Investigation into the environmental effects that humans have had on both rural and urban areas
Tanisha Campbell
Introduction
It is important to study the negative
effects that humans have had on the environment, and how the beauty of rural
landscapes is vanishing because of habits that some humans possess, like
littering. The current pollution in London these days is described as “sicking”
by London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has stated that it is the seventh time in 13
months that the he has used the alert system. It has also been found that 7.9
million Londoners nearly 95% of the capital’s population live in areas that
exceed the limit by 50% or more. This is just truly saddening because all of
this pollution produced by humans is effecting the world’s natural environment.
Deforestation is also a very big issue especially in the amazon rainforest,
which not only are humans shorting their oxygen supply but deforestation also
affects the animals that live in that habitat. So this issue is very prevalent
in todays society, as it is a very important globally. This
subject is important to study in general because it needs to be globally known
about by the general population and politicians who can make a difference with introducing legislations for thew worlds population to follow e.g the UN, so that a movement can happen
to help the pollution levels decrease.
(Photo showing the pollution levels in London one day during september)
Brief history
Early landscape photography used the same principles used in painting in order to create works of art. Prior to the 18th century, landscape was painted only as a backdrop for a principal subject. In the latter part of the century however, artists such as John Constable and William Turner have started romanticizing the environment, using it as a principal subject in paintings.
Photography was invented at a time when western cultures were exploring new lands. It was used as a medium for documenting the grandeur of the natural environment and usually included small details.
The first photographic movement was born a couple of years after Constable and Turner and was known as the “pictorial photography". The Pictorialist perspective was born in the late 1860s and held sway through the first decade of the 20th century. It approached the camera as a tool that, like the paintbrush and chisel, could be used to make an artistic statement. Therefore photographs could have aesthetic value and be linked to the world of art expression. Pictorial photographers believed that their field is more than just an objective, mechanical media. Photography was not just about the information contained by the images they produced, but rather, about the effect and the mood they translate.
n 1902, Alfred Stieglitz helped promote photography as an aesthetic medium. Through his exhibit entitled “Photo Secessionists", he featured nonconformist pictorial images of everyday objects taken with a hand held camera, hence the term “realism". The break from pictorial photography was initiated by a group called the F64. Some of its members included prominent photographers such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams who produced images using the smallest apertures on large format cameras for maximum sharpness and detail.
With the different hues of nature, landscape images are more than just a simple record of landscapes at a particular point in time. It is an image which represents the photographer’s emotion, idea or concept. Landscape photography uses light, design and symbolic reference as a way to communicate. Today, photography is viewed as such and its power to convey self-expression and charge emotions cannot be underestimated
Edward is known as one of Canada's most respected photographers, he had an early exposure to the sites and images of the General Motors plant in his hometown, so it helped to formulate the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the collective impact we as a species are having on the surface of the planet, an inspection of the human systems we've imposed onto natural landscapes. Edward has become known internationally for his photos on the shaping of landscape by industry as his photographs explore links between nature and industrial processes of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production, recycling and water management.
Rut moved to England because she sees it as being a very creative place, so it helped to become an artist whilst she lived in London being exposed to British culture. Rut has tried to understand London with photography as she finds that it changes very rapidly, so she tries to show how it is represented within the city,To take her photographs she simply would walk around the city whilst being perceptive trying to capture all things of relevance to her work.In 2007, she was asked to create a public art installation for the London Underground at Terminal 4, Heathrow Airport and so she produced her work titled, Piccadilly’s Peccadilloes. Ruts work as an artist and photographer covers the representation of the city and the phenomenon of the urban, she tends to combine several formats, ranging from large-scale photographic works, through public art installations and operatic mise-en-scène (The arrangement of everything that appears in the framing, so the lighting, décor, props). Ruts technique is go a step further beyond the boundaries in terms of creativity, so she tends to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. She uses long exposures to allows her to use the light emanating from the street only, for instance from office blocks or street lights as seen in her photos.
Ansel Adams joined Sierra club which was vital to his early success as it helped him developed the techniques that he used as a photographer. He later founded Group f/36 in 1932 along with Edward Weston, even though the group was short lived it brought the west coast vision of straight photography to national attention and influence.Their images were characterised by a clear, sharp-focus aesthetic, which was at odds with the pictoralist methods in fashion at the time. The name f.64 refers to the smallest aperture on a camera, used by the group because it provided the greatest depth of field, allowing for much of the photograph to be in sharp focus. Perhaps the overarching vision of the group was their belief in the camera as a passive observer of the world, better able to depict life as it really was because it did not project personal prejudices. Soon after he developed the famous 'zone system' of controlling and relating exposure and development, which allowed photographers to to visualise an image and produce a photo that matched and expressed that same visualisation. Because of Ansel's great interest in the environment and wilderness, his images were seen as symbols and veritable icons of wild America. Even though his black and white images were not truly realistic documents of nature, he tended to intensify the psychological experience of natural beauty by using filters. Ansel was criticised for failing to include any sign of humanity within his work. For example Henri Cartier-Bresson commented that " the world is falling to pieces and all Adams and Weston photograph is rocks and trees". So he was seen as a photographer of an idealised wilderness that no longer exists. Ansel would normally use large format view cameras e.g 8x10 or 4x5 view cameras. The front and rear standards can move in various ways relative to each other, this provides control over focus, depth of field, and perspective.
Photographer research
Edward Burtynsky-
Rut blees Luxembourg-
Rut moved to England because she sees it as being a very creative place, so it helped to become an artist whilst she lived in London being exposed to British culture. Rut has tried to understand London with photography as she finds that it changes very rapidly, so she tries to show how it is represented within the city,To take her photographs she simply would walk around the city whilst being perceptive trying to capture all things of relevance to her work.In 2007, she was asked to create a public art installation for the London Underground at Terminal 4, Heathrow Airport and so she produced her work titled, Piccadilly’s Peccadilloes. Ruts work as an artist and photographer covers the representation of the city and the phenomenon of the urban, she tends to combine several formats, ranging from large-scale photographic works, through public art installations and operatic mise-en-scène (The arrangement of everything that appears in the framing, so the lighting, décor, props). Ruts technique is go a step further beyond the boundaries in terms of creativity, so she tends to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. She uses long exposures to allows her to use the light emanating from the street only, for instance from office blocks or street lights as seen in her photos.
Ansel Adams-
Ansel Adams joined Sierra club which was vital to his early success as it helped him developed the techniques that he used as a photographer. He later founded Group f/36 in 1932 along with Edward Weston, even though the group was short lived it brought the west coast vision of straight photography to national attention and influence.Their images were characterised by a clear, sharp-focus aesthetic, which was at odds with the pictoralist methods in fashion at the time. The name f.64 refers to the smallest aperture on a camera, used by the group because it provided the greatest depth of field, allowing for much of the photograph to be in sharp focus. Perhaps the overarching vision of the group was their belief in the camera as a passive observer of the world, better able to depict life as it really was because it did not project personal prejudices. Soon after he developed the famous 'zone system' of controlling and relating exposure and development, which allowed photographers to to visualise an image and produce a photo that matched and expressed that same visualisation. Because of Ansel's great interest in the environment and wilderness, his images were seen as symbols and veritable icons of wild America. Even though his black and white images were not truly realistic documents of nature, he tended to intensify the psychological experience of natural beauty by using filters. Ansel was criticised for failing to include any sign of humanity within his work. For example Henri Cartier-Bresson commented that " the world is falling to pieces and all Adams and Weston photograph is rocks and trees". So he was seen as a photographer of an idealised wilderness that no longer exists. Ansel would normally use large format view cameras e.g 8x10 or 4x5 view cameras. The front and rear standards can move in various ways relative to each other, this provides control over focus, depth of field, and perspective.
From researching Ansel, knowing that he uses view cameras and normally uses a 8x10" one, i have assumed that he used that camera for this photo, with a black and white filter over the lens too because the photo doesn't really look completely realistic. This photo is of an alone oak tree, taken during sunset as the sky is very misty and hazy and looks like its quite dark from the sun setting, this adds to the general tone of the photo, which is dam because of the black and white filter and how the whole tree just appears black, almost moulding in the smaller tree on the left side of the main one. The sun is also visible towards the right side of the photo setting, the sun isn't affect the lans by lens flare or really having much affect on the lighting of the photo as the weather seems to appear cold because of how hazy this photo is. As the leaves on the three isn't really visible, it looks like this photo was taken during autumn or winter, as opposed to spring or summer, as the tree would have been more full of leaves and so the sun probably wouldn't have been visible through the leaves. Even though the photo is black and white the sky looks dark grey and on the corners almost look burned and the very bottom section of the photo, where the grass is, too looks as if it could be burned. The sun really sticks out, this is probably because of how the whole general tone of the photo is dark, but in the distance the sun just appears bright and is unmissable sen though its a very small feature within this photo. Even though the sun does stand out because of its brightness against the dark tones, it still isn't eye-catching and doesn't take any of the attention away from the main tree in the photo.
Before coming across this creek, Ansel was looking for dogwood flowers to capture photos of in Yosemite park, California. To take this photo of the creek, Ansel used his 8x10 camera as he would the majority of the time. During the time of taking this exact photo light rain started to fall and so Ansel used the focusing cloth to keep rain off the camera. Even though there was light rainfall, Ansel was still able to have an exposure of 1/2 a second, which gives a light blurriness to the flowing water stream. Also because of the rain there is more detail and richness within the photo. This photo looks more like a painting than a photo, just because of the general composure of the photo it doesn't really have much of a foreground and background separated, even though the background that appears to be mountains, it still mores into on because of the colouring of the photo and the rain. This photo is interesting because of how its of a creek and not just normal woodland or a tree. So the creek really draws interest and is the part of the photo that looks most like a painting, but thats because of the exposure length that Ansel used. The dogwood flowers, are the leaves that come off of the tree in the left section the photo, because these leaves are considerably brighter compared to other leaves in the photo. Because of tho brightness they are more visible and to me makes this photo similar to the photo bellow of the aspen trees because those too stood out from the rest of the trees.
Relevance
of the photographers research to my personal project.
Heather Angel
When i first researched Heathers work and found this photo i found it really intriguing because it was a nice change from seeing photos of trees at eye-level view and so i knew that i wanted to take multiple photos in the same style as she did. So I've ended up taking a photo in this kind of style in nearly every one of my rural shoots, because i just think that the perspective of looking up at the trees is completely different to just taking a photo of a tree from normal eye-level point of view. I did find it quite difficult to take photos in this style, mostly because of the exposure differences as i had to point the camera upwards towards the sky, which in some settings, was much brighter than the forest floor. So i found myself having an over-exposused sky where the sky was visible through the canopy level. However i did manage to fix this problem by altering my aperture and shutter speed to get the correct amount of exposure that i needed (settings). I also had to look for the perfect or most similar setting to how Heathers photo was in, quite a few tall trees almost in a circle, which i did mange to find on a couple of occasions like this one. Even though my photo doesn't have the same type of bamboo trees that seem to curve, i still managed to take a photo in a similar style, so i made sure that i crouched down so i could get the full effect of how tall the trees were, and i tried to get as many trees in the photo as possible so that i could cover as much as the sky as possible while still having some of the sky visible like Heathers photo. However i would have preferred to have more distinctive tall trees in the photo because there is more of a variation of trees in photo as opposed to Heathers photo. So even though i have this photo which i think is successful with being similar to the style of Heathers, i still think that i will continue to search for similar settings so that i can capture a photo in the style and technique and Heathers but with the same tall tree.
From seeing Heathers work and searching for the most similar setting during my shoots for the photo i took above, i found myself frequently taking photos from a view that was looking above to the trees, for example:
Even though these images are not directly linked to the exact photo of Heathers above, it was still here work and that photo that inclined me to take photos from this view, To this sometimes i would crouch or lay on the ground so that there was more distance shown of the tree from the ground to the sky. I think that i will continue taking photos from this point of view in my rural and urban shoots because of the different view it gives of the subjects. For example with the top photo, from taking the photo fro that view it allowed me to show how the tree curves around and how the top branches are substantially smaller in size compared to the tree trunk. I was also able to capture the sky which contrasted with the darkness of the tree and its branches.
The future of landscape photography
With the introduction of new technology, traditional photography with cameras is starting to decrease. Nowadays, a large amount of the population have easy access to smart phones that are equipped with cameras, because of this easy acsess and quality of the cameras on smart phones people tend to use their smart phones to take photos. For example the new iPhone 8 is equipped with a 12MP wide-angle(f/1.8 aperture) and telephoto(f/2.8 aperture) camera and so because of the great quality and how easily accessible and small a phone is compared to a DLSR camera people are able to take their phone from their pocket and take a quick picture that sometimes can be the same quality as a photo taken on some DSLR cameras. Also with the introduction of social media like instagram, more people have started to take up photography as a hobby to share it world wide on social media, but most of these photos again are taken from a smart phone because of how easy it is to post a photo from a smart phone onto social media. Whereas to upload a photo from a lot of DSLR cameras, people have to upload the photos to their computer if they have one and then upload the photo to social media from there, so because of how long this process is fro some people, people just use their phones because of the simplicity. Further more, a lot of the better DSLR cameras can be quite expensive for people if they are just taking up photography as a hobby, but because they areldy have a smart photo, people don't see the point in buying a camera when they one. So from all the technology advancements, many smart phones cameras are equipped with a panoramic setting, which is mostly used for landscapes because it allows the user to simply move the phone in a steady line and the camera will capture the whole landscape in one photo. So this setting allows smart phone users to capture the landscapes that they may encounter whilst on holiday so they can later post it on social media, so now instead of landscape photography being seen as an art, it is now just a common process of holiday photos. So when I'm only i always feel like I'm out of place at a tourist attraction because i would normally use my Nikon DSLR cameras but the majority of people would use their phones. However even though some people think that some smart phone cameras are as good as DSLR cameras, smart phone cameras still don't have the manual shutter speed, aperture and ISO like DSLR cameras do, meaning that theres not really a lot of variation with the photos that can be taken on phones, or a way to highlight certain sections of details in photos. Even though smart phones have filters, like DSLR cameras do, phones still don't have the ability to have different types of lens equipped like a DSLR camera can e.g telephoto or macro lens, making it hard to take a variety of different photos. From my investigation i know that the amount of rural landscapes because of deforestation, making space for houses, ect. So because of the increase of urban city landscapes, i think in the future it will be more common and normal to see more photographers focusing on urban landscapes as opposed to rural, because of the decrease in accessibility to rural landscapes in some countries.
Conclusion
To conclude i think that i will cary on to use the photographers that i resaerched because i find their work particularly intreating and i think that the majority of the photographers that i researched have had a lot of impact on my work, especially Ansel adams and Ruut Bless Luxemburg. Ansel adams is the main photographer that i have used to influence my rural shoots and Ruut Bless Luxembourg is the main photographer that i have used for the urban shoots that i have started, as i have used the idea of shooting at night time and using the street lights to illuminate my photographs, which Ruut commonly does in her work. With Edward Burtynskys work i used his work to showcase how humans have negatively impacted the environment that we live in, but because of the areas that Edward shoots in, i will not be able such photos like he has. For the majority of the shoots that i left, i will be using Ruuts work to influence my shoots because they are all urban shoots.
References-
- Taylor, M (2017) Revealed: every Londoner breathing dangerous levels of toxic air particle, [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/04/revealed-every-londoner-breathing-dangerous-levels-of-toxic-air-particle] (Accessed 22 November 2017)
- Unknown (2017) iPhone 8 [https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-8/specs/] (Accessed 22 November)
- Unknown (2017) The Ansel Adams Gallery [http://anseladams.com/consigning-selling-original-photographs/] (Accessed 22 November)
- The editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2017) Pictorialism [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pictorialism] (Accessed 22 November)
Tanisha good so far the history section needs to have comments on the technological developments e.g. Steichen film based and black and white where his approach e.g. pictorialism was influenced by art and consequently how some of the images were somewhat blurry as he attempted to emulate the feel of art work created by brushes. The cover the current era identifying a photographer who wrks with colour photography.
ReplyDelete