Ideas:

For my experimentation I have decided to play around with Photoshop and Lightroom to create some funky edits with my images in which I have produced.

Edit Idea 1:

I have decided to play around with colour selection within my images and created some random edits to show my experimentation.

Experiment 1 and process

Step 1: duplicate original layer

Step 2: Click on the background layer and go to image, adjustments and then make the background black and white.

Step 3: Go onto the copied layer which is in colour and go to select, colour range.

Step 4: Once you have selected the areas in which you want the colour to show, you then go to select and inverse before deleting the background which is selected to create the final look.

Step 5: Here is the final edit, you can then experiment further with different colour ranges and adding more details to the edit however these are the basics of creating edits like these.

Final edit 1:

Within the edit I added a few more details such as a women who I made see-through and a bird into the top right corner almost to give the effect that the lady is watching the bird.

another colour edit

For this edit I chose to select one specific area of the image and I did colour selection, once I had completed the colour selection I then decided to copy that one area of colour selection and make a load of different sizes with some being full opacity and others having little opacity creating a cool contrast between the black and white image and the one area of colour being spread throughout .

I went round to different places in jersey and photographed (mainly focusing on nature. Here is shoot 2 with around 300 plus photos.

My favourite images from this shoot are;

What I like about these images is that the lighting/mood and direction of each photo is good. It focuses on the main target of the photo which isn’t blurry and is perfectly aligned in the centre.

Photos by Tanja Deman

About Tanja Deman and her work

Tanja Deman is a visual artist who was born in Split, Croatia in 1982. She received her BFA and MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and has since been included in at least 24 exhibitions, 4 of them being solo and the majority of them being held in Croatia and Austria. Tanja Deman’s art is highly inspired by her interest in architecture, geological formations, the relationship between human and nature and the physical and emotional perceptions of specific spaces. Throughout Tanja’s career, she has produced many series, the ones I am most inspired by include:

• Fernweh

Fernweh is a series which explores the extreme contrast and effects of modern cities to the landscape. The images in this series refer to the ideas of man conquering the natural environment and the longing to escape from urban environments.

• Sight Densification

Sight Densification is a series which is based on the aura of coexistent urban infrastructure such as skyscrapers, bridges, dams and roads and their dramatic relation to nature. These images have been edited to create a more exaggerated city landscape which features both an urban environment and natural forms.

• Collective Narratives

Collective narratives is a series of photographs in which Tanja Dean framed natural environments within theatrical spaces with audiences. When making this series, Tanja was interested in different types of spectatorship and architectural settings and the act of a large group of people gathering to experience something together.

Overall, I am inspired by Tanja Deman’s creative tie between nature and humans in these series and how she makes a false environment look like reality. I would like for my own image to look as real and impactful as Tanja Demans and I will do this by ensuring that the features of the landscape I create look like they belong. In addition, I think the series which my vision is most similar to would be Fernweh as, although you can tell the landscape isn’t real, it just works and that is what I am hoping to do with the Industrial areas of Jersey.

Image Analysis

This is a photograph by Tanja Deman which displays an audience inside a theatre who, instead of watching a play, appear to be looking at a depiction from a woodland. This piece of work is part of a collection by Tanja Deman called ‘Collective Narratives’. Tanja Deman wanted this image to give the impression that a large group of people have gathered to experience something and observe together. I personally think that Tanja Deman has displayed this image particularly in an attempt to get people to make a change and reduce environmental impacts. In this image, there is also a high contrast between the theatre and depiction which highlights what she wants you to see (the forest). There are also clear leading lines in this image which are the balconies in the theatre. These lines lead your eyes to the focal point, the depiction, as well as the fact that it looks as if this depiction is lighting up the room. Finally, this image looks as if it was taken using a high aperture as there is a large depth of field and a fast shutter speed as there is no motion blur from the audience and the details in the image are very clear.

For my third photoshoot, I located my shoot in Grouville, St Saviours and St Helier. I sectioned this photoshoot into different aspects and environmental issues I wanted to concentrate on related to the Anthropocene.

LAND AND WATER POLLUTION:

WATER POLLUTION:

These two images were taken at Green Island beach in St Clements. I wanted to photograph this as I feel it is a subtle representation of the water pollution that is ignored in comparison to the more noticeable litter. Black sand is a common thing in places such as Hawaii, Iceland and the Canary Islands as these are areas with volcanic activity materials such as lava and basalt salts become eroded and filter in with the sand.

However, this is still found in areas located around the UK, for example Somerset, where there is no volcanic activity. This is the result of coal mines and seams being washed up from the Welsh side of the channel in the Severn Estuary. The waves pick this up and churn it ashore, with higher levels of it turning up in stormy conditions which is very toxic to aquatic life. In my image, it has ended up being trapped within a rock pool, inhabiting animals homes.

LAND POLLUTION:

In these last two images, I placed some seaweed inside the crisp packet and made it look as if it was growing from out of the bag. I did this because I feel as if it represents how the plastic produced which ends up in the ocean ends up restricting the growth of plants and ecosystems. Alongside this, I feel as if this symbolises how the consistent use of single use plastic is eventually going to be within everything we have, for example within the soil of which plants grow out of, because the micro plastics cannot decompose fully and therefore it cannot ever fully disappear in the natural environment.

DERELICT GREENHOUSES:

I came across a site of numerous derelict greenhouses. They were quite battered and broken, assuming this is not only due to the long period of time they have been sat here but due to Storm Ciaran too. The areas were either extremely overgrown inside with stinging nettles and other weeds or the ground had been reduced to dirt, unable to grow any plants due to synthetic fertilisers causing the roots to decay.

There was a large amount of fly-tipping and dumped appliances within some of these greenhouses, starting from ovens and freezers to live wires or farming equipment. These were scattered across the greenhouses in a careless manner

In this image, I used the two greenhouses as leading lines to direct the viewers eyes down towards an abandoned and old-fashioned blue car. This car had gathered a lot of rust from the multiple years it has been sat here.

URBANIZATION AND OVERPOPULATION:

I took these images from Fort Regent carpark, overlooking the town centre of St Helier. I thought this would be a good representation of how packed this area is, especially at certain busy times of the day such as 5pm. As you can see, there are numerous cars on the road, all contributing to the air pollution.

The result of this urbanisation means that there is a lack of greenery in this area, a few trees and bushes in the centre will large hills in the distance behind these modernised structures. Alongside this, there is a partial viewpoint of the harbour, of which the sand inside has been discoloured due to boats engines polluting this area when the tide comes in.

Nelson has been recognised by numerous photography awards, including the Visa d’Or (France), First Prize in the World Press Photo Competition (Netherlands), and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award (USA). His work has been published and exhibited worldwide including solo shows in London Stockholm and New York. His work has also been exhibited at Tate Britain, ICA and the National Portrait Gallery, and is included in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Analysing

In this photo there is a large group of people looking into the small, crowded aquarium. I believe this shows how people have put their entertainment before the lives and wellbeing of animals. You can see a large amount of animals in such a small space. This sort of thing can also be seen within zoos not just aquarium’s, therefore I will take photos in Jersey Zoo with the similar idea to this photo.

Edward Burtynsky is a photographer who is incredibly influential in the photography world especially when it comes to the topics of Anthropocene. Regarded as ‘one of the worlds most accomplished contemporary photographers’ having many world wide exhibitions looking at topics like the human impact on the world displaying the work across 80 major museums all over the world.

About Edward Burtynsky

Born in 1955 in Ontario, he then went onto receive a BAA in photography/media studies in 1982 at the Toronto Metropolitan University in 1982. Since then he has received an Alumni Achievement award and an honorary doctorate and even now he sits on the board of directors for The Image Centre. Along side this he has won many awards for his work, including a TED prize in 2015 and the Governors General’s awards in visual and media arts. He became intrigued by the concept of photography when he was 11 and his father brought a dark room and cameras and provided Burtynsky with two rolls of film. While learning black and white photography he learnt how to create lack and white prints. As he continued to progress he began selling photos for 50 cents a photo when he was photography events, eventually this led to him being able to travel and photograph ‘pristine landscapes’ the landscapes of his childhood, quickly developing his passion for landscape photography, as seen in his later career. After he left University in 1982, he quickly became the ever developing photographer we know now. Many of his early works were inspired by the likes of Ansel Adam’s landscapes, being coloured landscapes however he did go onto work for an architecture company and the Ontario hospital. This was before he founded Toronto Image works in 1985, which was not only a work space for himself but a place it doubled as a dark room rental facility, custom photo laboratory and training centre for up and coming media and digital development. This was a significant step in his career as now he could choose to produce his own work and take photos without jobs depending on it.

Edward Burtunsky’s link to Anthropocene

Burtynsky chose to start to move away from typical landscapes and became involved with the Anthropocene project. He also produced a Manufactured Landscapes collection containing 60 images. This was first step in becoming the influential landscape, or damage on landscape photographer he is today. His work has been shown many times, all over the world show casing just how as humans we have impacted the planet around us. Taking a different approach to many other Anthropocene photographers he has captured the things we don’t normally see but operate on a huge scale or just how easily we have taken away from nature without many truly realising as well as often adding in reminders of the greatness of untouched natured.

Photo Analysis

This photo is bright, colourful and bold. It has an element of enjoyment when looing at it that many photos based around the environment don’t, by drawing people in that way something based on a hugely damaging topic don’t tend to. The photo itself is of Lithium mines in Chile, with the ever growing production of battery’s for cars and as such as the world converts to electric to escape the damage and limited supply of fossil fuels the damage that comes with electric power will increase. The photo above truly shows how much damage we are causing on the world while thinking we are fixing the previous damage we have caused. From a high angle the photo is taken from a high angle, Burtynsky tends to use helicopters so this does actually contradict the idea of raising awareness of the Anthropocene development however we have to consider the amount of awareness these photos have brought to the topic ask the question is it worth it for the awareness it brings. The photo has been composed very well making use of the high angle to produce a large depth of field, emphasising the vastness of of the oil field in comparison to the mountain range. Textures appear scattered in the photo from the smooth foreground to the rugged mountain scape, again hinting at the human impact and how we are wearing the world around us down.

I set my photoshoot based around Bouley Bay, St Johns and Trinity as these areas are north to Jersey in comparison to my other photoshoot located more towards the south-east. Many of my images were similar to each other so I colour-coded them after editing to make it clear.

In this photoshoot, I sectioned my images into different themes so that I could get a wide range.

DERELICT GREENHOUSES:

I took images of this neglected greenhouse located in St Johns in inspiration of George Marazakis image of ‘A Cure For Anthropocene’ as the use of mechanical and chemical-based farming means that they are no longer in use as human development has leaned more towards using synthetic fertilizer.

EXPERIMENTATION:

For this image, I got to a lower angle to capture grass within the foreground to replicate George Marazakis camera angle when shooting his images.

I chose to shoot an up close image of a singular plastic chair in the centre of this dirty neglected greenhouse as I feel it represents how plastic is one of the leading causes of decay in the environment, standing alone in the middle of this destruction.

CONSTRUCTION:

In this image, there is a clear wipe out of anything natural, replaced with a monotone silver spread across the image. The natural light of the sunset reflects off of this metallic composition really nicely alongside the sky.

I took this image of a pile of construction materials scattered across the entire image as if they had been thrown there in a careless manner, allowing for a high amount of definition and vibrancy to catch the eye in an artificial colouring. In the background, there is a small amount of grass being toppled on, showing how this constant need of building, updating and redeveloping natural spaces presses down on any piece of natural space left.

In this image, I pointed the camera slightly down to capture the wheel of a vehicle behind some wooden palettes and broken plastic. I wanted to shoot this image as I feel that it carries a destructive tone within it, especially due to the sharp and violent way the black pieces of what appears to be plastic is thrown into a bucket, pointing in every direction to add a sense of danger.

This image consists of many brightly coloured gas canisters placed in a formal way, waiting to be released into the atmosphere to contribute to global warming even more.

I shot this image as I wanted to capture how these building materials had been thrown onto the grass causing it to become destroyed as its dragged across. I feel that this image shows the carelessness that humanity gives towards the natural landscape as it is clear these materials have been put here without a second thought.

In the foreground, the grass has been reduced to dry dust crumbling on the floor due to the hard slabs being placed upon these wooden palettes. I shot this image as I thought the way the healthy green bushes were bordered off from the now decayed dirt contrasted really well together and symbolised how one day, that’s all it will be.

I thought that the composition of this image worked really well as the sun doesn’t focus on any of the unnatural, man-made materials thrown around on the gravel, just focusing on nurturing the singular tree in the background.

ABANDONED STRUCTURES:

I took these images at the abandoned Bouley Bay hotel. These areas were boarded up and covered with urban graffiti, there was a large amount of dirt and rust stuck to the entirity of this structure to show its age. This area was located next to a alrge cliff edge which I wanted to capture alongside a large amount of destroyed palm trees and posion ivy.