Environment Unit Presentation

 Landscape

After being given the briefing for the landscape section of the environment unit I was straight away interested in expanding my exploration into the conflict between the natural landscape & man-made landscape as I had previously delved into the subject a little at A-Level. I began by researching the work of William Eggleston whose ‘Southern Suite’ series consists of landscapes with derelict buildings, signs and parks in.

Eggleston's Untitledfrom 'Southern Suite' series

Epstein's 'Hoover Dam Bypass Project, Nevada, 2007'

I am intrigued by the way he photographs man made constructs that look quite ugly and cut through the natural landscape but look beautiful through the way they are photographed. I then looked at the work of Joel Sternfeld, Mitch Epstein & Richard Misrach who all photograph man-made structures cutting through nature such as Misrach’s ‘Swamp & Pipeline’ but camouflage the ugly aspect.

Misrach's 'Swamp & Pipeline' 

 This led me to look at how humankind have become oblivious to the effects we are having on nature through pollution. I watched a programme, ‘Panorama: Britain’s Dirty Beaches’ which highlighted to me the shocking amount of flood water combined with sewage entering the sea from CSOs (Combined Sewage Overflows) every day. I continued research into CSOs (see previous blog entry) and began investigating the location of these pipes on beaches in the South East and the level of pollution measured in the areas. From this I chose certain locations to visit including Worthing & South Lancing; I took a series of photographs on a sunny day which conflicted with the subject matter following my research where a beautiful scene is created from an ugly subject. Most of my images use the rule of thirds to try and enhance the look of a ‘perfect’ image and I feel I achieved the look of a picturesque seascape despite the main focus of all the photographs. I also took photographs including different aspects of life that could be affected by the pollution such as, people’s pastimes eg. walking the dog, running, swimming and windsurfing as well as children playing nearby.

 

I feel all of my images reflect my theme of human obliviousness to our society’s effect on nature and our own health; each photograph is taken from a different angle to highlight different ways we are unaware of the effect eg. from the front of the CSO with children in the background or with safe-looking polluted froth in the foreground with windsurfers above. I wish I could have matched the sky colour better as although they were all taken on the same day the strength of blue changed and therefore not all the images are perfectly matched. 

 

My Final 'Landscape' series

I was unable to return to the location & take more images to replace some because the weather did not match the same conditions for the next couple of weeks. 

 Landscape Pastiche

After researching Robert Adams’ ‘On Signal Hill Over Looking Long Beach, California’ I began to search for locations using google maps to take the image. After visiting places including Brighton & Findon I found the best location to be Box Hill overlooking Dorking. 

'On signal Hill Over Looking Long Beach, California'

Like the original, I shot the photograph landscape in black and white in the morning so that there was fog over the hills in the background to mimic the smoggy blanket over California. The weather was bright and clear which also reflected the image however I did have a bit of trouble with composition. The trees were positioned perfectly and looked quite dead and neglected but due to being on the side of the hill rather than top I couldn’t angle the camera looking out over the valley rather down at the valley which changed the horizon level slightly. I used an aperture of around F/8-11 to give a relatively large depth of field reflecting how the original image is quite in focus fading slowly into the background. My final prints settings were Grade 0- 26 seconds, Grade 2- 9 seconds & Grade 5- 5 seconds as well as burning the top left corner in slightly as it appeared too light; overall I feel my image portrays a similar feel to Robert Adams’ photograph of conflict between nature and humans and our neglect of nature.

My Final 'Landscape' Pastiche Image

 Urban Space

The second section of the environment unit was ‘urban space’, the word space initially inspired me as I began to think about the empty gaps within our jam-packed cityscapes. I considering different perspectives such as public parks but started to focus on car parks after looking at the work of Dan Holdsworth and then researching the background of Bluewater.

Dan Holdsworth

Once a quarry it was abandoned, sold and then used as a plot for a giant shopping centre however due to the vastness of the quarry the car park is at least twice the size, surrounding the whole perimeter of the building. While during the day these spaces within a space are filled with cars, the other half of the time they are deserted, wasted space; I find it a weird concept that we are running out of space to build new housing while thousands of car parks sit temporarily empty. I also explored the work of William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Branislav Kropilak, looking at the way they all capture similar locations in different ways. 

Branislav Kropilak

Stephen Shore

I began taking test shots at Bluewater but found them to be very boring and unoriginal however when I went to take photographs at IKEA due to it being early morning it was very foggy. 

Contact sheets of  Bluewater, IKEA, Croydon and Crawley car parks

The fog was also present at a couple other locations which made the results more intriguing. It gave the images a slight eeriness, highlighting the idea of endless vast empty space. By leaving my final three images with a slight blue tinge this enhanced the idea of untouched and undisturbed space; also exaggerated by the border of trees in all of the images as if nothing can come in or out which gives a mystical effect to quite a mundane space within the busy city. Due to rainfall the surfaces of the car parks were reflective reminiscent of Rut Blees Luxemburg’s night images; in her work the puddles seem to act as portals into a city hidden below the concrete. 

Rut Blees Luxemburg

Although unused I did like the test shots of wet tracks in the car parks, which looked like gaps in the concrete as if there is something not quite right with the scene mirroring the history of Bluewater- how it was once a huge void created in the planet filled with industry. My final images also have reflections and due to the fog the surfaces have become soft looking despite being concrete creating an ethereal feel as if it is all water consuming the space. I was very pleased with my series as they perfectly capture the mood I wanted to create of all these weird empty voids we have whose only purpose is temporary housing for our transport. The only limitation of the shoot was once the weather changed I was unable to take any other photographs as I needed my series to flow in terms of weather conditions, colour & composition. 

My Final 'Urban Space' Image

 Urban Space Pastiche

For my second pastiche I chose Brassai’s ‘No. 27 Paris After Dark, 1933’ as I was interested by this image the most, however I found this image much harder to replicate due to compositional issues & weather conditions.

Brassai's 'No.27, Paris After Dark, 1933'

I spent a while finding a location which included the necessary components such as, cobbles, street signs, lights and the direction the road turns. I finally chose a road in Lewes which I felt gave the same modern vs. old feel of Brassai’s image. I took the image in portrait with Ilford Delta 100 film to replicate the ISO Brassai would have used, at around 9pm on a day where it had been raining a little giving the cobbles a slight reflective nature. It was also a clear night so the sky was clear and dark like the original image. I positioned the camera on the edge of the path with windows, signs and lights in similar positions to the original image. I used an aperture of around F/8-11 as although Brassai’s image had quite a large depth of field I felt to achieve the best result I would use a medium aperture and quite a fast shutter speed of 2 seconds. For my final print the exposure times were 10 seconds at Grade 5, 25 seconds at Grade 2 while dodging the sign in the left foreground for 15 seconds. I then had to burn in the street for 7 seconds and the middle section of the street for a further 7 seconds as it was too brightly lit by the street lights. 

My Final 'Urban Space' Pastiche Image

Unfortunately there were some differences in composition, the signs were not lit up, shops in the horizon are not at the right height and a Christmas tree sits in the background however I feel my final print was as accurate as possible.