Urban Environment / research task

Introduction

Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer. Her technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. Luxemburg later studied photography at London College of Communication and gained her last formal education at the University of Westminster. Through out her work she was inspired by 17th centuries paintings such as Casper David Friedrich. And the German Romantic poetry of Friedrich Holderlin in 1770-1843, and employs long exposures of up to 20 minutes, to allow her to use the light emanating from the street only, for instance from office blocks or street lights in her photos. Luxemburg created a series of images for the London Underground in 2007. Many of her photographs and prints deal with nocturnal themes.

When viewing Luxemburg work you can understand the particular nature of the urban environment. She is best known for her distinctive photographs of the urban landscape at night. She picks corners of the city which are obscured, overlooked or deliberately avoided after dark. Long exposure times allow the eerie artificial glow from the street which define her images. Luxemburg's scenes appear depopulated, making it difficult for the viewer to construct a narrative context. However, evidence of neglect, or threat of development, give the subject a sense of past, present and future.

Her image titled 'Folly' is a good example of this. The  light seen in the image appears from a street lamp over head, suggesting dark contrasting shadows, which emphasises all areas seen in the arrangement, yet still making the subject appear quite aesthetically pleasing. The location is not obvious,  therefore the audience cant associate the image within the city. Due to this aspect, Luxemburg focuses on the ignored elements of the city and tries to make the subjects emphasized and appealing to the eye.

 

When creating 'Piccadilly's Peccadilloes' (2007), Luxemburg enlarged details from Underground stations, as reflected and fragmented by glossy-wet pavement surfaces.

The works are part of Thin Cities – a series of artwork that celebrates a 100 years of the Piccadilly line. The images are details of the front of 12 of the classic London Underground stations designed by Charles Holden. Each image focuses on the Underground’s iconic style, which is reflected from wet pavement surfaces. The subtle changes in the surface and architectural structure, frames the fragmented texts, which allow the public to absorb the essence of Holden’s designs.

When using reflections in her work she wanted to absorb the architectural Structure and frame in her designs, I think its smart that she has photographed these images in this format. Whilst portraying her Vertigo style, the images almost creates a confused appearance, as you begin to observe the image looking downwards and upwards at the same time.

In comparison to the image `Folly`, both photos have been taken form higher angles. I think by aiming the camera downwards and directly focussing on the subject, she has captured something that would not normally been noticed. Allowing to take the photo from this point of view, it allows the audience to notice the subject through the colours and patterns that Luxemburg has carefully thought to portray. I think her style almost becomes more abstract through the harsh use of pattern and line.

The atmosphere portrayed, is displayed reflecting on the absence within the city and the human interaction. Her urban landscapes pick up on subjects that could normally seem threatening, but is able to draw in the audience through the atmosphere that she creates. The publics opinions can also easily be changed through the way in which the subject is lit, but by using bright light and stereotypically happy colours, it can lift the mood and been seen in a positive light.

 

This photo taken by the German artist Rut Blees Luxemburg is part of a body of fourteen photographs, titled Liebeslied (Lovesong), taken between 1997 and 2000. Influenced by the German Romantic poetry of Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843), the images present an intimate portrayal of the London landscape at night. Shot using a large-format camera using long exposures, the images capture the downhearted stillness of the city, emphasized by the glow of the ambient street light. The Glossy surfaces of the water over concrete and leaves reflected in the puddle, reveal the importance of the natural world emerging through the the urban environment.

I think the photo makes the viewer fill uncomfortable, as the colours portray a  lingering atmosphere. The harsh black contrast creates the use of texture. The writing on the wall in the  top left corner, almost looks like its been covered, suggesting a confusion and a hidden thought of what people may think of the urban city. In a lot of her images, she has based her photographs around poems sited by German Romantic Poet ' Friedrich Holderlin ' Reflecting on lines from his work & forming them into her own style of how the symbol could be seen in photographs. I found this idea inspiring, and mayby thought of useing this technique for a reference.

 

FACTS

In her images individuals, traffic and human nightlife are usually absent.

• • In her images individuals, traffic and human nightlife are usually absent.
  

• • Blees Luxemburg has transformed a scene of urban decay into an abstract study of colour and texture through the use of light.
  

• • At first such modernist structures as tower blocks, 1960s council estates, car parks, empty sports grounds, urban motorways and building sites were the subject of her photographs.
  

 

Quote

“I want to suggest possibility,” Luxemburg has said, “to allow desire to enter the overlooked spaces of the city. Participation is possible in these areas… they are not controlled places, they could be so much more; sites for other things to happen. I walk the city at night, looking for the places where these contradictions are clear.”

 

Richard Wentworth

Richard Wentworth is known for his sculptural responses to everyday encounters, and his series titled  ' making do and getting by '  helped me hugely with defining what canbe used when portraying images for a city project.  Through out Richards work he changes the Values of every day objects found in the city and portrays them in different ways.  The image titled `Bottle stick` is an odd image yet interesting. I think the photo looks simple yet unique. I began to think how he thought of this idea. When researching I found he relocates the sculptures he finds and uses photography to capture the object in a similar form. Similar to Street photography, he captures special moments and makes the  image appear unforgotten.

I think he has photographed in a documentary style rather then the abstract,  impressionist style in which Luxemburg presents. A shallow depth of field has been used, as he has focussed mainly on the  bottleand the term `litter`.  The scene is an everyday recognisable location that is noticed when travelling in the city. litter is something that we can all relate to as an on going issue. This is different to Luxemburg's images as the subjects are less recognisable and therefore are more open to interpretation into what the narrative is.

At first such modernist structures as tower blocks, 1960s council estates, car parks, empty sports grounds, urban motorways and building sites were the subject of her photographs. Blees Luxemburg has transformed a scene of urban decay into an abstract study of colour and texture through the use of light.

In Richard Wentworth series 'Making do and getting by' he focuses on the hustle and bustle of the city and humans impact on city life. Similar to Luxemburg's photos, the images define  the elements that are normally overlooked,  but within Wentworth's work, the photographer looks further into detail and uses up-close photography in order to locate these imperfections such as rubbish or cracks in the surface. His use of depth of field varies, as he defines what the importance is of the image. 

 

Vera lutter

 

Vera lutter works with Large-scale Camera obscura's, exposing light onto large pieces of photographic paper. once perfecting her style she then went onto hiring containers so she could photograph at different locations, specifically urban city. I found her work interesting and intriguing as I think her images show a uniqueness and an impact reflecting on the shapes saturated in the urban environment. Although I could imagine some viewers finding her work hard to read visually.  The vast sizes in which she prints, relates to the term  `seeing the passage of time`. When researching you read how all her images are populated with people, but due to her long exposures the people are not visible. Comparing to the photographer, Luxemburg both series of work are exposed for a varied amount of time. However Vera Lutter`s exposures can last for several hours or even days in order to get the perfect exposure. You notice her work is mainly focussed upon architecture, impressionism and shapes, defining the saying  `the old and the new`.

 

Deconstructing environmental photographers

The flatiron building is located at 175 fifth avenue in he borough of Manhattan, new York city and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902 it was one of the tallest buildings in the city and the only skyscraper north of 14th street. The building sits on a triangular island block formed by fifth avenue, Broadway and east 22nd street, with 23rd street grazing the triangles northern peak. As the French celebrated their Eiffel tower so did the Americans regard he flatiron building as the icon of a city being modernized and to be celebrated resulting in many different photographs of the building. When analysing this image I though it compared to the photo The Flatiron Building, by Alvin Langdon Coburn, as the photo is taken through the trees which takes away the harshness of the building.

 

The Flatiron building is often seen as a landmark of the ‘new age’ of 20th century architecture. The architectural detail and depth shown in Edward Steichen's photo appears to be lost and unfocussed. The appearance creates a ghostly pictorial composition.

 

Steichen began experimenting with colour photography in 1904 and became the first photographer in the united states to use the Lumiere Autochrome process. The Autochrome Lumière is an early colour photography process. Patented in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in France and first marketed in 1907, it was the principal color photography process in use, before the advent of subtractive color film in the mid-1930s.

 

The use of the black and white medium portrayed in this photo creates  a dramatic scene and contrast applying more depth and emphasizing the light and shade tonal balance of the building.

 

Steichen was a leader in the Pictorialist movement, which made photography known as an art form. This made the artist creative and  evident, not so much in composition but the way the photo was printed.

 

When analysing the photo, the image looks like it was taken in the evening, as you notice  some light fog, drizzle, Wet road and fuzzy lighthouses. I think these elements build a slightly mysterious mood, similar to the photograph ` The Flatiron Building`, by Alvin Langdon Coburn.

 

I think the photographers intention is to illustrate the enormity of the flatiron. By focussing on the surrounding images it creates the illusion of scale when viewing the flatiron.

 

 The blackened out branches of the tree exaggerates the frameing and shape of the building, and reflected the pavement which gave the illusion of depth. The time in which the photographs was taken symbolised the change and development of the American wealth and status. The wide angle camera lens denotes the grand design of the building, highlighting its architecture and its alien surroundings. The people within the image gave comparison towards the overshadowing architecture. However i think the camera position is based on the street, looking straight. Although I think the photographer was trying to illustrate scale, I also believe due to the Flatiron Building seen as modern, a lot of general public disliked the idea and therefore think the photographer has chosen to show the building as part of the city, creating the depth of filed as out of focus, loosing its sharpness.

 

The soft tones and textures and use of snow portrayed in Steichen’s work creates a similar technique towards Stieglitz piece, as they both portray a to some extent an affecting atmosphere of the ‘old’ America.

 

But when creating all three photos, Steichen only used one negative, the changeable colouring enabled him to create three significantly different images that convey the chromatic progression of twilight.

 

 

Edward Steichen the flatiron new York `1905`

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 1890 to 1895 he was a partner in a photogravure firm. During this period he concentrated on photographing the streets of New York City. In 1902 Stieglitz founded the Photo-Secession Movement which attempted to prove that pictorialist photography was a fine art form. He spent his life fighting for the recognition of photography as a valid art form, and from 1903 to 1917 Stieglitz was publisher and director of Camera Work magazine. The graphic section was run by Edward Steichen (1879-1973).

 

Alfred Stieglitz:

'the Flatiron Building ‘appeared to be moving toward me like the bow of a monster steamer–a picture of a new America still in the making.’

 

Similar to Steichen’s work, the use of fog in Alfred Stieglitz photo creates a glum ambiance forming a sense of impediment between the subject and the viewer. Similar to Steichen’s work, the photograph captures the transitional development of a new modern American city.

 

Camera Work was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. He wanted to establish photography as a fine art. He believes when capturing the perfect image, one subtle gradation of tone and value should be noticed and its artistic beauty depends. Stieglitz also subscribes to a theory that the principal subject of a photo should be in sharp focus while secondary elements should be left out of focus, you can notice when analysing the image appears slightly out of focus.

 

The receding perspective of the shot and the tight compact crop reveals the patterns and textures of the building, creating a superior sense of depth in the composition. Whilst the detail of the architecture appears less defined. The fog and snow portrays the obstruction and symbolizes the continuity of America's status of wealth and technology. The photographer Stieglitz, saw New York as a culturally deserted environment, and used his photographs for a social documentary, altering America.

 

The Photograph shows contrast, emphasizing the natural shape of the tree in the snow, and natural evening light is used. The building is an element of beauty, illustrating  soft tones and simple shapes. When viewing the tiny figure placed on the park bench, you realise that the building creates the illusion of the figure being small. This emphasizes the height and scale of the building, and the approach of looking up . This creates a sense of dominance and power.

 

The black and white medium used in the photo, creates a dramatic contrast and depth, emphasizing the form and tone of the architectural building. The medium manipulates the brightness making the composition a focal point. Through out his work he used two cameras to do his work: an 8" x 10" Eastman View with a Packard Shutter and a 4" x 5" Auto Graflex with old Goerz lenses.

 

 Alfred Stieglitz the flatiron `1903`

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is one of the earliest romantic symbols of New York City, an icon that has appeared in countless movie and television productions and on more postcards than perhaps any other modern building. It was immortalized in early photos by Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen and since its completion in 1902.

 

Years before the building went up, the triangular plot of land on which it stands was known as the "flat iron." Once farmland, it later held the St. Germaine Hotel, then the Cumberland Apartments, whose northern face was regarded as prime advertising space and was used by The New York Times to promote itself as the repository of "all the news that's fit to print." The slogan appeared there, glowing in electric lights, before it was ever published in The Times. In this photo you seen the environment is now known as the modern city, with anonymous businessmen.

 

The Flatiron Building is a right-angle triangle, not an isosceles, as many people think. The 90-degree angle is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street. When analysing the image you think the photo appears out of focus, but in fact when viewing closely you realise some aspects are in focus for example the windows of the Flatiron Building.

 

When researching, Alvin Langdon Coburn was influenced by the art photographer Fred Holland Day and  his photographs captured the pictorial movement. Similar to the photographers Steichen and Stieglitz , his technique portrays a soft focus which links to the mediums shown in paintings.

 

When observing, the use of the branch placed in the top left hand corner of the frame gives depth, and breaks the hard edge of the structure framing its focal point.  The camera position is placed in front of the scene creating the illusion of a passing-  by. There are a lot of similarities when comparing The Flatiron Building, by Alvin Langdon Coburn, the flatiron by Alfred Stieglitz  and the flatiron new York  by Edward Steichen. All three images share similar composition and camera position the presence of trees, the lighting is seen as natural evening light, and all include a street view and human figures.

 

Alvin Langdon Coburn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this photograph Gropius found the Flatiron Building profile irresistibly exciting, despite the building's old-fashioned decoration. The way in which the photograph is cropped and framed portrays an original and modern view of the building.

 

Whereas the three images by Steichen, Stieglitz and Holland Day were shot in a black and white, Walter Gropius was photo was taken in colour. This type of medium emphasized the range of colour tones but highlighted the contrast and lighting tones that lost some depth an detail within the work of art.

 

Unlike the other photos, you notice no street view, instead the photographer has used A low angle perspective cuts through the frame, emphasising the dynamic lines which  lengthened the asymmetrical design of the building. His focus is mainly on the Flatiron Building, as he wanted to emphasize its greatness and modern architecture, denoting an art form of surrealism.  This simplistic composition allows the building to be absorbed. Whereas the three previous photographs by Steichen, Stieglitz and Coburn were taken at night, the building became unnoticed.

 

Walter Gropius the flatiron building New York `1928`

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think In this photograph, the photographer relies on the cameras ability to capture every single detail in sharp focus. He wants the public to notice the Architectural richness and the romance of the Flatiron district. As seen form the title the photograph is taken from below. This gives the impression of the building known for being big, powerful and dominant. The angle of the shot creates the impression of height whilst communicating a sense of authority and credibility.

Evans received his  inspiration for street photography form the work of avant-garde European photographs. The style in the 1930`s captured the use of geometric shapes denoting the abstract modern appearance.

 

Similar to Walker Gropius photograph, Walker Evans photographs the Flatiron Building from a low angle tilt, highlighting the design and texture of the architecture. Similar to Steichen and Stieglitz, Adams uses objects to frame his subject; for example his use of urban structures create an abstract form of the surroundings.

 

Due to the presence of the lantern shed, and the cropped framing the Flatiron Building appears as closed in creating the illusion of a defined space.

 

The composition of the photograph; emphasize the strong lines of architecture, which lead the viewers eyes into the main subject.

 

Flatiron Building, Seen from Below, New York City

 Walker Evans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Photography doesn’t teach you how to express your emotions; it teaches you how to see.“

 

Berenice Abbott was a documentary photographer; in her photographs she captured two words, such as real and now. The Photograph of the Flatiron Building is a documental representation of the American architecture. The American architecture is known for its diverse and its multicultural society. Over the years the American architecture has been shaped by many internal and external factors, and in 1938 American architecture was not known for its high level of design but was gradually getting known for its number of modern buildings and their variety of conception and form.

 

In this image Berenice has used a low angle tilt of the camera is similar to the work of Walter Gropius highlighting the slim design of the building and the texture.

 

In conclusion Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz and Alvin Langdon Coburn represented the icon (The Flatiron Building) through a traditional artistic art form style, capturing the old city in its element. Whereas Walter Gropius, Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott used a documentary approach. They showed the building as an icon of modernization and emphasized the surrealism, and dominance the flatiron building is widely known for.

 

Berenice Abbott the flatiron building `1938`

 

 

object-obicity ideas

Before making my final decision for my object project, I experimented with ideas that I thought would correspond well towards my theme. The idea I had was to combine all junk food into one photoshot. This would illustrate the different foods associated with obesity. After processing and viewing the final image, I didn’t think the photo looked strong enough for a final piece. I therefore researched and thought of other ideas and began to experiment with my other thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From all research, I gained much knowledge of how obesity can cause a huge impact into human society and  wanted to show this throughout my final development of ideas.

 

For my final idea, I wanted to create a bigger than normal burger filled with a high calorie content. When observing this image I wanted the object to have the advert of the reversal effect. The food that we generally associate as being mouth watering, combined in one burger gives the opposite effect. 

 

For my final piece I used a 5x4 horseman camera. Before using this camera I knew the bigger the camera, more was  required for smaller aperture, as this gained more depth of field and hence more light.  I felt more comfortable using this style of camera as I had previous workshops to assist with my knowledge and ability of how to use the equipment. Before shooting I made sure all controls were set at zero, the camera was level and experimented with the `belo`, as this made the object look straight

 

When thinking about my depth of filed and focus I wanted to use a 240mm standard lens. This type of lens would help increase my focus and depth of field allowing the viewer to notice all detail of the subject. Unfortunately this lens was not available and therefore had to use a 210mm lens. This type was just as good.

Whilst keeping the lens to subject distance, I increased the focal length as this increased the magnification but decreased the angle of view.

 

For my lighting i wanted to use a  bron studio power pack. This type of equipment offers a power range from 10 J to 6100 J of flash energy, and found the pack easy to use and uniquely convenient. I also used studio flash as this was a much stronger light. the shadows appeared darker creating lighter highlights on the burger perfect when emphasising the texture of food. I also decided to attach a honeycomb. The equipment looked like a honeycomb mesh. The honeycomb technique created a the look of a spot rather than a flood. It was to obtain a hard lighting effect embracing distinct shadows.

 

IDEAS....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINAL PRINT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When getting my object in perfect focus I used a loop. I felt this tool helped emphasize the correct amount of depth, contrast and focus. Once happy, with my focus I then closed the lens, cocked the shutter and loaded a sheet of film. Before taking my colour shoot I also used `quick disk`. This enabled me 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 i emphasize the exposure but also could measure the largest visible diameter.

 

I did experiment with a small apertures, and decided to use an aperture of f32. 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, great when emphasizing the high calorie intake.

A shutter realise cable was also used which I attached to the lens. this was used to realise the shutter. The light metre helped a lot when capturing my final image, as this helped take my exposure reading which was f32. During my films I had to increase the power pack to allow more light onto the subject. The more light placed on the subject, the higher the light reading.

 

When using my light metre I set the iso to 160 and set my shutter to 1/500th of second. I also used a  plain white backdrop as this emphasized the subject in more detail.

 

 

 

This negative shows my final outcome of my shoot. At first I thought some of my negatives were a little out of focus, or needed more depth of field therefore reshot and took those thoughts into consideration. After experimenting and loads of test shots I was really pleased, and couldn’t wait to start the printing process.

test prints/deforestation