environment
Eugene richard - the blue room
The angle is off centred, with a wide angle lens which gives a sense of space and perceptive. The white wedding dress contrasts with the dirty, dingy walls. The walls are run down as they are covered in dirt and cracks, giving the impression of an empty, deserted house. The wedding dress hanging up suggests that there used to be a young couple living there, but no longer, adding to the sense of isolation. It also gives a sense of despair and loneliness. It makes the viewer question why the woman would have kept the wedding dress on the door in an abandoned house.
The main focus of this picture is an isolated house in the middle of nowhere. The dark colour of the house contrasts with the white surroundings, emphasising the loneliness. The house stands in relief to the smooth, almost white background of snow and sky. It's made up of deep brown colours, and with the texture of the ageing wood being emphasised. Auras asssoicated with this photo, I feel, are desolation and abandonment.
nadav kander - half life
In this image, the photo is split into two sections on either side of the column. The side that is a reflection, gives the impression of being the idealistic version. The lighting is warm, bright and hazy, adding to the dreamy illusion. The other side is the real, less idealistic version. The lighting it colder, and dimmer, giving a colder feel. The column is off centre, drawing the viewers attention to the left, ' real', side, and the 'dream' section is small, suggesting there is a small amount of hope for this city. The sun on the horizon could represent how there is beauty in any situation.
This image is of an abandoned, derelict swimming pool. It sets a eery, almost creepy tone. This time, the photos is split into four sections; the ceiling, the deserted pool to the bottom of the image, and the left and right windows. The different sections present the different types of destruction that the explosion caused; the glass of windows breaking, the ceiling falling in, and general decay. However, the main structure of the buildings and the pool still remain. The innocent surroundings of the swimming pool, juxtaposes with the decay, and destruction that the nucleur explosion has caused. In school, we took photos of the derelict swimming pool to respond to this image. Interestingly, Nadav Kander's photo contains warmer colours, whereas the photos of Fortismere's pool sets a colder, dimmer tone.
PREPARATORY task - fortismere pool
task 1 - edits
task 2 - allotment contact sheet
task 2 - edits
Task 3 - coldfall woods contact sheet
task 3 - edits
the formal edits
artist research
eliot porter |
Thomas struth |
charles sheeler |
michael wolf |
berenice abott |
Mystical
Gloomy Dusk Mysterious Isolated |
One-point perspective
Sepia Symmetry Empty Deserted |
Industrial
Factory Machinery Structure Architecture |
Sky-scrapers
Lights Concentrated Populated Illuminated |
City
Black and white Fish eye Perspective Skyline |
my london
For my first set, I decided to photograph Hampstead Heath as I spent a large amount of my childhood there. I took photos of the landscape along a specific walk that I used to go to with my family often. I tried to capture the natural beauty of the Heath as the sun sets. For my second set of photos, I decided to take photos around Convent Garden/Soho area I also went there alot not only as child, but currently. The final set of photos were taken in London City and Southbank, as they contain many of the cities most famous buildings and interesting architecture. The photographers that inspired me were Benerice Abbott and Thomas Struth. Thomas Struth's photos convey the relationship between people and their environment, which I attempted to do so. Benerice Abott's juxtaposition of transport with croweded streets inspired me to take contrasting photos of the city and nature. A large amount of my photos throughout the sets were taken of streets from a central percepetive which was inspired by both artists. For my development piece, I layered photos of nature, taken in Hampstead, and layered then faded them on top of photos of London city, juxtaposing nature against the city. I then moved on to the theme 'Man V. Nature.' by photographing overgrown, derelict areas.
thomas struth
Thomas Struth (born 1954) is a German photographer who photographs cityscapes, Asian jungles and family portraits. He currently lives and works in Dusseldorf, Berlin and New York. In 1976, Struth composed 49 photos of deserted streets in Dusseldorf taken from a centralised perspective, obeying a strict logic of central symmetry. As opposed to portraying strong contrasts of light and shade, he shows the greyish, uninflected light of early morning, giving a neutral finnish. Struth continued to photograph cityscapes including Paris, Rome, Edinburgh, Tokyo and others. These works mainly consist of black and white street shots. Skyscrapers were another key feauture of his work, with many of his photographs attempting to show the relationship people have with their modern-day environment. In the 1980s, he started taking family portraits, some of which are in colour and others in black and white, resulting in photos conveying the underlying social dynamics. In 1989, Struth began some of the world's greatest museums, buildings and churches. He moves on to staging a series of five photos taken over one week, all shot from slightly different angles of visitors around Velazquez's Las Meninas. He began producing a second series consisting of close-ups of spectators of a signge work at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Here the spectators are the main focus point of the photograph. Struth makes viewers of his photos aware of their own active participation in the completeyion of the works meaning. Between 1998 and 2006, Struth took an interest to jungle settings in Japan, Australia, America and Europe.
Berenice abbott
Berenice Abbott was a twentieth century artist who devoted her life to photography. She began her own career in 1923 as an apprentice to her friend, Man Ray, in his Paris studio. In 1926. she established her own portrait studio, where she took photographs of the celebrated writers and artists of the day, including the only the only Twentieth Century portrait of Atget, who died a short time after he posed for her. In 1928 Abbott used Atget’s prints and negatives, began a second career of forty years of hard work and established his reputation as one of foremost photographic artists of his time. In 1929, she returned to NYC and began to photograph the rapidly evolving landscape of a fast-moving city. This project took her 10 years, and names 'Changing New York.' Her captivating photographs of new bridges and skyscrapers, replacing older structures, as well as the juxtaposition of evolving modes of transportation with those of the past and crowded street scenes evoke an exciting combination of objectivity and impassioned realism that is key to the timeless quality of her art. In 1923, she travelled the East Coast taking photos of them from before the Civil War. Later on, she travelled the Midwest and South. In 1958, she photographed scientific phenomena for the Physical Sciences Study Committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her photos consisted of swinging pendulums, bouncing balls, and wave patterns.
observation 1 - hampstead heath
observation 1 edits
observation 2 - soho/covent garden
observation 3
development piece
For my development piece, I decided to use the theme 'man v. nature'. I used photo's from two of my strands; the first and the last. The images from the first strand of Hampstead Heath, and the photo's from the last strand of London city, as it juxtapose's the city against nature.
artist research - Nancy Duranteau
Nancy Duranteau is a photographer who's been photographing life using words and photos throughout her life. For over 35 years, she's been travelling and photographing different cultures, including North America, South America, Europe and Africa. Documentary photographing represents Nancy Duranteau's commitment to change the world using photos. Her images portray social issues, causing the viewer to explore and be aware of the importance of such issues. The photos above are taken from her theme 'man v nature.' She captions this project 'Human footprints left in the name of progress disappear before the naked eye. Man's attempts to create structure are undone. As we confront nature, chaos patiently awaits..' Her photos present the negative impacts that are involved in the battle between man and nature, and warns viewers the future dangers that are involved.
wouter stelwagen
Wouter Stelwagen is a photographer from Amsterdam who often illustrates manmade structures surrounded by nature. His work appears to represent Man vs Nature as his photo's documents the ongoing battle between the urban jungle between both man-made objects and natural growth. His photos are use a high contrast emphasising the two opposing battles. Stelwagen is interested in capturing patterns in the world, particularly ones that occur naturally. His photographs of apartment buildings (the image on the left), are extremely graphic with their colours and shapes ringing familiar and futuristic simultaneously. It causes the viewer to apprecitate the simple pretty patterns in washed out colours, whilst thinking about what they present.
observation 4
I continued with the 'man v. nature' theme. I decided to shoot in parkland walk in Finsbury Park as there's the remains of a derelict train station covered in graffiti. I felt this conveyed my theme of man v. nature due to the opposing forces that the overgrowing and the decaying power of man represent.
observation 5
I then decided to photograph an abandoned warehouse in Tottridge to photograph the overgrowth and power that nature has over the man-made warehouse. This particular warehouse has been abandoned for over 30 years, and shows how the extreme effect nature has when left un-maintained.
OBSERVATION 6
Inspired by Nancy Duranteau, I continued shooting 'man v. nature' occurring naturally. I went to a local park where there was an old, rustic building outside which was getting redone, and had nature growing over it. I focused on capturing interesting patterns and textures formed by the overgrowth of nature.
Final prints
For my final piece I chose my favourite prints from my last three sets, conveying man v. nature.