“While I was photographing the landscapes affected by human interactions in the middle of natural spaces, the topography started looking like a body to me – like something with the early stages of psoriasis on its skin,”

George Marazakis was born in 1976 in Creta Island, Greece and currently lives with his wife and their son in Heraklion, Greece. He studied Mechanical Engineering and currently works for the Greek Ministry of Justice, however he shoots images relating to the Anthropocene in rural, vacant areas that have been abandoned by society in his work of ‘A Cure for Anthropocene’. These areas are scarce, forgotten about and become consumed by nature warping around the structure, mostly due to society progressing through the years at such a fast rate that the area/ structure is no longer needed yet still leaves a mark and impact on the environment around it, restricting growth and areas for ecosystems to thrive in.

Marazakis’ work contains an ominous tone brought along by a muted colour scheme that is grounded by a great clouds of mist and smoke overlooking the subject of his images, giving an extra terrestrial feeling. His images are taken in the Winter early mornings or late afternoon of Greece, dusk or dawn, so that the sky is reaching a pastel colour due to the sun either rising or setting out of the frame as it is uncommon for overcast days to appear here. This minimalistic viewpoint highlights the issue of air pollution, not just in urbanised locations but also the growth of it within the countryside, places which are idealised as areas of a country with the healthiest natural spaces. This is due to the rising growth in populations across the world meaning that there is a decline in housing available in city centres, so much that people are having to move further and further away from civilisation and taking over these ‘vacant’ areas. Alongside this, it demonstrates the critical issue of climate degredation in hopes of finding some sort of ‘cure’ to draw back all of the vast mistakes humanity has made over many years to try and guide the globe back to a healthier state.

“If human civilization is in fact a disease, then it can also be the cure. But if the cure to the planet’s disease isn’t self-restriction, it will result in self-extermination. After all, the salvation of the planet is a different concept than the salvation of humanity.”

Analysis of his work:

This wide-angled image taken on a large format camera is taken in the early morning when the sun is rising or when it is about to set, due to the gradually lightening blue above the greenhouse, giving an ombre effect. The orange glow behind the greenhouse appears like the orange of the sun however artificial light has also been placed on the opposite side to enhance this effect so that the detail inside is revealed at a higher contrast. The dead grass in the foreground shows how neglected this area is, the dullness contrasting against the colour in the sky above. Along the glass windows, there are subtle white streaks streaming down, showing that this greenhouse has been abandoned for a long period of time, getting dirtier and more neglected while it faces the elements. Within the greenhouse, there are large twisting figures, most likely left behind crops that had been planted and left behind. Traditionally, greenhouses were main sources of producing fruit and vegetables and were in use all over the world. However, due to the fast-pace at which new technologies are created, the use of greenhouses died out due to the rise in artificial processing and growth of vegetables and therefore left them abandoned. The loneliness of the image creates an ominous atmosphere for the viewer, creating a moment of peacefulness alongside impending anxiety of how quickly society moves on and progresses, faster than it ever has before.

This image has really intrigued me as I feel that it has a very different take on the Anthropocene – instead of showing these compact, busy, urbanised areas, Marazkis’ shows the abandoned and neglected side of it, the side that is acting like a silent killer and restricting nature from thriving. In one of my photoshoots, I would really like to focus my attention on this aspect of the Anthropocene, specifically the greenhouses of Jersey located in St Clements. Greenhouses used to be used frequently for growing Jersey’s tomatoes however have been left to blur into the background due to importation of goods from other countries becoming an easy route.

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

Edward Burtynsky OC RCA, born February 22nd 1955 (aged 69), is a Canadian photographer and artist best known for his large format photographs of the industrialisation of natural landscapes. His work depicts the notably developed locations around the world which have been affected the most by human influence through things such as pollution, over-population and over-farming. He acts as an advocate for the urgent environmental conservation needed, deeply entwining his work with the scars left by industrial capitalism and vividly revealing the environmental devastation not only in remote areas but cityscapes too. Burtynsky’s work is most oftenly connected to the concept of the sublime, established by the grand scale he works on as well as the disturbing context of rapid industrialisation.

Born in St Catharines, Ontario, his father was a Ukrainian immigrant who sought employment from the largest production line at the time – General Motors. When Edward was just 11 years old, his father purchased a darkroom alongside cameras from a widow who’s late husband was an amateur photographer, sparking an interest in him as a young boy. Given rolls of Tri-X and adapting to black and white print, he began to photograph events and take portraits of people at his local Ukranian community centre. Gathering 50 cents from each image he took, he spent his time travelling along his hometown capturing the pristine landscapes of his childhood which would later lead him into his interest of the natural landscape of destinations around the globe. Continuing into his early career, he formally studied graphic arts and photography until he received his diploma in Niagara College in Ohio. Not initially considering to carry on down the path of higher education, he eventually led onto a four-year undergraduate course, receiving his Bachelors in Photographic Arts, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Ohio, 1982. His earliest work resides in colour of locations across Ontario and Western Canada at the Ryerson’s university’s image centre. These images carry heavy influence from Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Carleton Watkins. Some of his earliest original landscape photographs such as Landscape Study #1, North Carolina, USA (1979) and Landscape Study #2, Ontario, Canada (1981) served as portfolio submissions for Ryerson and displayed traces of his early exploration into the main themes of his work: human control over nature.

Now, Burtynsky used to take his photographs using a large format field camera before 2007 on large 4×5 inch sheet film, his editions ranging from 18 × 22 inches to 60 × 80 inches. Typically, his images are based at high-vantage points using natural topography, drones, helicopters or just elevated platforms. He currently uses a high-resolution digital medium format camera.

The Anthropocene Project:

The Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work of three collaborating photographers: Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. Not only does it involve a photobook of the images which capture humanity’s scarring on the landscapes of the globe in a sublime nature, but includes a major travelling museum exhibition, a feature-length documentary film and an interactive educational website to raise awareness of the consequences of civilisations radicalised consumerism. This project was launched in September 2018, combining scientific research with art to capture the most spectacular evidence of human influence, while taking time to reflect on the deeper meaning of what these profound transformations signify.

“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

His other exhibitions:

• 1983–1985 Breaking Ground: Mines, Railcuts and Homesteads, Canada, USA
• 1991–1992 Vermont Quarries, USA
• 1997–1999 Urban Mines: Metal Recycling, Canada Tire Piles, USA
• 1993–Carrara Quarries, Italy
• 1995–1996 Tailings, Canada
• 1999-2010 Oil Canada, China, Azerbaijan, USA
• 2000–Makrana Quarries, India
• 2000–2001 Shipbreaking, Bangladesh
• 2004–2006 China
• 2006–Iberia Quarries, Portugal
• 2007–Australian Mines, Western Australia
• 2009–2013 Water Canada, USA, Mexico, Europe, Asia, Iceland, India
• 2016 Salt Pans
• 2014–2018 Anthropocene

Analysis of his work:

Edward Burtynsky’s image Ivory Tusks was shot on April 25, Nairobi, Kenya, 2016. The ideology behind this image is burning ivory tusks in order to prevent poaches from killing wild animals such as rhinos and elephants to sell these tusks and profit from inhumane acts. In the image, several roaring orange flames are captured swaying to the right making the image have a murky auburn tone to the overall atmosphere, setting a tone of anger and frustration. It involves the nature of the sublime due to the dangerous yet somewhat beautiful formation of the flames. The image includes a lot of detail and colour, producing a motion blur through the use of a slow shutter speed on a large format camera. This forces the viewer to adamantly sit by and watch the consequences of humanity’s greed and feel the guilt of how extreme it has become. The clouds of smoke bring an ominous tone throughout the image, filling the dark night time sky with anger and mystery. This provides a soft flow in the air contrasted against the uneven gravel scattered across the floor, symbolising how the burning of the tusks releases the animals from the impending deaths they would’ve had.

Anthropocene ~ Artist Study ~ Liu Bolin

Liu Bolin is a Chinese photographer and performance artist known for using chameleon style methods to immerse himself in the environment. The meaning behind Liu Bolin’s photography is that he blends in with the environment and this links to the way that the Chinese society is ruled as the people don’t have a voice and just blend in and don’t stand out.

What inspired Liu Bolin Photography?

Liu Bolin ~ At the end of 2005, I was living in Beijing and working as an artists assistant. Beijing’s art world at this time was thriving. All 140 artists in Suo Jia Cun were exclusively making art, and this is what I knew I wanted to do.

Image Analysis

The colour that is painted on Liu makes him very camouflaged with the rest of the image so he blends in with his surroundings. The texture in this image is very rough and uneven which suggests that he wants to fit in. The meaning behind his photos is that he is stuck in a controlling society and that in his country the people don’t have a voice and don’t have access to speak what’s on their mind. Liu Bolin says in a Ted Talk that he is sometimes called “the invisible man” because the Chinese government treats the population as a whole rather than giving people their individual voice. The invisible man also suggests that he is seen as just someone in the background and he doesn’t stand out just like nobody else stands out in the population. The surroundings of the photo add no value to him as a person as the image is in a public place that has no meaning which again has connotations that the people in China are treated like they are worthless and have no meaning or value.

Mandy Barker ~ Biography

Mandy Barker is an international award winning photographer who is British. She is mostly known for her work with marine plastics from the ocean, and has worked alongside scientists to try and bring awareness to the amount of plastic that is being used.

What inspired Mandy Barkers Photography?

The ever growing problem of plastic on the UK coastline and just how much of an issue its causing for the environment. She was inspired to use the plastic from the oceans in her photography to create a montage of images from the plastic that she collected.

How does Mandy Barkers photography relate to the theme of Anthropocene?

Mandy Barkers photography relates to the theme of Anthropocene as she collects washed up bits of plastic from the oceans and creates something spectacular and beautiful out of something that is very negative and is ruining our planet. With these amazing montages that she makes she makes awareness of the plastic pollution problem. Mandy Barkers photography consists of using plastic objects from the beach and arranging them on a black background or a piece of black fabric and then she uses those edits to build up the objects into a montage and adds more colourful images that she has photographed of a particular object to make the montage more interesting and appealing to the eye. This relates to the theme of Anthropocene because it shows that when more of the edits that she photographed are added to the montage the more plastic objects and rubbish from the oceans is in her photography which is trying to show just how much plastic is in our oceans.

Mandy Barker Image Analysis

The texture of this image is very rusty and bumpy that shows the wearing of the plastic objects. This also suggests that plastic takes years and years to break down and decompose. The meaning of this photo is to show how much plastic there is in our oceans and also to show that something that is so ugly and disgusting can be turned into something so beautiful and eye catching. The colour in this photo makes the image a lot more appealing to look at and directs your eye to more of the phot as the colour is drawing your eye in. The idea of this photo is to also try and use up some of the plastic that’s in the ocean and to show the sheer amount that is in our oceans. The size of the objects in this image makes the photo seem like its deep in the ocean and that there are thousands of plastic objects in the sea and on the shore. By changing the size and the opacity of the objects it makes it look a lot more crowded and full and shows that the ocean is heavily populated with plastic.

New Topographics was an exhibition, curated by William Jenkins, which consisted of contemporary landscape photography from the 1970s which focused on man altered landscapes instead of the traditional natural American landscape photography. For example post war urban landscapes commonly car parks, industrial sites, urban housing and caravan parks, rather than completely natural landscape. Sometimes with a contrast between the man altered and natural landscape.

New Topographics was a reaction to the post war American landscape, changing from natural to more urban, and showing a contrast to natural landscape photography such as the work of Ansel Adam’s, which which was dominating landscape photography at the time.

The photographers featured in the topographics were: Robert Adams, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel Jr.

Some photos from the new topographics:

Industrial

After the war lots of industrial sites were being torn down and forgotten about as they were no longer needed, or being used.

Bernd & Hilla Becher were a married couple from Germany, who saw an interest in these buildings and their architecture. They didn’t want them to be forgotten about so decided to photograph them as a way of remembering and documenting the existence of these buildings. The couple even said themselves “It seemed important to keep them in some way and photography seemed the most appropriate way to do that.”

The couple would go around the buildings and take eight photos of the buildings, capturing all the corners and sides of the buildings. The photographed the building with a large format camera in the same way Ansel Adams would take his photographs.

The photos they took would be presented in a grid layout showing all around the outside of the building. The photos were also all taken in Black and white and the couple would have to wait for the weather to be cloudy so there would be contrast between the buildings and the sky because if it was sunny the sky would appear dark in the photos because they are in black and white. They also preferred taking the photos when it was cloudy because the light would be softer meaning the building would be photographed without strong shadows and with a more diffused light in the photos.