The term ‘Typology’ was first used to describe a certain style of photography when Bernd and Hilla Becher began documenting damaged and ruined German industrial architecture in 1959. The couple described their subjects as ‘buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style’.
Removed and detached, each photograph was taken from the same angle, mostly at the same distance from the buildings. Their aim was to take and record the landscape they saw changing and disappearing before their eyesso once again, Typologies not only recorded a moment in time, they prompted the viewer to consider the subject’s place in the world.
Hilla Becher
Hilla Becher was a German conceptual photographer. Becher was known for her industrial photographs, or typologies, with long-time collaborator and husband, Bernd Becher. She was born: September 2, 1934, In Potsdam, Germany. She died October 10, 2015 (age 81 years), Dusseldorf, Germany.
Bernd Becher
Becher was a painter and decorator in Siegen, Germany from 1947 to 1950. From 1953 to 1956, Becher studied painting and lithography at the Staatliche Kunstakademie, Stuttgart, Germany. Becher studied typography at the Staatlichen Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, from 1957 to 1961. He was Born: August 20, 1931, Siegen ,Germany and he died: June 22, 2007 (age 75 years), Rostock, Germany.
Examples of their work
Image Analysis
‘Pitheads’, 1974 by Bernd and Hilla Becher
Technical
Every image that is part of the typology was taken outside meaning the lighting is likely 100% natural, with lots of detail that is easily seen throughout the image meaning aperture was likely high in order to have a very deep depth of field. Little to none visual noise is present in any of the images, so ISO was kept to a minimum with a value likely between 100-200.
Visual
Every image is gaining some type of machinery, most likely an oil well. Each image has been taken from the same perspective and angle which will create an obvious similarity between them all, whilst it still maintains contrast since the background and environment around the oil wells are distinct in each photo.
Some images in the typology feature there isn’t a lot of natural elements (e.g. grass), even though the frame is still largely dominated by the oil well so there is very little centre of attention which is paid to natural landscapes in these images.
Conceptual/Contextual
Bernhard Becher gave up making paintings, drawings and etchings of old industrial buildings because he had decided that photography met his needs better.
Painting needed composition which included changing the object and was too subjective; photography was more precise and objective, which is able to clearly capture and present exactly what is happening in a scene at that moment in time. The pictures in the typology leave little to nothing up to the imagination of the viewer, simply being 9 different oil wells occupying spaces, almost as if they are taking up all the space of the natural landscapes.
Alexander Mourant is an artist, educator and writer based in London. His first publication,The Night and the First Sculpture, was published by Folium, 2024.
His recent exhibitions include To Walk in the Image, Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland (2023), At the Farthest Edge: Rebuilding Photography, NŌUA, Norway (2023) andA Sudden Vanishing, Seen Fifteen Gallery, London (2023).
Mourant is a recipient of grants from Arts Council Norway, Arts Council England and ArtHouse Jersey. He won the Free Range Award and was nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award.
He achieved BA Photography at Falmouth University, and MA Photography at Royal College of Art, London. He is a Lecturer in Photography at Kingston University.
A Famous Collection
This collection is called Aomori. This was all taken in Japan and was taken with a blue stained glass window from a church.
Aomori means blue forest in Japanese.
This image was part of The Night And The First sculpture, which was published in a book .
To take these images I went down to Gorey Pier and took some images of the scenery and the man made structures . This photoshoot was a way to show the comparison of nature in juxtaposition to man-made structures.
Contact Sheet
Edited Images
These are the images I used to make my joiner photo. These are the edited versions of the images I used.
Joiner
For this joiner. I used photoshop, since I could do it manually.
Panorama
This is how I edited to make a panorama.
This is my panorama , but I filled the edges and made it spherical.
“New Topographic: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” was a ground-breaking exhibition of contemporary photography landscape held at the George Eastman House’s International Museum of Photography from October 1975 to February 1976. topographic is the physical feature of the area.
Term from William Jenkins
New topographic was a term called by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar aesthetic, in that they were formal, which are mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape.
Their photographs were taken in a built-up environment, suburban sprawl, industrial structures, and the mundane aspects of daily life.
The New Topographies photographers, which include 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 man made structures of post-war America: car parks , suburban homes, crumbling coal mines. These photographs, stark and documentary, are often a lack of human presence.
Jenkins described the images as “neutral” in style, “reduced to an essentially topographic state, which conveys the substantial amounts of visual information but was very serious in the aspects of beauty, emotion, and opinion.
Features
Jenkins described the images as “neutral” in style, “reduced to an essentially topographic state, which conveys the substantial amounts of visual information but entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion, and opinion”.
What Was The New Topographic A Reaction To?
They were reacted by the tyranny of an idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental.
Image Analysis-Stephen Shore
Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print.
Technical
In this image there is a slow shutter speed due to the cars in the distance being blurred. The light is a natural light because it was taken near lots of petrol stations. This is a very strong but cold light. The light was projecting towards the signs which will create hard edge shadows that will project onto the pavement below.
Visual
There is hard edge square pavement, signs and the horizon line , which creates harsh, clear lines . The rule of thirds are present because this image can be split into a grid, into threes. There is lots of repetition with the signs due to ,most of the lines being squared shaped.
Contextual
By using the red, white and blue colour theme it represents the American flag, which conveys national pride of the nation. By having lots of petrol stations it implies that this era focuses on the oil industry and the nature in the background represents the environment. With these two together, it shows a connection between the oil industry and the nature of the American dream in the the 1970s. By being in a town it conveys isolation due to being far away from a city and it also implies a sense of community because everyone will know everyone that lives in this small town.
Conceptual
This image connects nature and the oil industry. It also looks like the angle of the mountain is pointing to the petrol stations.
For my photoshoot, I mostly captured cliff faces that are along the coast.
Image Selection
These are the images I have picked to edit due to having a range of light and dark tones through out the images.
Editing
Image N01
This my image before the editing process
In this image I have used the SDR setting to lighten the sky and it also slightly darkens the foreground of the image.
This is what I used to edit my final image.
Black and White Edit
This is the Black and white edit.
The filter I used was called BW07.
These are the settings I used to get a balanced exposure between black and white. This will make sure some parts of the image are not to dark or to white.
This is what I used to make the image lighter in some parts , so it didn’t look to dark.
Image N02
This is my second image I want to edit.
For this image I also used the SDR setting to bring more blue out from the sky, so it has brightened it. It has also darkened the the foreground and some of the background.
This is how I edited my image.
Black And White Edit
This is the Black and White edited image
This is the filter I used , which is called Dark drama.
This is how I balanced the brightness and shadows in this image.
Image N03
This is my Third image I want to edit.
In this image I used the filter called Blue Drama and it from the sky range. This has caused the sky to have a very deep shade of blue, which pops out in the background. In this image I have lightened the foreground of the image.
This is the filter I have used.
This is how I edited my image.
Black And White Image
This is the Edited image
This is the filter I used
This is what I used to make the image lighter in some parts , so it didn’t look to dark.
I also added a vignette to make the image proportional and so the leading lines will attract you to the centre of the image.
Image N04
This is the 4th image I want to edit.
For this image, I experimented with texture,brightness and darkness and many more settings.
This is how I edited my image.
Blake And White Image
Edited Image
Above is the filter/Pre-set I used, which is BW03.The amount is used is 45, because it creates a big more contrast between the black and white.
This is what I used to make the image lighter in some parts , so it didn’t look to dark. I also adjusted the contrast because I wanted a clear difference between black and white.
Image N05
This is the original image that I want to edit.
This is the edited image and I used the filter called sunset to make the blue water in the background a little bit darker.
This the filter I used.
This is how I edited my photo.
Black and White Image
Edited Image
This is what I used to make the image lighter in some particular parts , so it didn’t look to dark. I also adjusted the contrast because I wanted a clear difference between black and white.
Image N06
This is the original edit.
This is the edited image.
In the foreground of the image I created texture on the rock which will bring out the layers of rock (strata)and this also focused the lighting on the layers of rock.
This is what I used to edit the image. I used a combination of dehaze, texture and clarity and I also used much more.
Black And White Image
Edited Image
This is the pre-set I have used, which is called BW10.
This is what I used to make the image lighter in some particular parts , so it didn’t look to dark.
The Zone System Image
This photo shows the zone system because there are places that are very light and some that are very dark. When the Zone System is used, the darkest areas of a photographic image are referred to as low values (Zones I — III), the grey areas are called middle values (Zones IV — VI), and the light areas are high values (Zones VII — IX). The zones are always represented as roman numerals.
Virtual Gallery
These are my 6 final images in the virtual gallery.
This photoshoot was about capturing the sublime at Corbiere Lighthouse.
Contact Sheet 2
This photoshoot was about taking photos of trees that where part of the storm damage.
In my both photoshoots combined I took a total of 405 images.
Image Selection
The images that I have selected to edit each have a wide range of light and dark tones as well as compositions which will create a depth and drama that I will experiment with to see how editing can amplify this (e.g. to see if making the images black and white effectively uses the Zone System).
Editing
Image N01
This is the original image.
This the edited image, with an increase of contrast.
This is how I edited my image, with the settings above.
Black and White Image
This Black and White image with the elements of the zone system present.
These are the settings above I used to achieve this Black and White, which will incorporate the zone system.
This is the filter I used to create this image.
Image N02
This is the original image.
This is the edited image.
These are the settings above I used to achieve this image above. This includes increasing the contrast, so there is a difference present and decreasing the exposure so the image wasn’t to light or dark.
Black and White Image
This is my edited image.
These are the exact settings I used to edit this image. I deceased the highlights so the photo was well balanced for the black and white tone to be present.
This is the filter I used to add more drama to my image.
Image N03
This is the original image.
This the edited image. In this image, I have created shadows onto the road, this will make the tree to appear enlarged.
I have made the sun appear more vibrant which is behind the tree, this is why the tree has reflected onto the road.
Black And White Image
This is the edited black and white image.
These are the settings, I used to edit this image into Black and White.
This is the filter I used to edit this image.
Image N04
This is the original image before editing.
This is the edited Image.
These are the settings I used to edit this image. I decreased the temperature so there could be more blue, present in the image.
Black and White Edit
This is the edited black and white image.
These are the settings I used to edit this image.
This is the filter I used.
Image N05
This is the original image.
This is the edited Image.
These are the settings I used, to edit this image.
This is the filter I used to contribute to this image.
Black and White Image
This is the edited black and white image.
These are the settings I used to achieve this image.
This is the filter I used.
Image N06
This is the original image.
This is the edited image.
These are the settings I used to edit this image. I used HDR to achieve a dark blue sky in the background.
Black and White Image
This is the edited image.
These are the settings I used to achieve this black and white image.
A Panoramic landscape is wide, with expansive views that will capture a large area of scenery in one image, often showcasing the beauty of nature.
Is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or a type of software, that captures images with horizontally elongated fields of view.
Advantages
There is a wider angle of view, so you can more of the landscape.eg, foreground, background and the middle ground.
There is compositional freedom, which means as we can assemble the resulting panorama from as many frames as we like.
The quality of the panorama is much higher compared to the single shots from wide-angle lenses in particular, as we avoid all the aforementioned negatives of wide-angle lenses.
Disadvantages
There needs to be a high level of skill due to the difficultly of taking panoramas. The photographer should already be quite experienced, as they have to cover a wide range of activities.
The image does not display the fine anatomic detail.
There are compositional limitations. Even though wide-angle lenses can cover a really wide area, they are still not without limit. We are then limited by what we can or cannot fit into the lens’ frame.
How To Create A Panoramic Landscape ?
To make a Panoramic Landscape you can either take a photo of the landscape with your camera that has a Panoramic mode or if your camera does not contain that mode then the traditional method would be to take pictures of your landscape but making sure you take it from all angles from left to right to top to bottom, making sure you leave enough room for the images to overlap. So you can create this effect.
Once you take all these pictures you can insert them into a program like Photoshop or Lightroom and there should be an option to Photo merge them into a Panoramic image. Then you just adjust the images and edit them to your preference and then you should have a Panoramic Landscape.
David Hockney
David Hockney is an English painter, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries .Born: July 9, 1937 (age 87 years),Bradford.
There are different types of lighting due to over 700 images in this one photo, but I think it mostly natural outside lighting. You cant tell the aperture because there are many images combined.
‘Pear blossom Highway’ is showing a crossroad in a very wide open space, which you only get a sense of in the western United States. [The] picture was not just about a crossroads, but about us driving around. I’d had three days of driving and being the passenger. The driver and the passenger see the road in different ways.
When you drive you read all the road signs, to check where you are driving. When you’re the passenger, you don’t, you can decide to look where you want.
The littered cans and bottles and the meandering line where the pavement ends and the sand begins point to the interruption of the desert landscape by the roads cutting through it and the imprint of careless travellers
David Hockney described his circumstances leading to the creation of this photocollage of the scenic Pear blossom Highway in the north of Los Angeles. His detailed collage reveals the more observations of a road trip.
Will help you override the automatic exposure adjustments your camera makes in situations with uneven light distribution, filters, non-standard processing, or underexposure or overexposure.
AEB
On many digital cameras, as well as a few drones, will include an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) option. AEB is very useful for getting high contrast scenes for HDR. When AEB is selected, the camera will automatically take three or more shots, each at a different exposure.
AEB is like having an automatic version of exposure compensation that gives you a number of variations to choose from.
What Is Exposure Bracketing?
It helps you take exactly the same picture of your subject at several different exposure, eg +1,0 and -1. Means that you take two more pictures: one that is slightly under-exposed (usually by dialling in a negative exposure compensation, say -1/3EV), and the second one that is slightly over-exposed (usually by dialling in a positive exposure compensation, say +1/3EV).
What are HDR Photos?
HDR (High Dynamic Range) HDR photography is a technique where (Multiple Bracketed Images) are merged together to make a single beautifully exposed photograph with a full dynamic range of tones from the very dark to the very brightest.
A camera can only really capture a limited amount of light and darks.
He was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist. He was common for his Black and White photos of the American west. He assisted the found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which included sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. He was born in 1902.
What Was His Childhood Like?
Adams was a hyperactive and sickly child with few friends. He wasn’t accepted into many schools due to bad behaviour, he was educated by private tutors and members of his family from the age of 12. Adams taught himself the piano, which would become his early passion.
Side Hobbies
He enjoyed hiking, camping and being a photographer. He also likes to improve his piano skills and musical expression.
What National Park Did He Visit That Inspired His Photography Career?
Lots of wildness surfaced in the great American photographer’s brilliant black-and-white prints and for most of his life, Yosemite National Park was Adams’ main source of inspiration.
How Did It Inspire His Photography Career?
His love of the natural landscape and eager to capture something of that overwhelming experience on film.
What Is The Sierra Club?
A very powerful national organization that lobbied to create national parks and protect the environment from destructive development projects.
‘The sierra club’s mission is “To explore, have fun, and protect the wild places of the earth; To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.
In 1934, Adams was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club, a role he maintained for 37 years.
Sierra Club
In 1927 he became an assistant manager of these massive annual outings. He became a tour guide and the clubs national photographer
What Was He Also Involved In?
He was involved in the Sierra Club. He became the assistant manager and the official photographer, this is when his photography career took off properly.
He also made significant contributions such as a very powerful national organization that persuaded the government to create national parks and protect the environment from destructive development projects.
When Were His Photos First Used For Environmental Purposes?
His images were first used for environmental purposes in the 1930s. He was first inspired partly by the increasing attack into the Yosemite Valley of commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops, and automobile traffic. He made the limited-edition book Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail in 1938, is a part of the Sierra Club’s efforts to secure the name of the Kings Canyon as a national park. This book and his testimony before Congress played an important role in the success of that effort, and Congress made the Kings Canyon as a national park in 1940.
Presidential Medal
He got his medal for Adams working within the conservation, and his photographs of Yosemite were used to help secure the place for those lands as national parks.
He was later contracted with the United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks. For his work and his persistent advocacy, which helped expand the National Park system, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.
Visualisation
Visualisation is the theory of interpreting a scene and deciding on the final shot before pressing the shutter. Taking place within the ‘mind’s eye’, as Adams often said, visualisation involves assessing a subject and choosing the most important things to frame and highlight.
He used visualisation by how he wanted the print to look and used his own skills to create his final vision.
He shoots his photograph first with a yellow filter but he realises after shooting it wouldn’t express the mode he was looking for.
Zone system
The 11 zones in Ansel Adams’ structure were defined to produce the gradation of all the different tonal values you would see in a black and white print, with zone 5 being middle grey. Increasing the contrast means you will increase the drama.
Image Analysis
Technical
In Ansel Adams’ “Cathedrals Spires and Rocks”, the lighting is mostly natural daylight, most likely caught during a time of soft and delicate sunlight, such as early morning or late afternoon. The high contrast between the bright and glistening sunlit rocks and the deep shadows of the crevices is reflecting Adams’ mastery over tonal range, using the Zone System to accomplish precise exposure. The aperture is set for a deep depth of field, to make sure a sharp focus from the foreground rocks to the distant sky. Adams likely used a wide-angle lens, allowing him to capture the amazing landscape. The ISO is low, which means there is no visual noise contributing with the smooth tonal transitions, and the photograph’s fine details are done crisply. As the image is in black-and-white, the white balance is neutral, focusing on the tonal contrast rather than color accuracy, highlighting the texture and form of the rugged rocks and sky.
Visual
The visual elements in “Cathedrals Spires and Rocks” are completely dominated by lots of high contrast, with dark shadows surrounding the jagged rock formations and light and white highlights on the sunlit surfaces, creating a dramatic effect. The texture of the rocks is highly noticeable , giving the photograph a tactile, three-dimensional feel. The spires, sharp and angular, make up strong vertical lines, which dominate the composition, while the surrounding landscape, though equally detailed, serves to frame these towering forms. The space is carefully and delicately structured, with a very deep foreground and background, which adds depth and perspective. Adams’ is using the Rule of Thirds positions the spires slightly off-center, drawing the viewer’s gaze upward. The resulting composition is balanced , leading the eye naturally through the image and balancing the visual weight between light and shadow.
Contextual
“Cathedrals Spires and Rocks” can be seen within the broader historical context of the American environmental movement, which gained momentum in the early 20th century. As a supporter for wilderness preservation, Ansel Adams used his photographic work to try and promote the conservation of the American West, showcasing the beauty of natural landscapes. This photograph is showing a personal connection to nature and the natural landscapes. The colossal rock formations in the image aren’t just geological features but will represent the unspoiled wilderness that Adams wanted to protect from industrial encroachment. His work, including this photograph, played a crucial role in the establishment of national parks and the broader environmental movement, supporting the preservation of these natural wonders for future generations.
Conceptual
The concept behind “Cathedrals Spires and Rocks” is the admiration about it, drawing a parallel between the grander of the natural world and sacred spaces like cathedrals. The spires, reaching skyward, symbolize nature’s monumental and spiritual qualities, evoking a sense of the sublime, where the viewer feels both humbled and uplifted by the scale and beauty of the landscape. Adams captures not just a physical scene but also of the nature’s power, which is presenting the rocks and spires as sacred forms worthy of admiration. The photograph is an exploration of nature’s dominance, its capacity to inspire people , and the notion of wilderness as a place of deep, almost spiritual significance. This conceptual approach invites the world to reconsider their relationship with the natural world and recognize its importance beyond mere aesthetics.
Often capital the theory, practice, and style of the romantic art ,music, and literature of the late 18th century and the early 198th centuries, usually opposed to classicism. Also is romantic attitudes, ideals or qualities. Also, the movement of art and literature.
What was Romanticism a reaction against?
Romanticism grew due to the reaction to the effects of the social transformation caused by the Revolution. It was against the industrial revolution because the movement idealized nature, emotion, and individualism, but the ideas clashed with the rapid changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.
Enlightenment
It started in 1685 and ended in 1815. Enlightenment, is a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics.
How did the Industrial Revolution have an impact on Romanticism?
The Industrial Revolution had an impact on the Romantic movement, shaping its themes, concerns, and artistic expressions. The loss of connection with nature and the critique of industrial capitalism all influenced the works of Romantic poets and artists.
John Constable
John Constable (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. He was born in Suffolk, he is known for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as “Constable Country” – which he invested with an intensity of devotion. “I should paint my own places best”, he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, “painting is but another word for feeling”.
Constable’s most famous painting includes The Hay Wain (1821). Even though his paintings are now amongst the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts (RAA) at the age of 52. His work was accessible in France, where he sold more than in his native England and inspired the Barbizon school.
The Hay Wain (1821)
Notes
Classical landscapes were made to be special and legendary due to arcadia in Greece, this is due to ancient Greek.
Loneliest subjects, meaning it wasn’t seen as a genre. Landscape painted on a large canvas unlike other paintings. The Hay wain has farmers, clouds, features of nature. The rough texture will capture nature so you could feel it. Landscapes are meant to be classical. legendary not mundane. The Hay Wain used to be called Noon. In the Hay-Wain you don’t see the workers faces.
The Machines were taken taking jobs away in the countryside.
Constable love these paintings. Constable has created a fiction.
Romanticism Examples
What Is The Sublime?
A theory which was 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‘. John Martin. The Great Day of His Wrath (1851–3) Tate. In the “sublime”, in the sublime ‘vast and big horizons, towering mountains, and plunging chasm‘.
Sublime Examples
Edmund Burke
A famous quote he said was ‘The truly sublime is always easy. and always natural’.
This quote suggests that the sublime is dangerous and its full of terror and it easy to be surrounded by nature. Its also where a fear is in place of a sense of well-being and security.
How Are Sublime Landscapes Depicted?
Edmund Burke said that the sublime from the beautiful for its capacity to evoke intense emotions and inspire awe through experiences of nature’s vastness. it also includes vast horizons, towering mountains, and plunging chasms.
J.M.W Turner
J.M.W Turner was an important figure for the romantic movement, which was from the 18th to 19th century. His work was important during these times . He achieved these goals by painting intense contrasts of extreme light and dull clouds with energetic brushstrokes. He created man oil paintings and watercolours which illustrating the compelling forces which also supplied as settings for historical and modern dramas. He caught events such as the slow creep of glaciers in the Alps, the immediate fall of an avalanche and the swell of the ocean. Human transition is presented as well, with images of steamships and other suggestions of industry building the predominant machine age.
