Who is he?

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. He has since been commissioned by FT Weekend Magazine, Hapax Magazine and The Greatest Magazine, and included in BJP, The Guardian, Photograph, Photoworks, METAL Magazine and Photomonitor. He won the Free Range Award and was nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award. Mourant is a Member of Revolv Collective and Contributor at C4 Journal. 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.

This is one of his most famous photos from his collection ‘Aurelian’ which explores the interior space of British butterfly houses. To get the colour blue he has taken a piece of blue glass  from a church window and had it specially cut to fit the lens of his camera. this meant that all the pictures he took were blue.

in this photo there is the reflection of lines of the tower and the trees making a repetitive pattern on the sea.

These are my photos from Harve des par, I’ve edited all of them to make them black and white therefore they all look the same this way my photos look neat and organised.

Photo evaluation:

The lighting in all these photos is natural as it was during the day time however I have changed the photos from natural to black and white as it still shows good tones between the light and dark areas.

New Topographics 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

These photos have an uneasy contrast between man and nature, it shows the responsibility we hold on the landscapes future.

Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development.

What was the New Topographics a reaction to?

The New Topographic Movement represented a paradigm shift in the world of photography and had a profound influence on contemporary art. It forced viewers to reconsider their perceptions of the environment, the impact of human activity on the landscape, and the aesthetics of the ordinary.

Their stark, beautifully printed images of this mundane but oddly fascinating topography was both a reflection of the increasingly suburbanised world around them, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental.

Historical Context : Post-war America struggled with

Family’s living in America before the war struggled with many situations such as Inflation and labour unrest. The country’s main economic concern in the immediate post-war years was inflation. The baby boom and suburbia. Making up for lost time, millions of returning veterans soon married and started families. Isolation and splitting of the family unit, pharmaceuticals and mental health problems. They also struggled with Vast distances, road networks and mobility

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

• Foreground vs background | Dominant features
• Composition | low horizon line | Square format
• Perspective and detail / cluttering
• Wide depth of field | Large Format Camera
• Colour | impact and relevance
• Nationalism vs mobility vs isolation
• Social commentary | The American Dream ?
• An appreciation of the formal elements : line, shape, form, texture, pattern, tone etc

The aperture is a little slow as the car on the left hand side is slightly blurry. the photo has a wide depth of field, the lighting is natural, from the sun and the photo is probably taken around late morning/early afternoon. the lighting in this photo is quite cold. there are many shadows with hard edges from the sun which helps us find out what time of day it is. across the picture there is vertical lines from the lamppost and signs. there is the rule of thirds and as the photo has a low horizon line it lowers the composition in the photo. the mountain is also hard edge, it is miles away but the photo makes it looks a lot closer than it is. the image looks like its leading the viewer towards the mountains in the background, indicating to get out of the busy area. the photo is connected to transport and getting around, the photo has at least 3 petrol stations and 7+ cars, nothing in the photo is coming towards the viewers however it makes it look like if you were to follow the road you would get to the mountain. in this photos the most seen colours are red white and blue which creates a sense of nationality as they are Americas colours of the flag.

panoramic landscapes:

A horizontally extended visual representation providing a wide view of a landscape or other scene, in photography made by joining a series of shots or by using a wide-angle lens, and in film by pivoting the camera horizontally from a fixed place.

David Hockey

David Hockney, a seminal figure in the Pop Art movement, revolutionised visual art with his inventive technique of creating joiners. This method, which involves piecing together a mosaic of photographs to form a cohesive image, challenges and transcends traditional perspectives in both photography and painting. By fragmenting and then reassembling the visual field, Hockney’s joiners disrupt conventional viewpoints, inviting a deeper exploration into the intricacies of perception and representation. This introduction sets the stage to dive into the impact of Hockney’s joiners, underscoring their significance in reshaping contemporary art and photography, and illuminating their influence on artists and photographers alike

His joiner photos:

Hockney’s joiners are a fascinating exploration of perspective, time, and space through the medium of photography. This technique involves the meticulous assembly of multiple photographs to create a single, composite image.

The best way to do this is to use a medium focal length lens 50-100 mm, stand in one place, lock the exposure if possible or set the camera to manual so the exposure does not change and photograph the scene. You might start at the bottom left – sweep right then move up and sweep left – and continue until the entire object is captured. Be sure to overlap your images.

Here is my own panoramic photos i have taken

these photos were taken at Harve des par

to edit them, I used Lightroom and went to photo-photo merge – panorama. I then waited for it to automatically merge all the photos I selected together to make a panorama photo.

exposure compensation:

Exposure compensation basically helps you override automatic exposure adjustments your camera makes in situations with uneven light distribution, filters, non-standard processing, or underexposure or overexposure. It lets you take control of your image’s brightness by manually increasing or decreasing exposure.

exposure bracketing

when you bracket your shots you take exactly the same picture of your subject at several different exposures. This technique gives you a range of options to choose from when you’re editing. As a result, it’s much less likely that you’ll end up with a badly underexposed or overexposed photo.

HDR photos

HDR (high dynamic range) helps you get great shots in high-contrast situations. The iPhone camera takes several photos in rapid succession at different exposures and blends them together to bring more highlight and shadow detail to your photos.

Here are some photos i have taken using aeb

who is he?

Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favoured sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph

childhood

When Adams was twelve he taught himself to play the piano and read music. Soon he was taking lessons, and the ardent pursuit of music became his substitute for formal schooling. For the next dozen years the piano was Adams’s primary occupation and, by 1920, his intended profession. Although he ultimately gave up music for photography, the piano brought substance, discipline, and structure to his frustrating and erratic youth. Moreover, the careful training and exacting craft required of a musician profoundly informed his visual artistry, as well as his influential writings and teachings on photography. Ansel Adams had problems fitting in at school. Some problems were due to a natural shyness and some were due to a physical issue (an “earthquake nose” as he called it – his nose was broken during an earthquake). It is also possible that he may have dealt with hyperactivity or dyslexia.

inspiration

For Adams, the environmental issues of particular importance were  Yosemite national park the national park system, and above all, the preservation of wilderness. He focused on what he termed the spiritual-emotional aspects of parks and wilderness and relentlessly resisted the Park Service’s “resorts,” which had led to the over development of the national parks and their domination by private concessionaires. 

sierra club

In 1919 he joined the Sierra Club and spent the first of four summers in  Yosemite valley, as “keeper” of the club’s LeConte Memorial Lodge. He became friends with many of the club’s leaders, who were founders of America’s nascent conservation movement. He met his wife, Virginia Best, in Yosemite; they were married in 1928. The couple had two children.

what else did he do

In 1940 he helped found the first curatorial department devoted to photography as an art form at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 1946 he established at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) the first academic department to teach photography as a profession.

During the 1930s, Adams began to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation.

Kings Canyon is among all national parks, at the highest risk from air pollution – they both have significant levels of concerns in all three air categories: Unhealthy Air, Hazy Skies and Harm to Nature.

Adams lobbied Congress for a Kings Canyon National Park, the Club’s priority issue in the 1930s, and created an impressive, limited-edition book, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, which influenced both Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and President Franklin Roosevelt to embrace the Kings Canyon Park idea.

visualisation

The term visualization refers to the entire emotional-mental process of creating a photograph, and as such, it is one of the most important concepts in photography.” — Ansel Adams. I’ve become increasingly aware of the power of visualization over the years.

zone system

The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer.

Image analysis

technical:

by shooting black and white, he was able to enhance the dramatic shadows, and manipulate reality in a way, positioning the viewer closer to his envisioned image. . Ansel Adams made this image in 1938 during an outing with friends in the Yosemite backcountry with a 3″ x 4″ camera. he has clearly waited in this spot for a gap in the clouds to create the effect that he has achieved.

Visual:

the colour of this photo is in black and white, you can see the lighting reflect off the river. you can see the lines from the shadows of the trees in the distance reflecting on the river

contextual:

The image of “Cathedral Peak and Lake,” taken during the journey, perhaps best encapsulates the irony of the expedition. It’s a striking depiction of the danger and grandeur of the High Sierra, capturing the resolute Cathedral Peak standing proudly before a dark swell of gathering clouds

conceptual:

The story behind Ansel Adams’ “Cathedral Peak and Lake” brings us back to the long friendship formed between Ansel and renowned artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Perhaps no two artists have had a greater impact on the cultural imagination of America’s wilderness. Though Ansel’s medium was photography while O’Keeffe’s was painting, both, in their own way, captured the style, emotion, and drama of exploring the landscapes of America. It’s no surprise that they were not only great admirers of each other’s artistic works, but close friends and frequent companions.

The image of “Cathedral Peak and Lake,” taken during the journey, perhaps best encapsulates the irony of the expedition. It’s a striking depiction of the danger and grandeur of the High Sierra, capturing the resolute Cathedral Peak standing proudly before a dark swell of gathering clouds. The dark shadows that fall across the top of the peak, barren of even the scrubby pines that dot the lower reaches of the mountain, convey the ruggedness of climbing it, apparent even from across the icy lake.

what camera did he use?

Deardorf 8×10 View Camera 

• What does Landscape mean? A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.

• When did landscape emerge as a genre in western culture? ​ After the fall of the Roman Empire, the tradition of depicting pure landscapes declined, and the landscape was seen only as a setting for religious and figural scenes. This tradition continued until the 16th century when artists began to view the landscape as a subject in its own right.

• When did classical landscapes emerge as a genre?​ In the 17th century the classical landscape was born. These landscapes were influenced by classical antiquity and sought to illustrate an ideal landscape recalling Arcadia, a legendary place in ancient Greece known for its quiet pastoral beauty.

• What prompted the rise of Landscape Art during the late 18th / 19th century?​ religious painting declined throughout the rest of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. That fact, combined with a new Romanticism — which emphasized emotion, individualism, and the glorification of nature — promoted landscapes to the well-loved place in art which they continue to hold today

• When did landscape photography originate? According to records, the earliest known evidence of a landscape photograph was taken between the years of 1826 and 1827. It was an urban landscape photo taken by a French inventor by the name of Nicephore Niepce.

Photoshoot 1:

These are some of my photos before and after editing

I have used Lightroom to edit all of these photos from this project. Below I have shown some screenshots of what type of filters/edits i have used to accomplish these photos. My photos were taken from sunrise to sunset to show some good lighting. I used different shutter speeds and exposure to be able to get different effects in the photos. However some of the photos that have been taken at sunrise I made the exposure too low therefore not letting enough light in. This is why I have edited the photos so your able to see more of the surroundings of the photos. For most of the photos I moved to different places of the coast to get different angles and perspectives. For the sunset photos I went down to Gorey and St Catherine’s and for the sunset photos I went to Gronez and St Ouens. Next time I would bring a tripod to be able to take photos with longer shutter speed

This is my contact sheet, overall i have taken 201 photos for this photoshoot.

Romanticism

​Among the characteristic attitudes of Romanticism were the following: a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature, a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect, a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities​. Romanticism has long been associated within the landscape. In the medium of photography, the sense of romance of the landscape features it spirit in full bloom.​

A fact-file about romanticism​

who:

In English literature, the key figures of the Romantic movement are considered to be the group of poets including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the much older William Blake, followed later by the isolated figure of John Clare​.

john Constable, the German Caspar David Friedrich, and the American Thomas Cole

what:

Romanticism has long been associated within the landscape. In the medium of photography, the sense of romance of the landscape features it spirit in full bloom. It is very hard to categorise. The very nature of Romanticism is rather uncontrollable and unpredictable.​

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.​

where/when:

Romanticism was first defined as an aesthetic in literary criticism around 1800. It then went on to gain momentum as an artistic movement in France and Britain in the early decades of the nineteenth century and flourished until mid-century. ​

why:

The main idea of Romanticism is the celebration of the individual and the glorification of nature. More specifically, Romantics embrace the uniqueness of the human spirit, which they feel is reflected in and deeply connected to the untamed wildness of nature.​

An explanation of what The Sublime is​

In aesthetics, the sublime (from the Latin sublimes) is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation.​

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

Well, then you encountered ‘The Sublime’ or at least the Romantic era version (1800-1850) of it. The Sublime is a western aesthetic concept of ‘the exalted’ of ‘beauty that is grand and dangerous’. The Sublime refers to the wild, unbounded grandeur of nature.​

how did the Industrial Revolution have an impact on Romanticism?

The Industrial Revolution had a profound impact on the Romantic movement, shaping its themes, concerns, and artistic expressions. The loss of connection with nature, the alienating effects of urbanization, and the critique of industrial capitalism all influenced the works of Romantic poets and artists.

The rise of Romanticism can be seen as a literature’s backlash against the Industrial Revolution. Escaping from the crashing modernity and rise of technology, factories, and cities, Romantics focused on nature, rural life and subjectivity.

The importance of the British painters JMW Turner and John Constable​

The landscape painters Turner and Constable were influential exponents of romanticism, an artistic movement of the late 1700s to mid-1800s that emphasized an emotional response to nature. ​

Turner, who travelled extensively, often infused his dramatic seascapes and landscapes with literary or historical allusions. Two of Britain’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. ​

Born within a year of each other Turner in 1775, Constable in 1776 – they used landscape art to reflect the changing world around them.​

Individualism ​

Focus on the self and personal expression, valuing individual creativity over societal constraints. ​

Imagination ​

Emphasized as a powerful and transcendent faculty, often seen as more important than reason. ​

Nature ​

Nature was seen as a source of inspiration, beauty, and spiritual power, often depicted as sublime and untamed. ​

Sublime ​

A concept that refers to experiences of awe and terror in nature or art, where beauty and danger intersect. ​

Emotion ​

Emphasis on intense emotions such as passion, awe, melancholy, and longing, often in reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. ​

The Supernatural ​

Interest in the mystical, the mysterious, and the irrational, including folklore, myths, and gothic elements. ​

The Heroic ​

Celebration of the individual hero, often portrayed as a misunderstood or tragic figure. ​

Exoticism ​

Fascination with distant, mysterious lands and cultures, often portrayed in art, literature, and music. ​

Nostalgia ​

A longing for the past, especially for simpler or more primitive times, often idealized. ​

Rebellion ​

Rejection of established norms, authority, and traditional conventions, including a challenge to societal, political, and artistic constraints. ​

Art for Art’s Sake​

The idea that art should be valued for its intrinsic beauty and emotional power rather than its moral or didactic message. ​

Gothic ​

A style that blends the mysterious, eerie, and dark elements, often involving haunted landscapes or supernatural occurrences. ​

The Byronic Hero ​

A specific type of hero, derived from Lord Byron’s works, characterized by rebellion, isolation, and a troubled, tormented soul. ​

Sentimentality ​

Overwhelming emotion, often expressed in literature or visual arts, with a focus on tender, emotional moments. ​

My Photoshoots

My contact sheets:

These are my contact sheets of my identity project from Lightroom. I have done two separate photoshoots. Overall I have 457 photos which I have taken. This consists of 347 in the first photo shoot and 110 on my second photoshoot. The first photoshoot I did was in the studio with Alisha. I got her to dress up in a flowy dress and spin around so I was able to take photos with long shutter speed like Francesca woodman would have used in her photos. On the second photo shoot I used my sister and also got her to wear a dress, I took her out to a field at dusk so the lighting would be good. Again in this photoshoot I also used a long shutter speed with my ISO on 600.

These four photos are my chosen photos to edit from my first photoshoot.

These are the four chosen photos from my second photoshoot that ill be using.

Before and after editing

First Photoshoot;

Down the left hand side, are my unedited photos. The photos down the middle I have cropped, changed the brightness and contrast and moved around the exposure. the photos on the right I have changed them all into black and white. I did this to show my different ideas of editing my photos. it shows that editing photos can be done in many different ways and still look good. For all of these photos I used a long shutter speed such as 1/6 or 1/8. I used different lights in the studio to help. I found the light that was most effective was the flash light which was connected to the camera. Therefore every time I took a photo the light would flash. I changed between the white and black backdrop throughout the photoshoot to experiment with which ones I liked more.

To edit the Hue/saturation for the middle column photos, I went onto photoshop selected image then scrolled down to adjustments then selected hue/saturation, I then adjusted it to what fitted the best. To change the brightness/contrast for the second and third column did the same thing but except I chose brightness/contrast instead of hue/saturation.

Second photoshoot;

To edit these photos I used photoshop. I firstly dragged one photo on top of the other to create a double exposure photo. I then changed the opacity of the first photo so it would let the second photo come through and be visible. I then cropped the image so that my sister was the main focus and then changed the brightness and contrast on both photos until I got it to be where I wanted it. As I was outside, I did not have access to any lights, however the natural lighting was exactly what I needed for this photoshoot. With the black and white I used the edited photo and added a black and white photo filter, I then changed the brightness and contrast to be able to adjust the black and white to the way I wanted it. The black and white also looks a lot more like Francesca woodman’s photos as hers were all in black and white.

This is how I changed the opacity of the layer 1 so the background layers could come through on my photos.

To adjust my brightness and contrast I went onto image then adjustments then brightness/contrast. I would then play around with it until I was confident with it.

My Final photos

how this links to identity.

In my First set of photos, I’ve used double exposure to separate the two photos, the main photo being the body and the transparent photo being the soul coming out of the body. In my second set of photos I’ve used a long exposure whilst taking the photos, therefore both sets of photos are showing that the spiritual part of a person that some people believe continues to exist in some form after their body has died. The soul is the part of our being that consists of our thoughts, our emotions, and our unique personality. Therefore in these photos I wanted to separate the two to show that your body doesn’t define what or who you are and that your identity shouldn’t be what is seen on the outside. I think that my photos also represent freedom from the body, showing that your soul and body are two separate things.

Evaluation

Personally I would say that my final outcome was successful. However there would be changes that I would make if I were to do it again. With many of the images on my second photoshoot, my ISO was too high, therefore making the sky very bright and some of the photos came out grainier than the photos I took in the studio. Next time I would lower the ISO to make it more sharp and detailed. Or I could take my photos when it was just a little bit darker, therefore I wouldn’t have to worry as much about the ISO being to high. I would also probably take more photos for my second photoshoot so I could have had more options to chose from.

I tried to make spiritual details throughout the photographs just as Francesca woodman did. This is where I did my double exposure photos. In my first set of final photos, I used double exposure to make it look like there was a soul coming out of my sisters body. It gives it a spooky shadow effect and correlates to Francesca Woodman’s photos.

I knew what my intentions were when taking these photos as I had made a mood board on the theme of what I wanted my photos to look like which helped me throughout the process.

• Long exposure
• Movement
• Memories

Francesca Woodman is my inspiration for my photography project. I like how her photos give a sense of mystery and thrill.

Francesca Woodman’s entire body of work was produced as a young person and created over just eight short years. Her photographs explore many themes that affect young people such as relationships, sexuality, questions of self, body image, alienation, isolation and confusion or ambiguity about personal identity.

who is she?

Francesca Stern Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. Many of her photographs show women, naked or clothed, blurred, merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured. Francesca Woodman committed suicide at the age of 22, jumping from a window. She had only about five years of photography behind her, much of it done as a student. this also contributes to the eeriness of her ghost like photos.

Why is she so important?

Woodman’s feminist photography dealt with tilting the conventions of life, art, and death. In her photographs, she tried to both hide and define herself; in death, she crystallized and ensured her legacy in the feminist art movement.

How did she take her photos

Woodman used long shutter speed and double exposure when photographing so that she could actively feature in her own work. This also meant that she could capture different stages of movement, in a way that could trace the pattern of time. As a result, her image is blurred, which suggests motion and urgency.