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`.