Every photograph has an implication. Whether it is to express an emotion, or to demonstrate a beautiful landscape, a photo is taken by a photographer with the intention of showing people something. However, according to John Szarkowski, what the photographer shows is one of two things; a reflection of the photographer “reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it”, or an exploration of the exterior world. Even the world’s first experimental daguerreotype photographs from the early 1800s fall under this distinction.

A daguerreotype is essentially an ionized copper plate coated in silver that is sensitive to light. This makes it possible to create an image on the plate using a camera obscura, an effect which uses a pinhole in a dark box to create an inverted reflection of the world outside of the pinhole, the same effect that our eyes use to see. The plate is then fumed with mercury vapour to freeze the resulting image after the plate is exposed to light for a long enough time. The result is the image above. This photo was taken by Louis Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype, in Paris. What we are actually seeing is a window into the past, a message speaking to us from nearly 200 years ago, and the first ever image of a human being. Through a window into the past, the mirror of a human reflects back at us, a testament to John Szarkowski’s belief that “the two creative motives that have been contrasted here are not discrete”, but ultimately can overlap each other and coexist in a single photo.

Here is an extract from Szarkowski’s book, a piece named “20 minutes in April” by Gary Beydler. Although a mirror is involved in this piece, in my opinion each photo is a window into the randomness of entropy, a snapshot in time that can never be replicated. This piece is rooted in the notion of realism, a demonstration of Gary Beydler’s love for the beauty of this chaotic world. John Szarkowski describes this as a “pursuit of beauty: that formal integrity which pays homage to the dream of meaningful life”, a romantic view of how a photographer can find meaning through the unpredictable nature of the world. However, an alternative realist view is provided by Jed Pearl in his review of Szarkowski’s book. Jed Pearl describes the photos in the book as “predictable images that tell us nothing of life”, demonstrating the realists acceptance of fact; that there exists no deeper meaning to the randomness of clouds, and that any meaning that is found is overruled by logic. In my opinion, I believe that the meaning of one’s life is subjective to their beliefs, and it evolves and changes through time as they develop a greater understanding of the world around them. “20 minutes in April” simply provides an insight into the chaotic and beautiful nature of clouds, however the meaning of this is not directly provided by the creator, Gary Beydler, instead it is meant to be inferred by the viewer to aid them in finding their own meaning to their own life. To state that this piece ‘tells us nothing of life’ is ignorant of this fact, but ultimately it is up to the viewer whether to find meaning or not.

Here is another extract from Szarkowski’s ‘Mirrors and Windows’, a photomontage named ‘A Special Place’ by Joseph Bellanca. The piece consists of two contrasting images, an outdoor photo that depicts a lone woman lying on the woodland floor, and an indoor photo of a bright chandelier hanging from a chain, cut out similar to the shape of a head. In my opinion, this piece is a mirror of human consciousness, an attempt at expressing how it feels to be human; trapped within the boundaries of our physical and mental limitations, lost somewhere in the expanse of a limitless world. To me, the image portrays the feeling of dreaming; when the imagination lights up inside the brain and creates an artificial world that perceptually mimics reality. This is something that is impossible to photograph physically, therefore the only approach to express one’s own subjective reality in photographic form is to stage it, or to make it artificially, like the way Joseph Bellanca does perfectly here as well as the many other photographers featured in ‘Mirrors and Windows’. “Much of the work included in this show is meant to strike us with its surprising imagery”, Jed Pearl states in his review, “yet few of the photographs are closely, richly detailed enough, or surprising enough, to be separated from the mediums past characterized as new – as a vision dredged up from the depths of consciousness”. This quote describes the majority of the photos in ‘Mirrors and Windows’ as boring and emulative of the works from the ‘Romantic vs Realist’ debate of the 19th century, rather than contributing a new perspective of photo analysis to the modern world. However, John Szarkowski argues that dulling a photo down to right or left, romantic or realist, merely describes a singular intention in a photo, hidden within the photographers whole conscious intent, whether they even know it or not, “One can draw many sections through a house that will help one better comprehend the structure of the whole. It must be understood, however, that these section views are merely analytical devices, and therefore, by definition, describe less than the whole”.

Essay plan

Paragraph 2 (250 words): Choose one quote from Szarkowski’s thesis and another from Jed Pearl’s review which either supports of opposes Szarkowski’s original point of view. Make sure you comment to advance argumentation in providing a critical perspective.

Conclusion (250 words): Refer back to the essay question and write a conclusion where you summarise Szarkowski’s theory and Pearl’s review of his thesis. Describe differences and similarities between the two images above and their opposing concepts of objectivity and subjectivity, realism and romanticism, factual and fiction, public and private.

Selection and Editing

While selecting images, I found that a few of my images would work very well together as doubles to each other.

Double 1

Before

After

For this photo, I decided to crop the image so that the colour of the street met both corners of the photo. This is so that the image looks cleaner and more controlled. I also thought that the photo was very underexposed and badly coloured, so I fixed this by bringing up the exposure, shadows and vibrancy in Lightroom. Later, I had the idea to colour some parts of my photos black and white in order to make them appear more striking. This is the first example of this that I did, where I coloured the man and the pictures in the shop, and made everything else black and white. This makes the photo more focused on what the pictures in the shop actually are and what the man is admiring.

Before

After

For this photo, I cropped the top of the photo slightly to remove the white blind in the top left corner as I felt it made the photo look too spacious and inconsistent. Then I decided to bring up the shadows and the saturation to bring out the blue and red in the photo. I then applied the same technique as before, this time making the two subjects of the photo black and white and only letting the red and blue stand out.

I then combined the two to present them as a double in the virtual gallery. I also decided to flip the second photo vertically because I found that the streets in both images lined up well.

Double 2

Before

After

For this photo, my focus was to make the stairs look daunting to the old woman standing at the top. Firstly, I brought up the saturation and vibrancy to exaggerate the green and blue. I then cropped the image using the rule of thirds to place the right side of the image perfectly into a third of the image. In addition to this, I made the buildings and the people travelling up the stairs black and white, which blended the colour of the buildings together. In turn, this made the buildings negative space, and also makes the stairs look even more daunting for the old woman.

Before

After

In this photo, I wanted to create a similar effect to the previous image. To do this, I brought up the exposure and shadows just to make the colour look neater and more consistent. I then made the building, street and people in the far background black and white. This creates a similar negative space to the previous photo, as these objects become less apparent to the viewer.

When combined, I think these photos work fairly well together. However, I think this is the worst out of the selection because, although the images look good standalone, when put together they don’t significantly relate to each other.

Double 3

For this double, I combined two photos I got of this very lonely looking man. I then made everything except him black and white. Also I cropped the second image so that both photos lined up perfectly. I feel that this image shows his perspective, he is clearly thinking in his own mind and separated from the world around him.

Double 4

Before

After

I found that this image was very underexposed and the greens weren’t as apparent as I wanted them to be. To fix this, I brought up the exposure and saturation. Also, I cropped the photo slightly to make it a little less spacious.

Before

After

For this photo, I found that it was underexposed and the colours weren’t as vibrant as I wanted them. I brought up the shadows, exposure and saturation to fix this. I also cropped the photo to remove some negative space above and on the sides of the photo.

When combined, I think that these are the best images out of all. Although they do not relate to each other on a surface level, I feel that the positioning of both couples in the bottom left of each photo creates a connection between the two.

Virtual Gallery

Henri Cartier-Bresson is a popular photographer born in 1908, well known for his candid photography. The techniques Cartier developed and used in his own work has since inspired many generations of photographers after him and he is considered to be the father of photojournalism.

Life and Techniques

Henri Cartier grew up in a wealthy family a few kilometres east of Paris. From a young age, he liked to draw and paint, and was even influenced by the Surrealist photography of the 1920s. During his conscription into the French army in 1930, he received his first camera from a friend. Afterwards, Cartier decided to spend a year in the Ivory Coast, where he would learn hunting techniques which he would later use in his photography.

Cartier’s approach to his photography allowed him to make his photos perfect, by using a technique he developed called the ‘Decisive Moment’.

“There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment” – Cardinal de Retz, 17th Century.

This quote perfectly encapsulates Cartier’s technique. From a photographical point of view, the quote can be interpreted as, there is a moment in time where everything aligns perfectly.

Henri Cartier treated photography like hunting. He would align his camera perfectly for a photo and wait for the decisive moment to take the shot. This decisive moment is often when a person wonders into the frame, unaware of the camera.

It is this natural process of allowing the freedom of the world to essentially choose the subject of the photo that gives Henri Cartier’s photos a sense of truthfulness. None of it is faked or staged, Cartier’s work is grounded in reality. And the people in these photos are in their complete natural state, placing another layer of reality onto his photos.

The Leica Rangefinder

The Leica Rangefinder was the primary camera Henri Cartier-Bresson used. The camera was revolutionary for the time. Henri Cartier discovered the camera during his time in the Ivory Coast in 1932. The camera was compact, portable and had a quiet shutter. This was perfect for Henri, the camera could be handheld and kept out of sight, and when he took the photo the sound of the shutter couldn’t be heard by the people around him, allowing Henri to stay completely hidden from the subject and make his photos as true to reality as possible.

Cartier used a 50mm lens. This is because it provided a perspective much like the human eye, and had a wide depth of field, which added another touch of realism to his photos.

Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1932

This is one of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s most popular photos that also outlines some of the techniques that Cartier used in his photography. Firstly, the rule of thirds is applied to the framing of the photo, dividing the photo into three equal parts upwards and three equal parts across.

By framing the photo this way, Cartier divides each detail of the photo into sections, disconnecting every significant detail from each other. This allows for easier viewing, the photo isn’t interconnected and messy, it is organised and direct.

Additionally, the black and white enhance this directness. This is because the photo is stripped of colour, allowing the viewer to interpret just the objects and textures, as the additional complexities of colour are removed from the photo. It is also important to note that the shades of black and white have varying effects on the photo, depending on how dark or light. In the foreground and background of the photo, the people visible are the darkest parts of the photo. Additionally, they are both reflected in the puddle, where both subjects are contrasted heavily by the light of the sky. Both of these features make them stand out in the photo.

These two subjects also demonstrate two techniques Henri Cartier-Bresson used in this photo. The first is that both subjects are in focus, which means that Cartier would have had to use a small aperture so that both subjects and the rest of the photo would be in focus. The second is the connection between the two subjects.

The subject in the foreground is equal size to the subject and his reflection in the background. Although it is not obvious, this creates an invisible lead into the centre and background of the photo.

What is most important about the photo is Henri Cartier-Bresson’s use of the decisive moment. Without Cartier’s understanding of the decisive moment, he would never have taken this photo. If the photo was taken a few milliseconds earlier or later, the moving subject would be out of place. If it hadn’t rained, the puddle wouldn’t be there to reflect. If it hadn’t been overcast and cloudy, and the midday sun wasn’t directly above, the photo wouldn’t have been lit the same way. By taking the photo at that exact moment just before the subject hits the ground, Cartier takes the photo at the decisive moment, the moment in time, from that exact perspective, where everything aligns perfectly.

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.

In this photoshoot, I focused on trying to merge the manmade world, such as the seawalls and buildings lined across the seafront, and the natural world, like the beach and the ocean.

I found that including wildlife in the photos also created a good mesh of natural and man made.

Here are the ones I though were best from this selection.

When editing these photos, I could play around with cropping the images into a square format and then presenting them as a triptych.

I also experimented with the rocks along the beach and trying to combine them with the built environment around Harve des Pas, such as the industrial buildings at La Collette.

In these photos, I tried to blend the buildings and the rocks by finding dips in the rocks where I could see the buildings in the background. Additionally, I tried to use the sea as kind of a middle ground to separate the natural rocks from the manmade buildings. Here are the ones I thought were best.

Here are some other photos I took also using these buildings in the background that I thought worked well as new topographic photos.

When editing these photos, I could play around with the cropping to make the buildings more contained in the frame and more of the focus in the shot. Additionally, I could make these black and white to emphasise the lack of emotion that is common in new topographic photos.

Editing

While editing these photos, I want to focus mainly on how these photos are going to be presented together. This means that the photos will have to be cropped the same way, the colouring will have to be the same, and I need to find a way to portray these buildings in a negative way. I could do this by displaying the photos together as different sections of the landscape, going from the beauty of the beach and the rocks to the drabness of the industrial buildings. I could also alter the colouring to go from happy and vibrant to sad and colourless.

To start with, I looked at the photos I took of the ducks. I also found that these photos had a blue sky, whereas the photos of the buildings were cloudy and drab. This meant that I could use this to help me with my idea of changing the colour between the photos.

Here is the first draft of the triptych I wanted to create with the photos of the ducks and the distant background of the coast.

With this draft, I was happy with how the photos turned out, but I felt that the two photos on either side were too similar, so I decided to change the one on the left to another photo.

I was much happier with this second draft, as it also followed my idea of gradually panning towards the industrial buildings, however I felt that the colouring of each photo wasn’t similar enough to create the same effect.

With this draft, I altered the colouring by taking the vibrance and saturation out more and more between each photo and making the photo colder. I also adjusted the exposure and the shadows to amplify this effect. I was very happy with this draft, and I felt that changing the colouring created the slow decline that I was aiming for.

I also tried this with black and white.

I felt that this worked very well, even more so than the previous draft. I was happy with this, so I then moved onto trying something with the industrial buildings. I was thinking of trying to add these photos with the triptych above.

This is what I came up with. My idea was that the top line of photos would gradually decrease in colour, and the bottom photos were completely black and white. However, I felt that these photos were too repetitive in triptych format, so I decided to separate these photos from the triptych of the ducks and rather make these their own presentation.

I thought that this combination turned out fairly well, and both of these photos clearly demonstrate new topographical work.

I also wanted to try and use these photos to tell a story of how mankind has ignored these new ugly developments. I had a few ideas in mind. Firstly, I could present the images like this from left to right. Secondly, I could present the images from top down in square format.

However, I wasn’t sure how I could present the photos in this format. Thirdly, I could crop out the subject in each photo and place them in one photo, and gradually increasing the opacity between each of them.

I thought that this idea worked fairly well and told the story that I had in mind. The subject walks past the tower, completely ignoring it, rather he focuses on something outside of the frame with his camera, demonstrating the aspect of ignorance that is presented in new topographics photos from artists like Frank Gohlke.

Final Images

New Topographics is a style of landscape photography that focuses on the clash between the human world and the natural world.

It originated in the 1970s in America. Rather than focusing their cameras at the beautiful national parks of America such as Yosemite Valley, new topographic photographers instead took photos of the newly made, post-war, bleak and baron American suburbs. Photographers such as Nicholas Nixon, Frank Gohlke and Robert Adams were the pioneers of early new topographics (who were all featured in the 1975 exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape”).

Robert Adams

Robert Adams was born in the 1930s in the city of New Jersey, but later moved to a town in the middle of the deserts in Colorado. This is where Adams would begin to take new topographic photos to show the wasteland towns hidden deep in America and how mankind has vandalised the beautiful, vast open landscapes of America.

Here is a good example of how Robert Adams expresses this distaste for the American town. In the photo, we see two boxy mobile homes on an empty street with empty driveways. The mobile homes block the view of a mountain in the background, and we can only see the top of it. This could be to demonstrate the point that these mobile homes that were flooding America at this time were useless and that they ruined the landscape. It could also imply Adams’ distaste for 1960s American suburb architecture. The homes of the time were very boxy and flat, and had no detail or personality, rather they appeared dull and lifeless.

Here is another example of Robert Adams’ work. In this photo, we can see in the foreground that there are, once again, boxy mobile homes. Although there are clear signs of life; there are cars in driveways and plants scattered outside homes, the image still appears lifeless. This is because of three things. Firstly, the image is in black and white and has no colour, which strips the image of any positive emotion. Secondly, the background is mostly empty and takes up half of the shot. Thirdly, the mobile homes in the foreground all look the same and appear very repetitive. The combination of all 3 implies a deeper message. The new wave of American suburbia is ugly.

Here is the final photograph by Robert Adams I want to show you. In this photo, we can see a distant large suburb that is bordered by a small road, and in the distance we see a tall mountain range reaching high into the clouds. It is important to note that the sky takes up the majority of the shot. Additionally, the mountains are clearly visible in this photo, rather than being hidden or covered by a boxy house or mobile home. Adams took this photo to show that, although these mass produced suburbs are very big, the natural world such as the mountains and the sky still tower over us. In his words, “Though the mountains are no longer wild, they still dwarf us and thereby give us the courage to look at our mistakes”. This is another reason why new topographics photos like to clash the natural and man-made world, to show that there is a more beautiful world outside of these repetitive and ugly towns, and that we are doing an injustice to the environment around us by creating these massive capitalist monstrosities.

Frank Gohlke

Frank Gohlke was born in the 40s in Texas. He later moved to Connecticut to study at Yale university, where he would meet two renowned photographers, Walker Evans and Paul Caponigro, who he would study the art of landscape photography with. In later years, he began to take new topographics photos in the south and west of America.

Here are a few examples of the photographs he took during this time. There are a few common themes in each of these photos. The most obvious one is emptiness. In these photos, there are no people. This is because Gohlke doesn’t want to portray these places as being urban and social, rather he wants the viewer to focus on the objects in the photos and what they truly demonstrate. Another theme is a focus on capitalism. In all of these photos, some form of capitalism is presented; cars, tourism, company logos on the smallest and the largest buildings. These photos are meant to be a demonstration of human greed. Additionally, in each of these photos at least a small piece of nature is present, however the nature is never the focus of the photo, instead it is hidden from the viewer in the reflection of windows or in the distant background. This is to show that mankind has become very detached from the natural world, and we have resorted to mass producing cities to confine ourselves from it. And the main drive for doing this has been capitalism. Businesses want their name as widespread as possible, seen by everyone, and a small area with millions of people, such as Los Angeles, is the perfect place to do that. Some of the money these businesses made was also then given to the city, which was then invested into building the city more and more. Frank Gohlke took these photos to show how detached people are from the reality of the natural world, and how mankind has completely neglected and converted the fight for survival in the wild into the fight for capital.

Summary

These new topographics works come from somewhere deep in the photographers heart. It is likely that they have watched the rapid growth of post-war American society as they grew up and how it has tainted and blinded the people into believing a false normal. These photographers understand that the natural world is much more powerful than the environments they have grown up in, and have demonstrated this emotion simply by displaying this new world in a single frame.

The main focus of new topographics is to demonstrate how mankind has altered the landscape to be perfect for us, but also to show how the development of this new world has blinded us from the beauty of the natural world.

For this photoshoot, I went with a diverse approach and used multiple locations around St. Ouens and St. Brelades. This was so that, later when the sun was setting, I had a location in mind that I thought would look best that day. This is because I believe Jersey looks the best during the golden hour, and this day was the perfect day to demonstrate that.

Location 1

The first location I decided on was La Pulente in St. Brelades.

This photo shoot was partially inspired by Joe Deal, a new topographic photographer who is known for his bird’s eye view photographs. I thought that this location was best for this because the hill looks out onto the beach, where La Rocco tower is, and the 5 mile road which leads towards the La Braye cafe. I knew I could use this in inspiration of Joe Deal because both key points in the landscape are demonstrations of the manmade world mixing with the natural world. However, I had a few ideas of my own that would differ my work from Joe Deal’s.

Firstly, I wanted to include people in my photos. Joe Deal preferred to do the opposite and removed people from his shots to make the buildings and the infrastructure the focus of his photos. However, I am taking photos of the natural beach and sand dunes rather than the manmade city suburbs or landscapes, and I wanted to show how the people of Jersey enjoy the Jersey landscape, and not how it is full of boxy eyesores like cities are.

Secondly, I wanted to include the horizon in some of my photos. Joe Deal commonly doesn’t include the horizon in his photos. However I thought that, because some of the other Channel Islands can be seen in the horizon at La Pulente, my photos would be enhanced if I did include them. I find that they add an additional point in the landscape so that the viewer can understand the distance more clearly in the photo.

In my landscape, the only obvious, city-like building I could use was the La Braye Cafe with the 5 mile road running alongside it. However, I also wanted to show in the photo that the cafe is not an eyesore, and it doesn’t ruin the landscape like a city would. Here are a few different ways I tried this.

In the top left photo, I framed the road parallel to the ocean and made the cafe quite small and out of the way in the frame. In the top right, I cropped out the cafe to see how the photo would look without it. In the bottom photo, I aimed to make a photo more like Joe Deal, so I cropped the photo into a square and enlarged the road and the cafe to make them the focus of the photo.

Best Images

Location 2

The second location I went to Les Monts Grantez in St. Ouens.

I chose this location because of the extreme storm damage to the rare trees that stand tall on the headland. Additionally, the location offers a beautiful and awe-inspiring view of L’Etacq, which is especially sublime during the sunset.

However, the view towards L’Etacq is quite misleading in consideration of the rest of the location. The trees along the edge of the headland seem untouched by Storm Ciaran, and their deep green pigment makes them appear strong and lively. However, directly behind this angle shows a different story.

This specific species of trees, also known as ‘Scots Pine’, are indigenous to Jersey, and are the only ones of their kind. As you can see, these trees are severely damaged, at a time when they should be thriving. Large branches and cut-up logs lay scattered along the ground. It was dangerous for me to walk below the trees, as parts of the trees were still falling. You can even see that the remaining greenery at the tops of the trees are permanently affected by the harsh winds of the storm.

Although most of the damage caused by Storm Ciaran was in the east of Jersey, I thought that I should show how it has also affected the west of the island. Also, I wanted to show that, even though the storm didn’t affect much of the population of Jersey, it did harm some of the most beautiful scenery in all of Jersey.

Best Images

When photographing this location, I found that this angle of the L’Etacq ‘mountain’ stood out to me.

I decided that this would be the specific shot that I would work with later in the day when the sun was setting. But in the meantime, I had more ideas.

Location 3

While at Les Mont Grantez, I saw that the tide was very low. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to work with the rocks at L’Etacq.

I used this photo shoot to try and work with a linear sense of distance. By this, I mean that the rocks and the ocean are flat, and the foreground, middle ground and background are all below the camera. When photographed it creates a flat scale which is easy for the viewer to interpret. I first experimented with this by using the rocky cliffs of Le Pinacle to fill part of the frame.

This was the best image to come out of the initial experimentation. I find that this image has a good blend of colours, and the placement of each environment in the photo is very separate and individual.

I also took this photo, which is similar to the previous one, but the rocks take up all of the foreground. I feel that this specific location is a very surreal place in Jersey. You are completely surrounded by the rocks, which are very tricky to navigate, and the cliffs at Le Pinacle provide an additional sense of sublime. However, I didn’t choose this location to be the one I would use during the sunset because I felt that this environment was better portrayed in harsh weather conditions when this tide is further up. This did end up being the inspiration for one of my later photoshoots.

Moving further around this location, I found more ways I could experiment with the flat landscape.

This was the first photo I took of this view. I was very inspired by this for three reasons. The first is the distant Corbiere lighthouse. I felt that it was a good background to include in the rest of these photos. The second was the flowing water in the middle of the frame. The water twists and turns like a river, and flows like a snake. I was also inspired by it because it looks like the river that appears in this photo by Ansel Adams.

Thirdly, I thought that the pier on the left of the frame was a great place to stand so that both the river and the lighthouse are positioned nicely in the frame. This was the photo that I got from this idea.

I was very happy with this photo. The distant lighthouse sits perfectly in the middle of the frame, and below it is the flowing body of water, that leads the eye towards the middle left of the frame, where two fishermen are walking along the side of the water. In editing, I plan to make them more obvious by dodging that part of the photo to bring up the exposure. Also, the colouring of the photo is two-tone, making it very basic and easy to look at for the viewer.

Best Images

Final Location

Finally, once the sun had begun to set, I headed back to Les Monts Grantez.

Here I produced a variety of photos, trying my best to include the different aspects of the sunset. I started by heading straight to this specific view I spoke about previously.

I had a few ideas in mind when first taking these photos. I first experimented with a few different fields of view, until I ultimately settled on the one I thought was best. Secondly, I changed where I was standing to make L’Etacq the main subject of the photo. Additionally, I experimented with landscape and portrait photos to perfect this photo. These are the two final photos I came up with for this specific angle.

I then moved onto the other side of the bay, where the Corbiere lighthouse can be seen.

I experimented with a few different angles. I found that I really liked the green tint that the sunset created. Also, I tried my best to show how the sun was hitting the clouds above. Ultimately, I found that this photo does it the best.

I then returned to the original shot that had inspired me to come back to this location to work on it a little bit more. The sun had since become unblocked by the clouds, and the greenery of the landscape was really coming out quite nicely.

I experimented with a few different angles. I mostly was trying to use the trees to lead the eye towards the ‘mountain’ at L’Etacq. I was also looking at how the sun was giving the photo a warm feeling, and I looked for certain colours in the frame that emphasised this. Ultimately, I ended up with these two photos.

I was extremely happy with these photos. They both capture the exact elegance of standing atop that headland with the life of the trees and the powerful greenery around you. The addition of the sunset creates this beautiful environment that really brings out these incredibly warm colours. I found that I was able to fill my frame up very well with everything around me. Ultimately, I finished the photoshoot there as it was getting too dark for my camera to handle.

Best Images (All of Photoshoot)

Virtual Gallery

Intro

Ansel Adams is a very well known photographer. He is best known for his incredible landscape photos that he took in the Yosemite Valley in California.

Adams was born in 1902 in San Fransisco. In his early life, he faced many problems due to a nose injury that left it permanently disfigured. Additionally, Adams was a very shy person. Because of this, Adams didn’t have a great school life, and was constantly moving schools. Eventually, Adams was homeschooled. This meant that he then had more free time to himself. This is most likely when Ansel found his love for nature and photography. It is said that Ansel enjoyed long walks in the sand dunes and forests around his home in San Francisco.

At age 14, Ansel and his family visited the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Yosemite Valley. This was Adams’s first time in the Yosemite Valley. Adams was quoted saying, “That first impression of the valley—white water, azaleas, cool fir caverns, tall pines and solid oaks, cliffs rising to undreamed-of heights, the poignant sounds and smells of the Sierra… was a culmination of experience so intense as to be almost painful”. He had taken with him a Kodak Brownie Box camera, a portable camera in the shape of a box. With this camera, he began to take photos of the beautiful mountains and flowing rivers of the Yosemite Valley.

Techniques

Over the years, Adams developed a few interesting photographical techniques. One of these was splitting the photograph into different zones, determined by the black and white gradient. This is called the ‘zone system’.

This is done by manipulating the exposure settings of the camera (e.g. shutter speed) so that there is no pure black or pure white, and all of the zones of the photo fit within the zone rule. His main rule was that you should “Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights”. Adams would do this while he was taking the photo. He also liked to use filters as well to enhance his meticulous colouring technique. It is also worth noting that Ansel used a film camera to take his photos. With a modern digital camera, this technique is more difficult to replicate because the light comes out more linearly, and exposing and developing is not possible.

Additionally, Adams edited his photos after they were taken. In a darkroom where the images would develop, Ansel would ‘dodge’ and ‘burn’ his images. Dodging the photo means to place an object above a region of the photo to block the light in the darkroom from reaching it, therefore exposing the photo in that region. Burning is the opposite of dodging, placing an outline of the region above the image so that the light in the dark room only reaches the open region, therefore underexposing the region. Ansel was known for being very good at both of these techniques, and it became a vital part of his photographical process.

Analysis

This is a photograph of the Half Dome summit in Yosemite. It is an iconic part of the Yosemite landscape, and in this photo dominates the majority of the frame. Adams did this to make the summit look as grand and massive as possible, and filling the frame with it creates this effect. This technique also makes the image appear flat and almost two-dimensional. However, Adams uses this two-dimensional appearance to fit the moon in the frame. Additionally, the summit and the moon are on opposite sides of the frame. This was most likely done to fill the frame up better, rather than having a blank corner in the top left. The Half Dome summit is also a great object to photograph. This is because the steep cliff has these long vertical lines that lead the eye down the cliff. Also, the cliff stands very tall above its surroundings, which is helpful for getting as much light as possible.

The lighting in this photo is also used rather interestingly. Because of the shadow on the side of the cliff, I can guess that this photo was taken at sunset. Adams uses the shadows to remove parts of the frame. This is done with the dark cliff on the left, and the part of the Half Dome that is outside of the frame on the right. Adams did this for two reasons. One was to create this smooth shape in the middle of the photo with the shadows. Two was to underexpose the photo to remove the detail in the shadows. This is so that the parts of the photo that are shaded are basically removed from the photo entirely, which increases the viewer’s focus on the exposed parts of the photo.

The story of this photo is quite spontaneous. It was taken while Ansel Adams was travelling through Yosemite. Adams saw this view of the Half Dome and decided to bring it to its full potential. The Half Dome summit appears multiple times throughout Ansel’s work since the beginning, when he first presented this image titled ‘Monolith, the Face of Half Dome’.

Although this is the same Half Dome that we see in the previous picture, it is clear that this angle offers a different perspective and overall a different interpretation of the Half Dome from Ansel Adams. Adams is quoted saying, “I have photographed Half Dome innumerable times, but it is never the same Half Dome, never the same light or the same mood… The many images I have made reflect my varied creative responses to this remarkable granite monolith”. It is very clear that Ansel has a fascination with not only the Yosemite Valley, but the specific mountains and peaks that make it iconic.

Photoshoot

In my response to Ansel Adams, I want to reflect Adams’ fascination with the Yosemite Valley by setting my photoshoot in a location in Jersey that I enjoy visiting, Plemont Beach.

The photoshoot took place in sunny, mid-day conditions when the tide was very low, which was enhanced by the wide range of tides that we experience in Jersey during the springtime.

During the photoshoot, I was very much inspired by Ansel Adams and his connection to the Yosemite Valley. When looking through Adams’s work, it is very clear that he is mostly fascinated by the Yosemite Valley. I compare this to my fascination with Plemont Beach. My idea going into this photoshoot was to show the parts of Plemont that I love the most. These were concentrated on the right side of the beach where the sun was at the time.

I started with some basic postcard-like landscape photos that were mainly focused on filling the frame with the right amount of land, ocean and sky.

I then started to use the rule of thirds in a portrait frame. This then formed into making some deadpan photos.

I was also very inspired by the rocks that were sat next to the ocean. I felt that I could use the rocks and the ocean, but also the other Channel Islands in the distance to fill the frame. I found that having a rock in the foreground of the image created a better environment in the photos.

I tried this idea with quite a few rocks that were scattered around that area of the beach. Eventually, I found the angle that I was looking for.

This was immediately a very powerful photo to me. The water flowing from the bottom of the image leads the eye towards the rock in the foreground, and moves on towards the final rock on the outside of the beach. In the distance, you can see Little Herm, Herm and Sark. The rule of thirds is also unintentionally used multiple times in this photo.

There are three islands in the distance;

the rocks in the foreground, the rock to the right of that and the islands in the distance also follow the rule of thirds;

and the flowing water follows the ‘left, right, left’ pattern that the example above does too.

All of this accumulates into a very visually appealing photo. I would say that it was inspired by this Ansel Adams photo that demonstrates similar ‘snake-like’ features.

In inspiration of this photo, I also edited a black and white version of my photo following Ansel Adams’ ‘zone system’.

I also briefly took photos of a cliff face which is fairly hidden away at Plemont, and I thought that I may be able to replicate another specific photo from Ansel Adams.

I experimented with a few different perspectives, but unfortunately I was very quick photographing this area and I didn’t experiment very much. However, these photos did turn out very well.

The comparison between these two photos is very obvious. Both cliffs are used to lead the eye from the top of the photo to the bottom, where in my image you can see a pool of water. Arguably, Ansel Adams did a better job at leading the eye down the frame as there are very apparent lines in the cliff face that they eye can easily follow, however, I am pleased at how comparable these two images are.

I also wanted to capture the sublime nature of standing alone between the vast cliffs either side of Plemont, and how empty it feels to stand alone in this vast landscape. Luckily, there was a person standing alone in the middle of everything. I knew this was a perfect opportunity for a great photo.

This second one I really liked. The sublime nature of this photo really stands out. The subject stands completely alone in the foreground, he is surrounded by the immense cliffs of Plemont, and towered by the cloudy sky above. I decided to experiment with this a little bit.

I tried to make a black and white version of this photo to enhance the feeling of emptiness prevalent in the photo.

I was very happy with how this turned out. I cropped the image to make the rocks and the subject equidistant to either side of the frame. The image is almost two-tone, which makes it fairly simple and easy to look at. The artistic message is very clear in this photo. The atmosphere is very lonely, and the photo feels quite mysterious and dark. However, I felt that the cliffs in this photo are too dark, so I decided to dodge that region of the photo to expose the cliffs.

Overall, I am very happy with this photo shoot in general. The weather conditions were perfect, and I was very able to capture Plemont the way that I had in mind. I may not have captured every part of Plemont that I had planned on, but I did end up with a good selection of best images.

Final Images

Romanticism – an art movement that originated in the late 18th century that countered the new world of the industrial revolution. Romanticism mostly focuses on the beauty and awe of the natural world and the belief that life before the ‘new world’ was greater. Typically, artists in this genre are people who see themselves as casual observers of the modern world.

Origin of Romanticism

Romanticism paintings of this time mostly focused on the beauty of landscape art and the natural world that was being taken away from people due to the industrial revolution. In fact, the industrial revolution is part of the reason for the existence of romanticism. However, the origin of romanticism came from the time before the industrial revolution, the age of enlightenment. The age of enlightenment is described as the age of reason, when people began to think more factually and scientifically than emotionally, putting reason over superstition.

However, some people of the time felt that the age of enlightenment removed emotion too much from their art, and eventually those people started to feel resentment to looking at the world in a scientific, super realist way. Rather, people felt that emotion should be presented a lot more in art, and that people shouldn’t constantly think in rationality, rather they should think more about the things that they don’t fully understand or can’t completely comprehend. This is where romanticism began, however only a small number of romanticists began to paint the sublime landscapes of the natural world. Although, the idea that the new age of the industrial revolution was stripping humanity from its animalistic, natural roots began to grow, and people started to look towards romanticism and the beautiful sublime landscape paintings.

Romanticism on its own can be used in many ways. In the painting below, romanticism is used to demonstrate the beautiful world that the industrial revolution was stripping away from society. In other cases, it can be used to present the problems within the new society that was forming.

Sublime

Sublime – a combination of extreme beauty and overwhelming scale that evokes a strong emotional reaction.

Romanticism and the sublime go hand in hand when it comes to art. This is because, on its own, the sublime is such an overwhelming emotion that an artist is able to recreate using the vast landscapes of the rural (romantic) world.

An example of this is Edwin Deakin, an American-British artist that was well known for his paintings of romantic and sublime landscapes.

In this painting, which was painted sometime in the 1800s, Deakin has presented romanticism by demonstrating the beauty of the natural landscape and painting trees and colourful grass, and presents sublime by painting the distant vast cliffs and mountains of the Yosemite valley. This example of romanticism isn’t meant to send a grand message just about the greatness of the natural world, instead it also captures the vast and powerful landscape. The sublimity of the painting is shown through the overwhelming scale of the mountains against small and meager humanity.

The awe that is created by these views and landscapes is described very well by an English philosopher called Edmund Burke. Burke, born in 1729, wrote many books about romanticism and the sublime, and is a well known figure in the romanticism world. In a book he wrote about the sublime and the beautiful, Burke stated “terror is in all cases whatsoever, either more openly or latently, the ruling principle of the sublime”. This quote is saying that the emotional reaction to the sublime is created by the fear of insignificance and being small in the world in comparison to the magnificence and size of these incredible landscapes.

John Constable

This is a painting by John Constable, a notable figure in English landscape painting during the 1800s. Constable was also a romanticist himself, and has painted many nature landscapes that sometimes tell a deeper story. This painting, named ‘The Hay Wain’, is a very good example of this.

At first glance, the painting appears fairly ordinary. It depicts an English landscape with green trees, large and open meadows and shallow rivers that appears bliss and free, like a utopia. However, on deeper inspection there are details that imply further meaning to the painting. Firstly, the house on the left appears unkept and poor. In addition to this, a shoddy horse carriage, also called a ‘hay wain’, carrying two men can be seen in the foreground of the painting. These two details imply that this landscape could not be as bliss and free as it seems. It could be interpreted as a demonstration of what was going on between the socio-economic classes in England at the time. This is because it was common for large and wealthy land owners to use their class and power to control the farming happening around their property so that they could make money off of the poor farmers. This is what could be happening in the painting, because there is a difference in cleanliness between the background, where there is a large open meadow with animals and nice green trees, but in the foreground the trees are dark and the ground is muddy and unappealing.

Romanticism in Photography

Since then, romanticism has changed drastically. Photography was introduced in the mid 1800s. It was a completely new way of presenting art. At the same time, the industrial revolution continued to grow, cities got bigger, populations grew and the yearn for the natural, romantic world was more prevalent than ever. This meant that more and more people were drawn to photography and paintings to express their love for the rural world.

One of these people was Roger Fenton. He was born in 1819, and most likely grew up being influenced by the romanticism of the time.

This is a photo that Roger Fenton took in Wales, in the small village of Bettws-y-Coed. The photo depicts a small waterfall, surrounded by rocky surfaces, with trees in the background. In the far distance, we can see a few houses. Although most likely not intentional, the distant houses could imply the romantic view that the natural world is best, and that the man-made world should be kept distant. This photo is actually a recreation by Fenton from Thomas Roscoe’s guidebook, where he details this exact position where you must stand. At that standpoint, where you are almost level with the upstream, and you are very much involved with the elements of the stream. This could be interpreted as a romantic, as you are more involved with nature.

In the 1900s, landscape photography began to change. Photography had since developed and had become a lot more mainstream, especially during and after the second world war. This was when photographers like Ansel Adams became very well known for their romantic landscape photography.

This is probably Ansel Adams’ most famous photograph. The photo details a wide river, deep in the forests of Wyoming, which passes by miles of wilderness, and leads the eye towards the distant snow coated Teton mountain range. In this location, the viewer feels very involved and deep in the wilderness. There is most likely no civilisation for miles. This photo is the encapsulation of romanticism and the sublime. It probably demonstrates the exact emotion that Edwin Deakin, John Constable and Roger Fenton felt towards romanticism. The vastness of the distant mountains create such a great feeling of sublime, and the many miles of trees, rivers and wilderness evoke passionate emotion for romanticism. To the viewer, it feels as if they are there themselves.

Summary

Romanticism and the sublime go hand in hand when it comes to depicting the natural world. It is the key to creating incredible paintings and photographs that create such mesmerising emotions. Those who have mastered it have become highly praised for their work and their ability to put so many minds in awe of nature and chasing a romantic dream.

The most important factor when creating a romanticism painting or photograph is sublimity. Whether it is large cliffs, mountains, incredible distances or a combination of all, an artist must include some sort of awe inspiring detail or scale in their work to evoke a sublime emotion.

Landscape photography is generally focused around displaying the beautiful views of the world. Rural landscape photography focuses on demonstrating the beauty of the natural world. This can be from wide landscapes of mountains and rivers, to rural houses and trees.

Origin of Landscapes

Landscapes are not only depicted in photography. They have been around for centuries, the earliest findings of landscape art were from Ancient Greece. Although, landscape art wasn’t popular for a very long time as it was seen as something to put in the background of religious art rather than being its own category.

However, in the 16th century, Dutch artists did begin to see it as its own genre of painting, and painters like Gillis van Coninxloo began to paint the Dutch landscapes.

At the same time, the artistic movement of the renaissance was also taking place, and artists began to seek out new forms of expression in art. Because of this, landscape art began to take on a new form. It started to be about the beauty of the environment. This was how Classical Landscape was introduced.

Now that more European painters were interested in landscape art, the competition for quality began to rise, and better and better landscapes were being produced. This also meant that more and more real places were being painted. Additionally, framing became very important, and the positioning of objects in paintings were perfected.

Claude Lorrain was a French painter in the 16th century. In this painting, we see what appears to be the Italian city of Venice. Although this is not a rural landscape, it does show how painters of the time started to focus on the positioning and framing of their paintings. In this example, we can clearly see a main focus and subject, which is the boat in the middle of the painting. Additionally, there are detailed buildings placed on either side of the painting, as to not intrude our line of sight of the sky and the sunset in the background. We can also see people standing in the foreground of the image, which creates an environment in the image and makes the painting feel lively, and makes the viewer feel as if they are in the city at that moment.

After the renaissance period came the industrial revolution. Cities began to grow, factories became more complex and the quality of life of people living in big cities such as London rapidly decreased. Because of the increased population which followed the rise in mass production, the cities were crowded and cramped and they became even more unhygienic than they had been ever before. In opposition to this, some painters of the time began to paint landscapes to demonstrate the beauty of the natural world and how it was much better before the rise of the industrial revolution. This is also called ‘Romanticism’.

An example of a painter that was involved in the romanticism art movement is Edwin Deakin. Edwin Deakin usually painted buildings in cities, such as churches and cathedrals. With this experience, Edwin Deakin learnt how to frame and arrange his paintings, so when he decided to paint the Yosemite Valley he knew where to place the objects in the painting. This painting is a perfect example of this. There is a foreground, middle ground and a background. In each of these, the U-shape of the valley is clearly outlined by the trees and the clifftops. Additionally, the trees in the foreground move away from the viewer and lead the eye to the centre of the image. In the centre of the image, we see the vast cliffs of the Yosemite Valley, however we have nothing to scale the cliffs to, so its size is undetermined. This makes the cliff appear even larger in the painting, and gives the viewer a feeling of sublime.

Sublimity became a common feature of romantic landscape paintings, even through to the 19th century, when landscapes went from paintings to photography.

In the 1940s, Ansel Adams became one of the most notable landscape photographers of all time. His sublime depictions of the Yosemite Valley made waves through society. Adams knew exactly how to show the beauty of the Yosemite Valley. Take this photo for example. The positioning and framing of the trees and cliffs are set to perfection and blend perfectly with the sublime fog that covers the valley below. The cliffs stand on either side of the frame and meet far in the background where the valley opens up and we see a small glimpse of the vast mountains of the rest of the valley. In the foreground, we see the tops of the trees that stand below the hill that Adams stands on. We only see the tops of the trees in the foreground because it keeps all of the trees in the shot in the same consistency. The trees also lead the eye from the foreground to the middle ground, where the fog covers the entire valley. This fog adds mystery to the photo, and when paired with the sublime mountains and cliffs of Yosemite, evokes an even deeper feeling of sublime.

Summary

Overall, Rural landscape photography focuses on many things. The beauty of the landscape, the positioning and arrangement of objects in the frame, the great scale of mountains etc. However, the key element to rural landscape photography is nature. Nature must be the most prevalent aspect of a rural landscape photo.