These are my favourite edited images from my photoshoots on The Sublime, Romanticism, New Topographics, and Havre Des Pas trip.

These are the camera settings I used for this photoshoot:

I also switched to the landscape setting and pressed the cloud option for the white balance. I ensured that I stuck to an ISO of 100, and had the Aperture between f/11 to f/16.

I also needed to remember to:

• Keep my foreground and background sharp
• Capture the foreground details
• Straightened my horizons
• Don’t shoot everything at eye level, use different angles
• Pick the right time of day

HDR Images.– Exposure Bracketing

HDR IMAGE 1:

HDR IMAGE 2:

I attempted 2 different exposure bracketing images. After adjusting my camera settings (using the exposure compensation dial, and turning it to -1, take a photo, turn it to 0, take a photo, and then set it to +1 and take the third photo). I then imported them into Lightroom and merged them together to create the images. I then repeated this process once again. To improve this, next time I need to take a burst of 3 photos at once instead of needing to click it 3 separate times, this is because the camera is likely to move and change position slightly within the time it takes to press the button.

Best Images+ Edits.

These are my two favourite photos I took for this photoshoot. I like the first photo because of the angle facing upwards, and how the sky is blue with the sun is shining on the metal. It is also showing the vast industrial structures, which show the great power that they generate. To improve it, next time I would like the sky to be more cloudy and grey to also replicate a more morbid and dark approach to my photos.

I also like the second image because it is demonstrating the divide between the urban landscape and the natural landscape. They are facing each other and this photo captures how beautiful the natural mountain is compared to the rusty and dirty machinery and how it possibly ruins the landscape by showing the replacement of natural earth, to urbanised cars, buildings and machinery. I also like the deadpan approach in this image and how is is showing the straightforward angle which gives a ‘raw’ image feeling. To improve next time I should attempt to time the photograph as to when there is no cars driving past, I also would have taken it at a more straight on and direct angle and be aware of my camera slightly slanting to one side.

My Favourite Edited Images.

For this Havre Des Pas photoshoot, I decided to capture both natural and urbanised landscapes. I began with the beach an its natural beauty, these photos capture the sea, sand and rocks and demonstrate the natural landscapes of Jersey. My photos then progress from the original landscapes that exists before it is acted upon by human culture and into an urbanised landscape and how the action of man has such a huge consequence of the development on the territory, as a whole. I particularly like photos of the machinery and how the metal glistens in the sun, I think small effects like this create beauty even though they cause such destruction. Throughout Jersey the growth of local industries including agriculture,
tourism, and financial services has helped grow the population of the Island. However, Urban areas are major contributors to climate change, they are responsible for 71 to 76 per cent of CO2 emissions from global final energy use. I decided to focus on highlighting the beauty and amazing modernisation of technology, but also highlighting how much money, climate change, sacrifices and landscape loss goes into the industrialisation of Jersey.

Black and White Images.

I also decided to create some black and white images from this photoshoot. This is to create a slightly more meaningful and morbid affect to the images when photographing Jersey’s landscapes and how they have been replaced with machinery. This ties into New Topographics as many of the photographers took black and white prints.

I also created virtual galleries to display my favourite photos in both black and white and colour, however, to improve I would like my photos to be a slightly better quality, this will help me to see them displayed better.

New Topographics: “Photographs of a man-made landscape.

This term was created by William Jenkins as a way to describe a group of keen photographers who all had something in common, their photography, which all shared the same aesthetic of a black and white landscape prints which shared a site of interaction between human+ non human contact.

The group consisted of:

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

These photographers decided to ignore the beautiful landscapes the world has to offer, and instead pay attention to how easily and effortlessly man can alter them forever.

The topic of New Topographics was based on both built and natural landscapes in America, which highlighted the tension and difference between the natural scenery and the newly- built structures of post-war America.

“New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” – This was a huge exhibition which commemorated the photographers and their creations, which also spread information and interest on the topic of urbanisation. The exhibition took place from October 1975-February 1976. It was held in Rochester, New York at the George Eastman House’s International Museum of Photography.

The photographs of the humanly altered landscapes mostly avoided any human presence- this was to that the images came across as, neutral in style, and focused mainly on the emotional, beautiful and opinionated visual information within.

Some examples of these altered lanscpaes are:

• Motorways
• Petrol stations
• Industrial parks
• Tract homes
• Car parks
• Suburban homes
• Crumbling coal mines

Frank Gohlke.

Born on the 3rd of April 1943, Frank Gohle was a photographer, he took photos of urban landscapes such as towns and old factories. Frank made a contribution to the New Topographics group and focused on the pure destruction and wreckage that urban areas faced due to natural causes. He took part in the New Topographics group and contributed He also stood out from different photographers because his photos captured the sheer destruction in urban areas from natural causes. An example of this is a tornado which struck his home town in Wichita Falls Texas, in 1979. I think his work perfectly ties into my work on the aftermath of Storm Ciaran as there was also a tornado that struck Jersey, and there was serious life- threatening weather conditions. Frank Gohlke is an especially important person in landscape photography, as well as being included in the New Topographics exhibition.

Examples of Frank Gohlke Photography.

I particularly like Frank Gohlke’s work because I think the black and white images particularly stand out, when it comes to New Topographics, due o the fact the bluntness and lack of emotion when the photos are black and white show the destruction and life taken out of the landscape and the emptiness from the wreckage.

My Frank Gohlke Inspired Photos.

Whilst taking photos at Harve Des Pas beach, I attempted to replicate and take inspiration from Frank Gohlke and his images whilst attemping to demonstrate the same fascination with the world’s constant growth, destruction and unexpected change, by featuring different machinery, industrialisation, littering and urbanisation. I think I was able to capture a more modern approach from the present day, comparing to Frank Gohlke’s work from the 1970s through to 2004. 

I have made a virtual gallery in Photoshop for 4 different photoshoots I have made in this landscape project. These consist of:

• Ansel Adam inspired photoshoot
• Storm Ciaran destruction photoshoot
• The Sublime inspired photoshoot

I also chose 3 different empty gallery images off Google which I think are the best choices to display these photos. I have picked between 2-4 photos from each photoshoot which I think are my strongest images and display my work the best.

Ansel Adams Inspired Photography.

Storm Ciaran Destruction Photography.

The Sublime Inspired Photoshoot.

For this photoshoot, I decided to visit beaches such as Greve De Lecq, Beauport and other beaches, this is due to the fact they have a huge amounts of space covered with rocks, beaches and dramatic skies, which is perfect for my take on ‘The Sublime’.

My favourite photos.

These photos I think perfectly signify the sublime. This is due to the fact they have bright, dramatic backgrounds which emphasize and romanticize the setting. These photos are symbolizing how insignificant man is to their surroundings and how small humans really are physically and metaphorically when it comes to earth and its landscapes. In these photos I wanted my models to stand far away from me and look like they are exploring the area. This was to symbolize humans attempting to understand how big the world really is. I wanted them to also be appreciating the setting around them but from a far distance so yo can not see their faces or any particular individual details to show we are all as insignificant as each other when it comes to the vast landscapes around us. I also wanted some photos to be in black and white as well as colour as some do not need colour to show their romanticism.

My other photos do not have people in them but still signify ‘The Sublime’ because The Sublime is associated with the extraordinary and grand, which my pictures display with the huge blue skies, bright colours and beautiful views. These photos I also think inspire a feeling of awe or fear when looking at them, this feeling of fear may come from a feeling of overwhelm when seeing the large distance the e.g. sea goes on for. This may be defined as the sublime.

What does LANDSCAPE mean…

Originally from the Dutch word “landschap“, the name given to paintings of the countryside, landscape is part of Earth’s surface that can be viewed at one time from one place.

When did Landscape emerge as a genre in western culture?

Although the genre can be traced back to 4th-century-ce China, landscape as an independent genre did not emerge in the Western tradition until the Renaissance in the 16th century. However, paintings from the earliest ancient and Classical periods also included natural scenic elements.

When did classical landscapes emerge as a genre?

In the 17th century the classical landscape was created. These landscapes were influenced by classical antiquity and were created to illustrate an ideal landscape recalling Arcadia, which was a legendary place in ancient Greece and was popularly known for its quiet and peaceful beauty.

What prompted the ride of Landscape Art during the late 18th/19th century?

Landscape painting eventually gained more popularity towards the late 18th century with the rise of Romanticism, it often continued to carry a religious significance. Therefore, it became a useful method of self-expression, where the emotions of the painter were combined with their appreciation of nature which could be demonstrated in the painting.

When did landscape photography originate?

1826 and 1827.

According to records, the earliest known evidence of a landscape photograph was taken between the years of 1826 and 1827. It was an urban landscape photo taken by a French inventor by the name of Nicephore Niepce.

Methods and Techniques of landscape–

Modern Landscape Photography.

Landscape photography used to be predominantly about capturing the sublime and uncharted territory. However, there is decreasing amounts of untouched by human land, however, photography can be use to reflect this. Due to the modernisation of technology, photography and beautiful pictures of absolutely everything, can be accessed within a click of a button. Due to the fact there is around 2.5 trillion photos taken a year, and the average person takes around 20 photos per day, the true meaning, appreciation and dedication to quality photography has been taken away more and more as the technology world broadens.

New Topographics.

The term ‘New Topographic’ was created by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers:

• Robert Adams
• Lewis Baltz 
• Frank Gohlke
• Nicholas Nixon
• Stephen Shore 
• And Bernd and Hilla Becher

whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape.

Edward Burtynsky.

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian artist and photographer who mainly takes large format photos of industrial landscapes around the world. What I like about Burtynsky’s work is how his images include mostly the breath-taking views that are ‘altered‘ and ‘modernised‘ by factories, humans and industries.  Burtynsky has shared that his work is not to portray his subjects in a judgmental way but to instead create multi- purpose images “which reconnect viewers to the aspects of manufacturing and technological production that are usually ignored or at least rarely considered“. Some of his preferred areas to photograph include:

• Mine tailings
• Quarries
• Scrap piles

His amazing images are shown the connection and compromise between the magnificent and colourful natural views and the polluting, industrialised damage that affect the environment. He uses a a field camera with a large format to create his photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes. Edward has travelled top places such as China, in order to photograph the country’s contribution to one of the largest engineering projects in the world called the ‘Three Gorges Dam’.

In this image, the viewers are able to see huge the social and environmental impact of the Three Gorge project that is hugely affecting inhabitants and animals across China. The project comes at a huge expense of $180 billion dollars and has been created to supposedly stop seasonal flooding of China’s largest river, the Yangtze, which will also help to provide hydro-electric power for the immense and powerful manufacturing industries which need lots of power to generate.

He photographed a place called Wan Zhou which is a small city along the Yangtze that is affected by the project. Burtynsky chose to take a photo of a few people picking through the rubble of buildings near the riverbank. The buildings are shown to have been demolished and the residents of these homes have been relocated before the rising waters would eventually cover this part of the city. I think that the people’s clothing is particularly meaningful as it provides the only colour in the dull and dark scene. The rubble and the morbid looking river blends together, which shows the truly large scale of the project.

He is mostly inspired by:

• Ansel Adams
• Edward Weston
• Eadweard Muybridge,
• Carleton Watkins

I think this ties in very well to my research on Storm Ciaran as it shows how expenses, human activity, industrialisation and pollution are contributing to these weather patterns creating deadly effects to the Island. I would like to take inspiration to Edward Burtynsky and his work on the damage to the environment that is taking place in Jersey.

a field camera with a large format His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes

Oil spills and fading glaciers: a beautiful world in peril – in pictures

Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer who lived in California, he was mostly popular for his reputation of being a ‘technical master’ of black and white photography. He used a brownie box camera with most of his popular images taken with 8×10 and 4×5 view cameras. His images were seen as minimalist, with a multitude of photos shot in black and white with a sharp contrast. Ansel’s work is known for its realist style with an unenthusiastic and inspirational approach.

A quote from his book ‘The Ansel Adams Guide- Basic Techniques of Photography‘ says:

“The photographs he created speak eloquently of the heroic nature of our mountains, the tragedies of displaced people, and the extraordinary beauty of the world.”

The American West.

Adams mostly took photos in Western landscapes. His views of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada are most known. His photographs emphasize the natural beauty of the land and display the American West and its true beauty. The reason why Ansel moved to the west, is the constant bright and sunny weather that help to carry the beautiful views that he captured.

Connection with Group f/64 and its members.

Group f/64 was created by the photographers Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke who was Edward Weston’s apprentice. They chose to gather fellow photographers in order to promote a common aesthetic principle. During the 1930s, William Van Dyke created a small photography gallery in his home at (683 Brockhurst) in Oakland. The group of people consisted of:

• Ansel Adams,
• Imogen Cunningham,
• John Paul Edwards
• Preston Holder,
• Consuelo Kananga,
• Alma Lavenson,
• Sonya Noskowiak,
• Henry Swift,
• Willard Van Dyke,
• Brett Weston,
• Edward Weston.

The Zone System.

The Zone System was a combination of 11 zones in Ansel Adams system which were defined to represent ‘the gradation of all the different tonal values‘ that you would see typically in a black and white print, this would help him calculate the exposure of the image he is going to take with his camera and get a rough sense of what his whole frame will look like before he shoots To fully understand the principles behind the Zone System, he explained the necessity to appreciate the relationships between the subject brightness, film exposure, development time, negative densities and the print tones. He explained how it is obvious from an technical side of inspection from his prints that “Reducing the exposure of the film, products a darker print value“.

Ansel Adams also simplified the Zone System into 3 key parts.

1. Measuring the subject brightness range
2. Determining the exposure
3. Developing the film for the appropriate duration.

Ansel Adams – Romanticism.

Ansel Adams helped to escalate photography as a valued art form in early 20th century America .Adams was inspired by the the ‘American value of nature’, which led to the establishment of the National and State Park systems in the U.S. He was also drawn to these painters’ romanticism, this then led him to use his techniques which increase the drama and capture his heartfelt passion through a photo. Ansel decided to embrace Romanticism through his black and white film to create breath-taking images of towering mountains, elegant lakes and snowy hills. This gave his pictures an extra effect and made his work stand out compared to other artists such as Edward Weston. The black and white effect created a look to the sky which darkened the blue tones to a more mysterious and shadowy, and blackish grey colour which continues into the mountains and hills which ties his photography into the subject of romanticised in landscape photography. Ansel Adams had a vision of what he wanted all his images to look like- this is called visualisation in the minds eye.

“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.”

 He was sometimes questioned and negatively judged for not including humans in his photographs, and instead he would represent an’ idealized’ wilderness that no longer exists in the modern world. He justified putting his images into black ad white by saying it was distracting for the viewer and diverting their attention from his miraculous achievements when taking the photograph.

MOST POPULAR IMAGE.

His most famous image is Monolith, the Face of Half Dome. It was taken in April of 1927. It is the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park after a difficult hike with his fiancée Virginia and two friends. He used a 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 Korona View camera, which had 2 lenses. 2 filters, a large wooden tripod and 12 ‘Wratten Panchromatic Plates’ made of glass. Whilst using his last plate, he attempted to replicate the image in his head that carries the qualities he was aware of when making the exposure.

He reduced the filter down by a factor of 16. He then pressed the shutter release for a 5-second exposure at f/22 this image perfectly represents his ‘first conscious visualisation in his minds eye.’

He explained it to be one of the most exciting moments of his photographic career as he removed the plate from the fixing bath and it revealed his beautiful negative interpretation. This was Adams’ first photograph that gathered the attention of the public and the art world.

MY FAVOURITE IMAGE.

The Golden Gate Bridge. In 1932, Ansel Adams decided to capture this photograph of the Golden Gate before the bridge had been constructed. This photo is both historical and beautiful. It allows the person looking at it to have an insight as tolife before the famous bridge was created and became part of the landscape. It was taken on a morning after a previous storm and Adams said “I looked out the window of our San Francisco home and saw magnificent clouds rolling from the north over the Golden Gate. I grabbed the 8 x 10 equipment and drove to the end of 32nd Avenue at the edge of Seacliff. I dashed along the old Cliff House railroad bed for a short distance, then down to the crest of a promontory. From there a grand view of the Golden Gate commanded me to set up the heavy tripod, attach the camera and lens, and focus on the wonder evolving landscape of clouds.”

During the 1960s, The Sierra club- including Ansel Adams decided to oppose the idea of construction upon high-rise apartment building on these hills. As his act of protest, Ansel chose to place small pictures of apartment buildings on top of hills in As a protest, he pasted tiny pictures of apartment building on top of the hills in this photograph and exhibited it in a San Francisco storefront. Due to this the ‘Golden Gate National Recreation Area’ was created in 19762 and protected these beautiful headlands, thanks to the Sierra Club.  

Ansel Adams Inspired Photography.

For this photoshoot, I decided to go to Greve De Lecq and photograph the beautiful rocks and water that could really relate to Ansel Adams’ locations as he often photographs mountains and water. I also visited Beauport beach and decided to photograph the beach, sand, sea and rocks from above instead of actually going onto the beach. This helped me to photograph from a more upwards angle. I feel these images had to be in black and white in order to be more similar to Ansel Adams’ work, he did this because he saw the colour as distracting for the viewer and took their focus and attention from the landscape they are actually appreciating.

I first went into all my photos and selected 3 similar photos with different exposures.

I then imported these 3 photos into adobe Lightroom.

I then selected all 3 using my shift button and clicking all 3. I then right clicked and pressed Photo Merge and then clicked HDR.

I then tested all the 4 deghost amounts –

• None
• Low
• Medium
• High

I decided to go with ‘high’, this is how the image was on the ‘none’ setting.

I then set it back to high and selected the ‘Graduated Filter’ button and decided to click and drag it down to darken the sky whilst maintaining the nice bright details of the trees.

I then selected the spot removal tool and clicked an imperfection of the picture in the top left of the sky, this helped to remove and improve the quality of the picture.

These were my final outcomes and edits of my picture. I decided to make a coloured and black and white version.

Here are my editing settings for the coloured and black and white version.

For this half term task, I decided to visit places in Jersey that have been affected by storm Ciaran. The storm hit the Island around midnight on Wednesday 1 November, was in fact the most powerful ever recorded on the Channel Islands. Whilst taking photos of the aftermath, I mainly focused on fallen down trees in more rural locations, as I think this is a vital part of the destruction and reconstruction of the island. I travelled around different parts of the Island such as…

• St Ouen

• La Pulente

• Beauport Bay

Whilst visiting these places, I came across lots of destruction of huge trees which had fallen down. I then photographed these with my camera in order to capture the best angles possible and altering my camera settings when necessary.

My Camera Settings.

The first area that I visited, I could see from my car that there was a large field that had been affected, this resulted in lots of branches being broken and lying on the floor. There was also many large trees that had fallen down, with multiple large branches being piled on top of each other.

The next location I came across, I was driving along St Ouens bay, when I saw a large tree which had completely fallen down. With all the roots being completely ripped out of the ground, this tree really demonstrates the ferocity of the conditions. This tree took up a lot of space, this photo was taken at 4:46 pm, this was when the sun was setting, which I think created a really beautiful effect on the tree, because the sun creates a sort of yellow colour on the tree. This huge tree had lots of sticks and branches poking out of it, which shows how dangerous the effects of the storm were. I also really like the blue sky with the clouds in the background. I think the contrast between the broken trees, with a beautiful blue sky highlights the aftermath and how the stormy weather may be gone, but the destruction remains.

I then went to La Pulente where I saw lots of logs that had been piled up, next to some swings that are made out of branches from the trees. These logs that had been cut and made out of the fallen trees, demonstrates the reconstruction of the trees mostly, out of all the locations I photographed. This also signifies work put in to restoring the damage that had been made.

My Best Photos.

My Favourite 4 Photos.

I like this photo because of the bright blue sky with the clouds and how the blue fades into a faint yellow creates a dramatic effect. I also like the sea, trees and green grass in the background, this dramatization from behind I think really pulls the tree roots and insides out, making them eye-catching and more interesting due to the bright colours. It also shows the true strength and power of the storm and how its dangerous conditions created extensive damage.

This photo is taken at La Pulente, this photo also has a beautiful blue sky background, with the sea, sand and rocks in the background which makes a strong backdrop of the image of logs of trees that have been cut and chopped by people. This signifies the restoration from the storm, and the human effort to replenish any damage that was caused.

I also like this photo very much, this is similar to my first favourite photo, however I also like this because it captures a fallen down tree in the background. The large tree as the main part of the photo, and then the tree in the background shows the mass destruction.

This photo was taken along St Ouen, whilst driving down a road, there was many puddles and destroyed trees and branches around. I decided to photograph this large tree that fell down, which I particularly like because of the oranges, reds, yellows and greens in the sunlight.

Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement which originated in Europe. Artists have been painting the landscape since ancient times. Wall paintings of landscapes were also created by the Greeks and the Romans. After the Roman Empire, people temporarily stopped appreciating pure landscapes and the landscapes were seen only as a setting for religion. This carried on until around the 16th century, then artists began to truly appreciate landscape as an important subject. Landscape first became popular in The Netherlands and people began to use it for painting, this worked perfectly for middle class protestants seeking art for their homes and wanting unique pieces of artwork.

The ideals of the French Revolution created the context from which romanticism began. It was a ‘revolt’ against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment or the ‘age of reason’ and a reaction against the scientific rationalisation of nature.

Portraits and paintings began to be used to signify history painting, classical and religious themes. This carried on through to the 17th century where these paintings were mostly used to display biblical or historical scenes.

Romanticism Moodboard.

When did Romanticism come about?

Romanticism originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. 

What are some of the Characteristics of Romanticism?

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.

Main characteristics include:

• Emotion and passion
• Critique of progress
• An awe of nature
• A return to the past
• The idealisation of women
• The purity of childhood
• The search for subjective truth
• Celebration of the individual

DIANA DEBORD.

Diana Debord is a fine art photographer who is originally from Italy. In her words she says,  “I like to create images that merge decadent romanticism with dreamlike atmospheres, drawing inspiration from dreams or nightmares, paintings and books. I like to pack my photos with vivid colours, symbols and natural elements, just like dreamscapes captured by my camera.” Diana particularly likes to merge pictures of ‘decadent romanticism’ with ‘dreamlike atmospheres’, she will then consider colours and composition as amazing creative tools. I think that her attempt to rebel towards the greyness of modern life and capture the magic of everyday life displays her relation to romanticism and the sublime the most.

The Sublime.

The sublime can be summed up as a combination of the internal/emotional and the external/natural world. It explores how humans allow our emotions to overwhelm our rationality as we experience the wonder of creation. It can also be described as the quality of greatness such as…

• Physical

• Moral

• Intellectual

• Metaphysical

• Aesthetic

• spiritual

• Artistic

The term especially refers to a ‘greatness beyond all possibility’ of calculation, measurement, or imitation.

What is the difference between Bucolic and pastoral?

Bucolic often refers to the pleasant aspects of country life and its nature. Pastoral is similarly defined, positively as the working elements of country.

The Sublime Moodboard.

Edmund Burke.

What did Edmund Burke Think was the Ruling Principle of the Sublime?

Whatever therefore is terrible, with regard to sight, is sublime too … Indeed terror is in all cases whatsoever, either more openly or latently, the ruling principle of the sublime. Burke was interested in what happens to the self when assailed by that which seems to endanger its survival.

Edmund Burke published 1757 which is a treatise of aesthetics called A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.  He asserts that ideas of pain are much more powerful than those of pleasure, and that the strongest pain of all is the fear of death, which causes terror.

Edmund Burke declared the sublime as “the strongest passion,” and he belittled the importance of the beautiful, claiming that it was merely an instance of prettiness.

“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”

“The passion caused by the great and the sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.”

Industrialisation.

Romanticism is tied into the the subject of capitalist industrialisation, as the ‘active radical culture of the artisans’, weavers and spinners ‘made’ them into a class simultaneously to being ‘made’ a proletariat by the processes of economic change. English Romantic intellectuals and artists felt that the modern industrial world was harsh and deadening to the senses and spirit.

Source – Romanticism and the industrial revolution in Britain: History of European Ideas: Vol 12 , No 5 – Get Access (tandfonline.com)

What is social Commentary?

Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace about a given problem and appealing to people’s sense of justice. It can incorporate protesting the oppressive consequences of capitalism, the moral decline of the middle class, or the melancholy and alienation of the individual at odds with society.

Joe Cornish

Joe Cornish, who was born Exeter was an adopted child who moved to North Yorkshire, this is where he studied fine art and reading and where his photography interest began to grow.
Joe believes that knowing his location extremely important when photographing. He has travelled to places such as:

• The Arctic and Antarctic regions
• Africa
• New Zealand
• Italy
• Spain
• America
• Russia

Joe mostly takes his inspiration from the painters…

• El Greco

• Paul Cezanne

• John Constable

Joe’s images also have a very bright, dramatic and colourful vibe, which I think really conveys the idea of ‘the sublime’ and creates a sense of belonging and wonder.