What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an evolving technology that tries to simulate human intelligence using machines. AI encompasses various subfields, including machine learning and deep learning, which allow systems to learn and adapt in novel ways from training data. It has vast applications across multiple industries, such as healthcare, finance, and transportation. While AI offers significant advancements. it also raises ethical, privacy, and employment concerns.

How it AI used to generate images and visual content using new technology?

An AI image generator is a sophisticated tool that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to create images from textual descriptions or prompts. These generators analyse the input text and generate corresponding visual representations, ranging from realistic photographs to abstract artworks. By controlling the power of machine learning and neural networks, these systems can produce high-quality images that mimic the style and content described in the text.

Mood board of AI images

All these images are somewhat related and edited to AI. I used this for inspiration as I think it represents AI properly and there are some images I believe I can replacer.

These are past, present, and future images I played around with on photoshop.

Final Images

Past

In this picture, I used an image of a beach and changed the filter to ‘sepia’. This gives it the effect of being an old picture. I also used AI to add in soldiers and an army plane to make it look like it was taken during the war.

Present

In this image, I took a picture over town. I used AI to add builders, a bird and a plane. I did this for my present image as it is present that we still use planes and real people for work. The bird represents that the world isn’t fully ruined as we still have wildlife.

Future

I used this picture of a lake. I got AI to add litter and pollution. I used this to represent the future as I believe this is what it’ll look like due to global warming and technological advancements, humans wont be needed.

Andy Hughes was born in 1966 in Castleford, Yorkshire, he developed an interest in the seascape and landscape after learning to surf whilst at Art College in Wales. He obtained a First Class Degree in Fine Art at Cardiff University and an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London.

Andy Hughes’ photographic work explores the littoral zone and the politics of waste. In 2013 he travelled to Alaska, invited as part of an international team of artists and scientists to work on the project Gyre: The Plastic Ocean. This project was a world first and unique project that explored the integration of science and art to document and interpret the issue of plastic and human waste in the marine and coastal environment. He was the first Artist in Residence at Tate Gallery St. Ives and short-listed reserve residency artist for the Arts Council England Antarctic Fellowship. His previous work explores human scale waste products such as plastic and other discarded items washed ashore across various beaches in the USA and Europe. For over two decades he has worked consistently on this theme. In 2013 he travelled to Alaska, invited as part of an international team of artists and scientists [Pam Longobardi, Mark Dion, Alexis Rockman, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Carl Safina] to work on the project GYRE: The Plastic Ocean. 

Some of Andy Hughes work:

I like how he represents Anthropocene through the use of plastic on a beach. People littering is a world wide problem, 12 million tonnes of plastic finds its way into the ocean every single year. 9.5 million tonnes of this enters the ocean from the land with 1.75 tonnes being chucked into the sea directly from the fishing a shipping industry. There are approximately 51 trillion microscopic pieces of plastic, weighing 269,000 tons.

What is Romanticism in photography?

Romanticism placed particular emphasis on emotion, horror, awe, terror and apprehension. Emotion and feeling were central not only to the creation of the work, but also in how it should be read. The following characteristic attitudes of Romanticism are the following: a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities

What Are the Characteristics of Romanticism?

1. Emotion and passion.
2. The critique of progress.
3. A return to the past.
4. An awe of nature.
5. The idealization of women.
6. The purity of childhood.
7. The search for subjective truth.
8. The celebration of the individual

Mood Board

Romanticism of Rural life/outcome

Nineteenth century urban society romanticized rural life. “The frontier farmer was idealized, and it was held to be true that life in the west fostered independence and self-reliance.” It was believed that life on the frontier consisted of a classless society in which people were judged not by their family name or position, but on their character, ability, and talent. The belief in “the nobility of country life” and the “purity of lives lived so close to the soil” contributed to the acceptance of the placing out movement by nineteenth century society. The west was viewed as the perfect place for the “urban poor to begin over and reach their full potential.” Brace actively pursued the placing out of New York City children in homes in rural America as a result of this idealization of rural life. He viewed the city as “an evil place full of temptations and unsavory associates.” Brace believed that children were easily corrupted by the immorality and wickedness they witnessed on the city streets and that this exposure doomed them to a life of crime and misery.

The country, on the other hand, represented a healthy, wholesome environment filled with opportunities for prosperity. Brace held a “startling idealized portrait of country folk.” He believed the tables of rural America overflowed with an abundance of nutritious food which rural families would be happy to share with hungry children. Brace believed that rural America was the “cradle of wholesome values.” He enthusiastically believed that rural families could be trusted to embrace the disadvantaged children of poor and educate them to become successful, productive members of society. The determination of Brace and the CAS to remove children from New York City, transport them across the country, and place them in rural homes, was a direct result of the romanticized view of rural life held by the majority of people living in nineteenth century society.

Introduction

A landscape is part of Earth’s surface that can be viewed at one time from one place. It consists of the geographic features that mark, or are characteristic of, a particular area. The term comes from the Dutch word landschap, the name given to paintings of the countryside.

Landscape photography, in its purest form, is the art of capturing pictures of nature and the outdoors in a way that makes the scene feel meaningful for the viewer. From the grandiose vista to the minute details, it’s about showcasing the beauty and splendour of our world.

Landscape photography is not limited to static images of mountain ranges shot at midday with a wide-angle lens. It can encompass everything from cityscapes to astrophotography and can be shot with all sorts of lenses, and from drones to underwater setups.

Mood board

This mood board shows various different landscape types.

These are a few urban/industrial landscape pictures I took around school:

Before

After

Before

After

Who is Paul Nicklen?

Paul Nicklen is a Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and marine biologist who has documented the beauty and plight of our planet for more than thirty years. Focusing on the polar regions, his evocative nature photography displays a deep reverence and sensitivity for the wildlife and environment of these most isolated, endangered places in the world. Over that time, he has said it is one thing to capture the natural World in a moment of grace and dignity, but that pales in comparison to an image that shines a brighter light on the
environmental crisis and drives everyday people to action, even if only in some small way.
Nicklen did not come to this style of documentary photography by accident. He was born to it. Through the power of the image and, just as importantly, emotion and raw power, his work has been singled out for creating a unique connection between image and viewer by featuring wild subjects in some of the most extreme conditions known on Earth.

What photography techniques does Paul Nicklen use?

Lenses: Nicklen has utilized a variety of lenses for his photography, including wide-angle, telephoto, and macro lenses from Canon, allowing him to capture diverse perspectives and create compelling compositions

Why did Paul Nicklen become a photographer?

Paul Nicklen was born in Canada in 1968 and spent his childhood in Baffin Island with the Inuit community. They taught him the love for nature, an understanding of the Arctic ecosystem and the survival skills that helped him to become one of the greatest nature photographers.

Why did I pick Paul Nicklen?

I picked Paul Nicklen to inspire my photoshoot for anthropocene as i like that he photographs animals to represent global warming.

These are some examples of his work. I like how warm he makes the photo feel, reminding the public to make a change to keep wildlife alive.

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.

This is a good topic for photography, mostly because it is everywhere, and a clear message can be received, for example, 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.

When did Anthropocene begin and end?

Anthropocene Epoch, unofficial interval of geologic time, making up the third worldwide division of the Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to the present), characterized as the time in which the collective activities of human beings began to substantially alter Earth’s surface, atmosphere, oceans etc.

It began in 1950. The resulting radioactive particles were detected in soil samples globally. In 2016, the Anthropocene Working Group agreed that the Anthropocene is different from the Holocene, and began in the year 1950 when the Great Acceleration, a dramatic increase in human activity affecting the planet, took off.

What is the Anthropocene project?

The Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to investigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth.

What is the main idea of Anthropocene?

The Anthropocene is sometimes used to simply describe the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet. Whether or not we are in a new geological age, we are part of a complex, global system and the evidence of our impact on it has become clear.

What is an example of the Anthropocene?

The Anthropocene is a new, present day epoch, in which scientists say we have significantly altered the Earth through human activity. These changes include global warming, habitat loss, changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soil, and animal extinctions.

Why was Anthropocene created?

In the years since the term Anthropocene was coined by Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000, it has increasingly defined our times as an age of human-caused planetary transformation, from climate change to biodiversity loss, plastic pollution, megafires and much more.

Mood Board

This mood board shows the variations in Anthropocene. As you can see, each section of the mood board has different scenes and representations of what people believe Anthropocene looks like. However, all the ideas start off somewhere, for example, the top middle image could represent climate change/global warming. That is why the image has two main colours (blue to represent water, and red to represent the heat).

Jersey Areas that provide Anthropocene;

• Open Cast Mining – Quarries: Ronez, St Peters Valley, Sand Quarry St. Ouens
• Power Stations – La Collette, Bellozane Sewage Treatment
• Urbanisation – St Helier: Grands Vaux, Le Marais Flats, Le Squez etc.
• Mass Wastage – La Collette recycling centre
• Disposable Society – La Collette recycling centre – refrigerator mountains etc
• Land Erosion – farming industry: poly tunnels, packing sheds, plastic covered fields etc. Old Glass Houses
• Over Population – poverty/social divides: Social Housing sites. Car Parks, traffic etc.
• Industrialisation – La Collette area, Bellozane, industrial estates. Desalination Plant, German Fortification (WW2)

Robert adams was a photographer who documented the damage to the American West, including the extent of it and its limitations. He created over fifty books of pictures, which included both despair of the environment and also hope. his goal as he said “is to face facts but find a basis for hope.” Adams grew up in New Jersey, Wisconsin and Colorado, and enjoyed the outdoor environment with his Father in each of them. When he was twenty-five he was a collage English teacher, and that is when in his summers off he picked up photography, After spending time with his wife in Scandinavia he realized that there were complexities in American geography.

His work

Within the 1970’s and 80’s he produced a series of books which included- The New West,Denver,What We Brought,Summer Nights- which focused on expanding suburbs along Colorado, books that portrayed the need to development but also the surviving light of the natural world. He also examined humanity’s footprint and nature’s resilience in the wider western landscape. Adams has occasionally published smaller, sometimes more personal volumes. These have included a prayer book set in the forest (Prayers in an American Church). He has sometimes directly engaged civic and political issues as well. A series of photographs at the Ludlow memorial, for example, speaks for organized labor, and another at a protest against the second Iraq war records the suffering that accompanies empire. 

Image analysis

Adams has used natural daylight when taking this image, which manipulates the intensity of the sunlight reflecting against the ground. It also looks as if the image is a bit over-exposed, in order to manipulate the burning oil smoke to be as dark as possible compared to its surroundings to show its intensity, and how much damage it is creating. This photo is sharp and in focus, and has a sharp tonal range, using different shades of grey and linking them to emotions. He has laid out the image within a way that the damage to the environment is right in our face while still capturing the environment trying to fight back against this man made damage, he has done this by creating a depth of field where the destruction is right in our faces, but the beauty is surrounding it, we see this when the bug black burning oil smoke is right in our faces, making it very hard to miss, but there is a small tree standing very still to the left of the destruction. His image also relates to a political context, where people were fighting for the burning of oil to be calmed down or stopped all together, this relates to the 1973 oil crisis.

What is it?

New Topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape. Unlike their predecessors, these new “topographic” photographers (such as Robert Adams) were less concerned with portraying an ideal image of nature and were more interested in showing plainly how man has altered it

Who are they?

The New Topographics photographers were Robert Adams, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel Jr.

What was the new topographics a reaction to?

Their stark, beautifully printed images of this mundane but oddly fascinating topography was both a reflection of the increasingly suburbanised world around them, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental.

Artist reference – Robert Adams

Robert Adams is an American photographer best known for his images of the American West. Offering solemn meditations on the landscapes of California, Colorado, and Oregon, Adams’s black-and-white photos document the changes wrought by humans upon nature. While Adams was teaching English at Colorado College, he began taking pictures of nature and architecture with a 35 mm reflex camera, and learned photographic technique from the professional photographer Myron Wood. His earliest series The New West (1968–1971) depicts the uniform housing tracts that were part of suburban development in Colorado.

New Topographic mood board

The New West

The New West is a photographic essay about what came to fill it—freeways, tract homes, low-rise business buildings and signs. In five sequences of pictures taken along the front wall of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Robert Adams has documented a representative sampling of the whole suburban Southwest.

Frank Gohlke

Frank Gohlke was raised in Wichita Falls, Texas. He received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin in 1964 and an M.A. in English Literature from Yale University in 1966. While at Yale, Gohlke met photographer Walker Evans, and in 1967 and 1968 he studied with the landscape photographer Paul Caponigro.

Between 1971 and 1987, Gohlke made his home in Minneapolis, and has resided since in Southborough, Massachusetts. He has taught photography at Middlebury College; Colorado College; Yale University; and the Massachusetts College of Art.

Gohlke is the recipient of two Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships, a Fulbright Scholar Grant, and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; as well as grants from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and the Gund Foundation. He has also received commissions from the Wichita County Heritage Society and the Texas Historical Foundation.

Gohlke′s photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Amon Carter Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 1975, he was included in the influential exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape, organized by the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. His photographs are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House; the Canadian Center for Architecture; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Amon Carter Museum; and the Walker Art Center.

Storm damage

For this task, over half term i decided to go on a drive around jersey and take photos of storm damage. i visited parks, fields, estates, small lanes and football pitches. These are some of my best images:

I like this photo as it shows the roots of the tree that have been pulled out of the ground. This represents how strong the storm was to physically pull a tree out the ground.

These two images are very similar. I like these pictures because the grass is eye catching along with the neutral colours of the tree and sky/background. I like how they both have standing trees in the background to show the variation of how the storm affected these areas.

This image shows the raw reality of how the storm has damaged the island. It almost tells a story amongst the storm and how people had to deal with this experience.

This image is one of my bests. I love how gloomy the picture looks, it really brings out the horrifying experience everyone went through during the storm.

I love this image as the contrasts of the different colours draws you in.

Landscape images

Ansel Adam was a man often considered to be the father of modern landscape photography with his famous landscape work of big mountains and rivers/lakes. Being born in 1902 he grew up in California in the sand dunes amid the golden gate. As he grew older after his family being largely effected by a volcano his father helped him pursue his creative roots and ideas even when not fitting in at school with a more traditional style of education. Progress in school until he gained a ‘legitimising diploma’ and soon after spent the majority of his time outdoors hiking, climbing and observing what was on his door step. However his photography career did not begin here so much as he taught himself to read and play music quickly becoming his occupation until he gave it up for photography, not after having learnt many important lessons of planning and patience from the music. As his love for photography progressed using the Brownie box camera his parents gave him, he joined the Sierra Club in 1919 looking after their memorial cabin located in the Yosemite Valley in which he spent four summers growing and learning while meeting fellow conservation enthusiasts. This club gave Adam’s so much of his life not only did he meet his wife during his time there but it was essential to starting his photography career, starting with his first publishing being in the clubs bulletin. As time continued to progress the clubs yearly month long trip during the summer, quickly grew in popularity with having up to 200 attendees. Adams now being on the board of directors for the club as well as now being the trip photographer/artists, he strayed further from a concert pianist and realised he could make a living off of his work. The most life changing year in Adam’s career was 1927 when he took his first ‘visualized’ photo which became what he was known for and how he created all of his work. Adams only grew in popularity and fame from here as his work grew and began being featured in more and more shows all the while his new techniques and talents shone through and taught so many others. Later on in his career he met  Edward Weston who himself is a hugely important and influential photographer. This pair was quickly noticed by Group f/64 who did so much for the duo presenting shows of their work together and helping Adam’s have his first solo exhibition in a museum, although this group did not last long they brought a whole new idea to ‘straight’ or ‘raw’ photography works and looking at photography as though it what the eye would see. Time went on and Adam’s was forced to do more and more commercial work but even for this he had an unusual talent for this as well but he felt it limited his creativity that the entire reason he started photography in the first place. Adam’s was revolutionary not only for his creativity but he was a master with all the technical sides of camera, he developed the ‘zone’ system that is still used and completely changed how other photographers looked at their own work and his. He was looked up to greatly in a lot of other aspects of his life, whether it being his social company or his sheer passion for the environment and preserving it.

American west, why?

Adams was also a tireless conservationist and wilderness preservationist who understood the power of a strong image to sway public and political opinion. His stirring images of US national parks have no doubt always inspired a desire to protect the natural world.

Group f/64

64, loose association of California photographers who promoted a style of sharply detailed, purist photography. The group, formed in 1932, constituted a revolt against Pictorialism, the soft-focused, academic photography that was then prevalent among West Coast artists.

Goup f/64 included: Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, Brett Weston, and Edward Weston.

Zone system

The zone-system of Ansel Adams divides the photo into eleven zones; nine shades of grey, together with pure black and pure white. You could assume that a normal photo does not contain pure black and pure white. Therefor the nine shades of grey would be the only zones you can find in a photo

Comparison

Romanticism: a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasise, inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Both romanticism and Ansel Adams both have the ideas of human creativity. In photography, photographers who took up the romanticist approach aimed to sensationalise the overall look of their mages by enhancing certain colours to make the image look almost surreal, glorified and they wanted to dramatize certain areas of their photographs.

Ansel Adams uses black, white and grey to romanticises his images with a dramatic effect. He uses the perfect contrast of all colours so there isn’t too much of one.

One difference with Ansel and romanticism is, a lot of romanticism used in pictures uses colour, Ansel Adams doesn’t.

Influence on others

Ansel Adams is known for his artistry in what has become known as Landscape Photography. He also contributed to advancing the technical aspects of bringing this artistry to light. In this class, you will learn some of Ansel’s important innovations to photography and how they relate to your modern digital camera.