Mood Board:

Peter Mitchell is a British documentary photographer born in 1943, and is known for documenting Leeds and the surrounding area for more than 40 years. Born in Hope Hospital, Salford, Peter lived briefly in the North West before relocating with his family to London during the 1950s. He grew up in Catford and attended Hornsey College of Art. Following a brief period working as a trainee travel agent for Thomas Cook, he worked for a number of years in the Civil Service as a draftsman. Later, he found steady employment as a graphic designer. Peter moved to Leeds in 1972, into the house in Chapeltown where he still lives and works today. Whilst having a stint working as a delivery driver around the city, he started to photograph the shops, houses, and factories that didn’t have long before they were to be demolished – or “goners,” as Peter referred to them.

Mitchell’s photographs have been published in three monographs of his own, as well as his work being exhibited at Impressions Gallery in 1979, and nearly thirty years later was included in major survey exhibitions throughout the UK including at Tate Britain and Media Space in London, and the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. Mitchell’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Royal Photographic Society and Leeds Art Gallery. Peter’s striking images were an essential part of the colour documentary scene in the seventies and eighties and often featured shopkeepers and factory workers outside their places of work.

Not much is known of Mitchell’s practice through the 1990s and early 2000s. He did continue to photograph, filling his home with negatives, prints and artwork. Mitchell’s work came back to public attention in 2007 with its inclusion in How We Are: Photographing Britain, exhibited at Tate Britain. By this time, Mitchell’s one-time co-exhibitor Martin Parr had become significantly influential not only with his own work, but in his championing of British Documentary photography as a whole. Parr identified Mitchell’s significance to the development of British photography and with some cajoling, and the help of American publisher Nazraeli, Peter’s first Monograph, Strangely Familiar, was published in 2013.

Sir Yank’s Records (& Heavy Disco). Leeds, 1976.

 “I’m a Buddy Holly fan, that’s why I took it. The single Rave On was released in 1958, it’s one of my favourite Buddy Holly tracks!”.

Mitchell focuses on capturing old, casual buildings such as red brick houses without a pleasing aesthetic or any modern features. This can be seen as unusual from a viewers perspective as typically photographers focus on photographing large or beautiful buildings. Mitchell differs from these artists, making him stand out against them as he has a much bigger sense of realism throughout his work, without using many editing apps either. He tends to keep his work very natural looking, and always taken from a deadpan angle, allowing maximum capacity for the surroundings of the subject too. Overall these factors give a significant, vintage and antique aesthetic. From this, we can gather that Mitchell is a practical photographer, who manages to make simple buildings seen from different views, which opens up our outlook on Anthropocene photography. This ultimately influences other photographers, who also capture the impact of humans on the environment, to perhaps also take on a more realistic approach. Overall, the commonsensical approach that Peter Mitchell takes forces the viewer to realise the changes that have happened in the world due to humans and how we have adapted to a more modern world.

“I’ve been a fan of Peter Mitchell since I first saw his photograph of Mr. & Mrs. Hudson outside their newsagents in Seacroft, Leeds, in 1974. It is a brilliant image that is part of Peter’s body of work documenting Leeds from the 1970s onwards.”

Image analysis:

Mitchell has also produced images like this where slightly more modern buildings are featured next to the industrial buildings, ultimately creating a contrast between the new and the old. Although, I can infer that the shop on the left is still not a modern building, but the use of painting it white reflects today’s world as we now see the colour frequently. This effect enhances the similarities and differences between them which adds a sentimental mood into the image, showing how humans have adapted to modernity. The use of including a church, which is connected to the shop, could also be significant as it may highlight that the couple in the image are religious and they may own the church as well as the shop. From this, as a viewer I could also assume perhaps the artist is religious too, and he may be photographing his passion to communicate a message with the viewer. Additionally, Peter Mitchell has involved the sky and some background into his photo, adding a more casual aesthetic, which can take the viewers eye away from the main subject in the image. As I can see the sky is a dull, white shade this can be seen as reflecting the emotions hidden behind the image. Perhaps Mitchell is implying he might be sad by the new changes and portraying them through the emotionless tones throughout.

In contrast to this, we can also see that half of the shop on the left has been knocked down, with what we assume as the shop owners still standing at the entrance. From this we can presume that they have owned the shop for many years and are about to get it knocked down. This links to the Anthropocene as humans and their updated, advanced technology has caused many buildings etc to be knocked down and replaced by more modern versions. This again adds to the sentimental affect throughout the photo, and perhaps Peter Mitchell can relate to this feeling and is sending a message through his photography to people, so we can see the damage and change.

Overall, this image is effective because it explores the contrast between the new and old, while also incorporating a sense of realism. The artist also manages to create an overall mood throughout one image, as he includes many features that tell a story without speaking. I find this very inspiring as Mitchell has a unique perspective and aesthetic in his photos despite capturing every day, simple buildings.

Sammy Baloji v  Liu Bolin

Sammy Baloji is a photographer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He works in Lubumbashi and Brussels, and held exhibitions in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Bilbao, Cape Town and Bamako. He worked on anthropocene artists photographs, such as ..

Why have you chosen this artist?

I’ve chosen this artist because I admire his work and the way he presents his photographs. the way he contras colours and the way his image is presented out interests me the most because it shows us that he takes a lot of work and effort into his images. I want to recreate similar, aesthetic images such as some of his most famous photos. His work relates to anthroponce because its to do with trees and how we are affecting the planet which shows us an insight into the bigger picture he is trying to get across. I am going to respond to his work by recreating similar images such as these:

Here is one of my own images, to nature and sea.

Liu Bolin

Liu Bolin is a contemporary artist born in China’s Shandong province, who specialises in self-portraits where he is disguised to match his surroundings. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Shandong College of Arts in 1995 and his Master of Fine Arts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2001. His work is very inspiring, especially if you love nature. I love the idea of taking photos of nature and making it look presentable and showing the world how we are destroying the planet ourselves and I think this is how the two photographers relate because they are both giving the world an insight as to how we are ruining the world, however Bolin more focusing on flowers and beautiful nature which is what I prefer. Bolin’s work relates to the theme of anthroponce because. This is what makes them so similar yet so difference as they are both trying to resemble the same thing but in different ways. As a response to this I am going to photograph nature.

eg.

Both artists respond to dire global and local circumstances with resistance and imagination sustaining an openness, wonder, and curiosity about the world which is what I admire in these images. I like the fact you can take photos of certain and still backgrounds focusing on stuff that we can change and affect.

Anthropocene is the effect that mankind has had on the natural world. This has only come about in the past few centuries since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and has exponentially become a global problem.

This is a good topic for photography, mostly because it is everywhere, and a clear message can be received, for example, global warming.

There are 4 major signs of Anthropocene; agriculture, urbanisation, deforestation and pollution. Each of these are the root causes of the major problems mankind faces today.

When did Anthropocene begin and end?

Anthropocene Epoch, unofficial interval of geologic time, making up the third worldwide division of the Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to the present), characterized as the time in which the collective activities of human beings began to substantially alter Earth’s surface, atmosphere, oceans etc.

It began in 1950. The resulting radioactive particles were detected in soil samples globally. In 2016, the Anthropocene Working Group agreed that the Anthropocene is different from the Holocene, and began in the year 1950 when the Great Acceleration, a dramatic increase in human activity affecting the planet, took off.

What is 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.

What is the main idea of Anthropocene?

The Anthropocene is sometimes used to simply describe the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet. Whether or not we are in a new geological age, we are part of a complex, global system and the evidence of our impact on it has become clear.

What is an example of the Anthropocene?

The Anthropocene is a new, present day epoch, in which scientists say we have significantly altered the Earth through human activity. These changes include global warming, habitat loss, changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soil, and animal extinctions.

Why was Anthropocene created?

In the years since the term Anthropocene was coined by Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000, it has increasingly defined our times as an age of human-caused planetary transformation, from climate change to biodiversity loss, plastic pollution, megafires and much more.

Mood Board

This mood board shows the variations in Anthropocene. As you can see, each section of the mood board has different scenes and representations of what people believe Anthropocene looks like. However, all the ideas start off somewhere, for example, the top middle image could represent climate change/global warming. That is why the image has two main colours (blue to represent water, and red to represent the heat).

Jersey Areas that provide Anthropocene;

• Open Cast Mining – Quarries: Ronez, St Peters Valley, Sand Quarry St. Ouens
• Power Stations – La Collette, Bellozane Sewage Treatment
• Urbanisation – St Helier: Grands Vaux, Le Marais Flats, Le Squez etc.
• Mass Wastage – La Collette recycling centre
• Disposable Society – La Collette recycling centre – refrigerator mountains etc
• Land Erosion – farming industry: poly tunnels, packing sheds, plastic covered fields etc. Old Glass Houses
• Over Population – poverty/social divides: Social Housing sites. Car Parks, traffic etc.
• Industrialisation – La Collette area, Bellozane, industrial estates. Desalination Plant, German Fortification (WW2)

Mood board

What is Anthropocene?

Anthropocene is used to simply describe the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet. Whether or not we are in a new geological age, we are part of a complex, global system and the evidence of our impact on it has become clear. The current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

Consequences of the Anthropocene

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

When did Anthropocene begin?

It began in 1950. The resulting radioactive particles were detected in soil samples globally. In 2016, the Anthropocene Working Group agreed that the Anthropocene is different from the Holocene, and began in the year 1950 when the Great Acceleration, a dramatic increase in human activity affecting the planet, took off.

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.

“UNLIKE PAST MASS EXTINCTIONS, CAUSED BY EVENTS LIKE ASTEROID STRIKES, VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND NATURAL CLIMATE SHIFTS, THE CURRENT CRISIS IS ALMOST ENTIRELY CAUSED BY US — HUMANS.”

An armed soldier stands guard as the 105 tons of ivory are burned in a game reserve outside the capital city of Nairobi, a stockpile that would have been worth more than £100million to smugglers.

Anthropocene is the effect that mankind has had on the natural world. This has only come about in the past few centuries since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and has exponentially become a global problem. Anthropocene is such a massive problem that it is becoming the name for the era that we are living in.

This is a good topic for photography, mostly because it is everywhere, and a clear message can be brought forward, for example, against global warming. There are 4 major signs of anthropocene; agriculture, urbanisation, deforestation and pollution. Each of these are the root causes of the major problems mankind faces today.

Agriculture

Agriculture is a major part of modern society. It is the core beginning of all the raw materials and food that are used and eaten by the majority of the population. Because agriculture plays such a vital part, it has become one of the biggest industries in the whole world, and is presently valued at over $14 trillion. This includes livestock, vegetables, fruits, and mining minerals. Agriculture accounts for 10% of emissions in the US alone, and it is everywhere. Fields and mines spread for miles to maximise capitalisation. This means that an incredible amount of hard work would have been needed to remove any trees or plants that were there previously. Additionally, heavy machinery is used in every farming and mining process today, which further rises the amount of carbon emissions produced. Overall, agriculture is a very major factor in anthropocene, and accounts for a large part of climate change and global warming.

Deforestation

Along with agriculture, deforestation plays a major role in modern society. It is needed to make space for new infrastructure and even more agriculture and fields. However, lots of deforestation means lots of work, and on a large scale deforestation companies take shortcuts. Rather than individually cutting down trees and slowly moving habitats away from the area through various safe and careful methods, they burn the forest down. This causes massive devastation for anything alive in the area, especially in the Amazon rainforest where the picture above was taken. Additionally, the smoke produced from this process increases the carbon emissions released. After the forest is burnt, heavy machinery is also used to clear the debris, which further increases the net carbon emissions. Every minute, over 2,000 trees are cut down or burnt, which accounts for approximately 10 acres.

Urbanisation

Since the late 18th century, large cities have become the centre for all capitalist operation. Cities like London in England grew massively during the industrial revolution. This is because the cities are essentially where all the money is, and since mankind has become exponentially more and more capitalist and money hungry, these cities have and will continue to grow exponentially. Lots of work needs to go into these extremely large scale societies. Land potentially needs to be deforested, agriculture is needed to sufficiently supply the population, and an unimaginable amount of work is put in to create the infrastructure and buildings. All of this needs lots of heavy machinery to be done, including the transport of goods and food into the city. And much more than this is needed to create large scale cities. This takes lots of time. The largest cities in our society today were originally created hundreds of years ago, meaning that carbon emissions have continued to rapidly increase. All of this has accumulated, and cities have become the largest contributor to all carbon emissions globally. Cities are responsible for over 70% of all carbon emissions.

Pollution

All of the resources and materials that go into the city then come back out of it as waste. This means that everything that is packaged, and also all of the emissions from fuels like petrol is released into the natural world, and it ends up all over the globe. This is mostly apparent with plastics in the ocean. Now, it is nearly impossible to find a fish that doesn’t contain microplastics. There is also an island named “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch” which is entirely made of plastic floating in the ocean. It is 1,600,000km². For comparison, England is 130,000km². This is killing hundreds of thousands of marine wildlife yearly; in the photo above you can see thousands of fish that have died because of the changes of the conditions due to pollution in the ocean. It is also devastating the coral reefs, which are the plants of the ocean. The world has lost 14% of its coral reefs in the last 10 years. And pollution doesn’t only contribute to the water.

In fact, all of the 4 major signs of anthropocene are all of the major contributers to the creation of greenhouse gases. With more and more of these atmosphere destroying gases floating around, the Earth is getting warmer and warmer, and mankind is slowly but surely killing life on Earth. We have no idea how problematic we have become to Earth’s natural cycles that are responsible for life’s existence.

Zed Nelson

Zed Nelson is a London based photographer who has explored a plethora of photographical concepts, such as portraiture and commercial work. Nelson is also known for his long-term photographical observations of society.

This specific exhibition, aptly named “The Anthropocene Illusion”, focuses on the false nature of the modern capitalist society. In this photo, we can see an arched entrance with drawings of animals carved into the walls and “AFRICA” written on the same side. Next to it, we see a group of three people, one in an electric wheelchair. From this information, it is clear to the viewer that these people are in a zoo.

On its own, the concept of a zoo is very anthropocene. It is essentially people creating an incredibly fake natural environment for animals who have been born into these facilities, and then hiding behind the statement of “conservation for endangered species”, just so that they can lie to tourists and pretend that these animals are wild, when truthfully the animals are just prisoners chambered from their own true freedom. This is all done just so that the people who created the zoo can make money from giving tourists the false experience of seeing a “wild animal”.

For this photo, it is clear that Zed Nelson went to a real zoo and captured exactly what he saw. The whole exhibition is focused on the relationship between mankind and nature, and the best way to capture this is with real world examples. The photos from “The Anthropocene Illusion” all follow this rule, meaning that every photo uses sunlight to light the photo. The camera settings for this specific photo are most likely; a low ISO, (from 100-400) to account for the sensitive sunlight, a small aperture (between f11 or f22) because everything is in focus and the photo has a medium depth of field, and a fast shutter speed (from 1/250 to 1/1000 sec).

This photo is another by Zed Nelson that is also part of “The Anthropocene Illusion” exhibition. It demonstrates perfectly how mankind has faked a reality in its venture for maximum capitalisation. In the photo, we see a lonely Chimpanzee sat on a rock against a painted wall. The painting depicts a paradise of nature, tall thick green trees towering over bushes of infinite unknown species, tropical plants emerging from the nutritious soil, and still lake water powering the life around it. However there is no life around, it is merely a fabricated world that encircles the small world that this Chimpanzee has lived its whole life in. It is all fabricated. The Chimpanzee looks exhausted, his arm hangs weakly over the rock, and chippings from the wall appear like the smoke from a cigarette. This creates the illusion that the Chimp is smoking a cigarette, which further cements the anthropocene theme as the cigarette industry is another huge capitalist movement where the product is basically an extremely addictive and expensive cancer causer which over 20% of the population consume religiously. What this photo doesn’t capture is the thousands of tourists who pay a small fee to the zoo to see the Chimp “in its natural habitat” behind the glass and trapped inside a prison. This photo encapsulates exactly how false the capitalist society has become, to the point where we strip wild animals of their freedom and trap them between the eyes of glass and concrete walls decorated with a false world.

Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer with over 40 years of experience. This quote from his website vividly explains his exploration of the Anthropocene world – “His imagery explores the collective impact we as a species are having on the surface of the planet — an inspection of the human systems we’ve imposed onto natural landscapes.”-www.edwardburtynsky.com.

In Burtynsky’s depictions of landscapes, he often chooses to look down at his subjects from a helicopter. This angle offers a completely different perspective of the devastation and mass destruction that goes on in the world. Take this photo for example, taken above the Niger Delta river in Nigeria. It captures the aftermath of decades worth of ecological harm caused by the greed of Nigerian politicians who are responsible for the millions of barrels of raw crude oil that has been dumped into the Niger Delta. The green river flows with infinite toxins from the middle of the frame, and branches out like a tree as if it breathes the life of dead wood. Surrounding it is a baron wasteland, torn from the lively greens and awe-inspiring wildlife that once sat above, now holding the carcass of what remains. A stretch of road tears through the graveyard with no care for the world around it. The road demonstrates a visual perspective of how mankind reacts to the anthropocene problems, the majority of us simply see it and drive on by, not caring for the atrocities that we inflict. But the reason we do that is because a sole person is not capable of stopping this mass destruction, and that is what Edward Burtynsky understands. He understands that the only thing he can do is visualise the destruction through his lens, and create a world where the viewer can understand and care for what is happening to the Earth.

Ideas

For my anthropocene project, I had a few ideas. Firstly, I had the idea to study some trees in Jersey that are surrounded by fields, relating to the works of Edward Burtynsky. This is because I found out that over 50% of Jerseys land is taken up by farmland, meaning that many trees, plants and habitats have been destroyed to create room for the farmland. My idea was to take photos of the old trees that have been left alone in the middle of the baron fields, to demonstrate the lone survivors of human destruction, and potentially the result of our consistent destruction to our planet due to global warming. However, I found that my photos weren’t as persuasive or obvious to the anthropocene theme, so I scrapped the idea and moved on.

I also had the idea to do a typology of polluting items slowly crumbling as the photos went down. I thought of doing this with a plastic bag, or a crisp packet. Ultimately, I settled on doing it with a plastic bottle, as they are very common and recognisable, and they crumple up very nicely.

Photoshoot

For this photoshoot, I used a black background to isolate the water bottles, and placed them on a platform where marked the positioning and direction of the bottles. For the lighting, I used a key light from 45 degrees to the right of the bottle, and a fill light from 45 degrees to the left, so that the lighting was completely balanced. I also made sure to avoid any massive light reflections on the bottles.

From there, I chose a few plastic bottles to work with. Then, I took a photo of each standing upright with no damage, and progressively crumpled the bottle. I did this with all of them, experimenting with the rotation of the water bottle. Ultimately, this is the finished project.

I am fairly happy with how the project turned out. It is exactly the idea I had in mind and it obviously sends the message that these plastic bottles do not break down or biodegrade. They are permanent and abundant in todays world, mostly neglected at the sides of roads, piled up in ugly landfills or endlessly floating and polluting the ocean.

In hindsight, I now think it would have looked better if I had removed the platform at the bottom of the images to isolate the bottles in the frame, as the height of the platform varies between the images and makes the project look a little bit messy. I also think I should have added a wider variety of brands to also give the message that the plastic bottle companies and their greed for money is the driving force to this crisis, and how the ignorance and selfishness of mankind perpetuates the cycle that plastic follows, from the top of the piece when the bottle is purchased and new, to the bottom where the bottle is neglected.