“New topographic was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape”
New topographic focus on the man made elements of our environment and how they have effected the aesthetic or health of the planet.
Many believe or view topographic photography as dull and boring , entering a realm of realism in contrast to romanticism a more in depth perspective is shown on the link above
ANALYSIS
Foreground vs background | Dominant features
In the foreground of the photo there is a blue retro looking car almost like a mustang , fitting the aesthetic of the 70s
Further enhancing the appearance of the 70s is a 7 eleven with the old structure
Arguably the car is the most dominant feature as it is centre stage and takes up a large amount of the image
Nationalism vs mobility vs isolation
This image explores the feeling of isolation and being excluded from other places of society, this is done through the lack of other cars , people and any signs of activity within the photo.
Colour | impact and relevance
Whilst the image itself includes colour the hues are mainly dull and faded for example yes the sky is blue but its somewhat grey. The impact here is that it gives off an impression of gloominess within its isolation
Perspective and detail / cluttering
In this image whilst there is cluttering its kept contained to the centre line of the photo mainly appearing bare on the top and bottom outskirts
Composition | low horizon line | Square format
This image is a demonstration of the use of the low horizon line , beginning at the bottom third of the photo enhancing the look of it being isolated as it greats a bare void within the image
Examples of photographers
Robert Adams
“his subject has been the American west: its vastness, its sparse beauty and its ecological fragility…What he has photographed constantly – in varying shades of grey – is what has been lost and what remains” and that “his work’s other great subtext” is silence…
Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer known for his drastic exposure contrast creating dramatic imagery, he normally used a black and white colouring to more distinctly show the differences in exposure.
Ansel Adams helped to found the f/64 group , an association of photographers desiring to create “pure” imagery
“Colored and modulated by the great earth gesture“
ANSEL ADAMS in reference to his own life
” His first published photographs and writings appeared in the club’s 1922 Bulletin, and he had his first one man exhibition in 1928 at the club’s San Francisco headquarters.
By 1934 Adams had been elected to the club’s board of directors and was well established as both the artist of the Sierra Nevada and the defender of Yosemite.
His creative energies and abilities as a photographer blossomed, and he began to have the confidence and wherewithal to pursue his dreams. Indeed, Bender’s benign patronage triggered the transformation of a journeyman concert pianist into the artist whose photographs, as critic Abigail Foerstner wrote in the Chicago Tribune (Dec. 3, 1992), “did for the national parks something comparable to what Homer’s epics did for Odysseus.” “
Content taken from :
EXAMPLES OF HIS WORK
ZONE SYSTEM
THE ZONE SYSTEM was a system discovered by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer
” not an invention of mine; it is a codification of the principles of sensitometry, worked out by Fred Archer and myself at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, around 1939–40.”
Ansel Adams in regards to the zone system
DEFINITION
The technique is based on the late 19th-century sensitometry studies of Hurter and Driffield. The Zone System provides photographers with a systematic method of precisely defining the relationship between the way they visualize the photographic subject and the final results. Although it originated with black-and-white sheet film, the Zone System is also applicable to roll film, both black-and-white and color, negative and reversal, and to digital photography.
PROCESS
Although zones directly relate to exposure, visualization relates to the final result. A black-and-white photographic print represents the visual world as a series of tones ranging from black to white. Imagine all of the tonal values that can appear in a print, represented as a continuous gradation from black to white:
From this starting point, zones are formed by first dividing the tonal gradation into ten equal sections, all one stop apart, plus one more for blown-out paper white.
Note:The darker shades may not be distinguishable on some monitors.
Then for each section, one average tone represents all the tonal values in that section.
Finally, the zones are defined by numbering each section with Roman numerals from 0 for the black section to X for the white one.
VISUALISTATION
DEFINTION :
Visualization (graphics), the physical or imagining creation of images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message. Data and information visualization, the practice of creating visual representations of complex data and information.
The Zone System is concerned with the control of image values, ensuring that light and dark values are rendered as desired. Anticipation of the final result before making the exposure is known as visualization.
Romanticism in art and photography is about focusing on strong emotions, nature, and individual experience. It highlights beauty, imagination, and sometimes the mysterious or exotic. Think of dramatic landscapes, powerful moments, and emotional expressions. It’s less about strict realism and more about capturing the feeling of a scene. It involves romanticising certain things like nature or a certain lifestyle. For example, in photography, you might romanticise a landscape by capturing the best scenes only and perhaps putting a feeling of otherworldyness/ nostalgia. When you romanticise something, you make it seem better than it really is; in a way, everything humans think about is romanticised: the grass is always greener on the other side. An example of life being romanticised in our minds is thinking about the life of being an underground artist in New York (think Basquiat) is highly romanticised and the image of it looks really appealing/romantic, but in reality it is quite a hard life to live, and that feeling of romanticism that you get when looking at images isn’t necessarily how that person living that life might be experiencing it.
FACTS AND INFO ON ROMANTACISM
Romanticism placed particular emphasis on emotion, horror, awe, terror and apprehension. Emotion and feeling were central not only to the creation of the work, but also in how it should be read.
Romanticism can also have a link with landscape and nature . Landscapes became subjects in their own right and were often charged with symbolism. For romantic artists, nature is a source of inspiration and escape, a refuge from the tumult of the modern world.
WHO
: artist William Blake and the Spanish painter Francisco Goya have been given the name “fathers” of Romanticism by various scholars for their works’ emphasis on subjective vision, the power of the imagination.
WHAT
:an artistic movement marked by the emphasis on imagination and emotions
WHERE
: romantisicm started In western Europe around the 18th century at this time the artistic and cultural movement was being revived (Neoclassicism)
HOW
: With its emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789.
WHY
: Romanticism was born as a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The Romanticist movement celebrated rebellion, sensation, emotion, subjectivity, and individuality and it rejected tradition, reason, rationality, and authority.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BRITISH PAINTERS JMW TURNER AND JOHN CONSTABLE
JMW TURNER
English romantic painter and water colour specialist , known for his romantic paintings that portray colourful imagery and imaginative landscapes. Joseph Mallord William born 23rd of April 1775 inspired modern art by incorporating a view of impossibility into his paintings by inviting unrealistic colouring and faded scenery to give a sense of romanticism
A line of development can be traced from his early historical landscapes that form settings for important human subjects to his later concentration on the dramatic aspects of sea and sky. Even without figures, these late works are expressions of important subjects: the relationship of man to his environment, the power of nature as manifested in the terror of the storm or the beneficence of the sun. Unmatched in his time in the range of his development, Turner was also unrivaled in the breadth of his subject matter and the searching innovation of his stylistic treatment.
JOHN CONSTABLE
Johns landscapes represent a sometimes astonishing capacity to represent natural appearances—particularly, in his later years, the fleeting and dramatic effects of stormy skies—as well as a profound and prolonged meditation on the rural realities of a Britain undergoing a bewildering socioeconomic transformation.
John Constable
John Constable
While some have tried to relocate Constable’s landscapes within their contemporary context and have suggested that they are complex works of art with, often, a deeply political content, others have preferred to see them as embodying a quintessential “Englishness.” The fact that the argument is ongoing confirms the continuing vitality of these landscapes.
THE SUBLIME
In the critical literature, “the Romantic sublime” refers to the mind’s transcendence of a natural and/or social world that finally cannot fulfil its desire. Revealed in the moment of the sublime is that the mind is not wholly of the world, but this revelation may be triggered by a particular setting in the world.
The sublime as defined by The Tate is : “Theory developed by Edmund Burke in the mid eighteenth century, where he defined sublime art as art that refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation.”
The sublime is in most creative subject areas; photography, fine art, film, writing, poetry and many more.
Why do these sorts of sublime experiences matter? For Burke, the experience matters insofar as it is the ‘strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling’. But for Kant and Schopenhauer, the experience is profounder still. This is how Kant describes the experience and significance of what he terms the dynamically sublime (that is, an aesthetic experience of overwhelming power):
Bold, overhanging, as it were threatening cliffs, thunder clouds towering up into the heavens … make our capacity to resist into an insignificant trifle in comparison with their power. But the sight of them only becomes all the more attractive the more fearful it is, as long as we find ourselves in safety, and we gladly call these objects sublime because they elevate the strength of our soul above its usual level, and allow us to discover within ourselves a capacity for resistance of quite another kind, which gives us the courage to measure ourselves against the apparent all-powerfulness of nature. (Emphasis added.)
In order to edit I used Lightroom and photoshop , first adjusting the initial look of the images in Lightroom and then cutting and pasting different cut outs into photoshop
I first made duplicates of each photo i intended to use , one black and white and one with colour , giving me a variety of resources
I imported the images into lightroom and created layers of cutouts of each photo as shown below
i repeated this process multiple times layering the black and white cut outs with the coloured photos to create contrast
I continued this process until the image was clear enough to make out
I then exported the images into lightroom and created a ‘mask‘ i then lowered the exposure ,increased shadows , and removed highlightsd to create depth in refrence to David Hockneys later work where he overlapped his images in production.
I Started with 90 images , these photos includede close ups of peoples faces , their individual features , and larger photos such as half bodys and 1/4 body photos
I then narrowed it down to only 25 images using the flagging tool on lightroom.
My idea was to gather different features and collect them together to make one photo , taking inspiration from David Hockneys Joiner photos , and then repeat this process on different subjects to futher explore the topic of identity
RAW IMAGES FROME PHOTOSHOOT
To achieve these images i sued studio lighting and a majoritiy of the time i used Split lighting i used a darker background to help make the images look more put together in editing when they are cut and broken up. I used both masculine and feminine looking subjects to create difference in the images.
During the early 1980s , Hockeny produced “joiner” photographs , a form of photo collage that includes cutting areas of a photo and moving/replacing it around the image.
JOINER PHOTOS
David was increasingly interested in the limitations of photography , he wanted to explore different classical techniques ad discover how they could be broken.
“Although it looks as though there’s a central viewpoint… not one photograph is taken from that central viewpoint.”
DAVID HOCKNEY
The illusion created by the joiner photos manipulates our sight and how we view the image creating a false sense of understanding. This concept i felt related heavily to the idea of identity , people see what they are shown which may not exactly be the truth.
EXAMPLE AND ANALYSIS OF WORK
In some of his later work, Hockney overlaps the images in order to create a cubist effect, Hockney believed these photos were closer to how the eye actually views the world. This sparked an interest in optics and vision , inspiring the collection ‘joiners’
Hockney originally had a slight distaste for photography , he claimed it was
‘All right if you don’t mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralysed cyclops-for a split second,’
David Hockney
This quickly changed when Hockney started exploring different view points
This is one of Hockney’s most famous photographs , as it inspired a way of printing for Hockney
The miss matched red and black socks contrasts the seriousness and stillness of the garden adding complexity to the image – I later decided to incorporate this in my work.
Relation and insperation to identity
I felt the way Hockney choses to break barriers when it comes to perspective and how we view an image interesting and i wanted to incorporate into my project on identity. i liked his use of contrasting ideas as well but i wanted to achieve this in a more subtle way.
Died: December 8, 1954 (age 60 years), Saint Helier
Their Work
Claude Cahun was best known for her experimental self portraiture although she often collaborated with Marcle Moore (Born: July 19, 1892, Nantes, France Died: February 19, 1972 (age 79 years), Jersey ) , her partner , step siblings , and romantic lovers.
Claude Cahun (left) Marcle Moore (right)
Cahun enjoyed using different mediums in her work , using multiple symbols and messages in each portrait.
“You should discover, handle, tame, make irrational objects yourself.”
– Claude Cahun
Both Marcle Moore and Claude Cahun changed their gender affirming birth given name to a gender neutral ambiguous alternative title , representing their identity of being non conformist surrealist.
Claude was born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob
Marcle was born Suzanne Malherbe
GOALS AND METHODS OF ACHIEVEMENT
Cahuns goal was to show the public that society did not control identity and that freedom of expression is a human right everyone is entitled to , I believe she wanted to inspire and encourage others to be who they wanted rather then who others wanted them to be , she used her work as her way of expression and I believe her goal was to encourage others to do the same
To achieve this goal Cahun photographed herself presenting as different characters to portray the idea that one person can have multiple characteristics and they are not stuck as one thing , often dressed in alternative ways and peculiar styles , this often included abnormal hairstyles and even face paint on occasion
Examples
Analysis
Self-portrait by photographer Claude Cahun performing as Elle in Barbe bleue, 1929.
VISUAL
Who is in the image? Claude Cahun
How are they posed? Hands behind their back tilted to the side , feet pointed to the side theyre leaning towards.
Where is their gaze pointed? Directly at the camera
What are they wearing? Long dress with cross stitching , and simple pattern , also wearing some kind of wig and over done makeup
TECHNICAL
Lighting – Do you think this uses artificial or natural lighting? Could be either artificial or natural , projected straight onto the subject from behind the camera and possibly above aswell maybe butterfly lighting
How does the lighting accentuate the figure? Makes the figure apear more lit than the background giving the impression of importance and status highlighting the subject drawing focus to it.
Aperture – Does this image have a soft or sharp focus background? The image background is slightly blurred but still easily depictable
What could this tell us about the aperture? Most likely around f/8
Angle – What angle has the photo been taken at? Directly in front of the subject from slightly lower down but not on the ground the angle however is not tilted up and is deadpan
What does this contribute? Makes the subject appear a higher satus of importance and present Cahun or rather the character shes playing as strong and confident
Is it a full body shot / half body shot / three-quarter body shot? Full body shot
CONTEXTUAL
Refrences the role of women in 1930s
Relates to an old fable of Bluebeard and she is dressed as Elle
“After lavishly entertaining a group of ladies, the youngest daughter of a noble lady decides to marry him. He gives his wife a set of keys to all the treasures in the house, commanding her not to use the smallest key, and leaves for business. She discovers his murdered wives after her curiosity gets the best of her.” – a brief summary of the tale of Blue beard
CONCEPTUAL
How does Cahun’s work react to the role of women / gender in the 20s and 30s? – although many believe the tale of blue beard is a cautionary one to warn women to obey their husbands i believe Claude Cahun used it to give the message that women should not unquestioningly conform to and follow patriarchal expectations/rules as they do not ensure safety and comfort like the are promoted to
Studio lighting is the use of artificial lighting in order to create a mood or atmosphere by adding to the light that’s already there.
Different lighting techniques
REMBRANDT LIGHTING
Who was Rembrandt?
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn otherwise just known as Rembrandt was a dutch painter born inJuly 15, 1606, Leiden, Netherlands , he was known to be an incredible visual artist and is recognised for his work in regards to lighting
Definition + what you will need
achieved using one light and a reflector
characterised by an area of the face that is illuminated to appear as though it is an upside down triangle under the eye
How to achieve
‘Normally, the key light is placed high and to one side at the front, and the fill light or a reflector is placed half-height and on the other side at the front, set to about half the power of the key light, with the subject, if facing at an angle to the camera, with the key light illuminating the far side of the face. The key in Rembrandt lighting is creating the triangle or diamond shape of light underneath the eye. One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric form on the face. The triangle should be no longer than the nose and no wider than the eye. This technique may be achieved subtly or very dramatically by altering the distance between subject and lights and relative strengths of main and fill lights’
– Wikipedia
Example
BUTTERFLY LIGHTING
Definition
‘Butterfly lighting is a lighting pattern where the light source is placed slightly above and centre on the face of the subject. You may also see this technique referred to as paramount lighting. When discussing butterfly lighting, we often focus on the tell-tale sign: The shadow under the nose with a butterfly shape.’
You will need:
A key light
Flashes and triggers
Modifiers
Reflector
How to achieve
Butterfly lighting setups are simple. In its purest form, it’s a single source (key light) directly in line with the subject’s face and the camera. If the shadows are a little too deep, a reflector can be placed below the subject to bounce light back up into the face.
– Wikipedia
Example
CHIAROSCURO
Definition
Chiaroscuro is an Italian term which translates as light-dark, and refers to the balance and pattern of light and shade in a painting or drawing.
Example
Photo shoot plan
In order to get the most effective lighting and the best photos, i planned to use a studio that had access to different back drops (one white one black) and a plethora of lights , flash lights ,ring lights and more.
I planned to capture split lighting and different coloured lighting and possibly explore rebrand lighting
inspiration
Raw images
Editing and photo selection
Here is my selection of images from a total of three photoshoots , in each photoshoot i used different models to experiment with how light hits different structures and features on each face
I then took my preferred images and edited them to intensify the lighting
Results analysis
With this image , i cropped the photo to make the subject more central and eye catching , i changed the image to black and white and altered the exposure , contrast , shadows etc. Then i created a ‘mask’ over the eye and increased exposure and contrast to make the iris stand out giving the image a better focus point.
before and after comparison
Once again i cropped the image to centralise the subject , i created a mask over the eyes and eyebrows to make them more distinct and then increased exposure and contrast , i decided not to overly edit this image as i didn’t want to take away from the natural context of the contrasting skin
I wanted to keep this image uncropped to explore the idea of negative space , i left the background dark to leave the subject undefined i then adjusted the saturation and exposure
before and after comparison
For this image i tried to capture contrasting subjects in the same image without using much editing so i positioned two lights facing two people to make it appear as though its two different environments , i then enhanced the colours in editing and cropped the image
