“The legacy of exploration is not measured in material possessions but in the impact we leave on the world,”

Henri Cartier was a famous humanist photographer who was known for taking candid photographs. His type is photography is street photography and he has a theory known as ‘decisive moment’, when its the right time to take the photo. Henri liked to describe this as hunting without killing the thrill of waiting for the next person to walk by to capture into the photograph. Henri’s photography tends to link humanity together while other photographers tend to look for the horror in the world to capture. Its also described as an extension of the eye, Henri tends to look deeper into the photo and almost expresses a story in the photograph. He’s creating these images that create meaning without any words. another thing he added to his photography was the black and white effect as Henri believed that colour was a threat and was inferior and aesthetically limiting. This helped to add a dramatic effect to the photo. The decisive moment is meant of capture the true beauty of the moment, whole meaning of candid was to take a picture without posing, the opposite of a formal photograph where the person sits still and posses for their photo, the photo taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson were mainly picture of people walking by, these people had n idea that they would be getting photographed, that’s the beauty of it, people cant pose or try to look their best as the photo is taken in the moment, that’s why Henri Cartier-Bresson had to be very decisive of when to capture the specific photo as no one was prepared for it.

these photos above are all examples of the ‘decisive moment’, they are all pictures of people walking or standing around which shows that these people had no clue they were being photographed and these images are the best as no one can pull a face and do any signs as we would do now, these are all natural photos, The reason this is called the decisive moment is because Henri Cartier-Bresson always had to be in the right place to be able to take these photos, he had to be discrete so that no one would notice that he was taking images of people, most people when they see they are being photographed they would smile or do a pose where as these images above show that they aren’t aware of the photo, one reason is that none of them are actually looking towards the camera. The whole idea of the decisive moment is to capture a precise moment hat creates a story without knowing anything about the photograph, its the way everything is paced around and layered. All these photos were taken without the person knowing making the photo more sentimental and meaningful, there aren’t any people posing and changing the whole point and perspective of the photo. All these photos were transformed into black and white images which helps to capture the events on the street, allowing him to shape the way that major events and everyday life were captured and photographed. Henry stated that the aim of the decisive moment is to capture something that may never happen again is frozen in the frame.

Here I’m planning to go round places where its not very busy and everything is very subtle, however my photoshoot will look very different as it wouldn’t be snowing when I take these photos, it will most likely be sunny or raining, I would like to find a single house planted in the middle of no where as it adds such mystery to the house and why it may be there. I also chose a photograph that seems to have an effect to it which makes it look very unusual, I could round to a neighbourhood and take pictures of the houses scattered around and simply add an effect to it after, however if I wanted to make it look different I could go when the sun is setting or rising to make the effect look different and have different levelling of the colours.

Mariska Lavigne has a photoshoot called lost lands where she takes photos of different buildings that may give off a lost sensation. There are many buildings that are in the middle of nothing, and unusual leaves that just look out of this world, Lavigne created images of anything that looked “different” and didn’t fit to the normal standard of todays world which shows us that everyone, everything is different.

She had been Travelling through Iceland for four months, a country she was unfamiliar with: The light was bright, colours were vivid, and by the end of my trip the sun kept on shining all night long. Snow still held the country in its veil, creating a big white void. she states that this has a way of cleaning up the landscape, the scenery gets more graphic. she always wondering how this scene would look like in wintertime to see how different the sky and the environment would look, she had decided to go back for another month in January. The country turns blue at dusk in wintertime. All colours fade. Cities look like scale models seeking shelter from the weather in the shadow of the mountains. It was her intention to express the dazzling moment, she wanted to get different point of views of the different season around them and how differently the world may look if the sun is out or if the sky if full of gloomy clouds.

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. “In 1972, Liu was allowed to attend college in Beijing, where she studied until 1975. Following graduation, she attended graduate school at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Socialist Realism supplied the guiding principles at both schools, and there was very little room for deviation.”

Art hacker:

Liu Bolin, shows in his photography work that he holds no emotions in the photos to represent a neutral emotion, it makes it harder to identify a person in the photo. This is the artists way of doing a silent protest against the Chinese government’s policies. 

I really like this artists as it helps me to get different opinions and perspectives of the world and how people let the world shape meaning in their lives, for example I feel that this artists can might show an opinion on the world quite positively and helps us understand why everyone is different and why our opinions should be heard and why we should be seen as a person however i do believe that this could make people feel the opposite as the artist is blended into the buildings and surrounding’s meaning that they are trying to blend in with everything/ everyone else, they aren’t standing out or being their selves they would rather be seen as everyone else as they are too afraid to be seen as ‘different’ and would rather stay ‘normalized’ like everyone. The artist has put a lot of thought to show that everyone has an opinion in whatever way they show it. He wants to show people the power of the photograph itself and how the photo holds the domination of a government’s political power.

What would make the photograph look really cool is if they painted on the model in black and white so that the model stands out but we can still clearly see the details used in the photo. Although I feel that it would be a lot harder to create the same effect as not all details and shades would match up perfectly, but it would make the model stand out a lot more and create that meaning of being your own person and having your own thoughts.

If I were to recreate this I would use a projector to project an image onto a person, this would help create the image that technology has shaped this society and people these days cant live without technology. This would be an easier way for me to take photos with as I don’t have the skill to paint a background on a person. Although my photos wont have the same effect as lio Bolin’s work but it would have a similar effect.

Here is one of my final images that I am presenting, I really like how this photo turned out with all the editing as its a really bright and colourful photo as well as its a broken down greenhouse which is a topic of Anthropocene, it slightly represents what happened after the storm and how it has effected the world in general, the storm was a natural disaster created by the world, it was also created by us humans as we keep polluting the world and we aren’t now living with the consequences.

Here I put some of best photos from my Anthropocene photoshoots and made them big, so that stand out. I really like the green house photo as it helps to picture how green houses are left, unused and abandoned. The picture of the green house I took, looks like its been taken care off almost as if there are still people using it. I got a picture of two different green houses, one was the inside of one while the other was the outside and it was visible to see that.

I really like these photos put together as the are quite similar, however you can clearly tell they are different, I really like how I put the photos into black and white. I presented my best photos on a virtual gallery, I really like the texture of these photo as they look more rough and sharpened. This makes the photo have an older look and effect.

This photoshoot was successful and helped me view the world in different ways and why we should save out planet, to be able to get the images to be clear I edited the photos in photoshop, I was able to level the photos with the lighting and crop them to make sure nothing in the background of the photo will distract the eyes of the viewer. Most of the photos had quite a bright lighting so it wasn’t needed to add anymore lighting however I did also put (ctrl m) to adjust the curves in the photo.

This photoshoot was quite successful as I managed to get photos of different areas of jersey and see what bits have been affected by the storm or just globalisation in general. I’ve turned the stones picture in black and white to show how old these stones are and what they can represent, the black and white effect creates an older effect to the photo as the rocks are quite old and don’t necessarily look old and ancient therefore the black and whit effect helps to see the value in the rocks. The lighting on the rocks are really bright so I had to edit them in photoshop to make the lighting darker. This helped to see the photo better and make the whole picture look more clear to the eye. I also feel that the black and white makes the photo look better, it looks more modern but also takes away the distraction if the colours.

I really like how these photos are different from my other photos as there aren’t any people see in this photoshoot as the photos are hidden away for people and not many people will come to this place unless they live close by or they work around there. As this place hasn’t got many people walking by there isn’t much litter scattered around the area. This helps to make the photos look cleaned up and completely changes the perspective of the photo.

Here I went to a jersey exhibition to have a look at some of the creations made, there were very unusual masterpieces that have deep meaning to them that not everyone would understand. For example the picture of the rocks with moss on them seem very weird and unpleasant to present, however it could have a meaning to it that shows why the earth is important to preserve, and destroying the planet is only harming us as humans. This exhibition was meant to represent the world and how different people can view it. There have been many different exhibitions in jersey that represent different things for example there was one that was in a dark room with lights reflecting onto a piece of metal with different patterns, for example there were patterns with different tribe figures to show ancient history, it was really interesting to look at as it helps to picture the worlds history in a less boring way than reading a book. This exhibition was really aimed at showing the world and earth and how it can be portrayed differently. In most of the pictures shown above show an element of grass of some type weather its real or imbedded onto a fabric it all has one representation of something.

Here I cropped one of the photos that i had taken in the exhibition so that none of the background would effect the details in the photograph. This photograph could look really confusing to the eye however it could represent many different things, for example this could be a photograph taken in the olden days where people used to fish for food with their hands, in the photo its looks as if the man is reaching down for something in the sea, this could also show many other things, maybe he had dropped something into the sea and now is looking for it with his hand but the most logical answer for me is that he wants to grab some food possibly to feed his family as that was one main meal people used to eat before, fish was very common and still is now however we do catch fishes very differently now, for example people ted to go the the shops to buy fishes that are ready to be cooked or we have fisher men who catch fish with a fishing rod which seems to be a lot easier you use that trying t grab it with your hands. Another thing that shows that this picture may be quite old , is the outfit that the man is wearing in the photograph, this isn’t an outfit that you would tend to still see as it looks very old fashioned, certain people may wear this outfit depending on their jobs. I have seen a few people wearing this outfit that were working in a restaurant as waiters. but that has a completely different meaning as to why they wear those outfits.

This photo is really creative as it shows a picture of the sea on a small tv that is sat on some dirt which is mean to represent the sand, this is really creative as it would be hard to do a representation of a beach and this provides a clear image of the beach, one thing that would have made it look better would have been if the dirt was just places in one pile as the beach isn’t necessarily seen as perfect, sometimes the sand isn’t soft and “perfect”, and this image doesn’t portray the reality of the beach. This can give off a different view of the worlds, almost s if the wold is seen as perfect when in reality the world is a mess, there ae many problems such as global warming.

“The ‘good Anthropocene’ argument is founded on a belief in the ultimate benevolence of the whole, the order of things, a goodness that in the end transcends and defeats the structural obstacles, sufferings and moral lapses that seem to threaten it. That this belief is rarely voiced only bespeaks its secret power.”

Here I’m using one of my landscape images from France, where there aren’t any people in the image. I decided to try and add some people to my image by selecting the place I wanted them in and simply asking it to put people in that space. I would say it can be difficult to add things with AI as sometimes they do what you want, I did have to ask AI different suggestions to get the best people. Sometimes the people would look at big weird and you could tell that they are aren’t real but it still adds some details to my image and with a quick glance you cant really tell that the people are fake. One negative thing about AI is they don’t always produce what your looking for, Although they do give you 3 options from you suggestion but sometimes it doesn’t do exactly what I need it to do. Making my image black and white helped to hide any odd colours added.

Here I’ve experimented on photoshop to show that AI can generate many different things. For example for one idea I can ask Ai to generate a city from 1950 and then ask if Ai can generate a city from the 2000’s to see the differences in times and how AI perspective is based on different time periods, I also used black and white photos to really show the differences between the time periods as different cameras were invented and had different affects to the photograph.

Playing around with AI helped me understand how it worked and what to do if something went wrong, this was purely just an experiment. Although AI can help add some extra details it doesn’t always have an accurate effect and can make the image look very weird. For example, on the image on the left, I tried adding pigeons, however, that didn’t go too well as most of the pigeons are just random shapes added to the bottom of my photo. I also tried adding lights to my image and it added a big space ship, which is not what I asked. Although AI is very helpful at adding and removing things it can just make the image look worse. Depending on how specific you are and what you are asking for. Even though this was just an experiment its good to know what AI can help me with.

Here I took some photos of buildings, the sea and anything else that was around me as I tried to take pictures as to how I see the view to show my own point of view, I put these photos in black and white mainly to be inspired by Ansel Adams. The whole point of taking pictures of the beach and buildings is to show the different places in the world how  each person may see it differently , why taking a picture of it how its seen and not adjusted will help to capture the true moment and not fake photography as many things that are shown today have been photoshopped due to technology and photos have become created by AI which makes everything a lot more dangerous and scarier. If we have Ai creating pictures then what’s the point in going out and taking them, well it helps to keep photography real and alive, it helps to show the true perspective of the world and not how some people may edit it and make ‘fake news’. I feel as though making my photo black and white helps to keep the nostalgia feeling alive as in a few years this area could be covered in new houses or different buildings, it could also be destroyed due to some complications, the answered are always unsolved. The black and white helps also to make the photo look more modern in my opinion as you don’t have colours clashing with each other creates a contrast, contrast is one the basic elements of design, as the eye is drawn directly to it. 

Here are some photos of France, these are landscape photos, however instead of having a photo filled with nature, plants, flowers and no man-made items, instead I have used landscape photos of buildings, with other things surrounding them such as cars and people. I made these photos black and white to yet again represent Ansel Adams photos, although his photos don’t tend to have buildings in them, I wanted to show how society has changed and how beautiful empty lands are getting taken over by humans building houses and other things. This is destroying nature and taking over. Even if these building are seen as beautiful and helpful, they have taken over the empty lands and these photos look very different from each other. Most of these photos still have plants in them which shows that we still have elements of nature around us, and we aren’t destroying everything. To edit these photos, I used photoshop and used the adjustment tool to level how dark each colour on the photo would look as black and white. This help to make each photo have certain things highlighted . these photos here tend to have an industrial look t them as they are filled with buildings and don’t have many natural landscapes and these places would have changed over time as they didn’t always have buildings which shows that man-made products are slowly destroying the earth, for one reason is because many houses, buildings are being built onto of these beautiful places and soon we will have no free land left to do all of our farming, we also have technology taking over where many people are losing their jobs as technology is able to replace them with robots which is a bad thing, but we do have plus sides to technology for example cameras have excelled our photos so much and being able to edit our photos is a big help, to mature the photo, make it look more presentable.

Here I have some photos in colour to show the difference between black and white photos and coloured photos and how they can make the whole mood of the photo look different. For example black and white photos tend to have a nostalgic look to sadness and yearning, they tend to make the photos look quite gloomy, the black and white have a tendency of showing that the photograph is quite old and ancient as they didn’t have colour back then, therefore gives us a nostalgic sensation as the photos are very old and the building/ area could have changed so much between that time. I decided to keeps these photos in colour as it helps to look at the different shades in the sky and how the sky can change very quickly within minutes, that’s why its important to take a picture of the moment and not miss anything.

Photoshoot

Here i selected some of my best photos and presented them in black and white to represent Ansel Adams work, I also like how the black and white effect makes the photo look a lot more mysterious and a sense of the unknown.