environment theme/ deforestaion

After my environment tutorial I began exploring more specific photographs related with my chosen theme of deforestation and thought by researching these photographers would help decide what route I was taking my theme upon.

 

I began researching the work of Edgar Martins. I chose to focus on his work, because of his epic landscapes that he photographs. His work is very formal and very minimal something  that I admire. I feel he relates to my work very well since I have been focusing on the land. Much of his work is small apertures and long exposures, a method that I would like to try.

 

When exploring his work I mainly focused on `the diminishing present`. This urbanism is portrayed as a movement of isolation.  The work calls attention reflecting on flow and the use of space. The setting appears as spatial and temporal dislocation. He operates within a landscape of uncertainly, within a culture, transition and opposition. Spaces are primed with a sense of purpose, yet they are seen as magical, fragmented and dispersed. When observing the delicate weight of these landscapes, human perception seems to enter a different register. It's as if everything expresses possibility, as if space and time are about to simmer and disperse.

 

`The diminishing present` is a journey of recognition. The city and space are changing. Because of this, one needs to find a new critical language that supports it, and a new system of knowledge from which to get our vocabulary of life.

 

In this work there is a permanent ambivalence between poetic-failure and the promise of success. The photographer reflects upon modern city's in repeated development, and the spectacular changes in human perception and representational practices that it induces. Ina study that goes beyond pure formal investigation, desperate elements catalyse and reunite new experiences of the contemporary city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darren Almonds

 

Darren almonds work focuses on the subject matter of a  recurring theme of time, memory, human labour and exploitation in various geographical parts of the world.

 

Almond is a traveller, and since the beginning of his career in the mid 1990`s he has experimented with films, video-instillations and photography in remote regions. He has also has made kinetic sculptures, the best known of which are made with digital clock mechanisms.

 

In his solo exhibition at Parasol, he shows two films shot separately in china and Indonesia. The show shows a series of photographs taken in Norilsk and Monchegorsk, Siberia.

 

 In this full moon series, Almond photographs landscapes at night using moonlight and an extremely long exposure. Due to exposure times, running water becomes fog, whilst fog also connotes over exposure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photograph, Night and fog is based upon one of the biggest nickel mines in the world. There's more acid rain in his town. The trees suffer something similar to frostbite. You get these forests of dead, burnt trees in a landscape that’s never dry so its incongruous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almonds enormous series of black and white photographs show blackened trees on the Siberian tundra outside of Norilsk. The town was the site of the worlds largest nickel mine. After spewing out sulphur, unchecked trees in the area have effectively been chemically burnt, and now resemble sad sticks of charcoal poked in the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When looking at this image you notice forests of dead, burnt trees on a landscape that’s never dry. Almond spent months at a time in the town, contemplating the human and environmental loss and enduing temperatures of minus 45F. At times, he says the liquid in his eyes froze.

 

Through out almonds work he refers back to the issue of the horrific information we are given about the destruction of the planet. The political and social issues are there in his work because they are current. His work shows an emotional landscape that surrounds viewers when observing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edward Burtynsky

When researching themes for my  environment project, the Canadian photogprher Edward Burtynsky inspired me. When researching i loved  the importance of the global issue “oil”.

When researching his work, I love how the photographer presents his visual fascination with the world’s addiction to oil, and how this concept can create a massive globalisation issue.

From its extraction, consumption and afterlife, Burtynsky has documented the way we live with oil and its impact on our culture and environment. He captures the effects of oil in human lives, depicting landscapes altered by its extraction from the earth, and by the cities and suburban sprawl generated around its use. He also addresses the impact and confront of the `end of oil` rising cost. I like this idea, and would like to explore further into this importance throughout my project.

Burtynsky has travelled to many places around the world, but my favourite photos are the series of the deep water horizon oil spill. He travelled to the Gulf of Mexico to photograph these images and has emphasized the issue of its polluted fallout. The images maintain his signature, merging beauty with the ugliness of our inhuman addiction.

 

As I was so fascinated by his photography work and his importance of oil, I rented out his book called BURTYNSKY OIL. The book captures a decade of photographic work that explores the subject of oil. Edward Burtynsky has travelled internationally to chronicle the production, distribution, and use of the most critical fuel of our time, and resembles this history through his photographic work. I enjoyed reading and observing his work in this book, and was interested how he focussed on landscapes altered by its extraction from the earth.

My other idea was how recycling affects our landscape. Referring back to Burtynsky, his large-scale photographs of ‘manufactured landscapes’ – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams describe the importance and control over landscape and nature. His images of rubbish are recorded as  “stunning” or “beautiful,” and  raises all kinds of questions about ethics and aesthetics without trying to easily answer them.

The photos allow us to contemplate on our deep impact on the planet, and witness both the epicentres of industrial attempt and the dumping grounds of its waste. I would like to maybe think more about this topic and produce some test strips exploring this theme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In relation to Burtynsky, Keith Arnatt`s series of work is pleasing at first because of the altering colour combinations and textures layered among a transparent backdrop. The light falls softly, almost glowing, onto the objects, with the plastic and discarded items behind.

 

Arnatt has chosen to photograph his subjects close-up, in order to zoom in on the objects. This makes the subject harder to depict the scale and identity of the items. A shallow depth of field has been applied to some of his images, and this softens the edges and hides any harshness in the photo, enhancing this soft and calming result that is translated to the viewer. 

 

It's hard to find a darker reason behind the images, as they are presented in such a unusual way, though lighting and composition, tries to convey a positive response to the subject `rubbish`. This could indicate that the artist’s story, tries to convey, the saying, ‘Never judge a book by its cover’. Insinuating, we are too quick to categorize things into what is stereotypically denoted today as good or bad, ugly or attractive. 

 

Pictures from a rubbish tip

 

 

 

The Pastiche Picture

For my pastiche photo, I decided to focus upon the artist Robert Adams, researching the image titled “On Signal Hill”. 

The subject of Adams black and white photographs document the evolving landscape of the American West and the impact human destruction has on our environment. The visual strength of the destruction creates a strain, recording the documentary of human’s interference, and the anxious control over landscape.

The conflict in landscape between cultural occurrence, emphasizes the environment before the American growth both in residential and commercial development, is an important aspect in relation towards Adams work.

The two thin trees in the photo, overlook the grey fogged, compact landscape of the photo “ On signal hill”. The trees frame the remote view of the settlement city, embracing the concept about  'communal landscape‘, I also think the trees depict the threat of industrial growth,  and how the objects convey an elderly appearance, (trees being around for many of years) This suggests the old I watching over the new , almost reminiscing what was young, and new. The object of the trees are used as a normal everyday life reminder of what is naturally seen as a natural beauty in the landscape environment. The sense of scale and cluttered, unstable perspective, contradicts the medium used in traditional landscape photography. Horizons are often used  in artistry and landscape photography, to convey a scene of everlasting land, a stability between land and sky. Although when observing long beach California, the photo  looks challenged, struggling with the balance between man and land.

 Both Ansel Adams and the photographer Timothy O'Sullivan share similar qualities. Both artists have managed to capture the dignity and greatness of vast open space and landform. There are similarities of the method Friedrich has also used to represent land. This reflects towards peoples attitudes, and how a landscape can bring pleasure, whereas today landscape sometimes can be overlooked.

 

Robert Adams "On Signal Hill overlooking Long Beach California 1983"

Gelatin silver printDimensions: 16 in. x 19 7/8 in.

 

When taking my own photos, I tried to capture a similar style as Adams imagery. I captured several components from the original composition, and used these aspects in my pastiche photo.

For example, I used a small aperture on the mamiya Rz camera, as this enabled me to gain more detail, and structure in the photo. I also experimented with high view points, as this enables me to construct a similar method between the nature and city positioned both in the foreground and background.

On the day of my shoot I tried to photograph on an overcast day, as I wanted my image to relate well towards Ansel Adams composition. I also waned to emphasize the natural forms such as the trees and natural landscape scenery as this will frame the image drawing the public eye's attention. 

I tried some test shots, but have decided to re-shoot as the sky was seen as blue applying a pictoresque style, and the standard lens i had was not suitable for this type of shot, therefore will  borrow a 210 or 240 lens, as this will make the viewer feel more involved, emphasizing the main subject of human industrilization impacting on natural landscape.

DIGITAL PHOTO`S

When retaking my pastiche photos, I tried to capture a similar style as Adams imagery. I captured several components from the original composition, and used these aspects in my pastiche photo. For example, I used a small aperture on the mamiya Rz camera, as this enabled me to gain more detail, and structure in the photo. I also experimented with high view points, as this enables me to construct a similar method between the nature and city positioned both in the foreground and background.

 

On the day of my shoot I tried to photograph on an overcast day, as I wanted my image to relate well towards Ansel Adams composition. I also waned to emphasize the natural forms such as the trees and natural landscape scenery as this will frame the image drawing the public eye's attention. I captured some test shots, but re-shot as the images did not come out the way I wanted.

 

When capturing my final images I explored many areas, as I wanted my pastiche to be a direct imitation of my original photo. I wanted to imitate the language, reproducing the same compositional form, camera setting, lighting conditions, depth of field and scale etc… I wanted my final photo to reconstruct the visual aesthetic and feeling/mood, and not capture my interpretation. Unfortunately due to time, I was unable to locate a destination that was identical as the original photo.

I think it captures a similar image, but found the task challenging due to the season and the display of no leaves on the trees. This became an issue and due to time I had no choice but to copy a similar style.

 

what we used in depth of field workshop

 Before we started the workshop, I learnt depending on the chosen aperture (f-stop), the focal length and the focus distance have a certain depth-of-field. The depth of filed defines a zone around the chosen focus point where objects appear to be sharp. Beyond the this zone objects appear to be blurred.

 

 Before we used the cameras we had to set up our lighting equipment. Today we used a studio flash and a soft box.  When using, I learnt studio flash is a much stronger light then using studio light. the shadows appeared darker creating lighter highlights on the subject.  From experimenting, I enjoyed learning about this light and was ambitions to try again.

 

Using the soft box helped create our final outcome as the equipment created even and diffused light. When setting up the equipment I noticed the sides and back of the box were displayed with a bright surface – this could either have been a fabric surface or aluminium foil. This allowed the equipment to act as an efficient reflector. The soft box could be used either with flash or continuous light, for instance today we used studio flash.

 

As we learnt form out first induction, that the camera's aperture controls the amount of light that reaches the film. we wanted to experiment with different types of aperture, to emphasize depth of field. One of the apertures we used was f2 wide aperture, as this created a shallow depth-of-field. We wanted to emphasize the sharp focused area as small, as this was useful when we wanted to isolate the subject of our picture, while capturing other elements as out of focus. We also experimented with a small aperture, of f16. This increased the depth-of-field which meant more elements in the picture, from foreground to background, where in sharp focus. By using this type of aperture the image created more depth drawing the viewer into the picture.

 

As we were using a horseman camera, we had ground class screen, which allowed us to see the picture as up side down. I found this aspect interesting and enjoyable, and was intrigued to learn more. After our black and white test shots, we then processed them to see if we had created depth of field. Unfortunately I was unable to process them, so need further practice in that area. After viewing our negatives, we then shot our colour dark slides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To gain perfect focus we also used a loop tool. This helped emphasize the correct amount of depth, contrast and focus. Before taking our colour shoot we also used `quick disk`. This enabled us to determine the correct amount of exposure. The use of the QuickDisk involved no calculation, it was light weight, easy to replace and free for personal use. Not only could we emphasize the exposure but we also could measure the largest visible diameter. The set consisted of pieces of cardboard, the disk and the measuring tape. This tool was particular useful especially when photographing small objects on a large format camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

useful information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This diagram helped when working with different lenses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more depth of field

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

less depth of field