‘The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans.’

‘The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time.’

Anthropocene is the substantial impact humans have had and are having on the earth. For example:

• pollution
• destruction
• storm damage
• weathering
• land reclamation
• over population
• traffic congestion
• waste disposal issues
• recycling
• fly tipping
• construction
• etc.

What are the 4 causes of Anthropocene?

The 4 causes of Anthropocene are:

• Agriculture- Farming
• Urbanisation- Buildings, cities
• Deforestation- The cutting down of trees
• Pollution- Litter and greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere

Signs of the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is mainly characterised by three factors: the technological progress that sped up after the First Industrial Revolution, the explosive growth in population thanks to improvements in food, health and hygiene, and the multiplication of production and consumption.

There are many signs of Anthropocene and of the impact humans on the earth and they consist of things such as:

• pollution
• destruction
• storm damage
• weathering
• land reclamation
• over population
• traffic congestion
• waste disposal issues
• recycling
• fly tipping
• construction
• littering
• etc.

How has agriculture impacted the earth?

Agriculture effects the earth, because it needs water as input and pollutes rivers, lakes, and oceans by releasing nutrients. It is a crucial driver of climate change, responsible for around one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It has also replaced permanent forests and wild grasslands with farm fields that allow much higher rates of soil erosion where the soil is not covered year-round.

Food production accounts for over a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The map below shows the different types of land used for agriculture on the left and on the right it shows the sizes of these agriculture farms and as seen below they are mostly all larger than 100 ha, which is resulting in lots of deforestation and destruction of natural land.

How has urbanisation impacted the earth?

Urbanisation often results in deforestation, habitat loss, and the extraction of freshwater from the environment, which can decrease biodiversity and alter species ranges and interactions. Urbanisation has also caused lots of air and water pollution, due to waste disposal problems, high energy consumption etc. as well as insufficient water availability.

Urbanisation is growing largely due to over population. Statistics show that in 2020, there were 7.7 billion people and, by 2022, the global population reached 8 billion people in Nov. This statistic shows how rapidly the population is growing due to better agriculture, health and hygiene etc.

The table below shows the biggest cities on earth, due to urbanisation, and their population, to show how over-populated earth is and how many buildings there must be to house all these people. It also shows how many km of land the cities take up to give another idea about how large these cities are and how much urbanisation there actually is.

How has deforestation impacted the earth?

Deforestation refers to the purposeful clearing or thinning of trees and forests. When deforestation occurs, much of the carbon stored by trees is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change. It also creates air pollution and green house gasses, which is what causes climate change. Deforestation also creates habitat loss, which can decrease biodiversity and alter species ranges and interactions, as well as animals to go extinct in some cases. It also causes desertification and soil erosion.

The map below shows how deforestation is currently affecting the earth in each and every country and how wide spread deforestation is. It also shows how at risk these places are for deforestation and how at risk each country is for deforestation.

How has pollution impacted the earth?

Air pollution affects all things. It is harmful to our health, and it impacts the environment by reducing visibility and blocking sunlight, causing acid rain, and harming forests, wildlife, and agriculture. Greenhouse gas pollution, the cause of climate change, affects the entire planet.

Water pollution depletes aquatic ecosystems and triggers unbridled proliferation of phytoplankton in lakes. It also causes many animals to die, which could cause extinction, which can decrease biodiversity and alter species ranges and interactions.

What are the consequences of Anthropocene?

Consequences of Anthropocene include:

• global warming
• habitat loss
• changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere
• oceans and soils
• animal exstinctions
• etc.

These human actions cause, among other consequences, changes in the water cycle, imbalances and destruction’s in the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, the increase of extreme meteorological phenomena, the acidification of the oceans or the disappearance of the forests.

How people are trying to stop the harmful impact on the earth

There are many ways people are trying to stop the harmful impact against earth. One of the ways people are trying to do this is by raising money for charity. There are lots of charities for things such as climate change, where the money goes towards things that can help benefit climate change, like re planting trees for example.

Replanting trees will massively help climate change, as the more trees means more CO2 being absorbed by them and taken out of the atmosphere, meaning less green house gasses. It also helps many animals, as it gives them their habitats back, or new ones.

Another way people are trying to stop the negative impact on earth that the humans are having is by trying to stop air pollution and water pollution. Many people are trying to stop water pollution by doing things such as ‘clean up the beach.’ This is where many people volunteer to go across beaches and pick up litter. This will help the water pollution and help many sea animals survive and help stop extinction.

A way people are stopping air pollution is trying to use their cars less, so that they will not produce as much green house gasses while driving. People are doing this by doing things such as cycling, walking or getting public transport.

The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans.

Examples

• pollution
• destruction
• storm damage
• weathering
• land reclamation
• over population
• traffic congestion
• waste disposal issues
• recycling
• fly tipping
• construction
• etc.

The word combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time.

Mood Board

Mind Map

Mood Board

What is Anthropocene?

Anthropocene is a word which is used to describe the period of time in which human activity has greatly impacted the Earth’s climate and ecosystems.

Anthropocene in photography often explores issues such as:

• Extreme Human-altered environments such as quarries, mines, dams, power stations and cities

• Deforestation

• Plastic waste and landfill

• Traffic/Over population

• Modern ruins

• Farms with plastic covering

Anthropocene photography is a term which was first used in 2015 within a blog written by the photographer Kristin Wilson (Link to Blog). In this blog post, Kristin describes that Anthropocene is a vague concept and can be used to describe photos showing negative impacts of humans on the environment. Overall, the purpose of Anthropocene in photography is investigating and understanding the impacts which human’s are having on Earth and bringing attention to the fact that things need to change now in order to save our future.

I personally think that, by documenting global issues, photographers are helping in many ways by spreading awareness and promoting taking action, however, I also think that they apart of the problem themselves. I think this because the majority of photographers travel for their work and print their images, which will heighten their carbon footprint. In addition, the equipment used by photographers is not very sustainable as, for example, cameras contain various resources which are being depleted and can contaminate soil and water. Altogether, if photographers are wanting to make a change for the environment, they should be more considerate of the impacts they are causing through their job and contemplate using more sustainable equipment and methods.

Finally, it is very controversial as to whether Anthropocene images are beautiful or ugly. In my opinion, I think that it depends on the photograph. For example, an image may appear beautiful but the message behind it is not so much. The case could also be that the image is ugly to show the viewers the impacts we are having on Earth so that maybe people will act to make a change.

Artist References

Edward Burtynsky

Source 1 and Source 2

Edward Burtynsky is a photographer, born in 1955 in Ontario, who is best known for his images of nature altered by industry. Burtynsky grew up near a General Motors plant, which sparked his interest for photographing the impact of human industry on the planet. He was also greatly inspired to pursue photography by photographers such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Eadweard Muybridge. Edward Burtynsky studied Photography/Media studies at Toronto Metropolitan University and has since received his BAA (1982), an Alumni Achievement Award (2004) and an Honorary Doctorate (2007). He is still involved with this University community and sits on the board of directors for The Image Centre. Throughout Burtynsky’s career, he has gained various awards such as the TED prize (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and he has had his work displayed in over 80 museums worldwide including the Tate Modern in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Burtynsky displays his images as very large, high-resolution prints as they are more immersive and will really draw the viewer’s attention.

The making of Burtynsky’s photographs often requires the use of technology such as helicopters, drones or even lifts in order for him to get his desired perspectives. This may make it difficult for me to imitate his images as I don’t have access to the same technology.

Photos by Edward Burtynsky:

George Marazakis

Source

George Marazakis is a photographer who was born in 1976 in Crete Island, Greece, where he lives with his Wife and Son. He studied Mechanical Engineering and he works at the Municipality of Heraklion (Administrative Centre of Crete). Marazakis began his career in photography in 2010 after having a knee injury, causing him to stop playing basketball and having to walk more as exercise, and he uses a Canon 60d and a small Samsung nx1000. He mainly does street photography and he describes his photos as candid deceptive. Other than street photography, George Marazakis has also produced a series of photographs titled ‘A Cure for Anthropocene‘. This series is featured on Lens Culture and displays his images, along with an essay written by Cat Lachowskyj. Within this essay, it is said that George Marazakis stated ‘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‘. He then explained that ‘we can say that we are a disease attacking our own organism, just like an immune system can attack its own body‘. I personally think that this is a really powerful way to think about the impacts in which we are making on our ecosystems and it is something which I am inspired to imitate in my own photographs.

Photos by George Marazakis:

A Comparison of these Photographers

At first glance, these photographers have a very similar style of work in terms of photographing the impacts of humans to the environment, however, their images also have many differences. For example, Burtynsky photographs more extremely impacted landscapes, often from an aerial view, however Marazakis’ landscapes are more minimally affected and the majority of them have been taken on ground. Burtynsky’s images also appear higher resolution to Marazakis’ and are more varied in colour. Overall, it will be much more simple to imitate George Marazkis’ photographs as I won’t need to use expensive technology and I can find many more similar landscapes on the Island to his.

For this photoshoot I went to Val de La mare reservoir, I captured the reservoir from different angles, which included the wall and the small turret. The wall caught my eye as I found the water marks gave this really exaggerated and in-depth look which reminded me of the theme, Anthropocene. It shows the indicate but exaggerated contrasting details, creating the ageing look from over time.

I chose to capture this area from specific angles, as this overall created really interesting photos. For example I thought capturing the reservoir water with the wall appearing from the side, gave this really unique look to the photo. This creates engaging leading lines to the small turret coming off the wall at an angle.

I experimented with capturing the wall coming in from angles which leads to the centre of the photo. To make this more engaging I cropped my favourite images down to make the turret the centre focus. This way I thought gave interesting depth.

To take these photos I collected rubbish in my house and took the photos with a black background so that I am able to merge the photos after editing to create a similar style photo to Mandy Barker.

Photoshoot:

I went through my photos and flagged ones which I liked before going through them all and rating ones 5 stars which I am planning to edit. I also added a black flag to the photos which haven’t worked out.

Best photos:

These photos are the ones which I am planning to edit in the style of Mandy Barker.

Editing in the style of Mandy Barker

To drag your different objects into your photo you must drag that layer away and then move the layer which has your object selected in it onto your background layer.

To create multiple layers of the same object you should click ‘Duplicate layer’ or press control J whilst the layer is selected. To give the illusion that some objects are further away you should reduce the opacity so that they are not as bright as the ones that are close.

Final Photo:

I think this is a successful image as it looks similar to Mandy Barker’s work. I also think it worked well with concentrating the rubbish in one line as it gives the image movement. Making the images in the background less bright, by reducing the opacity, caused them to look as if they are in the distance. I also added some which are medium sized to create more of an illusion that the images are dispersing as they get further into the distance. I like how there is a range of different colours in the piece as it makes it stand out more.

What is an urban landscape?

An urban landscape means a dense accumulation of building structures with a rich stylistic variety of shapes, sizes and proportions located over a fairly extensive territory. Urban photography is a genre of photography concerned with capturing scenes from urban spaces, such as towns and other ecological spaces. It has become more popular over the years as the world has become more urbanised. 

Urban landscapes refer to the physical environment of cities or urban areas. It includes buildings (residential or commercial), infrastructure (roads, bridges), public spaces (parks), transportation systems (subways), and other elements that shape urban living.

When taking good urban landscape photos, you should:

1. Use a wide-angle lens
2. Photograph with a narrow aperture
3. Take advantage of golden-hour light
4. Shoot street photos in context
5. Photograph from above
6. Have fun with long exposures
7. Shoot urban landscapes at night
8. Feature interesting architecture

What are new topographics?

The term “new topographics” is used to describe a select group of American photographers whose pictures had a similar aesthetic. Their pictures were black and white with some colour and they were all landscape. The term was first used by William Jenkins in 1975. These photographers included:

• Robert Adams
• Lewis Baltz
• Nicholas Nixon  
• Bernd and Hiller Becher

The subjects in these photos were car parks, houses, trailers and ware houses. These kinds of places were picked to display America as matter-of-fact and disillusion people to the American dream. By shooting everyday homes and revealing the truth about how Americas landscapes actually look these photographers dismantled the idealised landscapes that are normally seen in photography.