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Before, monochrome edit & colour edit

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Contact Sheets

These are the photos I took at St. Malo, inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson and ‘The Decisive Moment’.

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Chosen Best Images – Unedited

These are the photos I believe are my strongest from the St. Malo photoshoot, and will edit some of them as my final edits.

How does Henri Cartier-Bresson view the activity of photography?

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer, known for being considered a master of candid photography through his main component to his photos called ‘the decisive moment’, and for being a pioneer to street photography.

Growing up in a wealthy family in France, Henri was introduced to arts early, yet his inspiration sparked when he discovered photography. He travelled significantly with a camera at a young age, viewing the camera lens as an extension of the eye which allows us to see more of the detail of the world. Through this exploration of communities and cultures, Henri discovered that photography is foremost about capturing the essence of existence, rather than just taking photos.

Henri preferred the 50mm lens as it offered a field of view similar to what his eye saw, ensuring he captured images that felt immersive and natural to the viewer.

harvest of intentions

‘Decisive moment’ theory – aesthetics

Photography is like God – people go everywhere and take photos

Hunting without killing, describes it as pleasure

using camera as the extension of the eye, allows us to see more detail of the world

can manipulate truth

joins humanity, whilst other photographers look for horror (conflicts, war)

Bresson likened what he did to ‘hunting’

when taking photos, waiting and lurking can feel like hunting

These are the photos from my Anthropocene project that I chose as my best photos:

Comparing and Contrasting

George Marazaki: ‘A Cure for Anthropocene’

My photographs relating to the Anthropocene:

Evaluation and Critique

For this photoshoot, I chose this location and took photos with inspiration from George Marazakis’ series called ‘A Cure for Anthropocene’. I decided to focus on man-made structures that are surrounded by nature that is predominant to the landscape or overgrown, for example, the radio tower at the top of the rocky cliff, the lighthouse atop the rocks out at sea, and the damaged, abandoned rock quarry surrounded by bushes, all showing the juxtaposition between nature and infrastructure.

I feel like my planning for this photoshoot helped me understand the overall composition and deadpan approach in Marazaki’s photographs, and I was able to take inspiration from those. In my photos, the natural light differed from each spot, which I paid attention to and adjusted my settings accordingly for the different locations. However, In my contact sheets, I noticed that some of my photos were underexposed, and I corrected them when editing by increasing the exposure or applying a mask on the darkest areas and increasing the exposure or brightness.

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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New Topographics, a term coined in 1975 by William Jenkins, describes a group of American photographers whose photographs had a similar banal aesthetic (a photo which has “depthless” space, with the perspective of the viewer’s encounter), being formal mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape. Examples of these American photographers are Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz.

The New Topographics reflected the world becoming increasingly suburbanised around them, and was also a reaction to the idealised landscape photography which focused on capturing and elevating nature. New Topographics had a deadpan look on landscapes in photography.

Examples of photographers who explored New Topographics:

Lewis Baltz, The New Industrial Parks, 1974

Robert Adams

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

Edits

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HDR Merge

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HDR Merge

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HDR Merge

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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: