As part of this unit I am going to pastiche 2 photos out of a selection of 6, so I will begin by researching and deconstructing each photo so that I can get a clear choice as to which I will go for. In terms of my previous experiences, I am new to environment photography, and will therefore explore a broad range of artists to better my understanding.
Roger Fenton
The Terrace and Park at Harewood House (1859)
In 1859 the Lascelles family of Harewood House, Yorkshire, commissioned Fenton to document the aspects of their house. The house had recently been extensively remodelled by the architect Sir Charles Barry, one hte most significant additions was the terrace to the south front of the house. This photograph shows members of the Lascelles family standing and sitting along the balustrade of their new terrace.
This image at first glance, to me, acts as a show piece, for the perfect upper class and lifestyle. Almost as if it could be an advertisement or propaganda piece, “The lifestyle you could achieve”.
Within this image we have a series of markers to show the vastness of the land in shot, the first being the water fountain in the bottom left corner in the foreground, then central and slightly to the right, the people on the balcony, viewing ‘their’ land, then finally the mountains in the distance, almost in a perfect diagonal line. This is where I get the feeling of the upper class luxury, as the fountain is the first thing your focus is drawn to, as it is the biggest item, in the sharpest focus, and in the foreground, closest to you. Surrounding the fountain is the French garden, on the balcony we have the owners of the house/ guests, their presence on the balcony signifies that this is owned property, and their placement in the centre is what emphasises the vastness of this property, as the perspective shows a large garden behind them, and the framing clearly states that this is but a small portion of the garden, as we cannot see the whole of the pool the fountain is in, and the balcony trails off in each direction.
The fountain is in the sharpest focus, as it is the clearest symbol in shot of the ‘glamour’ intended in this photo, as it is of a large scale, and engraved in luxurious carvings and sculptures, centred in the middle of a large pool.
As the people in this photo are in the ‘middle’ of this photo, looking over the balcony we also get the impression that they are overlooking ‘their’ land, as the glimpse of the French garden behind shows that this is more than just a view. Though their land probably does not stretch as far as the mountains in the background, their inclusion in the photo gives a far greater sense of depth, as we have the markers of the fountain, the people, the trees and the lake, and with just a slither of the sky exposed behind the mountains, the viewer could almost feel like they, themselves, are viewing this never ending landscape from a window as much as through a photograph.
Fenton has chosen to favour a smaller aperture as we do not start to lose focus after the balcony, and even then not by much, he has also chosen a wider lens to include as much of the scenery as possible.
Looking at the arrangement of each item within shot, the viewer gets the feel of a human presence both sucking the life from the land, and also a sense of stupidity, man's folly. The human interference in the natural world is first shown by the Market Stall, as previously stated it is in an unnatural location, brightly signposted with fruit (pumpkins) displayed out front for sale.When we cast our eyes around the market stall, we can see smashed and squashed pumpkins en mass in the foreground, littering the field, the field as well is barren, trees few and fairly small, spaced far apart and lacking leaves, and the grass short, patchy and dried, without any vibrance in it's colour. The most vivid colour in shot, is the fire, the burning house could potentially be the farm house, as little else in terms of civilisation is present. An attempt at extinguishing the fire can be seen, however the fire can be seen to have spread strong in the wind.
All of these elements combine together to show an attempt at man made success, a large house and goods to sell, but we can see that attempting to sell the goods, have raped the land, hence the smashed pumpkins, and the market stall appears barren, with no abundance of business. The old house in the background, the largest man made structure in shot is burning and destroyed showing that these attempts amount to nothing.
This piece conveys a similar cynical message about human altered landscapes to some of his other works such as 'After a Flash Flood Rancho Mirage California' which is part of a series along with 'Mclean Virginia' called 'American Prospects'.
This piece as the title explains, shows the aftermath of a flash flood. From how the picture is organised however, it seems to me, as almost set made as it is structured in three opposing tiers, with almost biblical referencing in their arrangement.
The three tiers consist of, the mountainous landscape in the background, the middle ground of the villa's, and then the bottom, largest tier, in the foreground of a landslide wreck, with a smashed turned over car amidst the rubble.
The reason behind saying that there are almost biblical references, is that the camera angle is looking directly horizontally at the scene, which is how Sternfeld has tiered this photograph. The top section, the mountains, are shown to be completely untouched by man, and distanced enough to appear completely separate from the villas. The exposure and lighting also separates the mountains, as in contrast to the rest of the image, the mountains are very light, and hazed over with a light fog, almost making them seem ethereal.
The middle tier, has much more vivid colouring and contrast in comparison to the mountains, but it remains a muted light. This tier shows a few trees darted through the villas, this make the villa seem to have been cut into the natural space, with a few remaining signs of what was once there. The villas are of an architecture we associate with the Mediterranean, which also signifies perfect sunshine, and often holiday. The villas however are not lit or shown to be particularly glamorous, as mostly outer walls are shown, and the back of an inexpensive car. Other than the care there are no signs of people present at this villa, the muted lighting, and obscured angle at which we see the villas, give a sense of abandonment.
Finally, the lowest and largest tier, that shows the aftermath of the flash flood. We see a landslide, with discoloured grass moving down the left, fading to grey the further down the grass goes. On the right hand side it is mainly smashed rock moving downwards, with the remains of a car swept up in the destruction amongst the rocks. As the landslide has left a fairly clean cut across the road, Sternfeld has taken advantage of this with his dead horizontal camera angle, in order to separate this lower tier from the middle tier.
So within these three tiers, we have the top tier, the mountains in the sky, untouched by man and lit with a 'heavenly' glow.
The middle tier shows us current life, or at least man's attempts at this, carving into the trees with his structures.
The bottom tier, showing destruction and death, with the car amongst the rubble, we see a visual link between the lower 'hellish' tier, and the middle tier where man has carved in his own land in contrast with the natural land, shown in the 'heavens' of the upper tier.
This picture, has very much the same message as Mclean Virginia, using muted light, to take away any vivid colours, and utilising semiotics to subtly suggest that the destruction present in the photograph was a result of humans altering the natural landscape as they please.
These two however quite contrast the mood behind Joel Sternfeld's High Line series, albeit similar messages there is a much more positive and 'beautiful' idea behind the High Line, and it was this series of photos that first sparked my fascination with Sterneld's work.
'The High Line' is an above ground rail track, made in the 1930's to keep the train away from street traffic, that eventually, with the creation of the underground, was no longer needed. It was left abandoned and untouched for around 20 years, before people began to notice what had become of it, which was a natural paradise, suspended above the everyday streets of New York, unbeknownst to the pedestrians below.
Looking at Sternfeld's series, 'American Prospects' I can instantly see why a phenomenon like 'The High Line' would appeal so much to him. As a man who had created a very cynical and satirical series of photographs about man's creation's, particularly man's architecture, and showing examples and giving messages of how it is destroying the natural beauty and order of the world. Then suddenly he is confronted with this marvel, of where nature has adapted man's architecture into a natural beauty, and has persisted this, in the middle of New York City, a place of nothing but miles of a modern world, dominated by staggering examples of man's architecture.
Looking at this particular photograph from 'The High Line' series, we can see a switch in emotion behind a similar message, or rather theme.
The colours in this piece are far more vivid and alive, even in the city buildings. The rail road takes up the entirety of the foreground, and tapers into the horizon line. Be the colours of the building more vivid and less depressed than previous images, they are still slightly washed over, and the colour groups stick to myriad of dull brick reds or paler colours like the greyish building on the left hand side of the rail road, with the sky dull and muted out with cloud. This on it's own would give the image of a foggy and slightly depressing city, however the rail road is in complete contrast to these colour tones, as it is a rich and consist green all along the rail road, with small dashes of yellow where daisies are growing. This shows a lush green and natural pathway, plowing right through the centre of the city into the unseen distance, with the actual rail tracks clear and present in the foreground slowly disappearing into the grass. The rails are intentionally kept clear in shot, as a clear signifier as to what this pathway once was, and also further emphasising the idea of a natural 'pathway' cutting through the city. The reminder that this was once a rail track and the dominance of the tracks position and colour is to clearly show natures triumph in this instance over man, and the idea of persistence, as it has taken one of man's impressive structures, and adapted and conquered it, to it's own will.
As stated previously this shows a similar theme to 'American Prospects' of natural order, what should be, and man's defiance of it, however instead of depicting a depressed and dead scene of what man has done to nature, Sternfeld has found an example, of a more passive but also more prevailing and uplifting message, showing that nature will find a way. It may be still opposed to man or at least his creations in a sense, but the destruction and death has been replaced with life and rebirth, creating a message more of beauty, than that of shame and folly.
My Environment
I have always had a naive longing for adventure and exploration, and find myself very envious of people like Edward Weston or Ansel Adams, that got to explore a largely untouched landscape, and had the 'freedom' to explore such an incredibly vast landscape.
In modern times however there is not much that has not been explored already, and even though there is still plenty I myself could explore, I live in a country where this is permitted within great confines.
This will be the basis of my focus on landscape and environment photography.
For my meaning I am looking very much at the roots of landscape, and of Romanticism. This is because in England a main catalyst for great Romantic era artists was the legal siphoning of all English land, I am referring of course to England's Agricultural Revolution that was a by product of the Industrial Revolution.
The Agricultural revolution in England was to boost the productivity of farmland, and to achieve this, all land was deemed to have a 'legal owner' no land was to be free any more, it was owned either privately or by the Government. This meant acres upon acres of forests and fields in England became fenced off and enclosed, prohibiting the free exploration of English land, summarised in Mark Overtons' words, (BBC History writer) "the shift to capitalism in the agricultural world".
This radical change gave birth to such poets as John Clare, William Blake, and William Wordsworth. Their poetry was predominantly based around this segregation and constriction of their green land they used to be free to, and the rigid, and polluted manufactured landscape that was being erected in it's place.
This may have all happened a long time ago to us, however this law still stands. In England every section of land is owned by someone, therefore technically, nothing is fully open to the public, sure we cut through the occasional field, there are parks and walks through wooded areas, but that land is still classed as someone property, and you cannot simply explore it as you wish. Much land is also completely fenced off, and we are 'not aloud' to walk across it, though much of time, I find particularly in my area, there is no viable reason for this land to be restricted. All I simply see are many green patches fenced off, showing long signs of neglect and abandonment, though someone still clings to it like a greedy child denying it to others.
This law is most noticeable in England to campers, as you cannot legally pitch a tent anywhere other than a designated, and tolled, camp site.
This is quite contrasting to mainland Europe, where most land is free to roam and explore, and you are free to legally set up camp for the night and carry on the next day.
Looking at this law, and the restrictions it implies, I would like to look at the idea of quarantine, or imprisonment of the land.
Jem Southam
Jem Southam was born in Bristol in 1950, and is now one of the UK's leading photographers.
He is renowned for his colour landscapes, beginning in the 1970's and continuing until the present. His trademark style is the patient observation of changes at a single location over many months or years.
Southam's subjects are predominately situated in the South West of England where he lives and works. He observes the balance between nature and man's intervention and traces cycles of decay and renewal. In doing this his pieces suggest the forging of pathways towards visual and intellectual resolution.
Looking at this photograph, Southam careful inspection of detail, and the subtleties between colours and textures is clearly evident. It is a consistency with Southam's work to have his shots with a completely razor sharp focus and a large depth of field so that everything is clear, he also makes sure that everything is carefully lined up and organised precisely.
This comes from his influence from the 'Bechers' as he stated in an interview with 'Seesaw Magazine', in 1975 he switched from colour to black and white film as he did not like the saturations from colour film at that time, and he began to turn to the precise works of the 'Bechers' for influence to carry on his photography.
We can see similarities in terms of the depth of field and the textures they bring out in their photos.
However after a while, in the early 80's he began to switch back to colour, following inspirations from Eggleston's photography.
My Environment
I spent some time using a 35mm film Minolta SLR camera, and experimented with a 28mm lens. At first I simply took some test shots, lining up trees and horizon lines, and creating a frame with bushes, basically getting to know landscape composition.
After a few shots, I began exploring country lanes around my area in Rainham, trying to find some examples of the fields or old farm land that is fenced off, and forbidden.
I was shooting around sunset, unfortunately it was a very cloudy day, and so the lighting is rather dreary, however I felt this helped reinforce my theme of abandonment in certain shots, as the grass and trees had this lifeless colour to them.
As these 35mm where more for a warm up and experimentation I was only looking for a couple of prints from them, however unfortunately in the developing process most of my favourite negatives had scratches right across them, and due to time as well, I made one full print from these and decided to move onto shooting similar photos on a medium format camera.
This was my favourite of my 35mm shots; I was walking through country lanes, when I saw an old rusted fence, with this plane of grass behind it that was very dead looking and barren, so I climbed the fence and began exploring.
It was a plane of dug up earth and grass, and there were a few signs of tire tracks and recent activity in the area, but the majority seemed long since abandoned. At the edges I saw a few pieces of equipment that had been left around, and that people were simply cutting the trees down around the edges and leaving the rest.
The whole placed seemed like this dried up dead field that was having its last signs of life exhausted until it was fully dead.
Amongst the barren plane and collections of tools around the edges there was just one steel gate lying in the middle of the field tangled in barbed wire. It did not seem to fit, it had no place or evidence of where it came from, it was simply there, and this fascinated me so I took several shots of it playing around with exposure time until I found one I was happy with.
This fence door put me onto the idea of documenting these fences and particularly gateways, that bar off forgotten areas, like prison doors.
Developing Ideas
After a tutorial I was advised that my idea of imprisonment and quarantine was not clear enough from my first shots, and that I should try to pull the camera back and show as much of these landscapes as possible, so it is clear that this vast land is forbidden.
In my second attempt at my environment shoots I switched to using a Fuji 6x9 camera as the Bronica I first shot with was fully booked, and I continued to work with ISO100 medium format colour film.
I brought my camera positioning back and experimented with shooting both the fences and through the fences. So that I had a variety where the focus of some shots was this solid, prison like barricade, but then other shots where slightly more subtle in that I shot the landscape through fences and gates, so that the viewer could see this beautiful landscape, but could also see it was behind something, and blocked off.
I shot these at sunset, attempting to use the sunlight to bring out the colours of the trees and landscapes.
I realised however as soon as I had made these contact sheets that I would need to reshoot, as the FUji 6x9 camera uses a view finder focus and not a focus through the lens. As I was not familiar with this function my focus was completely off, so I set out to reshoot.
I decided for the second shoot to switch to black and white film. I made this decision when reflecting on my meaning behind these series of photos, as I was thinking of the emotions I felt when I thought of all this forbidden land, and the loss of exploration, and the most prominent emotion was sorrow, so I wanted to take away the colour from the landscape, to reinforce that the land has lost it's freedom, that there is something missing.
These three are my final prints for this section of the environment that I submitted on my interim review day.
Looking at the three pieces, I love the contrasts and the harsh textures I have managed to bring out in the fences that are in the foreground. Something I was told however by my tutor John that upon reflection I quite agree with, is that the middle picture stands out the most from the other two, and tells the message of obscurity and entrapment the clearest, to the extent where it almost stands out as a separate piece of work from the others. This is something I am taking into consideration for a potential re-shoot for this section of my environment unit.
This is my pastiche piece, that was to mimic Robert Adams' on signal hill as best as possible.
I took the shot on an aperture of f22, with a 1second exposure time at 6am.
My location was the hardest part to choose as I could not find a clear enough hill with the correct view, so I decided to compromise and replicated Adams' two trees with a plant and just positioned my camera to increase it's perspective in the foreground. I was happy with my tiers in this picture however, as I believe I got quite close to Adams' proportions of foreground plants, middle ground strip of urban area, and then this foggy misty, endless stretch for the background of the image.
Robert Adams
On Signal Hill, Overlooking Long Beach, California
Concerned with human destruction of the landscape of the American West, Robert Adams has for many decades used his camera to mournfully document what he sees as the fallen state of a former Eden. Of his project he has said, “The operating principle that seems to work best is to go to the landscape that frightens you the most and take pictures until you’re not scared anymore.”
The Los Angeles basin, perhaps, one of the most terrifying landscapes to anyone concerned about environmental degradation, was Adam’s focus for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In this photograph, two forlorn, scraggly trees overlook a smog-choked landscape of urban sprawl. Perched on the hillside, the neglected trees are poignant reminders of what was once naturally beautiful but is now spoiled.
The manipulation of light in this photograph gives off a ghostly effect, utilizing the smog of L.A. and the choice of black and white film, makes the scene almost reminiscent of the horror genre.
He has set up his exposure to favour the shadows of the trees, in order to silhouette them against the white foggy background, so that trees appear to be more cut out of the fog.
The trees stand on thick black grass in the foreground, exposed so that you can recognise more the presence of grass and trees, instead of fully realised trees and grass, reinforcing this theme of death that the photograph generates. In fact looking at the slither of the grey city sandwiched in between black dead trees and grass, and an abyss of endless fog, Adams has transformed this hillside view of Los Angeles, into a scene depicting either the city of the dead, or some form of ghoulish after life.
Joel Sternfeld
As I progress through the Environment project, today we were set a research task, where we have to pick out a photographer, from a list, and research them, comparing at least 3 of their photographs.
Sternfeld.
Joel Sternfeld has taken many landscape photographs, many of which display a certain level of humour, or satire, about our environment, and our attitudes, as people, towards it.
As brief background on Sternfeld, born in 1944 New York City, he was one of a grouping of environment photographers, that really moved the genre forwards, and brought in a new generation of styling, completely different to the firm classic styles of Edward Weston or Ansel Adams. Sternfeld belonged to a 'dead pan' movement, using soft colouring and combining very much a naturalism, or lack of artistic style as some would say, but with subtle elements attributing together to create a certain satire from the image.
Sternfeld himself is best known for exploring an irony behind human altered landscapes in the United States.
Looking first at Sternfeld's Mclean Virginia,
This image has quite a depressed feel to it, as the scene depicts a wrecked land. The first items within the mise en scene our eyes are drawn to are the Farm Market stall, and then the fire behind it, these are the first items to catch our eye mainly from his choice of framing, the farm market stall is the largest single apparent item and horizontally it may be to the left but vertically it is the centre of the image, it is also 'out of place' which sparks a subconscious intrigue. The reason I say the farm market is out of place, is that when you pay attention to the surroundings, the field appears rather barren, with no clear path coming from or leading to this market stall, making it a very unnatural man made element within it's surroundings. We do of course have the burning house in the background that signifies a human inhabitance of the landscape, but as it is sufficiently in the background with no visible adjoining path to the market stall, that both man made elements appear together, yet separate, both slightly out of place, surrounded by nature.Joel Sternfeld
As I progress through the Environment project, today we were set a research task, where we have to pick out a photographer, from a list, and research them, comparing at least 3 of their photographs.
Sternfeld.
Joel Sternfeld has taken many landscape photographs, many of which display a certain level of humour, or satire, about our environment, and our attitudes, as people, towards it.
As brief background on Sternfeld, born in 1944 New York City, he was one of a grouping of environment photographers, that really moved the genre forwards, and brought in a new generation of styling, completely different to the firm classic styles of Edward Weston or Ansel Adams. Sternfeld belonged to a 'dead pan' movement, using soft colouring and combining very much a naturalism, or lack of artistic style as some would say, but with subtle elements attributing together to create a certain satire from the image.
Sternfeld himself is best known for exploring an irony behind human altered landscapes in the United States.
Looking first at Sternfeld's Mclean Virginia,
Looking at the arrangement of each item within shot, the viewer gets the feel of a human presence both sucking the life from the land, and also a sense of stupidity, man's folly. The human interference in the natural world is first shown by the Market Stall, as previously stated it is in an unnatural location, brightly signposted with fruit (pumpkins) displayed out front for sale.When we cast our eyes around the market stall, we can see smashed and squashed pumpkins en mass in the foreground, littering the field, the field as well is barren, trees few and fairly small, spaced far apart and lacking leaves, and the grass short, patchy and dried, without any vibrance in it's colour. The most vivid colour in shot, is the fire, the burning house could potentially be the farm house, as little else in terms of civilisation is present. An attempt at extinguishing the fire can be seen, however the fire can be seen to have spread strong in the wind.
All of these elements combine together to show an attempt at man made success, a large house and goods to sell, but we can see that attempting to sell the goods, have raped the land, hence the smashed pumpkins, and the market stall appears barren, with no abundance of business. The old house in the background, the largest man made structure in shot is burning and destroyed showing that these attempts amount to nothing.
This piece conveys a similar cynical message about human altered landscapes to some of his other works such as 'After a Flash Flood Rancho Mirage California' which is part of a series along with 'Mclean Virginia' called 'American Prospects'.
This piece as the title explains, shows the aftermath of a flash flood. From how the picture is organised however, it seems to me, as almost set made as it is structured in three opposing tiers, with almost biblical referencing in their arrangement.
The three tiers consist of, the mountainous landscape in the background, the middle ground of the villa's, and then the bottom, largest tier, in the foreground of a landslide wreck, with a smashed turned over car amidst the rubble.
The reason behind saying that there are almost biblical references, is that the camera angle is looking directly horizontally at the scene, which is how Sternfeld has tiered this photograph. The top section, the mountains, are shown to be completely untouched by man, and distanced enough to appear completely separate from the villas. The exposure and lighting also separates the mountains, as in contrast to the rest of the image, the mountains are very light, and hazed over with a light fog, almost making them seem ethereal.
The middle tier, has much more vivid colouring and contrast in comparison to the mountains, but it remains a muted light. This tier shows a few trees darted through the villas, this make the villa seem to have been cut into the natural space, with a few remaining signs of what was once there. The villas are of an architecture we associate with the Mediterranean, which also signifies perfect sunshine, and often holiday. The villas however are not lit or shown to be particularly glamorous, as mostly outer walls are shown, and the back of an inexpensive car. Other than the care there are no signs of people present at this villa, the muted lighting, and obscured angle at which we see the villas, give a sense of abandonment.
Finally, the lowest and largest tier, that shows the aftermath of the flash flood. We see a landslide, with discoloured grass moving down the left, fading to grey the further down the grass goes. On the right hand side it is mainly smashed rock moving downwards, with the remains of a car swept up in the destruction amongst the rocks. As the landslide has left a fairly clean cut across the road, Sternfeld has taken advantage of this with his dead horizontal camera angle, in order to separate this lower tier from the middle tier.
So within these three tiers, we have the top tier, the mountains in the sky, untouched by man and lit with a 'heavenly' glow.
The middle tier shows us current life, or at least man's attempts at this, carving into the trees with his structures.
The bottom tier, showing destruction and death, with the car amongst the rubble, we see a visual link between the lower 'hellish' tier, and the middle tier where man has carved in his own land in contrast with the natural land, shown in the 'heavens' of the upper tier.
This picture, has very much the same message as Mclean Virginia, using muted light, to take away any vivid colours, and utilising semiotics to subtly suggest that the destruction present in the photograph was a result of humans altering the natural landscape as they please.
These two however quite contrast the mood behind Joel Sternfeld's High Line series, albeit similar messages there is a much more positive and 'beautiful' idea behind the High Line, and it was this series of photos that first sparked my fascination with Sterneld's work.
'The High Line' is an above ground rail track, made in the 1930's to keep the train away from street traffic, that eventually, with the creation of the underground, was no longer needed. It was left abandoned and untouched for around 20 years, before people began to notice what had become of it, which was a natural paradise, suspended above the everyday streets of New York, unbeknownst to the pedestrians below.
Looking at Sternfeld's series, 'American Prospects' I can instantly see why a phenomenon like 'The High Line' would appeal so much to him. As a man who had created a very cynical and satirical series of photographs about man's creation's, particularly man's architecture, and showing examples and giving messages of how it is destroying the natural beauty and order of the world. Then suddenly he is confronted with this marvel, of where nature has adapted man's architecture into a natural beauty, and has persisted this, in the middle of New York City, a place of nothing but miles of a modern world, dominated by staggering examples of man's architecture.
Looking at this particular photograph from 'The High Line' series, we can see a switch in emotion behind a similar message, or rather theme.
The colours in this piece are far more vivid and alive, even in the city buildings. The rail road takes up the entirety of the foreground, and tapers into the horizon line. Be the colours of the building more vivid and less depressed than previous images, they are still slightly washed over, and the colour groups stick to myriad of dull brick reds or paler colours like the greyish building on the left hand side of the rail road, with the sky dull and muted out with cloud. This on it's own would give the image of a foggy and slightly depressing city, however the rail road is in complete contrast to these colour tones, as it is a rich and consist green all along the rail road, with small dashes of yellow where daisies are growing. This shows a lush green and natural pathway, plowing right through the centre of the city into the unseen distance, with the actual rail tracks clear and present in the foreground slowly disappearing into the grass. The rails are intentionally kept clear in shot, as a clear signifier as to what this pathway once was, and also further emphasising the idea of a natural 'pathway' cutting through the city. The reminder that this was once a rail track and the dominance of the tracks position and colour is to clearly show natures triumph in this instance over man, and the idea of persistence, as it has taken one of man's impressive structures, and adapted and conquered it, to it's own will.
As stated previously this shows a similar theme to 'American Prospects' of natural order, what should be, and man's defiance of it, however instead of depicting a depressed and dead scene of what man has done to nature, Sternfeld has found an example, of a more passive but also more prevailing and uplifting message, showing that nature will find a way. It may be still opposed to man or at least his creations in a sense, but the destruction and death has been replaced with life and rebirth, creating a message more of beauty, than that of shame and folly.
My Environment
I have always had a naive longing for adventure and exploration, and find myself very envious of people like Edward Weston or Ansel Adams, that got to explore a largely untouched landscape, and had the 'freedom' to explore such an incredibly vast landscape.
In modern times however there is not much that has not been explored already, and even though there is still plenty I myself could explore, I live in a country where this is permitted within great confines.
This will be the basis of my focus on landscape and environment photography.
For my meaning I am looking very much at the roots of landscape, and of Romanticism. This is because in England a main catalyst for great Romantic era artists was the legal siphoning of all English land, I am referring of course to England's Agricultural Revolution that was a by product of the Industrial Revolution.
The Agricultural revolution in England was to boost the productivity of farmland, and to achieve this, all land was deemed to have a 'legal owner' no land was to be free any more, it was owned either privately or by the Government. This meant acres upon acres of forests and fields in England became fenced off and enclosed, prohibiting the free exploration of English land, summarised in Mark Overtons' words, (BBC History writer) "the shift to capitalism in the agricultural world".
This radical change gave birth to such poets as John Clare, William Blake, and William Wordsworth. Their poetry was predominantly based around this segregation and constriction of their green land they used to be free to, and the rigid, and polluted manufactured landscape that was being erected in it's place.
This may have all happened a long time ago to us, however this law still stands. In England every section of land is owned by someone, therefore technically, nothing is fully open to the public, sure we cut through the occasional field, there are parks and walks through wooded areas, but that land is still classed as someone property, and you cannot simply explore it as you wish. Much land is also completely fenced off, and we are 'not aloud' to walk across it, though much of time, I find particularly in my area, there is no viable reason for this land to be restricted. All I simply see are many green patches fenced off, showing long signs of neglect and abandonment, though someone still clings to it like a greedy child denying it to others.
This law is most noticeable in England to campers, as you cannot legally pitch a tent anywhere other than a designated, and tolled, camp site.
This is quite contrasting to mainland Europe, where most land is free to roam and explore, and you are free to legally set up camp for the night and carry on the next day.
Looking at this law, and the restrictions it implies, I would like to look at the idea of quarantine, or imprisonment of the land.
Jem Southam
Jem Southam was born in Bristol in 1950, and is now one of the UK's leading photographers.
He is renowned for his colour landscapes, beginning in the 1970's and continuing until the present. His trademark style is the patient observation of changes at a single location over many months or years.
Southam's subjects are predominately situated in the South West of England where he lives and works. He observes the balance between nature and man's intervention and traces cycles of decay and renewal. In doing this his pieces suggest the forging of pathways towards visual and intellectual resolution.
Looking at this photograph, Southam careful inspection of detail, and the subtleties between colours and textures is clearly evident. It is a consistency with Southam's work to have his shots with a completely razor sharp focus and a large depth of field so that everything is clear, he also makes sure that everything is carefully lined up and organised precisely.
This comes from his influence from the 'Bechers' as he stated in an interview with 'Seesaw Magazine', in 1975 he switched from colour to black and white film as he did not like the saturations from colour film at that time, and he began to turn to the precise works of the 'Bechers' for influence to carry on his photography.
We can see similarities in terms of the depth of field and the textures they bring out in their photos.
However after a while, in the early 80's he began to switch back to colour, following inspirations from Eggleston's photography.
My Environment
I spent some time using a 35mm film Minolta SLR camera, and experimented with a 28mm lens. At first I simply took some test shots, lining up trees and horizon lines, and creating a frame with bushes, basically getting to know landscape composition.
After a few shots, I began exploring country lanes around my area in Rainham, trying to find some examples of the fields or old farm land that is fenced off, and forbidden.
I was shooting around sunset, unfortunately it was a very cloudy day, and so the lighting is rather dreary, however I felt this helped reinforce my theme of abandonment in certain shots, as the grass and trees had this lifeless colour to them.
As these 35mm where more for a warm up and experimentation I was only looking for a couple of prints from them, however unfortunately in the developing process most of my favourite negatives had scratches right across them, and due to time as well, I made one full print from these and decided to move onto shooting similar photos on a medium format camera.
This was my favourite of my 35mm shots; I was walking through country lanes, when I saw an old rusted fence, with this plane of grass behind it that was very dead looking and barren, so I climbed the fence and began exploring.
It was a plane of dug up earth and grass, and there were a few signs of tire tracks and recent activity in the area, but the majority seemed long since abandoned. At the edges I saw a few pieces of equipment that had been left around, and that people were simply cutting the trees down around the edges and leaving the rest.
The whole placed seemed like this dried up dead field that was having its last signs of life exhausted until it was fully dead.
Amongst the barren plane and collections of tools around the edges there was just one steel gate lying in the middle of the field tangled in barbed wire. It did not seem to fit, it had no place or evidence of where it came from, it was simply there, and this fascinated me so I took several shots of it playing around with exposure time until I found one I was happy with.
This fence door put me onto the idea of documenting these fences and particularly gateways, that bar off forgotten areas, like prison doors.
Developing Ideas
After a tutorial I was advised that my idea of imprisonment and quarantine was not clear enough from my first shots, and that I should try to pull the camera back and show as much of these landscapes as possible, so it is clear that this vast land is forbidden.
In my second attempt at my environment shoots I switched to using a Fuji 6x9 camera as the Bronica I first shot with was fully booked, and I continued to work with ISO100 medium format colour film.
I brought my camera positioning back and experimented with shooting both the fences and through the fences. So that I had a variety where the focus of some shots was this solid, prison like barricade, but then other shots where slightly more subtle in that I shot the landscape through fences and gates, so that the viewer could see this beautiful landscape, but could also see it was behind something, and blocked off.
I shot these at sunset, attempting to use the sunlight to bring out the colours of the trees and landscapes.
I realised however as soon as I had made these contact sheets that I would need to reshoot, as the FUji 6x9 camera uses a view finder focus and not a focus through the lens. As I was not familiar with this function my focus was completely off, so I set out to reshoot.
I decided for the second shoot to switch to black and white film. I made this decision when reflecting on my meaning behind these series of photos, as I was thinking of the emotions I felt when I thought of all this forbidden land, and the loss of exploration, and the most prominent emotion was sorrow, so I wanted to take away the colour from the landscape, to reinforce that the land has lost it's freedom, that there is something missing.
Looking at the three pieces, I love the contrasts and the harsh textures I have managed to bring out in the fences that are in the foreground. Something I was told however by my tutor John that upon reflection I quite agree with, is that the middle picture stands out the most from the other two, and tells the message of obscurity and entrapment the clearest, to the extent where it almost stands out as a separate piece of work from the others. This is something I am taking into consideration for a potential re-shoot for this section of my environment unit.
This is my pastiche piece, that was to mimic Robert Adams' on signal hill as best as possible.
I took the shot on an aperture of f22, with a 1second exposure time at 6am.
My location was the hardest part to choose as I could not find a clear enough hill with the correct view, so I decided to compromise and replicated Adams' two trees with a plant and just positioned my camera to increase it's perspective in the foreground. I was happy with my tiers in this picture however, as I believe I got quite close to Adams' proportions of foreground plants, middle ground strip of urban area, and then this foggy misty, endless stretch for the background of the image.
