Henri Cartier Bresson was most known for his photo at Place de l’Europe Behind Gare Saint Lazare which is when his “decisive moments” project really grew popular . He would say that he would like to connect humanity through photos.

he would bring a camera everywhere with him in order to capture every/any millisecond in a moment. He described his camera as an extension of him as if he was hunting so he needs to be patient wait for that perfect shot.

His camera

His background

Henri grew up quite wealthy with his family in France which is where he was introduced to art.to begin with he had a big interest in painting however he later found that photography is what he was most passionate about. He found photography to be an extension of the eye.

He felt this was able to interreact the world with his camera which lead him to start travelling he went to Europe, Africa, China, Indonesia, India, Burma, Pakistan and many more… The experiences he got out of his travels influenced him to start his project “decisive moment”

image analysis

leading lines-

framing and negative space-

I find in this image it uses negative space really effectively it frames the subject really well drawing a lot of attention to it due to it being really calm and not having much going on. It helps balance out the image as the middle has lots going on and has lots of detail so the calming upper and lower sections helps it feel more organised and less chaotic. I also find the shadow and the clock really help balance out the image as they are both on leading lines but opposite sides of the photo making it look more even and aesthetic pleasing otherwise for example it might look too top heavy.

Colour and texture-

In his photos he has them in black and white this is because at the time technology had not advanced enough to have a camera ion colour. However I think the having it in black and white really works the viewer tends to see more detail within the actual I’m age this way as they are not being distracted by colours.

I think due to there being no colour in the image i think it helps with texture as it draws more attention to it and makes it stand out. you can see all the texture on the walls and the ground very clearly

Camera techniques-

In this image you can tell that he has used a small aperture as there lots of depth in in his image. This meant that everything in the image was in focus including the foreground and the background.

You can also tell he uses a fast shutter speed because for the time the image was taken its considered very sharp so he would have had to use that fast shutter speed to be able to capture the quick movement.

Lighting-

You can tell that this image is really relying on natural lighting and you can tell that it was most likely mid day when he took this photo based off the man shadow in the water. Some people can struggle with taking photos midday because of how bright the sun can be making it more difficult as it can cast some very harsh shadows however instead of fighting that Henri Carter Bresson leant into that and wanted to capture those shadows.

Symbolism-

Henri Carter Bresson focused on the deceive moment which he achieved very successfully he started the shift from very staged photos to these spontaneous candid images which shows the human experience a lot more as people are unaware they are trying to look a certain way or do a certain thing for the camera is people is their true and raw form.

Editing Process

Anthropocene

Landscapes

Topographics

Storm Damage

Overall opinion

I picked all of these photos the way I did because I wanted each “room” to have a certain look to them so I didn’t really want any coloured photos in the same room as a black and white one so if I were to want just one of two in colour and the rest black and white I would create a whole new “room” for it otherwise it wouldn’t look cohesive and would just look quite messy.

For the photos I picked only some of the very best I wanted to make sure it was only my strongest photos in order to make it look so successful. I feel like even though the image look quite small because of the way they are laid out you can still see lots of the detail within the images I believe having them in black and white helps that because they colours contrast so well making it appear more dramatic and making it stand out.

I think my favourites would be the topographic images as I feel the AI photos tell a story so clearly and successfully them being right next to each other so you can clearly see the similarities and the differences works so well.

For these final pieces all I will be doing is taking these individual images and splitting them up and sticking them onto a larger piece of card so that they tell a story and look cohesive together.

For the mounting I will be using a large black sheet of card and the a slightly smaller white sheet on top of the to create that small boarder around both the white and black card. Then I will be sticking the images onto that top layer of white card with even spacing in-between.

I have chosen to use these three photos for one of the final pieces based on Anthropocene. I picked these three as I felt they showed off the main idea of anthropecne as you can see how the natural beach has now had lots of additions like the buildings because of us. You can see the structure that’s already been built on the left and then the middle is a close up of a section of that structure then the last image on the right is of construction machine which suggests that there will be more built on top of the beach.

I would also like to have my final piece of landscapes to look like this although it doesn’t tell a story I feel as if by having both of them together it helps it look more cohesive and less random I also think having both the black and white backing card works well with the images as there are in black and white so its monochromatic and also having just white makes the image a lot brighter and the sky from the photo can kind of blend in but by having the black behind it creates this contrast which really helps.

This will be my last final piece which is for Anthropocene for this is similar to the landscape final piece as I don’t feel as if its trying to tell a story however having those two images which are quite different locations and yet they look so similar works. It shows how built up and overcrowded it actually is in jersey.

Contact Sheet

This is my contact sheet from my first landscape photoshoot where I went to one of the forest near Noirmont point around the coast where they had lots of damages due to storm Ciaran. I took some inspiration from Ansel Adams with the editing style.

editing process

Final Edits

These were the three images I came up with I wanted to try and do it so it would tell a story with the first being all natural before us humans started to change things and start to ruin the environment so I used words like nature, pond, trees and plants etc… I think it came out really well as it does appear very natural.

The second image I was trying to get in-between so where it had start to be built on however it wasn’t bad yet. So I kept the roads from the original photo I removed the flats on the right with AI then I started to change some of the ca to make them look older. I made sure to still have lots of greenery and plants to show that its not been too built up yet.

However for the last one I got rid of all the roads added a flooded area. I also kept the flats however I did change them slightly to make them appear more worn down. I even added more buildings in the background to emphasise how built up it now is. There is still some plants in the lastly image however they look kind of dead and lifeless they are this vivid green like other others are.

contact sheet

For this photoshoot I went into town to one of the car parks to try and how how this cliff has now been used and changed for us. Then I wanted to go to Fort Regent as I was trying to show overpopulation in jersey as it is quite a present issue for jersey and I thought the fort was a good place to do so as it is one of the highest points which looks into town.

The editing process

finished edits

between the sky and ground as in most of the images you can see almost a sharp line between the two which makes the town appear more dramatic and busy due to how calm the upper half of the pictures appear.

Photoshoot 1

For my first photoshoot I am planning on focusing on overpopulation. Taking inspiration from photos like this…

To be able to achieve something like this I’m going to go to fort regent where I can get a good look the part of town specifically where the roads are busier. I think taking these photos at around 6pm would be the best idea as that it the time that most people finish work meaning the roads will be at its busiest.

photoshoot 2

For my second photoshoot I am planning g on using plastic bags like Naomi White with bright lights behind theme to create similar effects like this…

For these all I’m going to have to do is collect some plastic bags preferably coloured and have them in front of this white background with a cool toned light in front to make the bags stand out more and it tends to make them look more sheer.

Photoshoot 3

For this photoshoot I would like to do it inspired by Barry Rosenthal who could take objects either the same item like food wrappers or items of the same colour like in the picture in the middle.

In order to achieve this I’m going to have to start collecting plastic similar to which Barry Rosenthal uses and in the studio have a piece of black card then start organising the plastic to create the sharp shape for the square which he uses in his images.

what is Anthropocene

Anthropocene is a way of describing the most recent time period. Its said that its very human-influenced to the point where us humans have our natural worlds is now effected and changed due to us.

Anthropocene is used in lots of different forms through photography, film, vertical reality etc…And the main idea behind capturing these images are to be able to show how we are changing our world usually for the worst .These beautiful landscapes we had are now worn away. The images tend to makers you ashamed and to call us out as most of us are guilty for probably not treated our world and environment as well as we should be.

I believe that these images although they are not completely solving the issue. They are bringing a lot more attention to the problem. By doing this it makes people reflect on they’re choices and lifestyle and maybe make them feel slightly responsible so they may make a small change .However if everyone makes one small change in terms of being more environmentally friendly that can really help and cause lots of good changes.

the environmental sides of Anthropocene

This is probably more useful now than ever because as of recently climate change is effecting us more than ever every year our global temperature appears to be increasing with research saying “The global-average temperature for the past twelve months (March 2023–February 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.68°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.56°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average”.

However global temperature is not the only thing being effect. as of recently there is a major increase in loss of biodiversity due to many reasons like cutting down trees trees in order to provide us with material however by doing that we are often cutting down lots of animals homes. But not only are we cutting down animals homes animal hunting as become a lot mote popular compared to a few years ago. It may have been common a few million years ago when hunting animals were our main source of food however that has changed now and hunting is more done for enjoyment and to create material things out of the dead animal which is causing so many more animals to become extinct.

Contact Sheet

For these image I went down to Havre Des Pas where I started to take photos of the swimming pool which was made on the beach in 1895. I carried on and went round near the edge of the beach where they have more recently made these ginormous electricity and waste structures.

Editing process

Edited Photos

I think the first one is very successful because you can see especially in the bottom corner of the photo that there is this huge bush with many different kinds of plants and then behind it you have this massive buildings which looks to be a factory with many pipes coming out. The contrast between the two really exaggerates the idea of how humans ruin our wildlife.

I really like this photo as in this image you can see there are 3 different buildings which are all very different the one on the right are brand new flats however they have been designed using old buildings as inspiration then at the back you have the really tall apartments which were built very differently to the ones at the front.

Aaron Siskind Inspired photos

I think this first photo would be one of my favourites from my photos where I focused more on Aaron Siskind I like this one the most I think because I have lots of different materials in this small section and having it so zoomed in you can small all those small details like the cracks in the paint where the paint has peeled off the wall. The small markings on the wood probably from water damage.

what is New Topographic

Topographic is a way of describing images which have this similar banal look to them. And in most of the phots they contain both nature and built structures however the nature in them is not like how you would see it in maybe romantics. Usually in topographic the plants appear to be muted no colourful flower or super green grass its normally kind of muted.

where did it start

These images tend to really contrast romanticism paintings which wasn’t much before this as this style grew popular in 1975 due to a exhibition called “Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape” where they were changing from more classical and stereotypically beautiful nature landscapes and moved more towards how people have changed our natural environment using both the good and the bad. This exhibition held by William Jenkins was said to have held 10 artists work around topography’s and they were Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel.

The main idea of this style of photography is a reaction to the war that had taken place in America and how it was effecting people the war effected people in many ways it ruined their economy for a while people were having top work too many hours just to be able to afford their basic necessities all because of inflation. There was then a very big and sudden rise of the population they were having too many people having children at one time. Then also because of everything that had happened the rise in mental health problems was big so many more had ptsd and so many more due to the war being split up from your family maybe family dying.

William Jenkins

William Jenkins is one of the most influential people in term of the topic of new Topographics he was the one who created the photography exhibition called New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape. This art show didn’t actually have the best reviews at the time it came out people were confused. These are said to be some things said about the exhibition at the time