small man-made structure in a vast natural environment, which is still there and protected.
Their Influence
The world of photography underwent a significant transformation with the emergence of Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, two photographers known for injecting purpose and innovation into their work. Renowned for their change from traditional norms (natural landscapes), these artists reshaped the visual expression landscape.
Aaron Siskind was an American photographer best known for his black-and-white, close range, and aerial photos of surfaces and objects. With the transformative properties of monochromes and their lack of scale or context, Siskind’s photos can seem both sculptural and vast or diminutive and painterly.
Siskind was born December 4, 1903, New York, Siskind began to photograph in 1932, while he was an English teacher in the New York City public-school system. As a member of the Photo League, he participated in projects designed to document neighbourhood life during the Depression.
Siskind was a grade school English teacher in the New York Public School System for 25 years, and began photography when he received a camera as a wedding gift and began taking pictures on his honeymoon.
What technique did he use?
He created pictures by closing in on his subjects, framing out distracting elements to enhance the emotional sense or allusive aspect he found compelling. Later he focused on surfaces to further condense the energies of splashed paint, graffiti marks and crumbling materials.
Aaron Siskind’s quote, “In photography, it is not the subject that matters, but how it is captured,” encapsulates the essence of artistic expression through the lens.
Exampleof his work–
MOODBOARD
My work
Why does he prefer to edit them to black and white?
Aaron Siskind’s work is all done in monochrome, this makes the photograph more impressive as you are left to your imagination of the colours, therefore to what the original object was.
Black and white photography feels timeless. Here’s a common reason why photographers shoot in black and white: It adds a timelessness to your images. For one, black and white photography has existed since the beginnings of photography, which means that a black and white image cannot instantly be dated.
My thoughts on his work/ similarities
When the viewer has a first glance, I noticed that every picture is in black and white as Siskind prefers it as it leaves imagination of not knowing the colour to the viewer. This is significantly impactful as it suggests a sense of mystery with his images potentially creating the viewer to imagine what they individually want his image to be and look like, it also reduce the chances of his images being outdated as ‘ black and white is timeless’ and can make an image more personal. By vaguely glancing I can see that Siskind focuses on the visual elements such as texture, shape, pattern, line and even tone. The main ones that stick out to me is texture and shape/lines. Some of his images are easily predicted which creates a clear picture to the viewer however some images makes the viewer guess what the photograph itself is which ultimately creates a mysterious factor, as well as Siskind not using colours which creates even more difficulty. An example of this is-
Image Analysis
This image is difficult to understand and interpret the correct clear result. Although it is Siskind’s aim (conceptual) to create secretive and mysterious factors to his image and make the viewer imagine themselves. A benefit of Siskind’s aim is that it makes the viewer predict which ultimately forces the viewer to focus and question the texture, patterns, shapes and tones. We cannot see what the image is itself however it is interesting to note that viewers still find this pleasing to look at because of the imagination. Because it is unclear of what the image is, it creates every viewer to stare and draws them in to look at all important factors Siskind emphasized. For example, the cracks signify imperfection and every shape is different which slightly tells the viewer that this image is potentially all natural. Another interesting factor is that all shapes are different tones but also connected. This shows the tone isn’t based off the weather as it looks as if it is taken from a birds eye view and they are all connected. Lastly, another impactful feature is the texture as in my opinion each shape is a significant different pattern which the viewer would predict it is the texture. This links to his quote “In photography, it is not the subject that matters, but how it is captured,” As we do not know what the subject is but the viewer still finds it very significant and interesting.
My Image
Personally, I think this image relates to Siskind’s work as it contains different visual elements such as tones, lines, irregular pattern of shapes, texture and not a clear view of what the subject is. This creates a mysterious sense like Siskind’s. As shown, some shapes have a vary of tones which prevents the image from being dull and boring as each visual element is different. You would assume this image is natural as most man-made subjects are usually to be built perfect. This makes you guess what this image is itself and what made it look this way which is mainly the contextual side of it. It has a few irregular lines if you look deeply as the varies of shapes are the first noticeable feature. There is a few cracks which signifies the imperfections of this image which helps the viewer understand it is not man-made and creates a significant amount of mystery.
A famous book- This Equals That by Tamara Shopsin & Jason Fulford
This book, shows juxtaposition and how both link and differ.
” One thing leads to another. Isn’t’ that the best way of being in the world?” Maira Kalman in response to this book.
This book, signifies and shows 2 opposite or similar images and makes you question how they are similar/different?
My response to this book –
This juxtaposition shows us rust which is the similarity both these images have. However, they are in different shapes, different textures and different lining and geometry. Although it has the same element, they are displayed in different ways. The texture tells us both of the rusts in these images would feel significantly different. The subject in the first image is more displayed portrait, although the second’s subject is not as observable and outstanding, and is rather landscape and subtle.
These two images have more to contrast, as they have less similar key features. These 2 images show significant natural damage. The difference is that the first one is scratches, and the second are cracks. A similarity they both have is that you actually cannot tell what each image is which keeps the viewer guessing and intrigued.
