What is it?

New topographics was a term made 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.

Many of the photographers associated with new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made, selecting subject matter that was matter-of-fact. 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 were the new topographics a reaction to?

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

Case Study – Robert Adams

Robert Adams, born in 1937, is a prominent American photographer renowned for his exploration of the evolving landscapes of the American West. His work gained significant recognition in the mid-1970s, particularly with the publication of his book, The New West, in 1974, and his involvement in the 1975 exhibition titled New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape. Throughout his career, Adams has been awarded with two Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, and the Hasselblad Award.

Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian about Adams’ work, said “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.

Image Analysis

Technical – The picture shows a gas station on the frontier, presumably at darker hours which means the lighting for the image is coming mostly from the manmade lamps that are visible. All details in the foreground are clear and visible, meaning a high aperture value and deep depth of field were likely used – furthermore, there is little to none visual noise meaning ISO was kept to a minimal value such as 100.

Visual – The picture is completely lacking in colour being in black and white, which helps add to the bleakness of the image due to the gas station almost having invaded the landscape. There is also a clear contrast in light and dark tones, with the station in the foreground having more of an emphasis on lighter tones with the mountains in the background not being illuminated and therefore being darker. There is also a sense of depth and three dimensions with how the station has been positioned in the image, helping to create a sense of drama.

Contextual/Conceptual – Adams was part of The New Topograhics with a focus on manmade landscapes and their effect on natural ones, hence why the image focuses on a station which is taking away the focus and attention from the mountains placed farther away in the background.

Stephen Shore

Key features:

• 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

Image analysis:

Technical – The image features natural light, likely taken in the most prominent hours of sunshine (~12pm) which casts distinct, hard-edged shadows on the pavement. It is also likely a high aperture was used since there is clear detail in all aspects of the image, even the mountains in the distance to an extent.

Visual – There is some alignment to the rule of thirds which the lamp posts, but the main visual feature of this image is the fact that most of the detail is cluttered in the bottom third with the two top thirds of the image being almost empty except from the sky and gas station sky, which when combined with the lines leading towards the mountains creates a contrast between this suburban area and the natural landscape off in the distance.

Contextual/Conceptual – The image features predominantly the colours red white and blue, linking to the American flag which when considering the lines pointing off towards the horizon creates links towards American pride for their landscapes.

Examples in Jersey

Recycling Plant – Fort Regent

Around this area there is plenty of natural landscape (e.g. Havre des Pas), allowing for images capturing both man-made and natural landscapes for contrast.

Car Parks

Car parks are fully man-made and create a bleak atmosphere, containing mostly artificial lighting and the lack of people also adds to the uncomfortable mood.

Tunnels

The lights along the top of tunnels create leading lines which direct attention towards the end of the tunnel, creating immersive images with a dramatic atmosphere.

What is Panoramic Photography?

A panorama is basically a long thin photograph of a big scene. It could be a mountain range, a large lake or a huge vista, usually something that you might not be able to fit into one photo with the lens you have.

This effect can be achieved using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography.

David Hockney and Joiner Photos

David Hockney, an important 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.

David Hockney Image Analysis

This image was created using ~700 images stitched together. Each image captures details up close and has been placed side by side with other images to re-create the actual scene as one big photograph. Hockney’s initial ideas behind these photographs stemmed initially from his deep-seated dissatisfaction with the limitations of traditional photography and its confinement to a single perspective. Hockney’s pioneering spirit and his constant quest for innovation led him to explore the possibilities of capturing the essence of time and space in a manner that more closely mirrored human vision and experience.

Photoshoot Introduction

I took my photos on and around Petit Port beach, as well as near the Corbiere cliffsides to try and replicate the style of Ansel Adams.

Settings – I aimed to use high aperture values to try keep as much of the image in focus and detailed as possible, similarly to group f/64. I also kept ISO to a minimum to avoid visual noise and was able to use shutter speed values of around 1/50 and 1/60 since it was very sunny.

Angles/Perspective – I used Ansel Adams’ visualisation method to visualise an image before I took the photograph to see how it would turn out, and using this I was able to have the camera’s perspective focus on rocks, cliffsides and water since these contrast nicely with each other as well as creating shadows which work well with HDR/exposure bracketing and would create lots of drama when experimenting with black and white in editing. I also aimed to have the sky take up roughly the top third of the image, creating further contrast as well as adding some negative space and drama so the entire image isn’t cluttered with excessive detail.

Timings – I went late afternoon/early evening so the sunlight would be at it’s peak in order for me to be able to capture effective images with a wide range of shadows for exposure bracketing, as well as enabling me to experiment with slightly more atmospheric images with the sunset.

Contact Sheet

Selection

During my selection process, I aimed to choose images that had a sense of drama and would present a range of dark and light tones when edited to be black and white. I also aimed to select images with lots of shadows to allow exposure bracketing to bring out details.

Some of my selected photos:

I selected this image since I thought using HDR would bring out lots of detail in the shadows and create an interesting landscape with balanced exposure, similarly to the style of Ansel Adams. I also liked the composition, with darker shadows on the rocks on the left and more sunlight illuminating the rocks on the right as well as the sky being positioned about 2/3 up the image.

I chose this image because I like the light reflecting of the water in the bottom of the picture, as well as the balance of shadows and illumination throughout the rocks. Although the sky is bleached out due to the sun, I will try and use HDR and masking in Lightroom to adjust the sky to add more detail to the sky as well as contrasting it from the foreground.

Editing/Experimentation

I opened this photo in Lightroom and went into develop mode to use the HDR editing, merging 3 versions of the same image at different exposures to capture detail in less exposed areas.

To achieve this effect, I used the golden hour preset, added some dark post-crop vignetting and used the settings above. This adds a nice colour contrast between the orange sky and blue sea, whilst still maintaining good enough exposure to make out details in shadows and have a range of tones from light to dark.

This image was created using HDR photo merge and then decreasing highlights and increasing shadows. The natural light casted onto the rocks creates an effective contrast between the light and shadows on the rocks, as well as complimenting the lighter tones in the sky with the darker tones in the sea nicely.

Finally, I added some slight vignette and increased the clarity and decreased the dehaze. The final result maintains good exposure on all parts of the image which when combined with the use of a high aperture brings out every detail in the image.

For this image I first HDR photo merged it, and noticed overall it was quite underexposed.

I then increased the exposure and decreased the highlights to bring more details as well as making the photo more visible.

Experimenting with black and white but I don’t like how the sky looks, so I used the masking tool in Lightroom to adjust it and make it contrast more visibly with the lighter tones of the cliff.

Final product, effectively exposed to maintain detail throughout the image as well as having the sky be darker to create a sense of drama.

Before vs after HDR. Noticeably more exposed with more details visible in shadows, creating more drama and taking more influence from the style of Ansel Adams.

Experimenting with black and white, very effective in bringing out the tonal difference throughout the rocks and creating drama although I don’t like the colour of the sky.

Darkening the sky since it was too light and stood out, now creating more balanced contrasts between light and dark tones. Final image has a greater sense of drama.

Original HDR image, with adjustment of exposure and shadows to further bring out detail in areas not very well-illuminated by the sun.

Black and white variation, effective with lighter tones noticeable in the clouds and sky, midtones on some of the illuminated parts of the rocks and dark tones in the shadows created on some rocks from the sun.

Exposure increased on the sky to make lighter tones more noticeable, as well as decreasing highlights and shadows and increasing contrast to bring out darker tones in the clouds.

Initial version of the image using HDR, I like it since the vibrance of the rocks exposed by sunlight contrast nicely with the shadows mainly on the left of the image as well as the sky.

When made black and white, I liked the drama created but noticed detail was lost in the shadows so I will increase shadows/exposure to restore this.

Increased shadows, next I tried to manipulate the sky to make it contrast more nicely with the cliffside and the rocks.

Presentation in ArtSteps

I chose to present all the black and white images together since they all are of similar subjects/landscapes, and this combined with the light and dark tones of each image group them all together effectively, enhancing the drama and atmosphere created by each individual photo. The other two are presented in a diptych, with the darker sky and shadows of the first image contrasting with the lighter tones and sky of the second image, which I found very effective since these two images are creating different atmospheres allowing for this presentation to amplify this contrast.

Photoshoot Evaluation

Overall, I found my photos to be effective in presenting a range of tones as well as creating drama while maintaining Ansel Adams’ style of high aperture values and keeping everything well enough exposed to allow every detail to be visible. Editing also allowed for me to create HDR photos and experiment with black and white, helping me achieve my intention behind each image as well as helping to reinforce the atmosphere each individual image is trying to create.

Comparison Against Ansel Adams

Technical – Both photos were taken outdoors, and thus all of the lighting is natural – both also use a high aperture to create a large depth of field and keep every detail in focus. Finally, there is a visible use of the zone system to have a wide range of different tones from light to dark (also helping to add more drama to the image), so I think I have successfully replicated Ansel Adams’ style.

Visual – Ansel Adams’ image was taken from high up in a mountain range, capturing another mountain range in the distance as well as the river and landscape below all of which uses the zone system to create visible contrast between light and dark tones. My image contains a similar range of light and dark tones, although the sky has been darkened slightly since I found it to be a bit bleached out so it doesn’t have as many lighter tones although the scene itself still has a sense of drama similarly to Adams’ photo.

Conceptual – The idea behind Ansel Adams’ photography was to use high apertures to maintain noticeable detail in every area of the image, showing off the beauty of nature (linking to his work as an environmentalist) and to have a wide range of tones in each image, creating drama. I think both his image and mine make effective use of these techniques.

Exposure Compensation

Exposure compensation 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

Exposure bracketing is a technique where, instead of taking a single photo, you take three (or more) that are all exposed slightly differently; normally one is correctly exposed, one slightly underexposed, and one slightly overexposed.

HDR Photos

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and 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.

Example HDR Images

Image 1

The 3 images above were the images taken to create the final HDR product. The first one is -1 underexposed, the second is balanced and the third is +1 overexposed.

This was the final product produced after merging all 3 images, with a few automatic adjustments applied to exposure and contrast.

Image 2

The 3 individual images used to create the HDR version.

Final result, with better visibility of details in less exposed areas.

Who?

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) 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. He and Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in exposure, negative development, and printing.

Childhood

One of Adams’s earliest memories was watching the smoke from the fires caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Then four years old, Adams was uninjured in the initial shaking but was tossed face-first into a garden wall during an aftershock three hours later, breaking and scarring his nose. A doctor recommended that his nose be reset once he reached maturity, but it remained crooked and necessitated mouth breathing for the rest of his life.

Adams was a hyperactive child and prone to frequent sickness and hypochondria. He had few friends, but his family home and surroundings on the heights facing the Golden Gate provided ample childhood activities. He had little patience for games or sports; but he enjoyed the beauty of nature from an early age, collecting bugs and exploring Lobos Creek all the way to Baker Beach and the sea cliffs leading to Lands End, “San Francisco’s wildest and rockiest coast, a place strewn with shipwrecks and rife with landslides.

At age 14, he was given his first camera during his first visit to Yosemite National Park. He developed his early photographic work as a member of the Sierra Club. He was later contracted with the United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks.

Sierra Club

The Sierra Club’s stated mission is “To explore, enjoy, 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; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.”

Ansel Adams was an official director of the Sierra Club from 1934-1971.

1927

In 1927, Adams began working with Albert M. Bender, a San Francisco insurance magnate and arts patron. Bender helped Adams produce his first portfolio in his new style, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, which included his famous image Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, which was taken with his Korona view camera, using glass plates and a dark red filter (to heighten the tonal contrasts). On that excursion, he had only one plate left, and he “visualized” the effect of the blackened sky before risking the last image. He later said, “I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print.” One biographer calls Monolith Adams’s most significant photograph because the “extreme manipulation of tonal values” was a departure from all previous photography. Adams’s concept of visualization, which he first defined in print in 1934, became a core principle in his photography.

1930s

Bender took Adams on visits to Taos, New Mexico, where Adams met and made friends with the poet Robinson Jeffers, artists John Marin and Georgia O’Keeffe, and photographer Paul Strand. His talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him popular among his artist friends. His first book, Taos Pueblo, was published in 1930 with text by writer Mary Hunter Austin.

During the 1930s, Adams began to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation. He was inspired partly by the increasing incursion into Yosemite Valley of commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops, and automobile traffic. He created the limited-edition book Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail in 1938, as part of the Sierra Club’s efforts to secure the designation of Kings Canyon as a national park. This book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of that effort, and Congress designated Kings Canyon as a national park in 1940, despite previous failures to get the creation of the national park approved.

Kings Canyon Crisis

Kings Canyon was targeted by water supply and power interests including the city of Los Angeles, who wanted to build hydroelectric dams in Kings Canyon. Due to its heavy flow and long drop – 11,000 feet (3,400 m) in less than 80 miles (130 km) – the Kings River has considerable hydroelectric potential, and reservoirs were proposed for Cedar Grove, Tehipite Valley and Simpson Meadow, among other sites. Development interests blocked legislation that would have made the area a national park, but at the same time, the environmental lobby prevented any of these projects from being built.

Later, Ansel Adams was tasked to photograph and document the area, generating publicity for the preservation movement. However, in order to placate the local irrigation districts – who wanted to leave open the option of reservoirs – Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley were specifically excluded from the new park. On March 4, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill to create Kings Canyon National Park, which added the original General Grant National Park to over 400,000 acres (160,000 ha) of the High Sierra above Cedar Grove.

Presidential Medal

 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

Ansel Adams on visualisation:

“Visualisation is a conscious process of projecting the final photographic image in the mind before taking the first steps in actually photographing the subject.”

“The term visualisation refers to the entire emotional-mental process of creating a photograph, and as such, it is of the most important concepts in photography.”

“To visualise an image (in whole or in part) is to see it clearly in the mind prior to exposure, a continuous projection from composing the image through the final print.” Visualisation is more accurately viewed as an attitude toward photography . . .”

In simpler terms, visualisation is about imagining a scene and figuring out the best shot before taking a photograph.

Zone System

The 11 zones in Ansel Adams’ system were defined to represent the gradation of all the different tonal values you would see in a black and white print, with zone 5 being middle grey.  Zone 0 is pure black (with no detail), and zone 10 is pure white (with no detail).  Each zone represents one f-stop in exposure. There is an 11-stop difference between pure black and pure white, with a 7-stop difference between the darkest black with detail and the lightest white with detail.

Image Analysis

Technical – The lighting in this image is natural, likely during the day although a deep red-filter has been used to darken the sky. The aperture is definitely high, like f/64 since Ansel Adams liked to capture every single aspect of the image in focus.

Visual – Adams has captured the side of a mountain, taking up roughly 2/3 of the frame with a darkened sky visible in the top left as well as a snowy landscape littered with trees in the bottom left and bottom right. The image uses every zone in the zone system, with zones 0-3 being visible in the sky and zone 10 being seen on the snow in the right side of the image.

Contextual – Adams initially took this photograph using a yellow filter but didn’t like the tone of the sky so redid it using a deep red-filter, and was very pleased with the result. A very high aperture was also used since Ansel Adams and the f/64 Group as photographers liked ‘pure’ images, capturing every little detail of landscapes in focus.

Conceptual – Adams was very keen of ‘visualisation’, capturing an image in his mind’s eye before taking the actual image which is what he did when he positioned himself and pointed his camera at the mountain.

Contact Sheet

For my photoshoot, I focused mainly on cliffsides and the seascape whilst also experimenting with trees and greenery.

Selection

The pictures I have selected for editing each have a wide range of light and dark tones as well as compositions which create 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/Experimentation

For my first edits of this image I darkened the sky to create more contrast between light and dark tones as well as create drama, and turned up the contrast and clarity for the foreground.

I then experimented with making it black and white, which I really liked since the darker tones of the foreground contrast effectively with the lighter tones of the sea and midtones of the sky.

With this image I darkened the sky again to create more drama since in the original image the sky was pastel-ly and bleached out.

Black and white variation, showing contrast between the sea, sky and landscape.

Lowered highlights and whites, increased contrast.

Black and white, creating a greater sense of drama.

Decreased contrast and highlights.

I then turned the image black and white in Photoshop, manually adjusting each colour, then increasing highlights, brightness and contrast to create more drama.

Above are the settings I used to create the effect.

Decreased highlights and whites to create more drama in the sky.

Black and white to create more contrast between the sky, sea and rocky foreground and increased contrast to highlight the range of tones in the rocks more.

Settings used to edit the photo.

Decreased highlights, slightly increased exposure and contrast.

Edited to have darker tones in the trees and leaves, midtones in the trees in the background and lighter tones in the sky.

Settings used to edit the image.

Presentation in ArtSteps

Definition and Explanation

Romanticism was first recognized as a style in literary criticism around 1800, but it really took off as an artistic movement in France and Britain during the early 1800s and continued to thrive until about the middle of the century. This movement focused on imagination and feelings, arising as a reaction to the disappointment with Enlightenment ideals of reason and structure that followed the French Revolution in 1789.​

The term sublime refers to art/photography that has the capability to terrify or overwhelm the viewer. Edmund Burke asserts that the feelings of the sublime are triggered by extremes – vastness, extreme height, difficulty, darkness or excessive light.​ Sublime paintings/photography typically focus on extreme environments such as jagged mountains or rough, stormy seas which invocate feelings of fear as well as excitement.

“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”

The Industrial Revolution and its 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.

Many English intellectuals and artists in the early 19th century considered industrialism inhumane and unnatural and revolted – sometimes quite violently – against what they felt to be the increasingly inhumane and unnatural mechanization of modern life. To a large extent, English Romantic intellectuals and artists felt that the modern industrial world was harsh and deadening to the senses and spirit. These intellectuals called for a return, both in life and in spirit, of the emotional and natural, as well as the ideals of the pre-industrial past.

Romantic Artists

JMW Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.​

John Constable

John Constable (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally 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 affection. “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 paintings include Wivenhoe Park (1816), Dedham Vale (1828) and The Hay Wain (1821). Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 52. His work was embraced in France, where he sold more than in his native England and inspired the Barbizon school.​

Constable’s father was a land owner and the early industrial revolution was perceived to threaten jobs, creating a contextual link which is relaxed and not portraying the tension associated with the industrial revolution at the time. The typical landscape before this focused on classical landscapes, e.g. Arcadia or fictional landscapes which this painting is defying – most notably with the large amount of canvas dedicated to the sky (since Constable had studied meteorology, shown by him capturing a specific time of day in the painting) and fields, also making the painting more personal as it relates to the landscapes Constable grew up in and is fond of. The painting is also intentionally not ‘finished’ with rough textures and brushstrokes creating more emphasis on the grass and light reflecting off the water.

Landscape photography shows the spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on human-made features or disturbances of landscapes. Landscape photography is done for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most common is to recall a personal observation or experience while in the outdoors, especially when traveling. Others pursue it particularly as an outdoor lifestyle, to be involved with nature and the elements, some as an escape from the artificial world.

Rise of Landscapes 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. The artistic shift seems to have corresponded to a growing interest in the natural world sparked by the Renaissance.

Classical Landscapes

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. The Roman poet Virgil had described Arcadia as the home of pastoral simplicity.

In a classical landscape the positioning of objects was contrived; every tree, rock, or animal was carefully placed to present a harmonious, balanced, and timeless mood. The classical landscape was perfected by French artists Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. Both artists spent most of their careers in Rome drawing inspiration from the Roman countryside.

Italy, at this time, was the preferred location for many artists, who often travelled there with patrons on the Grand Tour. Poussin, who in his early years focused his talent on history painting, came later in life to believe that landscapes could express the same powerful emotions as the human dramas depicted in history paintings. From that point on, he worked to elevate landscape to a higher status.

Rise of Landscape Art During the 18th/19th Century

Several factors converged during the nineteenth century to broaden the appeal of landscape art. Most noticeable among them was urban growth, which increasingly separated Americans from rural scenes and activities, fostering a nostalgic desire to reconnect with nature.

Also, 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.

Origin of Landscape Photography

It’s a bit harder to pinpoint when landscape photography began. 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. It was noted this first exposure took him a mere 8 hours, so perhaps it made sense for him to choose a still subject. A few years later, around 1835, an English scientist named Henry Fox Talbot entered the scene and introduced innovations in photography.

It was quite revolutionary back then because this allowed people a much faster way of rendering reality into a two-dimensional format that they were previously only able to do by way of painting. This process took much longer than taking a photo.

For my identity photoshoot, I explored stereotypes and juxtaposition between masculinity and femininity.

First Photoshoot Contact Sheet

Initial Selection

I chose these two photos to juxtapose them against each other, since there is a clear contrast between the stance and texture in each image – the feminine hand on the left is more relaxed and has smoother skin, unlike the masculine hand on the right which is clenched and has roughed knuckles with as well as hair and veins being visible. This is because stereotypically males are seen as the workers while females stereotypically are seen as housewives that only cook and clean, hence one hand being smoother and calmer whereas one is rougher and less relaxed.

These two photos relate to each other by taking place in the same environment (a stereotypic environment of women), as well as the fully black clothes showing restriction that when combined with the bleak expressions creating an uncomfortable atmosphere. I did this to show how stereotypes can shape someone’s identity and in these pictures it almost seems like she is being forced into a role which she doesn’t want to be in and it consequently affects her identity and self-perception, reinforced by the fully black dull clothing.

I picked these two photos to contrast against each other to show clear differences between physical appearance in females and males and how it presents your identity physically, my mum has much smoother skin compared to my dad but also in the picture her expression (despite only being able to see her eye) seems uncomfortable/worried, as if she is unhappy with physical appearance and identity. However, my dad has rougher skin and more distinguishable features but appears more relaxed and calm in contrast to the picture of my mum which I did intentionally to highlight how physical identity can affect how you perceive and feel about yourself.

I picked the first photo because I like how it subtly explores female stereotypes with only a hand and a jar of flowers, and for editing I plan to manipulate the flowers to show how it shapes identity. The second photo is a more direct comparison of masculine vs feminine hands which I like, and I will edit it to make the background less distracting and amplify textures to further highlight these differences.

Initial Editing and Experimentation

I wanted to keep edits for these two images simple, so I made the textures in skin more noticeable to clearly contrast the two hands further and turned down the exposure on the background of the first image so the background’s darker tones juxtapose the second image’s lighter tones.

With this image I wanted to experiment with changing the flowers drastically to stand out from the female hand and create a bleak atmosphere, so I selected them manually using the masking tool in Lightroom and made them black and white as well as trying out different levels of intentional visual noise to see how it would affect the image. I then finally turned down the overall image’s exposure down slightly to help contribute to the dull mood it’s creating and found it was very effective.

To edit this image, I first selected the background using a mask tool and turned down the exposure and clarity to direct more focus towards the hands – I then increased texture and adjusted other options to make veins, wrinkles and other interesting features of each hand stand out.

In this image my goal was to place my mum in a stereotypical feminine environment (kitchen) and capture her looking uncomfortable/sad, so to help reinforce this in editing I selected her and made her fully black and white to contrast completely with the environment and portray how feminine identity can be shaped by societal norms and stereotypes and how it affects the individual.

Similarly to the last image, I wanted a gloomy/miserable atmosphere created by an environment which the subject doesn’t want to be in but feels like she has to be in due to the expectations set by society which consequently shape and restrict her identity. I did this by making the whole image except her and the flowers black and white and turning down the saturation on her and the flowers to set a dull mood, and by having the subject and flowers be the only things in colour it creates a connection between them and implies they are tied to her true identity – however, the fading colours further suggests that this identity is being restricted by what she is expected to do stereotypically.

With this photo, I wanted to explore identity in terms of age hence why I took a close up to focus closely on the looser skin and wrinkles. In editing I made it black and white since it gives it an older feeling which relates to my intention behind this image and adjusted texture and clarity to help highlight the wrinkles and skin texture.

Further Editing/Experimentation

For this image, I took 2 different images (half of my mum’s face and half of my dad’s) and put them side by side to make it look like one face. I then made them both black and white and took rectangular sections from the middle to make the images blend into each other a little. I then finally selected each face’s eye and swapped them around, creating a clear focal point.

For this image, I selected my mum as the subject and added motion blur which distorts her and alongside the lack of colour creates a sense of loss of identity, especially when considering the environment (a kitchen, which links to stereotypes) is also in black and white unlike the flowers which are vibrant and in full colour suggesting they have some sort of link to the subject which has been restricted by stereotypes and societal expectations.

I explored more aspects of loss of identity, editing this image to distort the face as well as fully making the subject black and white to create a sense of the subject being forced into this environment and consequently it making her lose her true identity.

Similarly to the last one, I turned down the saturation greatly for the background to make it seem more dull as well as selecting the subject and making her fully black and white as well as applying motion blur to the head to distort her features. I also added a subtle black and white outline around the subject which adds to the idea that this isn’t the subject’s desired environment and is instead forced into it, seeming out of place.

Photoshoot 2 Contact Sheet

Final Edits

For this image, I first made small tweaks in Lightroom develop to show more texture on the hand and ball.

I then made the hand black and white in Photoshop and took the image back to Lightroom, creating masks on the knuckles and increasing the texture on these masks to make the scuffed skin more noticeable. The skin alongside the football implies the subject has been playing football (stereotypic male sport), whilst the scuffed skin suggests it could be forced and it’s taking a toll on their identity leading to the loss of colour and therefore identity.

Firstly I made some small adjustments to the image.

In Photoshop I then made some of the graffiti black and white as well as applying motion blur, and then decreased the saturation of the background slightly. The slow shutter speed used captures the subject in a ghost-like manner, almost like his identity and consequently him are fading which can be seen further in the loss of colour in the background graffiti.

For this image, I enhanced the visibility of the water under the mask’s eye slit and then made any skin visible through the mask slits black and white and applied motion blur, as well as smudging the surroundings.

I took this image straight into Photoshop since I was happy with how it was, and there I made the skin visible through holes in the mask black and white as well as applying motion blur and using the smudge tool around the edges. Finally, I made the glint in the coloured eye slightly more noticeable and made the hand holding the mask black and white. This image is trying to show how stereotypically women are more vulnerable (seen by the eye in colour being wet, almost like she’s crying and not hiding it) but also how their identity can still be masked (shown by the black and white skin being mostly hidden behind the mask).

For this image, I took it straight into Photoshop and distorted the face using the elliptical marquee tool, selecting circle shapes in the face and then rotating them. I then smudged this using the smudge tool and finished by making the subject black and white and greatly toning down the saturation of the background. I will crop it to make it portrait when it comes to exporting.

For this image, I selected the flowers and vase and made them black and white as well as increasing texture to clearly contrast them from the hand. The fading colours from the flowers which are usually vibrant and beautiful represent identity loss.

For this image, I increased the contrast between the subject and the doll by making the subject black and white and increasing texture and clarity on the doll to amplify the plastic texture. The juxtaposition of the doll’s smile and colour compared to the subject’s blank gaze and lack of colour shows how the subject has lost her identity due to being confined to stereotypes (since stereotypically little girls play with dolls).

In Photoshop, I made the arm and hand black and white, applied motion blur and then smudged the area surrounding the subject’s arm to show how the doll (stereotypic little girl’s toy) is causing her to lose her colour and identity, since it is being restricted by stereotypes which links to the previous image too.

For this image, I made it black and white and applied slight motion blur to show loss of identity which could be caused by the surrounding environment (kitchen, linking to stereotypes).

Applied the same as the previous image to this one so I can present them side by side.

For my studio portraiture, I decided to use this multi-exposure portrait.

I will present these two alongside my multi-exposure portrait in a triptych.

Evaluation

Overall, I think my edits were successful since they help to amplify the meaning/intentions behind the picture.

Technical – I used a low aperture to focus solely on the subject and blur the background, alongside a low ISO to minimise visual noise. This was taken outside so natural lighting was used which helps add to the quality of the photo since there aren’t any overly harsh artificial lights.

Visual – In editing, I made all skin seen in slits of the mask black and white as well as applying motion blur which was done to show identity loss and emotions being concealed behind a facade. I also made the water under the eye slit in the mask more noticeable which directs the viewer’s attention towards it, as well as contrasting nicely with the more serious other half of the face.

Contextual/Conceptual – My idea behind this image was to show how stereotypically men are expected to be tough and emotionless, hence why in the image the side of the subject’s face that isn’t covered is completely blank whereas on the masked side what looks to be tears can be seen soaking the paper underneath the eye linking to the stereotypic saying ‘boys don’t cry’.

Presentation Ideas

Identity:

Environmental portraiture:

Studio/creative portraiture:

Presentation in ArtSteps

For my photoshoot, I will take inspiration from some of Cindy Sherman’s work and explore gender stereotypes and societal norms/expectations towards each gender.

Who? – My parents.

What? – Hands (stereotypically, male hands bruised dirty from work and female clean), stereotypic environments + outfits + expectations (e.g. boy’s don’t cry, women must cook and clean) – in black and white to give older impression and highlight how stereotypes supress and influence identity.

Where? – Stereotypic environments (male at work, female in kitchen).

Why? – Explore how stereotypes as well as social expectations affect identity, self-perception and emotions (focus on social/gender identity).

Initial Photo Ideas:

1 – Juxtapose photo of my dad’s hands with photo of my mum’s hands, male hands will be significantly more worn because in their time period in Portugal stereotypes such as males being the ‘breadwinners’ and workers whereas women cooked and cleaned were deeply rooted into society. Contrast side by side and present in black and white to create a more serious tone as well as highlighting differences in each hand much more clearly, showing how the social expectations and stereotypes of their time has influenced them physically and therefore shaped their identity/self-perception even now.

2 – Juxtapose stereotypic outfits/environments of males and females, e.g. have my dad in a work environment dressed in construction gear/a suit and contrast with my mum dressed in an apron/cleaning gear in a kitchen. Explore how gender stereotypes have influenced their identity, both their social identity and gender identity due to societal expectations – dull/bleak atmosphere, environmental portraits with a neutral face and presented in black and white. Could also contrast elements of each stereotypic environment, e.g. compare construction gear vs cleaning materials and suit texture vs cleaning gear texture.

3 – Juxtapose social expectations from each gender with each other, e.g. contrast males being frowned upon for crying and expected to be ‘manly’ with females being seen as more vulnerable, emotional and only good for cleaning etc. Could photograph dad in a restricted/uncomfortable environment appearing to be holding back tears to present how these expectations restrict and shape identity.