All posts by Carolina Marques Antunes

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Typology

what are typologies in photography?

 A photographic typology is a study of “types”. That is, a photographic series that prioritizes “collecting” rather than stand-alone images. It’s a powerful method of photography that can be used to reshape the way we perceive the world around us.

The Bechers

 Bernhard “Bernd” Becher (German: 20 August 1931 – 22 June 2007), and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015), were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures, often organised in grids. As the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ or the Düsseldorf School of Photography, they influenced generations of documentary photographers and artists in Germany and abroad. They were awarded the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_and_Hilla_Becher

Answering questions:

1. How did they first meet?

Meeting as students at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1957, Bernd and Hilla Becher first collaborated on photographing and documenting the disappearing German industrial architecture in 1959. The Ruhr Valley, where Becher’s family had worked in the steel and mining industries, was their initial focus.


2. What inspired them to begin to record images of Germany’s industrial landscape?

The first area they went to was the first abandoned space in Germany, they wanted to preserve the architecture this industrial landscape because they were slowly being demolished .They were fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed.


3. How did the Bechers explain the concept of Typology?

It was her husband that came up with that concept, late 1050s . Patterns and textures was what inspired them on how to organize their images, understanding the subsect, the background was always light grey, so the main focus is the subject that they wanted to capture, they photographed every single building from 8 different angles. They wanted to capture realistic images not romanticism.


4. Which artists/ photographers inspired them to produce typology images? Karl Blossefeldt ,August Sander and The New Objectivity


5. What is the legacy of the Bechers and their work?

They legacy was their love for each other and photography. They wanted to capture architecture that were slowly disappearing

They are using a large format camera, that was very slow. 20 to 30 minutes

Some of their work:

Analysis:

Technical: These pictures were taken in natural daylight lighting, most likely early in the morning when the sun isn’t out yet and the sky isn’t so blue.

Lighting: The lighting in all the Bechers images are natural, in an interview Hilla Becher said that they usually photograph in the morning so the sky isn’t so blue and the sun isn’t so bright to avoid shadows or over exposure images.

To photograph they used a 8×10 large format camera, this camera was very slow taking 20 to 30 minutes to take a photograph.

Visual:

In this typology water tanks are the main focus, they photographed early in the morning when the sky isn’t as blue in comparison to mid day,

Conceptual: This image shows a grid of water towers photographed in a clear, consistent way. The uniform style, black and white, same angle, no dramatic lighting, removes emotion and focuses on shape and structure. Placing the towers side by side highlights both their similarities and small differences, turning functional objects into something worth studying.

New Topographics

New Topographics– Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape

New Topographics was created in 1975 by William Jenkins 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. This movement, known as the New Topographics, represented a significant shift in the way we view the world around us. It is the idea of photographing man altered landscapes. They trained their cameras on the by-products of post-war suburban expansion: freeways, gas stations, industrial parks, and tract homes.

What was the New Topographics a reaction to?

The New Topographics reacts to the ‘old’ idea of landscapes which every bit of the image captures nature without any influence by humans, meanwhile the new concept of landscapes is the idea of man made and nature combined how humans have the need to expand taking away the natural land.

Historical Context : Post-war America struggle

The late 1960s and the early 1970s were a turbulent time for the US economy. President Johnson’s Great Society brought about major spending programs across a broad array of social initiatives at a time when the US fiscal situation was already being strained by the Vietnam War. These growing fiscal imbalances complicated monetary policy.

Months after World War II ended more babies were born thatn ever before 3.4 million, 20 percent more than in 1945. This was the beginning of the so-called “baby boom.” In 1947, another 3.8 million babies were born; 3.9 million were born in 1952; and more than 4 million were born every year from 1954 until 1964, when the boom finally tapered off. By then, there were 76.4 million “baby boomers” in the United States. They made up almost 40 percent of the nation’s population.

https://www.history.com/articles/baby-boomers-1

In the 1970s, there was a much bigger stigma surrounding mental health than there is today. In an article written by Wulf Rossler titled, “The Stigma of Mental Health,” Rossler talks about the rise of this stigma surrounding mental health. He discusses the negative impacts of this stigma and how it has affected the way people view mental health. He writes, “A scientific concept on the stigma of mental disorders was first developed in the middle of the 20th century, first theoretically and eventually empirically in the 1970s.” This explains when the stigma was adopted. The time period it comes from was a time period where mental health was not addressed in schools. He continues to say, “Overall, the 1960s and 1970s were full of an anti‐psychiatry attitude, blaming psychiatry for being repressive, coercive and more damaging than helpful to patients.” This portrays the idea that mental health wasn’t important and something that shouldn’t be discussed back in the 1970s.

https://commons.trincoll.edu/edreform/author/acataldo

All these issues in the 1970s inspired the photographers then, they were showing through their photography the main issues in America at that time.

Topographic Photographers:

Robert Adams

Robert Adams was born in 1937 in Orange, New Jersey. After earning a PhD in English literature and teaching the subject for several years at Colorado College, he became a photographer in the mid-1960s. Adams has published more than 40 books of photographs, with the changing landscape of the American West as his primary subject;

“I think if you placed me almost anywhere and gave me a camera you could return the next day to find me photographing. It helps me, more than anything I know, to find home.”

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore was a photographer. Born in New York City in 1947, he learned about and practiced photography from the age of six. In 1958, Shore was given a copy of Walker Evans’ book American Photographs introducing him to a descriptive visual language of place. At the age of fourteen, his work was bought by Edward Steichen for the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From 1965 through 1967, Shore worked in Andy Warhol’s studio, the Factory, a formative experience that allowed him to experiment with combining documentary and conceptual modes later images. In 1971, at the age of twenty-four, Shore had a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the first accorded a living American photographer.
Shore emerged in the 1970s as one of the major exponents of colour photography, shooting bleak yet lyrical scenes of the North American landscape. Documenting everyday settings and objects, from hotel swimming pools and televisions to parking lots, gas stations, and deserted roads, Shore exhibited an ability to transform commonplace surroundings into compelling works of art, 

https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/stephen-shore?all/all/all/all/0

Analysis

CASE STUDY: Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print

Technical :

  • The light on this image is very bright because of the natural sunny day, Stephen is using a 8×10 camera on a tripod to capture as much detail as possible

Visual:

  • The colour in this image is very vibrant the predominate colours being blue white and red with might represent the American flag.
  • The image is very busy with cars, signs, petrol station, lights,…
  • the mountain can be seen in the background with is the only part of the image that is not altered by men.
  • The sign of the petrol station is pointing at the mountain.

Conceptual:

  • This image was taken in 1975 in America and different from most countries around the world at this time America looked quite modern, every building built had a propose and nature quite disappeared. What I find interesting in this image is how the big sign of the petrol station was pointing at the mounting.
  • “In the 1970s was a period with both high inflation and uneven economic growth. High budget deficits, lower interest rates, the oil embargo, and the collapse of managed currency rates contributed to stagflation.”
  • America is only about 500 years old so all the architecture is very modern compared to Europe which there are still a lot of building with old structures.

Exposure Bracketing & HDR

what is exposure bracketing and HDR ?

  • Exposure bracketing is a photographic technique where multiple shots of the same scene are taken at different exposure settings to capture the full tonal range and merge them during post-processing
    • HDR refers to a technique that expresses details in content in both very bright and very dark scenes. It offers a more natural and realistic picture output even with a widened range of contrast.

My response

I choose these 3 images that I thought were interesting to merge.

Then I pressed ” photo” on the top of the screen.

And last press “photo merge” – HDR

And this is the image I created, which I really like because it goes from warm colours to cold ones. I also like how the tree is really dark and it makes it look like a drawing.

I also tried to do HDR manually on Lightroom

Before

After

Before

Exposure Bracketing

I took 3 different pictures of the same place changing the exposure each time from -1 to 0 to +1. And then on photoshop I joined them together.

Landscape photography

I took these images in late afternoon around 6pm,I took pictures of the landscape around my house, my idea was to take images in late afternoon because it adds a certain mood to it and also it relates to romanticism which was a topic we were recently studying about and I liked how the images are quite dark.

Because I took these set of pictures late afternoon there wasn’t much light so some photos came put really dark.

Favourite images that I took

These were the images that I liked they are all quite dark but that’s something I was looking for, I really like the 1st and 2nd image where all the image is really dark but the sunset is really defined.

editing on Lightroom

I edited this image so the sunset would have more contrast and be brighter, and the rest to be darker so the focus is on the sunset.

I really like this image because since I used a high ISO the image created a more vintage look which since we are studying older photographers I think this image fits really well.

I tried editing it to black and white but I prefer the original one, because of the blue undertone that it has.

This is the original image which I like but I think it would look better in black and white and it also shows more relation to Ansel Adams.

This image didn’t turn out the way I wanted but I still wanted somehow make it work through editing on Lightroom, After trying different contrast, exposures etc, I found that Black and white was the best option for this image.

Analysis

Ansel Adams

Who is Ansel Adams?

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California on February 10th 1902, He was one of the most important landscape photographers of the 20th century.  known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64 in 1932, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favoured sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph…even creating a Zonal System to ensure that all tonal values are represented in the images. He is also one of the most loved photographers in the history of the United States, the popularity of his work has only increased since his death in 1984. Ansel was given his first camera in 1916 at the age of 14 and proved to be a talented photographer. Throughout the 1920s he worked as the custodian of the sierra club’s lodge in Yosemite National park, he created impressive landscape photographs. But is was only in 1930 that Adam decided to devote his life to photography.

Ansel Adams Photography

Ansel Adams’s photography style its sharp focus, exceptional detail, and dramatic use of light and shadow. He wanted to capture the grandeur and beauty of the natural world, emphasising the importance of preserving these pristine landscapes.

  • Adams Primarily used large format cameras, such as the 8×10 inch view camera, which allowed him to capture the amount of detail he wanted .
  • Beside photographer Fred Archer, Adams created the Zone system, which was a method of achieving precise control over exposure and development in order to refine image quality.
  • Adams believed in the importance of pre- visualizing the final image before taking a photograph, adjusting things such as composition, lighting, and exposure to create a the outcome he wanted.
  • With his photography , Adams shared a greater appreciation for the natural world and to promote importance of preserving our environment.

The zone system

Ansel Adams created the Zone system with Fred Archer around 1940, which teaches how to achieve the optimal exposure on the prints. His method was based on exposing the film in such a manner as to capture the darkest areas of the scene to avoid complete underexposed blacks. Then in the dark room, he proceeded to time the development so the highlights wouldn’t turn to complete white.

Image analysis

Moonrise Over Hernandez by Ansel Adams

This image captures the Moon rising over a small Mexican town. In this image the top part over the moon is very dark and about 25% of this image is pure dark grey however it works really well, In the centre of the image there is The mood which even being one of the smallest things in this image its one of the most important so important that the tittle is Moonrise over Hernandez. The clouds are still very bright which makes me think that this image wasn’t taken at night but instead in late afternoon. The interesting thing about this image is the details that it has, every detail of the Moon can be seen clearly as well as the windows on the houses, churchyard cross, every chimney. Ansel Adams used his 8″x10″ camera. Driving back to Santa Fe, New Mexico on Oct. 31, 1941, after what had been a disappointing day for picture-taking, photographer Ansel Adams stopped his car and yelled to his colleagues to bring him his tripod, exposure meter and other photographic equipment so that he could take what would become one of the most famous images in fine art photography, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.

Landscape Photoshoot 2 + Ansel Adams inspired outcomes

I started by choosing the images that I would use.

I picked 69 images to work with.

Images that I got inspiration from:

My favourite images:

Before:

After:

photoshoot 2 Ansel Adams

I edited this image on Lightroom

All of them I made them black and white and then I played with the contrast and exposure so it looked more like Ansel Adams work.

These were my favourite images in relationship to Ansel Adam, I tried making the pictures quite dark .

Studio portraits artist references

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh was born on the 23rd December 1908 in Mardin, American Turkey and dies on July 13th 2002 in Boston, Massachusetts). Yousuf was the most known and greatest portrait photographer of the 20th century. Karsh photographed famous men and women of politics , Hollywood, and the arts, from Albert Einstein, Sir Winston Churchill to Walt Disney and Audrey Hepburn. Throughout most of his career he used the 8×10 bellows Calumet ( 1997.o318) camera. Now a days his work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The National Portrait Gallery in London, among many others. The last print of Karsh was sold for $42,5000.00.

Analysis

Visual

This image is a portrait of Audrey Hepburn, she is waring a black turtle neck, and her hair is up in a high ponytail, She is looking to the side showing her side profile. The image is in black and white which makes sense since this image was taken in 1956.

Technical

Aperture- f/22

Shutter speed- 1/500

Angle- eye level

Half Body

Contextual

https://karsh.org/photographs/audrey-hepburn

“The French novelist Colette picked her out of a ballet line-up to play Gigi on stage, and her career was launched. When I photographed her in Hollywood and commented on her quality of sophisticated vulnerability, she told me of her harrowing experiences during the Second World War. Years later, in the Kremlin, Chairman Brezhnev agreed to sit for me only if I made him as beautiful as Audrey Hepburn.”