Environment Pastiches

Jem Southam - 'Seaford Head'                                                           My pastiche (to come)

              Brassai - 'Paris after dark'                                                              My pastiche

              

Critical Appraisal: The Urban Environment (300 words)

For my urban environment series I documented the process of development and have showed how humanity rebuilds, improves and changes their urban space, as I am interested in the idea of positive change and development in general.

Having changed my idea at a late stage, I did not have much influence other than my surroundings and how I perceived them but John Davies’ work documenting Britain’s industrialisation with a similar concept to my own would have most likely inspired me to document urban space in Britain like I have. An issue that could have arisen within this project would have been making sure each photograph compliments the others and they all work together. I’ve approached this by making each image correspond to the next as my series documents on topic and its change over time.

My photographic choices concerning the visual elements of the series were: to photograph in black and white which suits the topic more in my opinion; to use a large depth of field to include a lot of detail in my work because I wasn’t isolating anything in particular but photographing whole scenes; and to use the right angle for each image to showcase it best such as slightly elevated for the first image of wasteland and from a street level looking upwards for the middle image to show the scaffolding as I saw it.

For this project specifically I think I need to reflect upon managing my studies better and give myself the maximum amount of time to allow for changes. The most significant challenge in this unit was drawing inspiration from other work, as I seemed to simply perceive the urban space and visualise my photographs straight away so my work lacks input from others. However, I am happy with how my series works.

John Davies' work:

My Urban Series:

Urban Environment Project Update

Having failed to find good locations to shoot abandoned buildings I have changed my idea completely. If I had allowed myself more time I could have explored more and maybe gone and shot in a few places more than once between processing to make sure I got the shots I needed. I would have liked to do this because I liked my original idea and I feel it is possibly stronger than my current one.

I have decided to document the process of development and show how humanity rebuilds, improves and changes their urban space. Rather than just photographing a building that is decaying and dilapidated (like I would have before) or just photographing perfect architecture that either needs no improvement or has been improved; I will photograph the process which could be perceived as the ugly leading to the beauty: a before construction shot; a during construction shot; and an after construction shot.

At first my approach to this was going to be drawing inspiration from Bernd and Hilla Becher. I wanted to use a large format and correct the buildings from a straight on view and shoot in black and white. Then I decided against this angle when I found my first subject and wanted to take my photograph from a more interesting place with the contrast of the crossing lines and angles against the sky. I still shot at a larger depth of field to retain more detail.

Critical Appraisal: The Rural Environment (300 words)

My environment series on graveyards and cemeteries displays the juxtaposition between the beauty of them and their not so beautiful connotations. My aim is to demonstrate how beautiful these landscapes can be because my personal approach to representing the landscape is to portray it at its best as this is what I strive for in my photography: finding beauty. I want people to feel positive about my photos and understand how I perceive the environment.

During my research I looked through a lot of photographs of my chosen subject which were not befitting. It really made me realise I wanted my own to have warm lighting and colours and focus on the natural environment of these places. I wanted to create my work in a similar way to Simon Ward. The significance of his work is that he is known for creating images of beauty from something not commonly perceived as beautiful and I want to create beautiful landscapes of places often depicted not only in black and white but in an eerie and spooky manner.

I managed my studies conveniently though taking test shots on 35mm film, making contact prints of these and recomposing my favourites on medium format film then processing this for my prints. I also arrived early to print and utilised my time effectively to get them all done in a couple of days.

My final prints are warm in colour, and focus on the positivity of nature in my chosen locations; the graves even taking a step back from the focus in some cases. The challenging part of completing this project was managing time. I overcame this by being prepared with my negatives and being punctual. I wouldn’t change anything other than possibly fine tuning the colouring of my prints but I am very happy with my finished project.


My series: (inaccurate colour through scan)

Environment Project: Shooting and Printing

Last week during my days off I took three rolls worth of photographs on my 35mm film camera. These were test shots in a sense but I planned to use these if worse came to worst and they turned out to be very helpful.


              

A good few of my photos were not exposed correctly on the contact sheet but I could save these when printing individually. However, I looked at the rest I could make out; looking for the best composed and the warm beautiful colours that I could make my prints from to convey the beauty of the scenes.

Then later in the week I went back to the same places, and re-composed my favourite shots out of the 35mm lot. This time I used a 6x9 medium format back on a Wista; 160 ISO medium format film and chose a shallow depth of field for a lot of my chosen shots. I felt that this would be more fitting while showing the beauty of them and create a nice look. However for some I needed to have it all sharp for the scene to be viewed as a whole and really appreciated.

I have chosen to print a series of 3 images. Frames 1, 5 and 6 are the images I have chosen to display as prints for my environment series. However, upon closer inspection I have noticed some faults with the first frame which may have occurred during processing. If I can't print this photograph I will print the second frame instead.

Overall I want my photos to look warm and make people feel good when they see them rather than negative. And rather than find them effective in a haunting way as graveyards and cemeteries are often depicted, find them effectively beautiful and inviting.

Environment Series Research - Simon Ward

Much in the way my idea for my environment series involves portraying the beauty in something usually not associated with that quality, Simon Ward, a fine art contemporary photographer; scans objects taken from graveyards and dead animals to make "aesthetically beautiful and memorable images". I'm not sure whether I personally agree with this comment but I know some people will be able to appreciate the beauty of something in death. I hope through my photographs I can achieve the same.

He also did a project called 'The Guardians' where he collected items from children's graves and scanned them. It is said that "the objects function as an attempt to compensate for the loss by creating something tangible, a receptacle for the placing of memories".

I find Ward's work too controversial for me. I don't agree with the fact he has stolen things from graves where people have lovingly left them in memory just to create scans. I would have much preferred to look at photographs taken of these items in their original environment where no interference has occurred. I wouldn't say his images of his late pet cat are in bad taste but I don't agree with them and I don't feel anything positive while looking at them. I don't particularly think it is a respectful thing to do with a dead animal; especially domesticated.

Simon Ward deals greatly with the theme of death in his work and where the locations of my environmental images holds these connotations too, I do not want to focus on it. I want to show the aesthetic beauty within my locations through capturing them in a way that is overall positive and so that people appreciate the beauty in them rather than what they usually mean.