I wanted to explore my options of different locations to shoot landscapes in. Two thoughts that came to mind was a nature reserve/abandoned man-made object taken over by nature, and the other was a seaside town. I wanted to photograph two places that included people and not within a landscape location.
IMAGES THAT FIRST CAME TO MIND WHEN I THOUGHT OF MY IDEAS
Thats why I chose Pegwell Bay Nature Reserve and Deal pier. Both are very different, but I wanted to experiment and do a shoot at both locations to find out which one I wanted to go with for my final four images.
WHY DID I CHOOSE THESE LOCATIONS?
Pegwell Bay is full of nature along the coastal cliffside, as you make your way around, you come across a flatten down concreted land of space. This used to be a hoverport, but now closed, and nature has taken over. But the other end of the nature reserve has abandonment as well, but it has features of people, or what use to belong to people. It shows how the landscape has changed with human impact, but how nature has overcome and grown once more through it.
Deal is a seaside town in Kent and holds lots of character. The pier is one of the main features, from its shapes, but the people. The fishermen and families that go fishing bring a sense of community. But not just the pier but the rest of the beach has other objects and families that go there to enjoy a day out. This location would have more of a street style photography, along with the landscape theme. But to photograph the people that surrounds this location can really shape what the environment is like.
One of these locations shows life and the other shows what once use to hold people possession, but now empty in their environment.
OVERALL CHOSEN LOCATION
I have chosen to go with the location of Pegwell Bay Nature Reserve. This is because of the sense of what used to be there in that environment. How the natural environment has taken over what once used to be their (e.g. hoverport). After all, the environment and nature were here before us.
But most of the images have a sense of uniqueness, for example, the image with the fire and house, that event may never happen again. Maybe in another ten years time, this location will be more eroded and will look less like it once did. Capturing this location in this point of time, (in a landscape format and with the rest of the reserve), will be different and exciting.
HISTORY BEHIND CHOSEN LOCATION
Pegwell Bay Hoverport was one of the parts of the nature reserve I heard about that was still there, but overtaken by the natural environment. When I went down to the area, my mum was trying to explain to me what it was used for and looked like. So when looking up images, I found interesting information and stories.
IMAGES FROM WHEN HOVERPORT WAS ACTIVE
“This hoverport, the pad of which is still intact at Ramsgate with the approach markings and car park outlines still visible, was the home to four SRN4 Mk II craft owned by Hoverlloyd between 1968 and 1987 prior to its shutdown resulting from the merger of Seaspeed with Hoverlloyd to form HoverSpeed. The ramp had terminal buildings and an access road coming from just north of Cliff’s End. The access road still exists today but is blocked off to traffic by a barrier. The pad is accessible on foot, however, from the road or from the nearby beaches.” (Jameshovercraft.co.uk, 2014)
IMAGES OF THE HOVERPORT IN THE PRESENT
Incredibly, this was opened in 1969, 50 years ago and some of the painting marks, are still there. Even the light poles, fences, and the main stairs are still intact. Though its rusted and nature has grown in between, it’s refreshing to see a part of this history.
As I’ve chosen to go with the landscape theme for this project, I wanted to research further into the landscape itself and artist that are related to my work. Which I took inspiration from for my shoots. I went to the library, finding books that were related to the theme, and others through the internet.
LANDSCAPE
The first book I look at was Photography and Landscape by Rod Giblett & Juha Tolonen. This introduced me to the concept of different ideas and artists. I focused more on chapter 3 – It highlights that a landscape is used for “aesthetic appreciation”. “The land which we photograph is laid out for ‘viewing pleasure’ for people.” (Giblett and Tolonen, n.d.). Places like reserves, untouched by humans, are beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Like most people have a landscape photo somewhere around there house, they have it because its aesthetically pleasing to the viewer’s eye, and the place in the image is probably nothing like where they live, so they want to bring some of that peacefulness into there home.
“Landscape sets up a subject-object distinction between the viewer and the viewed.” (Giblett and Tolonen, n.d.). “It’s a visual experience for the roaming eye …. who occasionally stops to take in the prospect from a static viewpoint.” (Giblett and Tolonen, n.d.). “With landscape the surface of the land is set up against the self. The notion of landscape, as Veronica Brady (1998: 433) puts it glossing Judith Wright, ‘implies a division between the self and the land’. The land becomes a surface against which self poses itself, and a screen against which it projects its fears and desires, and from which it gains pleasure. Landscape separates subject and object. Landscape is a phenomenological and psychological category of the distinction between subject and object.” (Giblett and Tolonen, n.d.).
The land is set up before us, and we can’t change this environment landscape, only with a man-made object. But in a studio, you can change how objects are presented, but in a landscape environment, you cannot change these elements. The only thing you can change is perspective, from taking images from different angles and heights can change the emotions and the way the land is presented.
KEYWORDS OF LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
After reading about landscapes in chapter 3, I move onto chapter 4, which is about Sublime and had other keywords. “Sublime is often considered to be one of the three major and legitimate modes of representation in landscape aesthetics along with the beautiful and the picturesque.” (Giblett and Tolonen, n.d.)
SUBLIME – Of very great excellence or beauty.
PICTURESQUE – Visually attractive, especially in a quaint or charming way.
COMPOSITION – Positioning the objects in the frame in such a way that the viewer’s eye is automatically drawn to the most interesting or significant area of the capture.
EXOTICISM – The quality of being attractive or striking through being colourful or unusual.
VIEWPOINT – The angle, direction or stance from which you choose to shoot each image.
ANTI-LANDSCAPES
When reading through this book, I came across the word ‘Anti-Landscapes’, and I was curious about what this means. “The Anti-Landscape examines the emergence of such sites, how they have been understood, and how some of them have been recovered for habitation. The anti-landscape refers both to artistic and literary representations and to specific places that no longer sustain life.” (Nye and Elkind, 2014).
Rather than focusing on romantic, picturesque landscapes. Anti-landscapes, present an opposite to clichés of landscape photography, celebrating the ugliness. Without ugliness in this world, how would we distinguish beauty?
“The objects which the “anti-landscape” term studies are of central importance in the Anthropocene, not only because industrialized and even degraded landscapes are proliferating, but also because at a moment when human influence shapes every possible ecosystem and region, such landscapes are ‘nature.’ To say that degraded landscapes do not sustain life is in some ways to contradict the evidence offered by many of the essays included in this collection: that though toxicity and degradation maybe no fault of their own, families and communities continue to choose to live and work in such places. (B, Ross, 2014).
EXAMPLE OF ANTI-LANDSCAPE
While looking at other books in the library, I stumbled across these books. They are by Henk Van Rensbergen, and called ‘Abandoned Places 2&3’. Henk van Rensbergen’s thoughts were, “why travel to far-off natural jungles, when there are far more interesting places in your own neighbourhood – abandoned places, just waiting to be explored. Van Rensbergen sets off, looking for abandoned hospitals, overgrown industrial complexes, or urban palaces, ravaged by the driving rain, overgrown with weeds, decorated with graffiti. The resulting photographs are unequalled – beauty meets decay.” (Rensbergen, 2010).Not all of the images inside the book are landscapes, but they represent the sense of anti-landscape, making the ugly, decay look fascinating and beautiful.
“Zoltan Bekefy is fascinated by the constant spectacle offered by nature. He has traveled the world with his camera in hand, striving to sublimate the landscapes that he discovers in the course of his unusual journeys. Capturing the essential, his work constitutes a silent report on the beauty of the world, in which simplicity, purity, and minimalism set the tone.”(Zoltanbekefy.com, n.d.)
Bekefy uses the simplicity of the environment around and produces a mood by creating images in black and white. Even though some of his other work is dark, because of these tones between the blacks & whites, it produces a calming ambience. Bekefy captures the perfect moments and transforms them into pieces of art, of the natural beauty that surrounds us.
“Josef Hoflehner’s photographs of cities and landscapes are filled with silence and solitude. Working mostly in black-and-white, he emphasises the relationship between the natural and the man-made, placing figures or physical traces of human presence against vast, sometimes eerie emptiness.” “I like empty spaces,” Hoflehner has said. “I prefer bad weather. I love snow and ice … and trees. I mix up or change my style often. I like to experiment with focus and time.” (Artsy.net, n.d.)
To me, Hoflehner likes to wait for the perfect conditions to take a photograph. Whether this is about the weather, interactions, or waiting for people to go (to make the surrounding empty), I feel like time is the main element in his work. He also focuses on the simplicities of the environment around him, which in the end can produce more compelling images. From this, it can create formal elements such as lines, shapes, patterns, contrast etc.
“Robert Adams is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West.” (En.wikipedia.org, n.d.) When Adams started to take landscape photography, he took inspiration from Ansel Adams. Robert Adams look for mountains and rivers and move out of the part of the country where it had poor air and suburban housing. But then he started to take pictures of roads and the development of houses.
The photograph ‘On Signal Hill, Overlooking Long Beach, California, 1983’ (above) admits that it was a happy accident, in Robert Adams words it –
“Capture both the resilience of nature and the isolation of nature often in Los Angeles. It’s got the full burden of mystery and damage.” (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2019)
I feel that I can relate to this sentence, in which I didn’t want to take ordinary landscape photography, even though it is beautiful, I wanted to tell a story and make it intriguing for the viewer.
BOOKS BY ROBERT ADAMS THAT I RESEARCHED & TOOK INSPIRATION FROM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, R. (1974). The new West.
Adams, R. (2010). What can we believe where?. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery.
Giblett, R. and Tolonen, J. (n.d.). Photography and Landscape.
Josefhoflehner.com. (n.d.). Josef Hoflehner. [online] Available at: https://josefhoflehner.com/ [Accessed 8 Nov. 2019].
Nye, D. and Elkind, S. (2014). The anti-landscape.
Rensbergen, H. (2010). Abandoned places 2. Uitg. Lannoo N.V.
Rensbergen, H. (2013). Abandoned places 3. Uitg. Lannoo N.V.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2019). Robert Adams: Photographing a “landscape of mistakes”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuhxlLv_f2k [Accessed 8 Nov. 2019].
Zoltanbekefy.com. (n.d.). About award winning fine art photographer / Zoltan Bekefy Photography. [online] Available at: https://www.zoltanbekefy.com/about.html [Accessed 8 Nov. 2019].
I have three initial ideas to take the theme environment, from looking at research, creating mind maps and mood boards. I have taken inspiration from different photographers that have shaped my creative process along.
IDEA 1 –
LANDSCAPES
My first idea has taken inspiration from the two photographers that I researched, Marc Wilson and Carl De Keyzer. Both of these photographers have a similar theme about them, a seascape environment. I like the idea of my four final photos having a related link between them.
Traditionally landscapes are photographed in the rural sides of the planet, for example, the countryside. Not meaning cites untouched areas. On the other hand, areas that have been touched by man, but the environment has taken over it, or decayed it away over time. Like Marc Wilson work with the Military structures, where the coastal environment has slowly deteriorated away from the object. Even to find something similar to the idea that the natural environment has taken over if you give it time.
The two locations I’ve thought of trying, a rural coastal nature reserve area and the other is a seaside pier. The nature reserve is one idea because it is untouched and preserved in its natural form. The other is a pier location, this could be interesting because this has people interaction, but the beauty of the sea and a natural form still.
IDEA 2 – ENVIRONMENTAL
PORTRAITS
Taking inspiration from Niall McDiarmid, environment portraits are something different. Photographing a person can tell a story and say a lot from the environment around them. Through this idea, it can show a person life or their way of living, and it could be a great idea to show what people can be like in that particular area. Or my local area. For this concept, I would have to think about the location, and what type of people I want to photograph.
IDEA 3 –
PLACES
My third idea is title places, this covers a broad spectrum of areas. Place could be a home, or it could be an outside building, so the architecture. To me, if I went with the idea of photographing the outside of a building, I would do it in the style of street photography. Looking for all the critical aspect of the environment around me and using formal elements to make the images even better.
On the other hand, if I photographed someone inside their home, it would be more relaxed, and I wouldn’t want to staged anything. I would want to keep it real and exciting to the viewer. The person I could photograph could be the elderly or family. It also doesn’t have to be people in the photograph; it could be peoples possessions. A series of shooting someone’s possessions could make up a story, and the audience starts to build up an idea of what these people like, has, and what their environment is like.
If I have time, I would like to explore and do a test shoot for each idea, so this will allow me to get an idea of what area I would like to go down for my final four images. I think all three concepts are broad and different and can be challenging in their own way. For each idea, I would have to plan carefully about locations, equipment etc. So far from looking at inspiration and researching other photographers, I am leaning towards idea 1.
German photographer Andreas Gursky is best known for his large-format landscape and architecture photographs. Gursky uses a high point of view and finds places to photograph with mass consumption, as you see in the images above. For example, the photograph ‘Amazon, 2016’ uses mass consumption, where Gursky digitally stitches and layered together photographs to create one big image. The attention to detail, even to the smallest items, makes a big difference. It makes the viewer’s eye pulled in to look at everything, and this makes it slightly overwhelming.
In another photograph of Gursky, ‘Montparnasse, 1993’, Gursky took the 750 flats from a hotel lobby from the other side of the street, in which he used the same technique of stitching together photographs to create one big one. This image produces so many shapes, almost beehive-like, but when you look closer and see the individual cluttered interesting lives happening, it produces a “beautiful confection” (The Art Channel, 2018). The scale of architecture, landscape, and an urban scene in the modern world, draws your eyes to the individual windows, and you start to see how people fill up these spaces. This image is including an enormous superstructure, which fills up the entire space and horizon of the image. From the viewpoint Gursky took the photo, he plays with perspective, which helps emphasis the image.
The photo ’99 Cent, 1999′, is an “inventory of our
consumerism” (The Art Channel, 2018). As Gursky increased
the colours of the image, it makes the image more bold and powerful. It reminds
me of looking at the candy shop pick ‘n’ mix wall when I was a child. It’s an
impactful image because the eye doesn’t know where to look, because of all the
bold colours, shapes and rows. To me, it is estranging, but so nostalgic at the
same time.
What is interesting is that Andreas Gursky says
“I’m not interested in individual lives. I’m interested in
the way we live; we work, we consume, the way we move through
spaces” (Andreas
Gursky).
You see that within his work, it’s simplistic but busy at the same time. I would want to try to take photos from a high viewpoint, to try to capture different peoples living environment.
Niall McDiarmid is a Scottish photographer, where he documents “the people and landscape of Great Britain” (En.wikipedia.org, n.d.). In his work the arrangement of colours with the people are fascinating, even sometimes it happens by chance. For example, in McDiarmid book ‘Crossing Paths (2013)’, the image above ‘Southchurch Road, Southend-On-Sea, Essex, Feb’ 2017′. In an interview with McDiarmid, he mentions that when he took this image, it was by chance, McDiarmid asks the girl to stand there, with her parents behind him, McDiarmid said he couldn’t miss this opportunity with a girl who looks cool like this. What’s quite ironic is that the word ‘photos’ at the top, but also the word ‘wimp’. Implying that she is not a wimp, she is fierce from the way she looks. In this image, the colour palette works well, from her outfit and hair to match the sign. And the yellow smiling face image matching the rest of the building. In most of his photos, the subject is always looking down the barrel of the camera. With their personality, stare and look. He is always looking for a pop of colour, whether if it’s in the foreground or the background. What’s interesting is that none of the subjects seems to feel awkward; they seem comfortable. Because McDiarmid never wants the subjects to pose, he wants them to act themselves. Even if that’s through a blank face, not smiling or frowning, their personality comes through. Their personality comes across in his photos, again in the photo above ‘Holloway Road, London, March 2016’, even though she is not smiling and has a blank face, you can see and feel the attitude come through. From the outfit, the way she is standing and her background.
McDiarmid style and eye for spotting the people and placing them in their environment, is inspiring, the photos are clean looking, in where he must have used a lower aperture, to separate the subject from the background. However, I like it how he hasn’t put the aperture too low, where you can still see the background and work out where they are. It’s having the confidence to ask people to photograph them, and not taking too much of their time up.
English photographer Marc Wilson photographs and “documents the memories, histories and stories that are set in the landscapes that surround us.” (Marc Wilson Photography, n.d.). When Wilson works on his documentary projects, he spends a long time creating them, the images above are from a book called ‘The Last Stand’, which Wilson completed in 2014.
“Marc tells stories through his photography, focusing at times on the landscape itself, and the objects found on and within it, and sometimes combining landscape, documentary, portrait and still life, to portray the mass sprawling web of the histories and stories he is retelling.” (Marc Wilson Photography, n.d.).
In the images above, I mention they are from ‘The Last Stand’, they all have a military aspect to it. As time passes, these military structures become more and more critical. They were constructed over 50 years ago and for a different purpose. Because as time passes, the memories of structure/history disappear, and the lives that were involved all start to pass away.
“It works like this that becomes more important each day.” (Marc Wilson).
To shoot these images, Wilson used an old large-format film camera, and when he takes the photos, he waits for the perfect condition. This condition is a soft, subdued light, not a sunrise or sunset because he doesn’t want to add any “extra drama” (Marc Wilson) to the image. Because the structure (subject) itself doesn’t need more drama to it. In most of his pictures, you can see that he also shoots in foggy, sea mist conditions or a “very flat soft grey light, early in the morning so there are no people about” (Royal Armouries, 2013).
But what’s interesting is that these man-made defences sit quietly in the environment. Some are in better condition than others and slowing decaying away from their surroundings. But all structures have become factors of changing the landscape around them. Wilson has produced images that make the structures look calm and beautiful, even though thats not what they were intended to be used for, for war. Wilson wants these images to become a permanent photographic record of the past. To each structure has a history of stories to tell, “one of unfulfilled defiance or one of tragedy” (Shetland Arts, 2016).
Findhorn, Moray, Scotland, 2011, (found in the image above), is really simplistic and a beautiful picture. My first thoughts are that it is really calming, even though that structure was not used for that (juxtaposition). It is calming because Wilson has used a long exposure, so the sea/waves have become milky and soft. Making the texture of the war structure stand out even more. Both a rough, jagged object against a delicate, gentle sea wave really works. Even the shapes produced, for example, the horizontal line in the background that breaks the sky from the sea, and the triangle shape created from the war structure. However, even though his images are simplistic, I think going simple is sometimes more beautiful and picturesque.
Carl De Keyzer is a Belgian photographer, and his project ‘Moments Before The Flood’, (shown in the image above), shows his journey along the European coastline. De Keyzer had travelled more than 82,000 miles and visited more than 5,000 locations, for this project, resulting in a big success.
The series is about how he “examines how Europe copes with hard to predict threats – that is rising the sea level” (fotofestiwal, 2015). This is due to climate change. But De Keyzer also researches different prevention strategy of the coastline over the years. And how Europe will cope with the potential floods in the future and now.
As you can tell for De Keyzer books, his projects are not composed of single images, but he prefers a collection/series. This is what I’m working towards, creating a set of 4 images. On the other hand, they all connect/links together because of the coastal/sea theme. Which tells a story and makes it interesting at the same time, what is something I want to do within my work.
Carl De Keyzer work does remind me of Marc Wilson in some ways. They both involve or have the sea/coast in their images. For example the picture above ‘Vierville – Sur – Mer, France’. But the big difference between the two is that Carl De Keyzer images have a sign of life. Not all of his image has people in them, but people possessions. For example, the picture above called ‘Dublin, Ireland’, even though it is simple, it has a sense of life and journey.
To start off generating ideas, I have created a mind map and mood board, for my first initial thoughts on the theme of ‘environment’. For the mind map, I thought about living and natural environments. Then from the mind map taking certain words, e.g. people, architecture, man-made and nature, and finding photography in the style of these words for the mood board.
SARAHLOCKYERUCA 