Photoshoot one: For this photoshoot, I decided on taking photos around the recycling centre because I think it really links to the topic Anthropocene. This idea is different as the recycling centre shows a positive perspective on how we can reduce pollution and can impact people’s decisions.
Photoshoot two: For this photoshoot, I decided to take photos near the tunnel in town because there is a large rate of traffic congestion near there. Also, I decided to take photos of man-made sculptors and buildings which look out of place and are affects from the Anthropocene historic period.
Photoshoot three: For this photoshoot, I decided on taking photos around the waterfront because it is packed with newly built, modern houses and this shows clutter and chaos.
This photograph shows the close connection and relation between the humans impact on earth and nature itself. Firstly, I admired how the cliff-paths continuously change direction, leading you off into the far distance which creates an interesting depth to the photo. It subtly shows how humans have impacted earth, not necessarily displaying bad things but subtly showing you minor changes like this, which makes you think of this on a larger scale, perhaps being more aware of your surroundings. I like how the paths leads you off into the distance, allowing you to notice changes in scenery as you notice more of the changes made inland, from fields to housing developments.
In comparison to Marazakis’s work you can see how he shows you scenes which make you question his intentions behind the message he wants to communicate to you. As you can see, from looking at my work I have tried to create this effect using similar intentions and techniques, from choice of scenery to editing. Marazakis takes his photos in certain conditions in order for you to feel the message. In response I captured my photos early morning and very slightly edited the contrast in shadows.
For this photoshoot I have decided to go to the beaches of Jersey and collect all the waste from the beaches and take photos of each piece of waste individually and then also take photos of the waste arranged into a detailed design or even if its possible I want to create sea life and sea creatures out of the waste to create a story behind the images and to represent the impact that plastic has on our world today and the sea life in the ocean.
Artist Reference:
Mandy Barker
Beaches I will go to:
St ouens
St brelades
Plemont
What time of day I will do my photoshoot?
For this shoot I will have to go to the beaches within any of the daylight hours to collect my props, and for the actual Photoshoot of my objects I can do this at any time of day as I will be using a black backdrop and artificial lighting to make the objects more visible.
Mood Board of ideas:
Photoshoot plan 2:
Main Idea:
For this photoshoot I have decided that I am going to take photos of popular places on island which represent the work and things that went on in the older generations. For example I am going to take photos of some of the war bunkers and places on the island and when editing I will edit old jersey soldiers into the images this gives a contrast between the past and the present. Another location I may do will be fields and edit it with some old jersey farmers in the foreground. Lastly i might take photos of the harbour and areas around boats to represent where all of jerseys materials and resources located from back in the 1800s.
One of the main focuses and aspects I want to involve in my photoshoot on Anthropocene within Jersey is the way that man-made structures restrict the growth and nurturing of the natural landscape alongside the ecosystems that reside there. Alongside this, I would like to demonstrate how the fast pace of human development not only adds to this issue (e.g. disregarded, abandoned structures mean that plants cannot thrive in or around this area, causing them to dry out and die or swarm the structure and take over in an unnatural way), this increases the amount of waste production. Another issue I would like to address within the Anthropocene is pollution:
Air pollution
Water pollution
Land pollution (e.g litter in town centres)
By doing this I hope to highlight how using man-made products/services for personal gain produces a selfish and harmful effect on the world in hundreds of different ways. This way, I’m pointing out the subtle problems that we walk by every single day nonchalantly when realistically, these factors build up and combine to damage the world as we stand by without realization.
1
The first aspect I would like to photoshoot the derelict greenhouses located in the more rural/ countryside areas of the Island, for example in St Clements:
I am going to take inspiration from this image in George Marazakis work of ‘A Cure for Anthropocene’:
I am going to use artificial light e.g. from torches and get some of my friends to stand on the opposing side, behind the greenhouse. This way, the interior of the greenhouse will be reflected and visible through the glass to create an eerie yet mesmerizing feeling through the strange beauty of the shadows poking through. This way, not only will I be able to show more detail but I will be able to give the impression of a sunset/sunrise leaving it open to experimentation once I edit it in Lightroom.
The reason why I am taking this approach is also because derelict greenhouses around Jersey was used for tomato and potato farming around the island. However, due to mechanical and chemical-based farming, they are no longer in use as human development has leaned more towards using synthetic fertilizer. This is a technique that relies heavily on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to boost yields and control pests, which can have negative impacts on the environment and human health but produces higher yields in the short-term due to greed. This leaves the greenhouses vacant to catch dirt and sit there, not allowing the environment to thrive, instead forcing it to decay. On the 20th of January 2023, the Chief Minister stated:
“When glasshouses are redundant to the horticultural industry or are derelict, they should be removed, and the land restored to agricultural use,”
The current Bridging Island Plan, which covers 2022 to 2025, has a distinct policy on derelict and redundant glasshouses, which states that their redevelopment for non-agricultural use will not be supported. This means that the construction of more properties will be denied in order to salvage these spaces if they are truly redundant derelict greenhouses.
2
The second way I would like to photoshoot the Anthropocene is pollution. In order to do this I am going to go into St Helier as this is the town centre and the most urban location on the island, being where the most people live. To look at land pollution I’m going to collect litter from my household, for example crisp packets and plastic bottles that I use. Then, I’m going to incorporate the natural landscape into it by photographing flowers and other plants coming out of the item which I am using. I would then like to piece this all together by placing it onto a black sheet and taking an image from above.
My concept behind this is to demonstrate how plastic is becoming more present within the natural landscape itself, being silently detrimental. For example, Fish in the North Pacific ingest 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic each year. This causes intestinal injury and death, transferring plastic up the food chain to bigger fish and marine mammals. This results in a high percentage of microplastics being ingested by humans themselves due to the high content in the seafood being consumed. Whilst the accurate figure on how much plastic actually enters the ocean is uncertain, it is estimated that there are 100 million tonnes of plastic in oceans around the world.
This results in approximately 100 million marine animals die each year from plastic waste alone, however many become trapped in the litter and get hurt alongside this in things such as beer tags, plastic water bottles and plastic bags. If a marine animal does become trapped in plastic, it has severe consequences of reduced mobility, starvation, drowning, or suffocation. Alongside this, it can cause the need for amputations, infections or growths, causing them to be less capable of finding food as well as being much more vulnerable to predators, causing an imbalance within the food chain. Animals often eat plastic because they are not always able to distinguish plastic from food. Organisms that are filter feeders (plankton, shellfish, baleen whales) or that live under the beach sand (lugworms) cannot make that distinction.
I would also like to highlight this issue because it demonstrates how the careless and selfish actions taken (littering and polluting the planet) has high consequences for humans themselves. Due to the high level of plastic in the ocean, this becomes consumed by an unknowing small fish, causing the microplastic ingested to travel up the food chain from prey to predator. Eventually, it reaches the seafood that we enjoy at home or in restaurants. In fact, studies have found that we eat about 52,000 particles annually, possibly 5 grams of microplastic per week – about the weight of a credit card. In 2022, it was found in a study that humans actually have microplastics in their blood due to high exposure to this pollution – 77% of people who were tested had microplastics in their bloodstream. This high hazard of mismanaged waste approximately kills 1 million people annually.
When plastics end up in the environment, they can bind with these pollutants, including persistent organic toxins such as PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxins, both of which are not only very resistant to degradation but can also accumulate in animal fats and tissues. This means that the plastic will not break down and decompose over time, only gets broken down into smaller and smaller pieces. However, the particles do not actually degrade.
One photoshoot idea I had was to focus on Pollution and waste. For this photoshoot I am simply going to go to popular places on the island where people would most likely litter and pollute the earth. This could be places such as parks, forests and the town centre.
I decided to do this as Pollution is a big factor of Anthropocene as plastic has become a key factor. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, it ends up littering soils and ocean beds. This can have damaging effects on wildlife, damaging soils and groundwater. It also has a great impact on global warming as extracting and creating these plastics emits vast amounts of greenhouse gases, This is Plastic pollution. There are also many types of pollution so I am going to try and focus on as many as I can:
Water Pollution– ‘harmful substances—often chemicals or microorganisms—contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water’
Noise pollution– ‘ regular, prolonged or sudden exposure to any unpleasant, damaging, or irritating noise above a certain level which will harm people, wildlife, or the environment.’
thermal pollution– ‘the harmful release of heated liquid into a body of water or heat released into the air a waste product of a business’
Mind map of places I want to visit to take these images:
Photoshoot 2: Greenhouses/glasshouses
This second idea I wanted to focus on greenhouses as we have a few greenhouses (out of use) in jersey and so I would have places to go to.
for example, the photo in the bottom left is similar to what I pass on my way to school so therefore I already have a location in mind and there are a row of out of use greenhouses there. If I cannot manage to get many out of use greenhouses I am also going to extend it to in use ones
Photoshoot 3: Overpopulation
For this photoshoot I am planning on photographing populated areas. I could focus on many different factors of overpopulation which can include population of people, buildings, cars, homes etc.
I live near a field where I can stand at the top and have a view of groups of houses so I am going to do a photoshoot there, another place I am thinking of is town as it is a very populated area almost all of the time. Traffic and cars is also something I want to focus on, this could include cars moving on the road or cars that are parking.
Photoshoot 4: Artist inspiration, Michael Marten
for this photoshoot I am going got take photos inspired by Michael Marten on his work on sea changes. This would mean I would have to take photos at different times since I will have to wait for the tide to be at different places. I think this is a good photoshoot idea as there are many beaches I can go to to take photos as we have many in jersey
Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 in Lubumbashi. He studied Computer and Information Sciences and Communication at the University of Lubumbashi. With a borrowed camera, he began photographing scenes as sources for his cartoons. Baloji juxtaposes photographic realities, combining past and present, the real and the ideal, to illicit glaring cultural and historical tensions.
What inspired Sammy Baloji?
Sammy Baloji was inspired by the history of his country. His photographs are related to The industrial culture of Congo.
What was Sammy Baloji known for?
Sammy Baloji was famous for his photography, film, installation art and archival research into the history and legacy of colonialism. His exhibition and research project Hunting and Collecting, staged initially at Ostend’s Mu.
Sammy Baloji Mood board
Personal opinion:
What I like about Sammy Balojis work is the way he sets up his camera and is able to capture both the past and the present day within one photo, I really like his style of work as he has found different ways to include different generations of the world and how it works within one image.
Image Analysis:
Within this image there are wide variations of natural lighting in different brightness’s within different areas of the image. The colouring is like a warm yellow/orange colour with the people in the image being in black and white this creates an opposite colour contrast from the foreground and the background. The white balance holds a warm temperature. In this image there is a rural landscape with a broken/unfinished building along with a metal tower in the background, there are also some dirt piles covering the land and some yellow crate boxes near the red building. In the foreground there are 7 age ranging black children/teens stood completely naked, they almost look like they have been cut out from a previous image and merged into this image to create the contrasting effect. the focal point of the image is definitely the children as they stand out amongst the yellow/orange sunset backdrop.
Artist Study :
Mandy Baker
Biography:
Mandy Barker is a British photographer. She is mostly known for work with marine plastic debris. Barker has worked alongside scientists in hopes of bringing awareness to the mass amount of plastic that is floating around in our oceans.
who inspired Mandy Barker?
Mandy Barker is not inspired by any specific people however she says “My work is inspired by current scientific research, by way of reports or directly with scientists. Science is not subjective; it is factual. There’s no room for aesthetics or emotion. So, the work of an artist and a scientist are opposed in approach, but, in some way, they seek to achieve the same outcome.”
what is unique about Mandy Barkers photography?
Mandy Barkers photography is unique in its own way, She creates beautiful images of plastic and waste from around the world and creates montage photos of all that she finds within one image, Her work has a deeper meaning behind it all and represents the effects and the pollution which surrounds us every day.
Personal Opinion:
I love Mandy Barkers style of photography as she has a very unique way of both making an image so delicate with detail and beautiful whilst also having such a strong meaning behind her photography painting a story behind her images and educating people with her photography about the state of the world and the impact humans have had on it.
Mandy Barker Mood board:
Image Analysis:
In-depth analysis:
In this image of Mandy Barkers it really creates a hidden message. She has used multiple layers of a few images and resized each one either larger or smaller creating a full scene on the screen. Each of the individual elements of the image have really good strong lighting which makes us able to really make out every little detail of the objects used. For me this image is really unique and almost creates a sense of power and meaning whenever I look at the image. The structure she has used is where the objects almost fade into getting larger when in the centre of the screen and a lot smaller around the outsides. This image almost creates a story behind pollution and why it is so important to try and avoid any form of throwing waste into the sea or anywhere in which it doesn’t belong. This image gives me this impression as the objects in the image look to be worn pieces of rope which she has probably found on a beach as it is very common to find however with the way she has presented it, the balls of rope look like little jellyfish and octopuses, this creates a deeper meaning to her image as it almost shows the impact that the waste has on our sea life and the animals creating a picture of the animals being turned into plastic as due to all the waste that ends up in the ocean thousands of our sea creatures die from eating plastic every single year. That is why Mandy’s photography is really eye-opening and creates a deeper meaning and value to her photography.
Anthropocene is the Impact humans have had on the earth over the years and still to this day. For example humans are main cause for all the issues that are going on in the world and with nature, such as pollution, due to all the products we make using non-biodegradable materials like plastic, it is causing plastic to be floating everywhere from the seas, to the lakes and even just on the streets.
Where did Anthropocene originate from?
light pollution
What is light pollution?
Light pollution is the excessive and poor usage of artificial outdoor lighting. This disrupts the natural patterns of wildlife.
Deforestation
What is Deforestation?
Deforestation is the purposeful removal of wide areas of trees and forests. It is destroying wide areas of habitats and leaving various animals without homes.
climate change
what is climate change?
Climate change is when greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change.
fossil fuels
What is fossil Fuels?
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material such as coal, oil, and natural gas, formed naturally in the Earth’s crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel
What aspect of Anthropocene am I taking photos of ?
I’m going to take photos inspired by light pollution and the amount of light that is emitted from buildings and large areas that overlook town, I’m also going to get photos of sunsets over buildings and over St Helier.
Where am I going to go ?
I’m going to go to high advantage points that overlook large area of land. For example I’m going to go to Fort Regent and walk all the way around the Fort to get views from all different angles so that I get photos overlooking Havre de pas but also overlooking town as well and then around by the car park on pier road at a high advantage point so that I can get photos looking down on to the car park and I’m going to use artificial light to brighten areas up on the photo and to highlight certain areas. I’m also going to go to the other side of town by Peoples Park and walk up the hill by the park so that I can get a better view of the bay and also that overlooks the other end of town. My final place that I will go to take photos is over dale hospital as there is a big drop right behind it that overlooks St Aubin’s bay and the other side of the island. I will do two areas per photo shoot.
What time of the day will I take my photos at ?
I’m going to take my photos at night time and then use exposure bracketing if I want to make my photos darker or lighter or make it look like there is more light pollution. I’m going to take photos from all different times of the day ranging from the morning to mid day and then at night to get different perspectives of light pollution throughout the day.
-the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. “some geologists argue that the Anthropocene began with the Industrial Revolution” The Anthropocene is sometimes used to 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.
Mood board
I particularly enjoy the image circled
Mind map / ideas
i will attempt to create a high fashion inspired garment out of waste products and photograph it in natural environments, i also particularly find inspiration form the photographs of women wrapped is clear plastic, as is packaged making a comment about consumerism and the effect of it on wildlife from a human perspective.
Artist Inspiration
during this project i intend to create photos that create a feeling of shame and guilt about the destruction of the world around us and put humans in situations that are reminiscent of the situations we put animals and nature in .
For my first photoshoot I made it my aim to focus on capturing one of the main causes of air pollution rather than the outcomes and results of it. This was an important focus for me as petrol has been extremely normalized since more cars have been invented and adapted, therefore the damage through the use of it has increased significantly. Air pollution has long term issues such as damage to the human brain, kidneys and liver etc, and can even lead to a person’s death. Therefore I went to local petrol stations and photographed the petrol pumps as it has significance to the issues. This photoshoot relates to Ed Rusha and the Anthropocene as the petrol and gas humans use massively effect the air pollution. Therefore, my idea was to take images of petrol stations in the modern aesthetic and attempt to edit it to make them look nostalgic. This is effective as petrol stations are a useful feature for humans in everyday life, meaning as many people are using them they are overlooking the issues and damage they are causing the environment.
During this photoshoot I also incorporated photos of scaffolding and build-work as they contribute to environmental impact through energy and resources consumption. The construction site requires energy for lighting, heating, and cooling, which all contribute to carbon emissions. Additionally, the mining, drilling, and transportation of the materials used contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and deforestation. These factors have also heavily increased in the last 20 years, which has ultimately had negative affects on the environment.
Through this project I aim to catch the viewers eye by exploring the cause rather than the harm that has been done, which should inspire the viewer to recognise the deconstruction of the environment and how it has increased heavily. This should also help spread a message of how humans should stop using so much petrol and ignoring the harm.
How I could improve:
The first issue I faced within this shoot was the angles in which I took the photos. In many of my photos I have had to crop irrelevant artefacts from the edges of the photo, which I could have saved time by making sure they were not in the frame before I took the photos. The second main problem with this photoshoot was I only photographed two different petrol stations, rather than photographing lots of them around the island. This prevented me from capturing a variety of different stations, meaning I am unable to compare them in size and see which ones are more harmful. The third main factor which limited my success was the majority of my images being live photos. This was because I used my phone for this shoot, and accidentally put the settings on “live” rather than regular. This caused issues during my editing process because sources like photoshop and Lightroom are unable to edit live photos/videos.
On Lightroom, I put all my images in a folder and rated them individually from 1-5 stars and colour coded them showing my favourite and least successful images in the photoshoot. This allows me to identify which photos I can edit and use for my final pieces in the future. Also, by looking at the amount of images I colour coded red, I can then conclude how to improve my photoshoots overall so I can prevent this happening in future photoshoots. I can do this by looking at the angle of the image, the exposure and the shutter speed, as all of these factors influence the success of the final outcome.
Then, I went through all my images and deleted some of the worst ones, so it narrowed down my photoshoot to my best photos. This is likely to increase my chances of producing better final pieces as I am only able to choose between photos that need some improvement, and photos that were taken well.
