Contact Sheets

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Edits

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Mask on sky to make it brighter and change the hue:

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What Is The Anthropocene?

Anthropocene is sometimes used to describe the period of time where human activity had a substantial impact on Earths climate and environment. The Anthropocene began in the 1950s. The word combines the Greek words “anthropo” which means “human”, and “-cene”, which is the standard suffix for “epoch” in geological time. The term was coined and made popular by biologist Eugene Stormer and chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000.

Scientists have agreed that the acceleration of global warming and climate change is mostly through human activity, rather than natural processes. Four of the main causes of the Anthropocene is agriculture, urbanisation, deforestation and pollution.

These human actions cause changes in water cycle, imbalances and destructions of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, an increase of extreme meteorological phenomena, and the acidification of the oceans or disappearance of forests. Some examples of photographers which have focused their photography on the Anthropocene are; Edward Burtynsky, George Marazakis, Alessandro Zanoni, James Balog, etc.

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Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer, who is best known for his global industrial landscapes which represent over 40 years of his dedication to shining a light on the detrimental impact of the human industry on the planet. He was born February 22, 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharine’s, Ontario. Furthermore, Burtynsky received his BAA in Photography/Media Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University in 1982, as well as receiving both an Alumni Achievement Award in 2004 and an Honorary Doctorate in 2007.

Edward Burtynsky was a director for the documentary released in 2018 called; ‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’, which takes a look at six continents and twenty different countries to capture the catastrophic effects that humans have had on Earth’s climate and environment over the last century. Burtynsky states; “I have come to think of my preoccupation with the Anthropocene — the indelible marks left by humankind on the geological face of our planet — as a conceptual extension of my first and most fundamental interests as a photographer. I have always been concerned to show how we affect the Earth in a big way. To this end, I seek out and photograph large-scale systems that leave lasting marks.” which shows his focus when photographing these types of landscapes related to the Anthropocene.

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George Marazakis

George Marazakis is a Greek photographer who considers and approaches the Anthropocene as a concept and title for a series, dealing with human activity having dominating effects on the climate and environment. Marazakis was born in 1976 in Creta Island, Greece. He studied Mechanical Engineering and works for the Municipal of Heraklion.

George Marazakis’ series called ‘A Cure for Anthropocene’ considers how humanity’s impact on Earth’s geology is so critical that the current Geological epoch which began 11,650 years ago, Holocene, is being proposed to be replaced by a new one called Anthropocene. Marazakis states; “If we assume that humans, and by extension, human civilization is a product of nature, considering the way that appeared, as small growing changes in topography, an external observer could describe it as an autoimmune disease attacking its own body. However, what would be considered as a disease is our very existence and the cure, the ecological movement, does not aim at the salvation of the planet but at the salvation of human existence on the planet.” which shows his concern for the Anthropocene.

This is a digital landscape photograph by George Marazakis, from his series “A Cure for Anthropocene”. The composition features a factory emitting clouds of smoke far in the background as the focal point, surrounded by barren fields and mountains behind it. The road acts as leading lines which start in the foreground, stretches past the midground, and draws the viewers eyes towards the background’s industrial buildings. I believe this photo does not follow the rule of thirds, because the horizon is more centred in the image, and the focal point does not fall on any of the rule of third lines. The lighting appears to be natural daylight on a cloudy, overcast day.

No aspects of the photo are overexposed or underexposed, and the contrast appears to be not too strong. The depth of field is sharp so I believe the aperture is f/11, as the background and midground is clear and not blurry. The shutter speed appears to be 1/125, and the image is not grainy, so I believe the ISO is around 100-200. Furthermore, the context of this image aims to shed light on the Anthropocene, and the pollution released from these industrial buildings, caused by humans.

Contact Sheets

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AEB/HDR merge – I set my cameras settings to Auto Exposure Bracketing to take this photo, and merged them together in Lightroom to make a HDR photo.

Panorama – I experimented with making two panoramas out of six landscape photos by merging them in Lightroom, I decided that I preferred the second panorama, which will be the one I am going to edit.

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Edits

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In black and white:

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Contact Sheets

Photoshoot for Romanticism/Sublime, inspired by Ansel Adams

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Experimentation with Auto Exposure Bracketing:

Three photos I took at different exposures

HDR Merge:

Merged photo edited

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Ansel Adams Best Photos/Edits

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HDR Merge

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) is useful for capturing scenes with a high amount of contrast. When AEB is selected, the camera automatically takes three or more auto-bracketed shots each at a different exposure. Many digital cameras have an AEB option.

The most common method of using Auto Exposure Bracketing is to adjust the exposure to what appears best for the photo, and it will take three or more photos either side of the exposure you think is best, one slightly darker and one slightly lighter. Once combining the photos taken with different exposures, it creates a HDR photo, which is rich in detail in the parts of a photo that would be underexposed or overexposed by using the single exposure instead.

Below are examples of photos taken with Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) and merged to become High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos, allowing the details from every bracketed exposure shot to be seen:

Example with one of my landscape photos:

Three photos at different exposures

Merged HDR photo:

Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist born 20th February, 1902 and died 22nd April, 1984. He is mostly known known for his photography capturing black and white landscape images. Adams favoured sharp focus in photographs and advocated for photographers to use the full tonal range in their photographs by helping found ‘Group f/64’. He also developed the ‘Zone System’ with Fred Archer, which is a technique of determining optimal film exposure and development.

During Adams early childhood, he experienced the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, in which the aftershock led to him breaking and scarring his nose, with it remaining crooked for the rest of his life. He was interested in playing the piano at age 12 and taught himself to play and read music. Once visiting Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family, his father gave him his first camera during the stay. Adams enjoyed the beauty of nature since he was a young age, and he would explore landscapes such as beaches and sea cliffs.

Zone System

Developed by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer, the Zone System is a photographic method of determining optimal film exposure and development. This system assigns numbers beginning from 0 and ending at 10 to different values of brightness. These brightness values typically include 0 representing pure black, 5 (V) representing middle grey, and 10 (X) representing pure white.

Visualisation

A principle of the Zone System is Visualisation, which is when a photographer manages to capture an evocative and eye-capturing photograph which involves the consideration by the photographer of where the camera is placed, which lens is used, and possibly the movement of the camera.

Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement which is characterised by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorifying nature and the past, preferring the medieval over classical. Romanticism began in Europe near the end of the 18th century in approximately 1770, during a time of war with the French Revolution, which fuelled it. The romantic movement was primarily a reaction against the scientific rationalisation of nature and a revolt against the restrained emotional nature and the overwhelming changes in society introduced by industrialisation. For most of the Western world, its peak was approximately 1800 to 1850.

A main characteristic of romanticism is the deepened appreciation towards nature. There is a range of romantic landscapes which portray and praise nature for its ferociousness and lack of mercy, or it being beautiful and serene.

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What is the Sublime?

Sublime is described by Edmund Burke as an artistic effect that is “the strongest passion”, and in all cases terror and fear is the ruling principle. Furthermore, the sublime is associated with evoking the feeling of the strongest emotion that the mind is capable of experiencing, usually surrounding nature, which inspires great awe and terror knowing you are smaller and insignificant in comparison and at the mercy of nature.

Landscape – All the visible features of an area of land, landscape photography typically captures the presence of nature but can also focus on human-made features or disturbances.

Timeline of Landscape Photography

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When did landscape photography originate?

Landscape photography originated between the years of 1826 and 1827, with a photograph which was taken by a French inventor named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833). This photograph, called “View from the Window at Le Gras”, was captured using a heliography process.

When did landscape emerge as a genre?

The tradition of depicting landscapes declined after the fall of the Roman Empire, and was viewed as a setting for religious and figural scenes only. However, during the Renaissance period in the 16th century, Landscape emerged as a genre in Western culture, where artists began viewing landscapes in their own right.

In a classical landscape, the positioning of an object was deliberate in order to create a harmonious and balanced composition. Classical landscapes emerged as a genre in the 17th century. A leading painter of the style of classical landscapes was Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), a French painter who began painting landscapes in the late 1630s.

What prompted the rise of Landscape art during the late 18/19th century?

Landscape painting eventually gained prominence in the late 18th/19th century with the rise of Romanticism. Landscapes provided inspiration for the Romantics in literature, music, and art. Often regarded as a precursor of Romanticism, Thomas Gainsborough is a painter whose landscapes are regarded as “moody” in atmosphere, and they shift the focus from the objective record of the world to the subjective feelings of the artist.

These are the photos from my Cindy Sherman inspired photoshoot that I have chosen and edited to be my final images:

My photos contrasted with Cindy Sherman’s photos:

Evaluation:

For this photoshoot, I decided to photograph my mother at her barber shop, and also wearing a barber apron. I chose this location with inspiration from Cindy Sherman because of how she challenged stereotypes of women being portrayed in media and films from the 50s and 60s, and I feel that this could be a more modern representation of a woman working and owning a business in a field of work which is usually more male dominated.

Critique: I feel like my planning for this photoshoot helped me understand the overall composition and staging in Sherman’s photos, and I was able to take inspiration from those. Deciding to take these photographs of my mother in her barber shop allowed me to tell a story through them, like Sherman did with her Untitled Film Stills. In my photos, both natural and artificial light was used, which I paid attention to and adjusted my settings accordingly for the different locations in and outside the building. However, In my contact sheets, I noticed some of my photos were underexposed, which I had to correct during editing by increasing the exposure or applying a mask on the subject’s face and then increasing the exposure or brightness.

Virtual Gallery

Diamond Cameo final image & Portrait final images

Virtual Gallery

Contact Sheets and Image Selection

Photoshoot based off Cindy Sherman’s ‘Untitled Film Stills’.

Image Selection and Adjustments:

These are the possible photos I will experiment with some adjustments

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Edits