Edward was an American Photographer (Born in Chicago in 1886 and moved to California at 21 years old), he has been called the “one of the most influential and innovative American photographers” as well as “one of the masters of 20th century photography”. Over the course of Edwards’s 40 year career he too photographs of a large amount set of subjects, including landscapes, still life’s, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies.
He spent the years 1923-1926 in Mexico City as part of a international milieu of creative minds which was attracted by the post-revolutionary excitement of political activists/artists such as Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, Tina Modotti as well as others.
In 1937 he was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera.
It is said that Edward developed a “quintessentially American, especially Californian, approach to modern photography” because of his focus on the people and the places of the American west.
As well as Ansel Adams along side him Edward evolved a modernist style which was characterized by the use of a large format in order to create rich black and white photographs with a sharp focus.
In the initial stages of his work it revolved around and was the typical soft focus pictorialism, which was popular at the time. Edward abandoned the style after a few years and he went on to be one of the “foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images”, he concentrated on precise studies of such forms as fruits, vegetables, shells, and rocks.
In the year 1947 Edward was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and soon after stopped photographing. The photographer spent the rest of his 10 years remaining spent on overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.
More on his style:
With the combination of Edwards passion for the love of nature and form as well as his stark objectivity, these factors came in play with and gave his still life’s, portraits, landscapes, and the nude qualities that seemed suited for expressing the New American lifestyle and aesthetic (that had emerged from California and the West from the end of the two world wars)
Edward helped develop a more modernist style characterized by using a large-format camera to create these focused and detailed black and white photographs.
AI photography refers to a form of photography that utilises artificial intelligence to either generate new images or enhance existing ones that mimic real photographs. One of the most exciting applications of AI-generated photography is the creation of synthetic photo studios. It’s particularly remarkable for its capability to create virtual photo studios. These digital environments empower photographers to produce realistic images without physical studios or equipment, offering flexibility in location, lighting, backgrounds, and subjects, without the typical logistical challenges of traditional photo shoots.
AI-powered tools can analyse photographs and calculate optimal exposure, correct colours, and adjust shadows, among other enhancements. These tools aim to streamline the photo culling and editing process, offering faster and more customised processing and adjustments.
How Does AI Improve Your Photography?
AI can improve the way photographers capture images by making post-processing less time-consuming and more focused on capturing shots. Here are some examples:
1) AI-powered autofocus systems can help photographers take sharper and more in-focus images, even in challenging situations. This can free up photographers to focus on other aspects of composition and lighting.
2) AI-powered noise reduction can help photographers reduce noise in images, especially those taken in low-light conditions. This can make images look cleaner and more professional, without having to spend hours in post-processing.
3) AI-powered image-upscaler can help photographers upscale low-resolution images to higher resolutions. This can be useful for printing photographers’ images or for displaying them on large screens.
4) AI-powered style transfer can help photographers transfer the style of one image to another. This can be a fun way to create unique and creative images, without having to spend a lot of time in post-processing.
5) AI-powered background removal can help photographers remove the background from an image, leaving only the subject. This can be useful for creating product images or for creating composite images, without having to mask out the background manually
For this idea, I combined my piece inspired by Giacomo Costa and wanted to add a gap in the buildings which would reveal a natural landscape. I did this by opening up the Giacomo Costa inspired piece and then opening up an image of a natural landscape that I had taken. I then put the natural landscape image layer behind the Giacomo Costa level. Next, I selected the magnetic lasso tool and made a hole shape with rough edges to make it look like there was a crack in my image. Once I had made this cut out, I then right clicked and pressed layer via cut, creating a hole in my top layer and then making the bottom layer visible. To finish off this idea, I then decided to add a drop shadow to the hole to make it have more depth and look more realistic. Finally, I experimented with this idea by making the buildings layer black and white and then the natural landscape layer colourful. This made it stand out more and highlight the difference between the two types of landscapes. I like how this idea came out as it shows two polar opposite landscapes (one which has been destroyed and built on by humans and the other beautiful and undestroyed).
For these images, I wanted to incorporate futuristic and modern things into a landscape image I had taken and then incorporate old objects/ things into another landscape in order to highlight how different our world is now compared to before. I decided to add a sepia photo filter onto the old image in order to give off the impression of aging and make it look vintage. Overall, I think this was a good first attempt at experimenting with time and AI but next time I would research what type of things were seen in the past as I struggled with ideas of what to add to my image.
For this photoshoot, I visited different zoos and took pictures of the various animals which are trapped there. This photoshoot was inspired by Zed Nelson who is often seen taking pictures of animals in zoos and highlighting this idea of a false landscape being created in order to mimic the animals’ actual habitats. The problem with this being that we are destroying these animals’ actual habitats in order to replace them with manmade ones which are evidently too small for them. In order to narrow down my photographs, I imported all of the images onto Lightroom and then flagged each image with either a white flag or a black flag (white= wanted to use, black= didn’t want to use). I then pressed the filter button and selected so I could only see my white flagged photographs. I then rated all of these out of 5. I then filtered it to only show my images which had a 4 star+ rating. Finally, I edited all of these images by adjusting different settings on Lightroom.
For this set of images, I focused on photographing different animals in their enclosures which are made to look natural by adding things such as trees and rocks. However, it isn’t natural and is evidently way too small for these animals. This links to the artist Zed Nelson as he explores how people have put in effort to recreate these animal’s natural habitats when the animals could have their actual natural habitat if it weren’t for humans destroying their homes in order to build places like these which create a false reality of these different habitats. Another thing I noticed when taking pictures is that there were often paintings of natural/ earthy landscapes seen behind the animals, further emphasising the idea of recreating a landscape which we would already have if it weren’t for human kind.
For these images, I wanted to try and capture the barbed wires and fences that are stopping these animals from escaping from their miniscule prisons. I also tried to take photographs of the animals when they were looking into the camera as I feel eye contact makes it harder for people to overlook the animals horrific conditions they are kept in and are forced to face the reality of how these animals are suffering at the cost of our entertainment.
Overall, I like how this photoshoot came out as I think I managed to successfully link my photoshoot to Zed Nelson’s work. I also found my images of different animals looking into the camera be very effective in making you feel sympathy for them and looking at them more than just a source of entertainment. However, in some of my photographs you can see a glare from the sun hitting the glass which makes my images look less professional. However, I also think it is important that you see that these animals aren’t just free roaming and are actually trapped in these ugly, unnatural cages.
For this photoshoot, I decided to get to higher level grounds and take images of the view I saw before me. I noticed that everywhere I looked was very urbanized and there was a severe lack of natural landscape, highlighting to me the idea of how humans have negatively impacted the Earth by constantly expanding on it and not embracing the beauty we already had.
Overall, I think this photoshoot was successful in highlighting just how much we have expanded on the Earth as you are met with a sea of buildings and no natural landscape when looking at the images. However, my photos that I took on the plane turned out less clear and a bit murky due to the window and reflection from the light, making these images have less quality than my other images.
For this photoshoot, I decided to photograph central London as it is a very heavily built area which I think successfully shows how human kind have expanded and built on the Earth, destroying it of its natural beauty- that has to be ruined in order to make room for these masses of buildings. I focused on photographing areas with lots of buildings joined next to one another
In order to cut down on the amount of photos I would use as my final images, I completed a series of steps. First, I imported them into Lightroom and then gave each image either a white flag or a black flag depending if I wanted to use them or not. The white flag symbolised that I did want to use it and the black no.
I then used the filter in order to only bring up my white flagged images. Next, I rated each of my images out of 5. Any images below 3 stars I decided to not use. Finally, I gave them a colour rating (green being the best and red being the worst). This enabled me to find my best images out of the bunch and ensured that I only edited these ones as to not waste time.
Overall, I think this photoshoot was successful in highlighting how much natural land had to be flattened and animal’s habitats destroyed in order to make room for these vast amount of buildings. I noticed as I was taking pictures that the buildings looked like they kept going on forever, which made me realise just how largely humans have expanded on the Earth, ripping it of its natural beauty. Although these buildings provide us with entertainment and places to shop and eat, the long lasting effects of building so much and destroying the trees that provide us with oxygen, outweighs the positives significantly.
Another thing that I noticed when taking my images, is that the streets were extremely busy, making it difficult to even get from one place to another. There was also a vast amount of rubbish scattered throughout the streets and the underground, highlighting to me how bad the issue of pollution is in these busy cities. I found it difficult to take images of this rubbish and crowds of people due to people being right behind me, causing a disruption if I were to of stopped to take an image.
I think that these massive, impressive buildings are built in a way to cause people to turn a blind eye to the actual harmful effects of such buildings, so that we as a society don’t really care to notice that we have natural beautiful landscapes underneath all of this construction. This has inspired me to do another photoshoot in which I will take photographs of the natural beauty seen in Jersey in order to show to people what our planet could look like if we stop destroying these places and expanding on them.
Favourite images:
Giacomo Costa Inspired Photoshoot
For this photoshoot, I was inspired by Giacomo Costa. In his work, he stacks multiple buildings on top of one another. To me, this shows how we as a species have expanded so much on the Earth and it feels very crowded. It could even suggest that if we keep building new buildings at the rate we are, we may even have to start stacking them on top of each other as seen in his images, making a fake image a reality.
In order to recreate his work, I first chose a photograph I had previously taken of buildings with a gap between them (to which I would then fill in with other buildings). I then adjusted the levels and curves of this images and used the quick selection tool in order to cut out only the buildings. Once I had highlighted the area needed, I then pressed layer via copy. I did this to ensure that the buildings I would be adding to the image wouldn’t overlap and be in front of it, making it look unnatural. Next, I opened up a new image of a building that I had taken and used the quick selection tool to cut out only the building, pressing layer via copy afterwards. I then dragged the cut out onto my original images and used ctrl t in order to adjust the building to make it fit in more. I repeated this step again and again until I had a sufficient amount of buildings. I often had to change which level each cut out was on in order to make it look more seamless and natural. Finally, I decided to experiment with using black and white in my image, making one of my images fully black and white and the other with normal coloured buildings and a black and white sky.
These were the different images of buildings that I used in my final edit.
I am going to layout my final image like this, with the three different images next to one another. Overall, I like how this idea came out as I think I successfully managed to recreate the work of Giacomo Costa and highlight the extent to which we are expanding on the Earth and how destructive this is and bad for our environment. One thing I would change about this image is one of the buildings I used as it is very reflective unlike the rest of them, making it look unnatural and not blend in as seen in Giacomo Costa’s images. I could experiment further with this idea by potentially printing out 2 of each image but printing one as an A5 and the other as an A4 then stacking them on top of one another. On the other hand, I could also print out 2 of each image and then cut out certain buildings on the 2nd image and then use mount board in order to raise it, giving my final piece more depth.
This is the image by Giacomo Costa which inspired my idea.
For my first photoshoot, I am going to take pictures of very built up areas (urban landscapes) in London like Oxford Street etc. I am going to focus on the vast amount of buildings seen in these places and how overpopulated it is. I will also try and capture large groups of people, showing how mankind has taken over Earth and expanded so much that it is ripping Earth of its natural landscapes and replacing it with buildings and homes in order to accommodate with the demands of the increasing population. With my images of different buildings, I am planning to recreate the work of Giacomo Costa and stack these together. This will highlight the idea of how mankind has polluted the Earth with buildings instead of embracing the natural beauty we already have.
For my second photoshoot, I am going to take images of Jersey’s natural landscape and its beauty without any pollution. By doing this, it will hopefully inspire the people who look at my work to try and make a difference on the environment so that we stop destroying the Earth with litter and instead bring out these potentially breath taking landscapes that are hidden by human kinds disregard for the environment. I will then take images of pollution eg litter on the beach and compare the two so people can see the contrast between what the world could be and what it is right now. I will also compare my images of Jersey’s natural beauty and London’s built up, overpopulated area to highlight the idea of what all those buildings are covering up. This may inspire people to leave the very minimal natural landscapes we have left as they are.
For my third photoshoot, I am going to take photographs of different zoo animals in their artificial habitats. This was inspired by Zed Nelson who does something similar to this. I am going to try and take pictures of animals who are in enclosures with unnatural things eg a painted wall of nature or a spotlight instead of natural light as they would have in the wild. This highlights to me how ironic we are as a society as we recreate these natural landscapes, that we could already have, if we didn’t destroy them in order to expand.
Anthropocene is humans impact on the earths environment.
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. In simple terms, it describes the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet.
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.
The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth until now. It affects Earth’s geology, landscape, limnology, ecosystems and climate. The effects of human activities on Earth can be seen for example in biodiversity loss and climate change.
Examples of Anthropocene include: pollution, destruction, storm damage, weathering, land reclamation, overpopulation, traffic congestion, waste disposal issues, recycling and fly tipping.
For this theme, I am going to be focusing on overpopulation, pollution and capturing how the Earth could look if we stop destroying it.
Keith Arnatt Artist Research
Keith Arnatt was a British conceptual artist. As well as conceptual art his work is sometimes discussed in relation to land art, minimalism, and photography. He lived and worked in London, Liverpool, Yorkshire and Monmouthshire. Apart from his conceptual works in 1960s and 70s Arnatt developed a set of images from a rubbish tip that developed from landscape based images to still-live of discarded objects
Keith Arnatt (1930–2008) emerged in the 1960s into the tumult of the London art scene to become a key figure in the history of British conceptual art and photography. In a self-reflexive practice that questions with a deadpan wit the status of both the art object and the role of the artist, Arnatt carefully examined and critiqued an increasing reliance of product over process and object over idea. Visually, his work embraced many of the tropes of international conceptualism and minimalism, yet by imbuing his work with an absurdist humour, Arnatt was able to develop a unique artistic language.
One of his photoshoots was called Pictures from a Rubbish Tip 1988–9. It was a series of five large coloured photographs taken by the British artist Keith Arnatt. It featured close-up shots of rubbish that has been dumped at a local tip. In each photograph, the lens focuses upon select pieces of discarded food – such as bread, chicken bones and vegetables – that lie on clear and pale-coloured plastic bags. These bags both reflect and diffuse the surrounding daylight, highlighting the varying hues of the rubbish so that the scenes appear brightly coloured and partly abstract. Although the types of rubbish shown and their exact position within the compositions varies slightly, each is presented at an apparently fixed distance from the camera and this, as well as the similar lighting effects used across the five works, creates a sense of cohesion in the series.
Another one of his photoshoots was called Miss Grace’s lane, 1986-87. In this set of photographs he incorporates imagery of the natural land tarnished with dumped rubbish. He highlights in his images how mankind’s problem with pollution and discarding of rubbish anywhere has lead to once beautiful landscapes to turn into ugly wastelands. I think that by him zooming up on specific areas with rubbish in, it makes it stand out more than if he would’ve used more of a wide angle and so the person looking at his images cannot ignore the vast amount of pollution seen in the images and is forced to face the reality of our situation. In some of his images, the main colour seen in it is brown. To me, this may be suggesting how dirty our Earth has become instead of being filled with vibrant green colours as would be seen without all the pollution causing our natural environment to die.
Keith Arnatt’s work has inspired me to go out and take images of rubbish that I find in my environment and take close up angles of it so that people’s attention will be solely on the rubbish rather than anything else. This will ensure that people have to see the consequences of littering instead of ignoring it and pretending its not there as most people do.
Zed NelsonArtist Research
Zed Nelson is an accomplished documentary photographer based in London, renowned for his work that tackles significant global social issues. His numerous projects have been exhibited worldwide, and he has received many awards for his contributions to photography.
The Anthropocene Illusion- Zed Nelson
This project examines humankind’s fractured relationship with the natural world, revealing not only a phenomenon of collective self-delusion.
In his latest project, ‘The Anthropocene Illusion,’ Nelson delves into the intricate relationship between humanity and nature. The project reflects on how we have become adept at curating and managing an artificial experience of nature while simultaneously causing irreparable damage to the natural world. The project, completed in 2024, took five years to complete fully. To me, his photographs highlight to me how ironic we are as a society as we are creating these artificial environments and placing these wild animals in, creating a false reality (which we could actually have if we didn’t destroy these natural environments and replace them with fake, unnatural ones).
Zed Nelson’s work has inspired me to take images of animals in artificial environments instead of their natural environment that they should be in and how humans have caused these animals to suffer by placing them in small areas and expect them to perform for people 24/7 in order for humans to be entertained. I am going to do this by visiting different zoos and taking pictures of various animals in artificial environments which are way too small for them.
This is one of my favourite shots from my project into the sublime. The composition of the shot appears rather abstract at first with the high contrast black and white and trees creating rough patterns. It really is a great reflection of the sublime, inspired by Ansel Adam’s work of the sublime with the harsh lines and broad scenery but also pulling on previous work of mine capturing the aftermath of Storm Ciaran, both to me represent the sublime from the sheer beauty and vastness in Ansel Adam’s work to the violence and damage nature can reap on itself. This shot in particular reminds me of an x-ray, as though I have captured the bare bones of the world around us truly showing us it’s power and the devastation it can bring, for me tis is a true representation of the sublime.
To finish this project I put the final images in a virtual gallery, by choosing to place the three most similar images on one wall and the final image behind it I have created a feeling of the sublime within the gallery going from the expanse of three photos of large areas of scenery next to each other on the wall to one single photo showcasing how the scenery can change overnight. I also placed the three photos in order of progression from the photo with the stormy sky, to the photo with damage to a few trees to the the photo with fallen trees and fence lines, this further emphasises the effect of the sublime.
For this photoshoot I took photos of the sunset above fort Regent that overlooked the town and the harbour and the image presented both natural light and artificial light. The photos were taken at sunset at about nine o clock and so the buildings are all in shadow and the sky had the sunset colours which gave a really nice contrast between light and dark. I also took photos of the lights on the runway by the airport, I captured this image through a wire fence which looked really interesting as you could see the coloured bright lights through the diamond shaped gaps in the fence.
My Favourite Images
Mandy Barker
For my Mandy Barker photos I collected plastic and bits of rope from the beach and took photos of them on an all black background, then on photoshop I used all the different photos I took and layered them on top of each other and changed the opacity of the ones in the background to make the image look fuller and to make it look like there is a lot more plastic waste in the ocean. Then I kept on layering the edits until it became a montage of edits.
My Favourite Images
Overall I think my Light Pollution photos were the strongest because they capture what light pollution is and they look the closest to the image I was trying to recreate. I think my Mandy Barker inspired photos could of been stronger by collecting a lot more objects along the beach and getting a bigger variety of images but I do think they represent Mandy Barkers images well and when they were layered up as a montage the final result looked similar to one of Mandy Barkers montage images.
