Photos by Henri Cartier Bresson

About Henri Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a photographer who is best known for his candid street photography. He was born in Chanteloup, France in 1908 and grew up in a wealthy family. Henri was introduced to the arts early and was initially drawn to painting until he discovered photography. This was where his passion for photography sparked as he believed that it was an extension to drawing. Growing up, Henri went to school not far from Paris then later attended Cambridge to study Literature and Art. Henri was a photographer for over 40 years and travelled the world until he sadly passed in 2004.

About his Work and Career

After attending college at Cambridge and being released from the Army, Cartier-Bresson travelled to Africa in 1931 to hunt wild antelope and boar. He soon grew tired of this sport and gave it up as he was never interested in eating the animals. He then began taking photographs of the world around him after receiving a Brownie as a gift. Interestingly, Henri likened photography to hunting as he said “It’s like being a hunter. But some hunters are vegetarians – which is my relationship to photography.” By this, Henri was referring to the fact that he prefers taking shots than actually printing and displaying them. Another way in which these hobbies/proffesions can be similar is the fact that you have to watch and wait patiently in order to get the right shot. Henri Cartier-Bresson became a humanist photographer and is now considered a master of Candid photography as the subject of his work was to capture the movement of people through the world. Upon returning to France later that year, Henri purchased his first Leica Rangefinder camera. At the time, these cameras were revolutionary pieces of equipment in photography and Cartier-Bresson would use these as they were discreet, compact and quiet cameras. This was essential for Henri Cartier-Bresson as he aimed to catch unstaged moments and avoid drawing attention to himself when taking street photographs. Finally, Henri preferred the 50mm lens as the field of view was the most similar to the human eye which could ensure that his images felt natural and immersive to the viewers.

The Decisive Moment

The main component of Henri’s work was the use of the decisive moment. The decisive moment in photography is about intuition, anticipation and the connection with the subject and the environment. The term ‘decisive’ means to make a quick and effective decision which in photography would be the moment you decide to release the shutter to take a photo. By using the decisive moment, Henri Cartier Bresson would ensure that his work was candid and natural. A good example of the use of this moment in Cartier Bresson’s work would be his photograph Behind the Gare Saint Lazare, an image of an unknown man leaping over a puddle.

Image Analysis – Behind the Gare St. Lazare. 1932

This is an image by Henri Cartier Bresson which was taken in 1932 behind the Gare St. Lazare. Train Station. This image represents the decisive moment, which is shown by how the man was captured mid air. Henri used his intuition when taking this image and made the decision to take the photograph at that moment so that he could display the figure jumping. Overall, this image displays a man who seems to be attempting to jump over the large puddle from the ladder on the floor with some other people stood in the background. This image has the use of the rule of thirds as the guy is centred vertically within the last third. The reflection of the fence in this image also aligns with the centre horizontal third. There are also leading lines in this image which lead your gaze towards the man such as the ladder and the fence. In addition, the tower in the background of this photo and the reflection of the man are the two aspects which leak the most into the negative space (the water and sky). This demonstrates balance and allows you to focus on the centre of the image without distraction. Due to this image being in black and white, there is high contrast within the image, specifically between the man’s reflection and the water. By looking at this image, I can tell that it was taken on a somewhat cloudy day with the use of a slow shutter speed as there is slight motion blur from the man. I personally think that this image looks staged, although Henri is trying to capture a candid moment, as the guys looks to be jumping in to the puddle and not over it and you can’t even see the edge of it.

My aim is to create 2 altered landscapes which can be presented together that feature all of the industrial areas in Jersey.

Contact Sheet

(I took these screenshots after doing some experimentation with my images.)

Editing Process

Edit 1

To create my base image, I merged the following:

This is the result:

I opened this image in photoshop and, although I liked the stream, I felt like it wouldn’t have went with the theme I was going for so I used the Content Aware Fill feature to remove it, as well aa the fence, house and building. This was my result:

As you can see, it is not the best standard, however, this floor won’t be seen when the montage is completed. By removing this stream, it gives me a lot more space and opportunity to be able to make this piece even better.

After this, I added my first layer, the quarry. I cropped this part from a different image and pasted it onto this then used the eraser tool to clean it up a bit. I then aligned it where I would like it and lowered the brightness so the colour was more similar. Once I was satisfied with it, I used AI to merge the quarry into the hill and, at first, it created trees so I then told it to remove them.

Next, I cropped out a pile of waste and a pile of gravel which I took at La Collette and aligned them where I would like them. I then decided here that I think it would look good to make the floor of the entire image gravel so I played around a bit with the generative fill until I was happy with it.

I then cropped some cyclinders from Bellozanne and a pile of granite from St Ouen from photos I took and pasted them into my edit. After doing this, I put them where I would like them and slightly distorted the cylinders so they looked more in place.

One I had done this, I tidied up the parts which I cropped then used Generative fill to create tyre tracks in the floor.

Finally, I added the tower from La Collette behind the hill and flipped it horizontally, changed the perspective and skewed it. To finish off, I increased the brightness and this is my finished product:

In B&W:

Edit 2

I have done this edit during our mock exam and during my first few steps the blog was down, therefore, I couldn’t record my progress. This is what I have done so far:

Within this time, I used an image of the dam and added two buildings from Bellozanne on one side and a random ploughed field from St Peters on the other. For the field, I distorted and warped it to match the slope then used AI to make it blend in at the bottom. Finally, I also used AI to remove the building at the bottom of the dam and the flowers which were on the grass.

In addition, I used AI to replace the grass with a road, however, doing this inspired me to try make it a river.

I have played around with AI and made the sides of the river muddy.

After a bit more playing around with generative fill, here is my result:

In B&W:

Contact Sheet and Image Selection

These images are inspired by the works of George Marazakis and Edward Burtynsky and they display the industrial areas of Jersey and places where the landscape has been highly affected by man. I am going to make my images B&W because I think that it will have more of an industrial effect and less natural due to the lack of greenery.

Contact Sheet

Image Selection

Edits

Edit 1

This is my base image for my first altered landscape:

I continued to edit this image by making it B&W and adjusting the following:

This is my final result:

Edit 2

Edit 3

Edit 4

Edit 5

Edit 6

Edit 7

Edit 8

Edit 9

Edit 10

Edit 11

Edit 12

Virtual Gallery

Photos by Tanja Deman

About Tanja Deman and her work

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

• Fernweh

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

• Sight Densification

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

• Collective Narratives

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

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

Image Analysis

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

Ideas

Living in Jersey makes it quite difficult to photograph the impacts on the environment from humans as it’s not as obvious as other places in the world due to the island being less developed and big on agriculture, however, here are some of my ideas:

Idea 1

My first idea is to photograph areas in Jersey which experience traffic and over-population, specifically St Helier. My plan is to go into town around rush hour and take photos of the traffic in various places, preferably from above. Some places I could do this are along the Waterfront near La Frigate and from above the tunnel. I am also planning on taking images of full car parks and places which are clearly over-populated.

Idea 2

My second idea is to create an altered landscape image (or two) which consists of the various industrial areas and areas which have been hugely impacted by humans around the island. This will be inspired by Emily Allchurch, an artist who hosted a talk at Jersey Library last year which I attended with my Dad. I was really inspired by her work, therefore I have decided that it is something I would like to do for this project as I think it would be an effective way of displaying our Island’s impacts on the environment. Some locations which I am planning on photographing include La Collette, Bellozanne, German Bunkers, Le Marais Flats, Quarries and Dams. I will then create my final image by using photoshop.

Another photographer who has similar work to Emily Allchurch that I am greatly inspired by for this idea is Tanja Deman. (Link to my blog post about Tanja Deman)

Idea 3

My third idea is to take images of potholes as there are many in Jersey and they are caused mainly by traffic and not being able to support the weight of vehicles, therefore, they are caused by human activity and sometimes you could say overpopulation, corresponding to themes of Anthropocene. I am planning on editing these images to look like moon craters by making them appear as similar colours to the moon. This idea hasn’t been inspired by any photographers as it is just a thought I had, therefore, I may not go ahead with this idea as the outcomes may not align with my vision.

Idea 4

My fourth idea is to photograph agricultural land in Jersey as, although agriculture is great for the Island’s ecomony, it can also have harmful impacts on the environment such as polluting water and soil and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. Moreover, around 50% of the Island’s area consists on agricultural land and it is also one of the factors which promotes a great problem on the island – sea lettuce. The Island has had numerous problems with sea lettuce, which is often caused by streams running onto the beach containing fertiliser. For this photoshoot, I am planning on photographing fields from above, most likely in Grouville and St Ouen, inspired by Edward Burtynsky’s photograph of plastic-covered fields. In addition, I will also photograph old glass houses around the Island.

Idea 5

My final idea is to photograph rubbish which I find on the beach and on the streets in its place but also collect it to photograph it again together and create an abstract image. This may, however, be quite difficult as it’s not easy to find rubbish on the beach at this time of year compared to summer. My inspiration for this is Many Barker’s: Our Plastic Ocean.

The Ideas I have gone for

For my photoshoots, I have decided that I am going to create an altered landscape, inspired by Emily Allchurch and Tanja Deman, of the industrial areas around the island. The areas featured within this landscape will be similar to what can be seen in both Edward Burtynsky and George Marazakis’ photographs. The locations which I will be taking these photos include Bellozanne, La Collette, Sorel and St Peters Quarries, Val de la Mare Dam and various fields round the island. This is a rough sketch of my vision:

I am going to present the images I take both on their own, similar to Edward Burtynsky and George Marazakis, and as an altered landscape.

The Land and Us

I went to visit ArtHouse Jersey for an exhibition named “The Land and Us”. This is an exhibition which was created as a way to reconnect and prioritise Jersey’s ecosystem, whilst exploring the past, present and future habitation of the Island. This exhibition included the work of various photographers such as Alexander Mourant, Hannah Fletcher, Remi Graves, Alice Burnhope and Sam Carvosso and many of the pieces have been created in collaboration with groups such as Youthful Minds, Highlands College, Dementia Jersey, Cheval Roc care home and Hautlieu School. These are some of my favourite pieces which I saw at this exhibition:

This is a recreation of dolmens from when our ancestors were building them 6000 years ago. This structure was created by Alice Burnhope with the use of naturally dyed waste textiles, community embroideries, reclaimed zips, threads, scrim foam and hay. I personally really admire this piece as I think it is amazing how much detail there is when you look closely and the amount of thought that would have had to go into it to ensure that each piece will hold.

This is a piece of sweet chestnut wood which has been engraved by Alexander Mourant, in collaboration with EYECAN. The carving in this wood represents St Martins Village Green and is a sensory piece in which they advise people to feel and imagine they are walking through a landscape.

As you can see here, there were paths which were created around the art gallery in the shape of the Island. These paths were made by Sam Carvosso with materials such as wood, sand, gravel, soil and hoggin. It is said that he chose these materials based on how long it took to walk each section. As you can also see below, he created an elevated area to represent the steep inclines of the North Coast. I really liked this feature of the art gallery as I think that it was a good representation of the nature of the island.

This is a piece which was created by Hannah Fletcher in collaboration with Hautlieu School and it is a chemigram which was made using silver gelatine paper and craic based photographic developer. I personally really like the abstract appearance of this piece and believe it looks like oil spillage, with links with Anthropocene.

These are various species of seaweed which had been pressed and selected by Hannah Fletcher. I really like the look of this piece and was quite surprised as I never knew how many different types of seaweed there were.

At first glance I thought that these were real rocks, however, they have been made by Sam Carvosso and Highlands Art School in Greve de Lecq woods using plaster. In the art gallery, they displayed a film showing how they made these on the trees and then collected moss to decorate them. I really admire the hard work they put into making these and how real they look.

Overall, there was a lot of impressive artwork displayed at this exhibition, my personal favourite definitely being the dolmans as I liked how vibrant and large-scale they were. I also liked how they used recycled materials for many of these pieces and collaborated with local communities/groups.

Mood Board

What is Anthropocene?

Anthropocene is a word which is used to describe the period of time in which human activity has greatly impacted the Earth’s climate and ecosystems.

Anthropocene in photography often explores issues such as:

• Extreme Human-altered environments such as quarries, mines, dams, power stations and cities

• Deforestation

• Plastic waste and landfill

• Traffic/Over population

• Modern ruins

• Farms with plastic covering

Anthropocene photography is a term which was first used in 2015 within a blog written by the photographer Kristin Wilson (Link to Blog). In this blog post, Kristin describes that Anthropocene is a vague concept and can be used to describe photos showing negative impacts of humans on the environment. Overall, the purpose of Anthropocene in photography is investigating and understanding the impacts which human’s are having on Earth and bringing attention to the fact that things need to change now in order to save our future.

I personally think that, by documenting global issues, photographers are helping in many ways by spreading awareness and promoting taking action, however, I also think that they apart of the problem themselves. I think this because the majority of photographers travel for their work and print their images, which will heighten their carbon footprint. In addition, the equipment used by photographers is not very sustainable as, for example, cameras contain various resources which are being depleted and can contaminate soil and water. Altogether, if photographers are wanting to make a change for the environment, they should be more considerate of the impacts they are causing through their job and contemplate using more sustainable equipment and methods.

Finally, it is very controversial as to whether Anthropocene images are beautiful or ugly. In my opinion, I think that it depends on the photograph. For example, an image may appear beautiful but the message behind it is not so much. The case could also be that the image is ugly to show the viewers the impacts we are having on Earth so that maybe people will act to make a change.

Artist References

Edward Burtynsky

Source 1 and Source 2

Edward Burtynsky is a photographer, born in 1955 in Ontario, who is best known for his images of nature altered by industry. Burtynsky grew up near a General Motors plant, which sparked his interest for photographing the impact of human industry on the planet. He was also greatly inspired to pursue photography by photographers such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Eadweard Muybridge. Edward Burtynsky studied Photography/Media studies at Toronto Metropolitan University and has since received his BAA (1982), an Alumni Achievement Award (2004) and an Honorary Doctorate (2007). He is still involved with this University community and sits on the board of directors for The Image Centre. Throughout Burtynsky’s career, he has gained various awards such as the TED prize (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and he has had his work displayed in over 80 museums worldwide including the Tate Modern in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Burtynsky displays his images as very large, high-resolution prints as they are more immersive and will really draw the viewer’s attention.

The making of Burtynsky’s photographs often requires the use of technology such as helicopters, drones or even lifts in order for him to get his desired perspectives. This may make it difficult for me to imitate his images as I don’t have access to the same technology.

Photos by Edward Burtynsky:

George Marazakis

Source

George Marazakis is a photographer who was born in 1976 in Crete Island, Greece, where he lives with his Wife and Son. He studied Mechanical Engineering and he works at the Municipality of Heraklion (Administrative Centre of Crete). Marazakis began his career in photography in 2010 after having a knee injury, causing him to stop playing basketball and having to walk more as exercise, and he uses a Canon 60d and a small Samsung nx1000. He mainly does street photography and he describes his photos as candid deceptive. Other than street photography, George Marazakis has also produced a series of photographs titled ‘A Cure for Anthropocene‘. This series is featured on Lens Culture and displays his images, along with an essay written by Cat Lachowskyj. Within this essay, it is said that George Marazakis stated ‘While I was photographing the landscapes affected by human interactions in the middle of natural spaces, the topography started looking like a body to me – like something with the early stages of psoriasis on its skin‘. He then explained that ‘we can say that we are a disease attacking our own organism, just like an immune system can attack its own body‘. I personally think that this is a really powerful way to think about the impacts in which we are making on our ecosystems and it is something which I am inspired to imitate in my own photographs.

Photos by George Marazakis:

A Comparison of these Photographers

At first glance, these photographers have a very similar style of work in terms of photographing the impacts of humans to the environment, however, their images also have many differences. For example, Burtynsky photographs more extremely impacted landscapes, often from an aerial view, however Marazakis’ landscapes are more minimally affected and the majority of them have been taken on ground. Burtynsky’s images also appear higher resolution to Marazakis’ and are more varied in colour. Overall, it will be much more simple to imitate George Marazkis’ photographs as I won’t need to use expensive technology and I can find many more similar landscapes on the Island to his.

Images by Lewis Baltz – Inspiration for photoshoot

Photoshoot Plan

For this photoshoot, I am going to go to for a walk around St Brelade, mainly the area near the old Les Quennevais School, and try to find similar scenes to the ones featured in Baltz’s photographs. I am then going to make these images monochrome and edit them as little as possible in order to keep them natural and present the landscapes truthfully.

Contact Sheet

Image Selection

My Images in B&W

I edited these images in Lightroom Classic by making them B&W then increasing the contrast. For most of these images I also slightly cropped and rotated them.

Virtual Gallery/Evaluation

I believe that my images share some similarities but also have differences towards Lewis Baltz’s work. For example, they are similar as they display many straight edges and man-made structures such as doorways and walls. Some of these photos also depict man-made structures with plants and natural elements, alike Lewis Baltz. On the other hand, I think my photographs are different to Lewis Baltz’s in terms of locations as it wasn’t very easy for me to find many warehouses or buildings like what he depicts as Jersey is quite different to America.

Photoshoot Plan

As a class, we will be going on a walk from Havre Des Pas to La Colette to take photographs of landscapes, inspired by The New Topographics. I am going to aim to take photos of how urbanisation has transformed the landscapes of Jersey. For example, La Collette area is very heavily urbanised, therefore, I am going to try take some photos there.

Contact Sheet

I took these images using exposure bracketing in order to ensure that I get the correct exposure and to practice the technique.

Image Selection

As there were many images for me to sort through, I started off by labelling all the good photos yellow so then I could go back through the set of the yellow images and label the ones that I wanted to use as green.

Selection

Sub-selection

Edits

Photos I have left unedited:

I didn’t edit this image because the sky is very over-exposed so if I were to lower the contrast or highlights it would make it grey. On the other hand, I think this is a very effective photo as it shows development being done on the beach.

The following images I didn’t edit as I was already satisfied with how they looked.

Edit 1

I edited this photo by slightly decreasing the exposure and cropping the sides.

Edit 2

All I did to edit this photo was crop and rotate it. I rotated it so that the roofs of the buildings were horizontal to make the image look better.

Edit 3

I edited this image by lowering the exposure, vibrance and highlights as it was a little too saturated then increased the texture to make it more detailed. Finally, I cropped the edges.

Edit 4

I edited this image by, firstly, lowering the exposure and increasing the texture then cropping it. After this, I used the brush tool to select the apartment building as in the original image it was quite blurred, therefore, I did what I could to minimise this.

Edit 5

I edited this photo by, firstly, lowering the exposure, highlights and vibrance as I wanted the image to be dull to show how infrastructure has impacted the beauty of the nature. I then increased the texture and slightly rotated the image.

Edit 6

All I did to edit this image was make it B&W then lower the exposure and contrast so that tones of the sides and bottom of the balconies contrasted. I then finished this off by slightly cropping the bottom.

Edit 7

I edited this photo by slightly increasing both the exposure and contrast and making it B&W.

Edit 8

I edited this photo by making it B&W then slightly decreasing the exposure and increasing the contrast as I wanted the rock to display a gradient of different tones.

Edit 9

I edited this photo by, once again, slightly increasing the exposure and contrast. After this, I faintly rotated it.

Edit 10

I edited this image by lowering the exposure and clarity and increasing the contrast and texture as I wanted the picture to appear more detailed with the edges of the stone. After this, I then slightly cropped the top and left to get rid of the area in the corner.

Edit 11

To edit this photo I started off by increasing the exposure and contrast to make the chimney more visible, however, the sky became quite over-exposed so I lowered the highlights. After this, I finished off by rotating it slightly so that the chimney was vertical.

Edit 12

I edited this photo by making it B&W, lowering the exposure, increasing the contrast and highlights then slightly rotating it.

Edit 13

I edited this image by, simply, making it B&W then decreasing the exposure and increasing the contrast.

Edit 14

I did the same for this image as I did the previous, however, I also rotated it.

Edit 15

All I did to edit this image was crop and rotate it as I was happy with how everything else looked.

Virtual Gallery/Evaluation

These are my final images which I had taken during the photo walk. As you can tell, there is a variation of different scenes displayed, however, I personally think that they all link to the New Topographics as they all show how Jersey has been developed over time.

The New Topographics Photos

What is The New Topographics?

‘The New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape’ was an exhibition at the George Eastman museum in Rochester, New York. This exhibition was created by William Jenkins in 1975 and included the work of various photographers such as:

• Frank Gohlke
• Robert Adams
• John Schott
• Lewis Baltz
• Stephen Shore
• Joe Deal
• Nicholas Nixon
• Bernd and Hilla Becher
• Henry Wessel

The word ‘topographic’ refers to the arrangement of physical features in an area, therefore, The New Topographics is a way of stating that the arrangement of physical features have been changed. In addition, The New Topographics was a reaction to the Post-war American Landscape, where the world was becoming increasingly suburbanised and landscape photography was becoming progressively romanticised and idealised. Moreover, the purpose of this exhibition was to highlight the effects of human intervention on the environment and, as a result, this exhibition significantly contributed to conservationism, a movement which aims to conserve and protect natural resources and wildlife, as it made people realise what the world was becoming.

Key Features of The New Topographics

The New Topographics inspired the beginning of the genre Urban Landscape and these images often included features such as petrol stations, industrial parks, trailer homes, industrial buildings and houses. These images brought attention to landscapes and areas which people see everyday but never think twice about in an attempt to protect natural landscapes from human intervention. The industrial features in these images are often paired with natural landscapes in the background to create contrast between natural and man-made.

Case Study of New Topographics Photographer

Robert Adams – The New West

Robert Adams, a photographer who was part of The New Topographics, published a book in 1974 named ‘The New West’. This was a book containing landscapes along the Colorado Front Range (Mountain Range) and it is regarded as a classic book of photography. Adams created this book as a way of documenting the development of freeways, mobile homes, low-rise business buildings and signs in the suburbs, rather than romanticising it. The images displayed in this book are all mostly of middle-grey scale which is a common feature amongst Adams’ work.

Some photos from this book:

Bernd and Hilla Becher

Source

Bernd and Hilla Becher where a married couple who began collaborating in photography together in 1959, 2 years after meeting each other. After 2 years of collaborating together, they got married and they travelled around Europe and North America together photographing industrial architecture. Their images often displayed industrial structures such as water towers, coal bunkers, gas tanks and factories and they exhibited their work as sets of typologies:

Additionally, Hilla Becher stated:

• ‘By placing several cooling towers side by side something happened, something like tonal music; you don’t see what makes the objects different until you bring them together, so subtle are their differences.‘

• ‘For me, photography is by its very nature free of ideology. Photography with ideology falls to pieces.‘

• ‘We photographed water towers and furnaces because they are honest. They are functional, and they reflect what they do – that is what we liked. A person always is what s/he wants to be, never what s/he is. Even an animals usually plays a role in front of the camera.‘

These quotes prove that the purpose of their photographs was to display the beauty, similarity and complexity of various functional, man-made structures.

Lewis Baltz

Source

Lewis Baltz is another photographer who was involved in The New Topographics movement. He was born in Newport Beach, California and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he received a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in 1969 and at Claremont Graduate School, where he received an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in 1971. Baltz worked as a freelance photographer and taught at various institutions in California, as well as some others across the globe. During his career, Baltz produced numerous photo books and has had his work featured in a variety of Museums, including Tate Modern, Metropolitan Museum of Art and many in the United States.

Photographs by Lewis Baltz:

Baltz’ work, featured in The New Topographics, challenged 19th century western landscape photography by presenting a more realistic view of the landscape, displaying the effects of suburban development on the topography, rather than picturesque landscapes. His images were all displayed in monochrome and featured man-made structures with straight edges, such as doorways and warehouses. These features, in most of his photographs, are accompanied by natural features/vegetation such as trees, grass and rocks.

Analysis of an Image

Source

This is one of the most well known images by Robert Adams, titled Mobile Homes, Jefferson County, Colorado. It was taken in 1973 and it is best known for splitting the Colorado landscape into two, presenting both a sublime mountain-scape and the harsh reality of mobile homes impacting the landscape. Additionally, this image displays a contrast between the man-made, smooth edges of the mobile homes and the natural form of the mountain, conflicting between humans and nature. This photograph shows that the Colorado landscape and wilderness is not quite what you would envision after seeing the work of Ansel Adams. Rather, it is a site of interaction between humans and the inhuman, an environment scattered with human development rather than an untouched natural environment.