Artist References:

Sammy Baoji:

Biography:

Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 in Lubumbashi. He studied Computer and Information Sciences and Communication at the University of Lubumbashi. With a borrowed camera, he began photographing scenes as sources for his cartoons. Baloji juxtaposes photographic realities, combining past and present, the real and the ideal, to illicit glaring cultural and historical tensions.

What inspired Sammy Baloji?

Sammy Baloji was inspired by the history of his country. His photographs are related to The industrial culture of Congo.

What was Sammy Baloji known for?

Sammy Baloji was famous for his photography, film, installation art and archival research into the history and legacy of colonialism. His exhibition and research project Hunting and Collecting, staged initially at Ostend’s Mu.

Sammy Baloji Mood board

Personal opinion:

What I like about Sammy Balojis work is the way he sets up his camera and is able to capture both the past and the present day within one photo, I really like his style of work as he has found different ways to include different generations of the world and how it works within one image.

Image Analysis:

Within this image there are wide variations of natural lighting in different brightness’s within different areas of the image. The colouring is like a warm yellow/orange colour with the people in the image being in black and white this creates an opposite colour contrast from the foreground and the background. The white balance holds a warm temperature. In this image there is a rural landscape with a broken/unfinished building along with a metal tower in the background, there are also some dirt piles covering the land and some yellow crate boxes near the red building. In the foreground there are 7 age ranging black children/teens stood completely naked, they almost look like they have been cut out from a previous image and merged into this image to create the contrasting effect. the focal point of the image is definitely the children as they stand out amongst the yellow/orange sunset backdrop.

Artist Study :

Mandy Baker

Biography:

Mandy Barker is a British photographer. She is mostly known for work with marine plastic debris. Barker has worked alongside scientists in hopes of bringing awareness to the mass amount of plastic that is floating around in our oceans.

who inspired Mandy Barker?

Mandy Barker is not inspired by any specific people however she says “My work is inspired by current scientific research, by way of reports or directly with scientists. Science is not subjective; it is factual. There’s no room for aesthetics or emotion. So, the work of an artist and a scientist are opposed in approach, but, in some way, they seek to achieve the same outcome.”

what is unique about Mandy Barkers photography?

Mandy Barkers photography is unique in its own way, She creates beautiful images of plastic and waste from around the world and creates montage photos of all that she finds within one image, Her work has a deeper meaning behind it all and represents the effects and the pollution which surrounds us every day.

Personal Opinion:

I love Mandy Barkers style of photography as she has a very unique way of both making an image so delicate with detail and beautiful whilst also having such a strong meaning behind her photography painting a story behind her images and educating people with her photography about the state of the world and the impact humans have had on it.

Mandy Barker Mood board:

Image Analysis:

In-depth analysis:

In this image of Mandy Barkers it really creates a hidden message. She has used multiple layers of a few images and resized each one either larger or smaller creating a full scene on the screen. Each of the individual elements of the image have really good strong lighting which makes us able to really make out every little detail of the objects used. For me this image is really unique and almost creates a sense of power and meaning whenever I look at the image. The structure she has used is where the objects almost fade into getting larger when in the centre of the screen and a lot smaller around the outsides. This image almost creates a story behind pollution and why it is so important to try and avoid any form of throwing waste into the sea or anywhere in which it doesn’t belong. This image gives me this impression as the objects in the image look to be worn pieces of rope which she has probably found on a beach as it is very common to find however with the way she has presented it, the balls of rope look like little jellyfish and octopuses, this creates a deeper meaning to her image as it almost shows the impact that the waste has on our sea life and the animals creating a picture of the animals being turned into plastic as due to all the waste that ends up in the ocean thousands of our sea creatures die from eating plastic every single year. That is why Mandy’s photography is really eye-opening and creates a deeper meaning and value to her photography.

Anthropocene is the Impact humans have had on the earth over the years and still to this day. For example humans are main cause for all the issues that are going on in the world and with nature, such as pollution, due to all the products we make using non-biodegradable materials like plastic, it is causing plastic to be floating everywhere from the seas, to the lakes and even just on the streets.

Where did Anthropocene originate from?

light pollution

What is light pollution?

Light pollution is the excessive and poor usage of artificial outdoor lighting. This disrupts the natural patterns of wildlife.

Deforestation

What is Deforestation?

Deforestation is the purposeful removal of wide areas of trees and forests. It is destroying wide areas of habitats and leaving various animals without homes.

climate change

what is climate change?

Climate change is when greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. 

fossil fuels

What is fossil Fuels?

A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material such as coal, oil, and natural gas, formed naturally in the Earth’s crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel

Storm Ciaran photoshoot plan:

For my photoshoot of storm Ciaran I am going to go to noirmont woods to take photos of the devastating aftermath of the storm. I am going to go either early morning or early evening to get some different variations of lighting within my images.

Storm Ciaran photoshoot

Top 5 images

experimentation:

Here I have used photoshop to edit 3 images all with different exposure brackets and merged them together to create one image and made adjustments to the final image.

Final edit:

The image on the left is the before version which is fully edited and has had some adjustments to the colour and the saturation, and the graininess. The second image on the right is the final image in which I have added the black and white filter to create images in Ansel Adams’s style of photos.

Edit 2:

Final Edit:

The image on the left is the before version which is fully edited and has had some adjustments to the colour and the saturation, and the graininess. The second image on the right is the final image in which I have added the black and white filter to create images in Ansel Adams’s style of photos.

Edit 3:

Final Edit:

Edit 4:

Edit 5:

Edit 6:

what is the new topographics?

The New Topographic photographers, including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, and Stephen Shore, documented built and natural landscapes in America, often capturing the tension between natural scenery and the mundane structures of post-war America. the 1975 exhibition New Topographics signaled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictures of transcendent natural vistas gave way to unromanticised views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance.

topographic photography:

Topographic Photographers

Robert Adams:

Biography :

Robert Adams, born May 8, 1937, is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West. His work first came to prominence in the mid 1970s through his book The New West in 1974 and his participation in the exhibition New Topographies, Photographs of a Man Altered Landscape in 1975.

why was he famous?

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.

Why did Robert Adams get into photography?

When Adams returned to Colorado to begin what he anticipated would be a career in teaching, he was dismayed by the changes he saw in the landscape. He bought a 35-mm camera, taught himself the fundamentals of photography, and began making pictures infused with a love for the geography of his home state.

Robert Adams most famous image:

Robert Adams images:

Lewis Baltz

Biography:

Lewis Baltz was born in Newport Beach, California, he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, and received an MFA from the Claremont Graduate School in 1971. He worked as a freelance photographer in California and taught photography at various institutions, including the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, Riverside and Santa Cruz, Yale, the Ecole National Supergenre des Beaux Arts, Paris, and the Art Academy of Helsinki. His work has been included in major exhibitions, including New Topographic at the George Eastman House in 1975 and Mirrors and Windows at the Museum of Modern Art in 1978. Baltz, who received National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1973 and 1977 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1977, has produced many projects on commission, among them The Nation’s Capital in Photographs for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Near Reno for the Nevada State Arts Commission. He has been based in Europe since the mid1980s and travels extensively.

what made Lewis Baltz famous?

He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s. His best known work was monochrome photography of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which highlighted his commentary of void within the “American Dream”.

what made Lewis Baltz start photography?

Like his contemporaries Robert Adams, Stephen Shore, and Bernd and Hilla Becher, Baltz focused his camera on the unassuming green spaces and architecture of tract housing, office parking lots, and industrial parks.

Lewis Baltz photography:

New Topographic photoshoot

Best Images:

Edits:

Evaluation :

For all of my edits I have used photoshop and Lightroom, I began by choosing some of my best images in Lightroom and manipulating them by changing the highlights, saturation, blacks/whites, brightness, and a few more things, I then saved that version of the image before changing the image to black and white and then resaving it as a new copy.

Best edit:

I would say this is one of my best edits as it has a range of different shades and structures which really make it stand out, the mix of colours within the greyscale makes this photo appealing to the eye, it is a very sharp and snappy image which has areas of pure darkness contrasted with areas of lighter shades which creates a really eye catching, unique effect. This image is a dead pan image which means its very centre lined and straight which is what the new topographic follows. The image is very clear and has a clear range and variety of different shapes within the image.

Within the image there are different generations of architecture, the buildings on the far left are new modern buildings which had been recently built, Then the image in the centre left side of the image was built years ago which makes the image stand out even more as there are three generations of buildings within one image, this shows the industrial side of the image.

Photo comparison :

In my image I have followed the way in which the new topographic photographers create images by making landscape images of buildings surrounded by the natural elements of the world, As seen in the comparing images they are very similar and both use a wide variation of greyscale and shades throughout the images, with the darker areas drawing your eyes and following out to the lighter areas of the images, both images have a lot of contrast within the shades and both have a variety of shapes and structures within.

Ansel Adams:

Biography:

Ansel Adams was born in 1902, he was born in san Francisco, California and was known for being a photographer and environmentalist. When Ansel Adams was only 4 years old he was struck by and earthquake and a fire which threw him to the ground causing him to break his nose and left life long damage to his face. Ansel Adams was an only child and was born when his parents were already in their middle ages. This caused his growing up environment to be very Victorian, and both socially and emotionally conservative.

What was Ansel Adams famous for?

Ansel Adams was most famous for his black and white images of the American west. Ansel Adams is one of the most famous American photographers known for his stunning photos of the American wilderness and his passion for conservation.

Why did Ansel Adams use the west side of America to take photos?

Most of Ansel Adams photoshoots were taken in the western side of America in and near California. He chose to do his photoshoots here as the west was where there was the most light as it was bright and sunny whereas in the east it was winter so it was dull and not very bright.

Why and who did Ansel Adams influence?

Ansel’s photography has had great impact on people and mainly other photographers, not only in awakening people to the beauty of nature but in inspiring many other photographers to turn their efforts to the natural scene and to use photography in the interests of environmental preservation.

Who influenced Ansel Adams?

Adams was strongly influenced by Alfred Stieglitz, he met him in 1933 and went on a one-man exhibition for him in 1936 at Stieglitz’s, An American Place gallery in New York City.

what was Ansel Adams connection with the group F/64?

f/64 was a group founded by seven 20th century San Francisco Bay Area photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharply focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpoint. In part, they formed in opposition to the pictorialist photographic style that had dominated much of the early 20th century, but moreover, they wanted to promote a new modernist aesthetic that was based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects.

Who did the F/64 consist of?

The group F/64 consisted of these photographers:

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.

Ansel Adams mood board:

Description:

Ansel Adams photography creates a sense of adventure and awe, when taking photos Ansel always had a vision and did whatever he could to bring that vision to life within his images, he was able to create a variety of different shades of blacks, whites and greys within his images which really made his work stand out and influenced other photographers to take more time within their work and to explore things deeper when taking photos.

What is the zone system?

The Zone System assigns numbers from 0 through 10 to different brightness values, with 0 representing black, 5 middle gray, and 10 pure white; these values are known as zones. To make zones easily distinguishable from other quantities, Adams and Archer used Roman rather than Arabic numerals.

personal opinion:

What I really like about Ansel Adams work is how he made sure there was a variety of different shades within his photography this made his images really stand out and would draw peoples attention to various different parts of his images rather then just having one small focal point. I lobe how his photography really captures the in depth beauty of the natural world and its surroundings.

My response to Ansel Adams:

Contact sheet:

Description:

For this mini photoshoot I decided to go to Plemont beach and take photos in the style of Ansel Adams. I am very happy with how these images turned out as I would say they are very similar to his work and represent it very well.

Charleston Watkins:

Biography:

Carleton Watkins was an American photographer of the 19th century. Born in New York, he moved to California and quickly became interested in photography. He focused mainly on landscape photography, and Yosemite Valley was a favourite subject of his. His photographs of the valley significantly influenced the United States Congress’ decision to preserve it as a National Park.

What was Carleton Watkins known for?

Carleton E. Watkins is considered one of the greatest photographers of the American West. Traveling the western United States, he made thousands of mammoth and imperial plate photographs of the Yosemite Valley, Columbia River, the Sierra Nevada, and the Pacific Coast in Oregon.

Carleton’s photos:

Carleton Watkins photos are very similar to Ansel Adams work. He also uses his photos in black and white and tea stained coloured images. They are all of very similar locations and he has taken the time to in vision what he wants to achieve within his images before he takes them.

Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins Photo Comparison:

As you can see Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins photography style is very similar, I would even say Carleton was inspired by Ansel’s work which may have led him to have such a similar style in photos. Ansel Adams uses the Zone system which is where a bunch of different shades range from 0-10, 0 being the darkest and 10 being the lightest shade within the images. I like both of their types of photography as they both take time and effort within their images and both visualise what they wanted to produce before they produced it.

Edward Weston

Biography:

was an American photographer. He has been called “one of the most innovative and influential American photographers” and “one of the masters of 20th century photography.” Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. 

Who was Edward Weston inspired by?

Edward Weston’s early influence was Margrethe Mather, who was also one of Weston’s models and studio assistant. She was also more well read on current issues of photography and helped Weston further develop a modernist theory. A few years after Weston changed in style he also met and was encouraged by John Hagemeyer.

Edward Weston photography:

Description :

Edward Weston’s photography is a very unique type of photography, he takes photographs of objects such as food up close and gets really detailed shots of the objects. As well as Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins he also uses the zone system with the objects he photographs while they use it for landscape images.

Personal Opinion:

mood board

The Landscape Genre

what is landscape as a genre?

Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.

when was the genre “landscape” first founded?

Although paintings from the earliest ancient and Classical periods included natural scenic elements, landscape as an independent genre did not emerge in the Western tradition until the Renaissance in the 16th century.

examples of the first landscape photography

Back when Landscape photography was first discovered it was not widely appreciated.

Romanticism:

what is romanticism in history?

Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. Travel to the turn of the 19th century to experience the Romantic musical, literary, and artistic movement.

What is romanticism in photography?

Romanticism has long been associated within the landscape. In the medium of photography, the sense of romance of the landscape features it spirit in full bloom. It is very hard to categorise. The very nature of Romanticism is rather uncontrollable and unpredictable.

characteristics of romanticism:

Emotion

Emotion and Intuition. Another characteristic the Romantics valued was emotion and intuition.

Awe of nature

Romantics stressed the awe of nature in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection with nature.

Spiritual and supernatural elements

Spiritual and Supernatural Elements. The writers of the Romantic era did not turn away from the darker side of emotion and the mysteries of the supernatural elements of nature.

Individualism

Individualism and Solitude. Romanticism appeals to individualism, rather than conventional norms or collectivism.

what is meant by the sublime?

The sublime definition:

The sublime means of very great excellence or beauty. The sublime is when you connect emotion to the natural world and find strong feelings towards surroundings.

When was the sublime first founded?

The sublime first came around in 1757 (18th century) through Edmund burkes philosophical enquiry. He connected the sublime with feelings of awe, terror and fear. Edmund says that nature provides the strongest sensations and emotions. It is the centre of finding your creative capabilities.

Edmund Burk and the sublime:

Edmund Burkes quotes:

“Hence arises the great power of the sublime, that, far from being produced by them, it anticipates our reasonings, and hurries us on by an irresistible force.”

his book based on the sublime:

photographs that represent the sublime:

These images represent the sublime as they show one solitary figure ina wide open natural landscape which

For this photoshoot I went to noirmor woods at around 4pm one Friday morning, Due to this woods being one of the most damaged parts of the island it was all very closed off as workers were busy chopping down trees however they weren’t there at the time so I went through and explored all the devastating damage this woods had endured due to the storm. This place had a touching place in my heart as me and my family would regularly go to this woods to walk my dog and spend time as a family. it was absolutely devastating seeing how much of the woods had been destroyed so much that we could barely recognise where we were.

Edits

Here are some of the edits I made for my photoshoot in relation to the aftermath of storm Ciaran, I have tried to create a wide variety of all different angles, shades, textures and shapes within my photoshoot to be able to have a lot of different images to edit and relate to different things.

Here are 4 of my headshot images presented in a gallery, they are set in a group of 4 all with different colours.

For this presentation I have decided to use two of my final edits and put them side by side in a gallery one has lots of colour while the other edit has more natural light and colour.

For this final edit I decided to use a range of different images from my femininity photoshoot which I felt represented women as a whole, these images tell a story of a pretty, young girl listening to music and putting on lip-gloss which is what stereotypically happens in todays world. The colours of the image are bright and could be seen as calming colours, this could be related to the fact that women are known to be timid, and usually quiet whereas men are seen to be rowdy and loud.

In this edit I played around with different effects and I decided to merge these two images to create a almost side by side of two in motion images that were taken one after the other.

For this edit I merged two separate models and changed the image into black and white, the blur effect gives a feeling of women being stereotypically the same whereas they are in fact very different as you can tell there are two different female models within this one image.

For this image I used two images one to be the main subject and the other image I copied and pasted either side of the main middle image whilst also blurring the images to create a unique effect to the edit. I chose the colour green as that is a relaxed colour and really helped bring out the models figure in the image against the dark background.

For this edit I chose two action shot images which were taken seconds apart from each other and decided to layer them creating the effect where you are able to see that the model was moving meanwhile I was taking the images.

For this edit I chose 3 completely different images and overlapped all three to create a merged image with various different focus points, this edit had a few different shades o red/orange and even a bit of pink it created a nice contrast within the edit.

Here I took the same photo and overlapped and copied the image 4 times this made a cool overlapping effect and created areas of darker green with some areas being lighter.

Headshot Final Edits :

All edits :

These images were taken from my second femininity photoshoot, for these edits I decided to add some colour to the images and enhanced the saturation and brightness to create more of a focus on the model with a dark background.

For these two edits I decided to add a slight blue tint to create a bit of a different look to the images rather then just the basic studio lighting and plain black background, the tint seems to bring out the model slightly more as the colour draws your attention to her.

Again for these edits I decided to add slight tints and colours to change up the images slightly and create more of a bright and outgoing look to the images this could represent the energy and outgoingness that women tend to have.

For my other femininity shoot I experimented with the same image using different colours to create a colourful edit.