The Environment

This unit will be about investigating and representing the many different conceptual approaches to environment, and the aesthetic traditions embedded within this genre.

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.

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.
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.

Photoshop work

I had a little spare time and decided to experiment on photoshop, and ended up coming up with this:

I've always enjoyed my anime's so I decided to convert myself into this style.

The Object

Initial Ideas


My first unit is on Object and Body, and we are beginning with The Object, as a still life piece. 

A still life of course being a piece of art, that typically involves an inanimate subject matter, often common or household items. A still life will depict a given theme or message, the artists’ tell stories and invoke emotions through their choices in setting, objects, and how they are displayed, utilising the connotations they subconsciously hold within us.  

Much of this project is left entirely up to us, and our own development of ideas, however it must touch on a current debate or issue that concerns, or invokes passion in us.

When I read the word 'current' the first spark to go off in my head is consumerism, our plastic society of material items that our lives revolve around. It is something I feel very passionately about, thought I am not entirely clear where I stand on the subject, which is why I think it is important for me to begin with this word 'consumerism'.

Consumerism of course being a societies’ economy that thrives on an increased progression on the constant consumption of material goods.  This revolves around a societies desire, to constantly consume goods, and within this lies the issue. As our consumer society has evolved to the level of obsession, where people become devoted to particular large chain brands, and spend large and often unaffordable amounts in order to keep up with their set pace. The purchase of these products is also a status symbol, a way for someone to feel social value through the value of what they own.

My first step in research was a documentary film I spotted by chance in the UCA library called ‘Objectified’ (A Gary Hustwit film, 2009). This documentary is about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and the people who design them. It goes on as well to address personal expression, identity, consumerism and sustainability, and the final summary question of “What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?”

The film begins with the quote:

“Every object, intentional or not, speaks to you on who put it there.”

I loved this quote as where it may have been intended as a mere design statement, it quite effectively summarises our every day thought process on objects, and how they create symbols.

As the documentary goes on you hear far more on mass productions, and all the featured designers seem to agree, that the drive behind products is a man holding a fat cheque, saying make me a fatter cheque. Which makes the whole notion of consumerism seem quite dead to me, as when you put a lot of thought into it, the rate at which new products are produced, and the rate at which we all go out and buy them, is at a ridiculously unnecessary pace. We are hypnotised into purchasing new things almost, because if you really think about it, a lot of mostly house hold items, you can technically purchase once and most of the time you don’t really need another ever again, it is simply that with age, we are taught to grow tired of it.

The way this happens was quite accurately phrased in this documentary by a rich man approaching you and saying, “Make what was now look like then, so people want our now”.

Redesign, and resell, and make it seem like its superior, more often than not, it is simply different in some slight way.

I find it hard to fully ascertain my reaction to this, as many of us hold value to the products we own for many reasons. Some use this consumerism as a form of expression, through fashion, or through our choices in products. For example cars, every car has a different styling, personality, there are many subtleties in their design and functionality that we connect with over time, so we don’t simply purchase these because they are ‘the latest one’, we take careful consideration over why we buy it. A car is still often used as a status symbol however, there is the corporate car, sleek and modern, much like the corporate power suit, the small budget car that is overly modified, like the adidas joggers and hoodie with the nike trainers.

This puts me in constant confliction, as many use material goods as a form of expression of personality, but so many also use material goods to hide their true expression, a mask of what you want to be over what you are, many often do not even use conscious thought to do this, many hide behind the same goods for the same reasons as one another, almost as if we are afraid to be different.

For these reasons I want to portray this sense of the mask, of the hidden personality within the product.

Tim Hetherington


I began looking for a book on Edward Weston for some inspiration on what objects to choose when I spotted a book titled 'Tales from  a Globalizing World', and decided to give it a look over considering I am dealing with consumerism.
Within this book I discovered a short series of photos by Tim Hetherington.


Tim Hetherington was an English photographer that travelled much of the world, documenting areas mostly of war and turmoil. He often worked for vanity fair and took up residence in New York, though as just stated he spent much time working abroad.


Unfortunately shortly after searching his name online I discovered he was recently killed, caught in cross fire in Libya whilst following the struggle  of the rebels on the front lines.


He did a short series of photographs called 'Most of the Personal Belongings' that was featured in this book.


The objects where all in a police station in Bosnia - Herzegovina, they were in evidence bags and belonged to the deceased. 
Hetherington took these photos attempting to visualise the owners, the people that once where, as these were the last items they held, and many had been used to help identify who the deceased was, and Hetherington found a fascination in attempted to reconstruct the person who held these. 

This meaning behind such trivial items is a fascinating concept, that aspects of a persons identity, personality could be hidden within such trivial items.


These items where shot in an incredibly clinical fashion, on a plain metallic backdrop with a very neutral lighting choice. In each frame you see only a single item, displayed in the centre with enough empty space around it to use the metallic backdrop as a frame for each item. This clinical and simplistic fashion makes the items quite clear as pieces of evidence, especially as they are displayed as a collection of images, so we immediately recognise these as the items of the dead.


I am unsure as to whether or not I would like to replicate this style of photography as such, however the meaning has certainly hit home, and made me want to find my own way of telling secrets of a persons self through a mere item.


From this I have started to develop an idea of attempting to construct a character through the use of simply two items manipulating some contemporary symbolism. 


Continuing with my idea of portraying consumerism, I would like to attempt at revealing the duality of people. Showing for example a businessman's tie in the foreground and a broken, half empty whiskey bottle in the background. As many of our everyday items are more than just items to us, they grow to hold memories, and significance, but then we have many other items that do the opposite, they mask these thoughts, personalities, and I would like to attempt at exposing both sides of a person within my final image.

David Bate, Bungled Memories

Bungled memories is a series of still life colour photographs. Each picture shows domestic objects broken by the artist in his home and photographed on his kitchen table. Here these ‘Freudian slips’ are taken as the basis for the production of new artworks that are rooted in the hidden psychology of everyday life. Also aesthetically ecological, the work produces something new from what is normally discarded.

The exhibition was proposed on an interpretation of experience based on Denis Diderot (1713-1784). 

Thought the exhibition is not a homage to Diderot. Although Diderot influenced the visual arts of his day, the artists here intervene in the thinking of Diderot.

David Bate envokes questions about memory. Photographing domestic objects and accidentally broken by him, Bate elevates these things from the humble still life to extravagant dramas of lost memories and enjoyment of the emotions involved in a broken object.

Diderot being the famous French philosopher and art critic, who wrote several books challenging conventions regarding novels and their structure and content, while also examining philosophical ideas about free will. He also wrote the dialogue, Le Neveu de Rameau (Rameau’s Nephew) upon which many articles and sermons about convsumer desire have been based.

Looking at Bates’ photography I find it reminding me of Tim Hetherington’s “Most of the Personal Belongings”, the use of basic objects that contain within them memories and stories. David Bate has approached the angle of destruction creating this value however. As in Tim Hetherington’s work a simple object holds the key to discovering a whole person, where as in David Bates’ Bungled Memories, the objects are given the energy of these memories upon being destroyed, as they simplistic everyday objects that we do not really consider, until it breaks, and its memories are released, suddenly making us realise it’s value.

I am quite inspired by the way these photo’s where shot, as the metallic table makes a perfect mirror image of each object, and the light include a slight cut off point on each image, splitting a light and dark section. This use of binary opposites is an ingenious way to show the metamorphosis of the objects once they are smashed.

This technique is one I believe I shall attempt to recreate in my piece, showing a light and dark, a mirrored reflection, the duality of us all.


Paul Biddle


Paul Biddle describes his influences as ranging from Renaissance art, to Dadaism and Surrealism, from Picaso to the Flotsam and Jetsam, to merely the things he picks up on his walks by the sea.
He explains that his love for photography stems from its immediacy and the hazy line that it can create between reality and the feeling of not being quite sure what's happening.


He works around objects and their textures and colours mostly, creating his scenes by replicating, or complimenting these objects. The items of which range from things he finds in junk shops, or things that wash up on the beach.

In an instant you can recognise his fine art influences through his choice of colour and composition. I found his website by chance whilst looking through some examples of still photography on the internet, and I have decided to look further into his works for their hybridisation of Renaissance art and contemporary photography. His mise en scene is set similar to a renaissance still life, like 'Still life with hunting equipment and dead birds' by Willem van Aelst. 

The reason I say this, is that he sets his scene with a series of carefully placed and ordered items, and all focus is drawn to what these items are, over where they are. In using this manner we start read the items as a story almost. For instance with the Willem van Aelst, we read the hunting gear and dead birds and start to imagine the character that killed these birds, and from the multiple birds we can assume roughly where this character may live. 


The Paul Biddle takes this style of item arrangement however and combines it with multiple more modern styles, for instance the harsh low key lighting casting shadows, is more Dadaism, and the odditiy of the items and how they are arranged shows the influence of surrealism.


What I would like to take from Paul Biddle is his way of combining styles into his still life photography to tell his stories to a contemporary audience.

His work has given me a fresh approach to how I would like to compose my still life now, as his work has shown me that there are many channels between many styles of photography, and helped given me more freedom into how I create my final piece.


Trial and Error


Having researched various artists and seen their work I am now focusing on trial and error concepts.
My inspirations so far have altered my starting idea of consumerism slightly, as I began considering merely the consumer society, and product design, I have then delved more towards our relationships with this consumerism and the products it generates.
This clouded my ideas for some time, as I could not settle on a precise concept in my mind, I was wavering from one idea to the other. I have settled however, on our sense of identity with these products, which ones define us? and which do we simply hide behind?


In terms of representing  the consumer society we hide behind, I still have several too many concepts in mind, however when I hear consumption, I also hear waste, and therefore I want to start by looking at old technology, that which we so frequently discard and replace. When thinking of which items to use for this, I realised that nothing seems to be replaced as frequently as the mobile phone. 
The mobile phone has soared as the Icon of our new digital age, beginning in the early 70's as car phones only owned by the wealthy only, by the mid to late 90's everyone including teenagers had one, and with the ability to text one another, and 10 years on from that in the 2000's almost every primary school child upwards has one, and they have evolved from mere portable phones, to advanced portable computer devices, with 100's or even 1000's of new models coming out each year.
It is a prime example and definitely my choice as the symbol of consumerism and the modern age, constantly being upgraded, and constantly being discarded.


So having figured out my ideal symbol for consumerism, I realised that I needed the binary opposite of this product, in order to represent the person, or personality, that exists in this consumer society. 
I was stuck on this question at first, what will I choose as an object to define the personality behind the mask of consumption? 
I knew it had to be completely different to any micro chip based product, it needed personality in itself. It could not be a modern product easily either, as I needed a clear symbol of something permanent, something that is not discarded and upgraded, but what?
After trailing through a high street of shops and charity shops, looking at products old and new, I suddenly realised what item had stood the test of time, what item can hold so much character, be used in so many ways, and had retained its sense of self throughout the ages, a book.


A book has remained and the world has changed around it. It comes in many shapes, it's cover in many forms, and it's content hold anything, and despite my cringing at such a cliche, but 'you cannot judge a book by it's cover'. It is the perfect symbol for my personality behind the product, as book can be anything, yet it forever remains the same, much like people.


Test Shot 1

This shot was taken on my DSLR Pentax K-x, with it's standard 52mm lens.

It was shot in low lighting condition, at F32, with a 30 second Exposure time, during this exposure I moved a standard torch light over and around the book, to 'paint in the lighting' as I did not have access to any studio lighting.

I took this as merely a test shot, to see a first draft of my idea. The book is obviously the main focus of the picture as the lighting brings it into much clearer focus than the other objects. The book as mentioned previously is my symbol for the personality behind the product, 'the true self'. As a spur of the moment decision I chained and padlocked the book, I did this as I wanted a clearer metaphor to show this personality bound and constrained, lost within the consumer world, I also found that from a lighting perspective the metallic chain really brought out the book by catching the light.

The book has vignette around it, within this you can make out that it is surrounded by consumer products, a haze of items outdated and replaced, I used essentially what I could quickly gather in my home, a handful of out dated mobile phones, which I want to keep in the final image, and potentially increase the amount of phones, as they are the ultimate symbol for the consumer society. The other items were essentially 'modern junk' you would expect to see in any room.

They way I piled the items, and the black backdrop that completely absorbs the surrounding light, give the feeling of a bin, it looks as though you are peaking on a pile of trash, and this chained book rested lost within the sea of microchips. 

I am not entirely convinced by this first attempt, as I find it does not bring out the meanings behind it effectively enough. I would like to re think my composition, to show my phones and my book as far more opposing to one another, as a pose to a mess of them together.

I am unsure as well about my choice of book, it is an old Agatha Christie novel I own, and I want to keep that old, simplistic and traditional book cover, as I said a book is always a book, but it can contain anything, so I wanted that plain and ambiguous cover. However, in this shot, the title and author are far too clear for my liking, as the title and author are not significant as such in the books meaning, however as they are so clear it can cloud the viewer into thinking they might be.

For my next attempt, I will try to focus more on my composition, to show the binary opposites of the mobile phones and the book. I will also ensure that it is done in a studio environment, so that I can control the lighting and have a greater space to work with the composition. 

I am favouring a very low aperture so far, mainly from observing Edward Weston's style and admiring the clarity of his still life's and the textures he brings forth. For example, his cabbage leaf:

I will also start to create my test shots on film, not only for more film practice, but as my final shot must be film, I will get a better feel for my results by working throughout the project with film. I am beginning with a roll of Fuji color Superia, ISO 100. I am favouring a lower ISO to work in conjunction with a low aperture and long exposure time, to get my textures as crisp as possible.


Development of Ideas


Last week my group had a tutorial, where we compared ideas, after explaining what I wished to attempt to create, I was told that my idea had split into two ideas, I had the ideas of consumption and waste of products in one hand, and in the other, consumerism's effects on ourselves, products engulfing us in vanity, and we lose our self identity. 
I found this to be a very true statement, and have decided to go more towards the direction of self identity within consumerism, as it is a less explored area, and there is more depth I can explore within this.


As previously stated in my research, my view of our relationship with consumerism is that we use it as a mask and lose our sense of identity within the consumer world. People hiding behind  their brands as avatars for so long that they lose something of their self in the process, forgetting who they are as they plunge deeper and deeper into the goods they use for the judgement of others, and others do the same for the judgement of them.


My task at had is now to portray an empty vessel, a soul less entity, surrounded by the goods that destroyed it. With this in mind I have decided to look at the mannequin.

A mannequin is a plastic shell, made to aid in the manufacture, and the advertising of clothes.
I find it is appropriate, as it is a shell, a life size doll. It is also appropriate as it was made to promote fashion, which is what people hide behind, consume, and become lost within.
For these reasons I shall dress a mannequin in current clothing, ensuring that it is clear, it is a mannequin, with it's face covered, to show a lack of a personality or human presence. 
In order to reinforce this idea however of no personality or soulless, I would like to have it looking into an empty mirror frame.
The idea of the mirror frame came about when I was thinking of the loss of a soul, after a while of thinking on this, it made me think of the Vampire, as typically they are said to have no reflection, as when you look into a mirror, the reflection is a glimpse at your soul.
So I have decided to have my mannequin staring into the empty mirror frame, to reinforce that no soul is present within this shell.


Studio Time -  18/10/11


This was my first day in the studio on my Still Life project. 
I borrowed a mannequin from the Fashion department, most mannequins where only torso's but fortunately there were a few full body female mannequins, with very basic facial features painted on. I would have preferred a faceless mannequin, to reinforce the idea of soulless, however fortunately it had been given a distant facial expression which made it fit in with my motif better.


As it was a female mannequin I to borrow some clothing, but I tried to keep the clothing choice as fairly current and fashionable, I did not have any major label clothing at hand, but also reflecting on the idea of using major labels, I believe that using them would have made this piece more of an attack at major labels and corporations, where I wish to simply make a piece that is more questioning than aggressive, and about more our personal identity with these products, and not necessarily the products themselves.


I tried several digital shots before I moved onto using the Horseman 5X4 camera.

At first I tried using black cloth to black out the mannequin's face, so that the clothes seemed to simply hang around an absent entity, I tried this so that there were only material products present, and so much as any hint of human presence was entirely absent. This was an idea adapted from the visual style of Danny Treacy's 'Them'.

This was a series where Danny Treacy took the clothing of strangers from where ever he found them, mostly clothes that had been discarded, or belonged to homeless or the deceased, he then dismantled the clothing, and reassembled it to create these strange outfits he fully immersed himself within.


The series 'Them' has similar ideas linked to my project, about our possessions and our identity with them, however as I have a very different message in mind, I was simply drawing from his visual style, of the blackout background, with the clothing completely covering the person wearing them, to create a humanoid, but not entirely human presence.


Unfortunately this was a rather last minute idea I wished to explore and so the black cloth I used to attempt this did not quite work, and I would have had to change much about my lighting choices to make it work and so I decided to abandon this idea and revert back to my original compositional idea.

I slightly repositioned my frame and mannequin, and uncovered the face, attempting to position them so that the mannequin was gazing into the frame to see no reflection, this proved slightly more difficult than I would have realised, as the frame was hanging by black boot laces, it was hard to move, reposition then settle, and the mannequin was sculpted gazing downwards and to the right, which opposed the position of the frame, so it was difficult to clearly frame the mannequin with it's face visible and so that it appeared to be staring into the frame.
I chose a portrait shot, to make it seem like a more human setting or position, of someone looking into their bedroom mirror.
I began with a brighter lighting choice and a black backdrop background. I decided not to fully black out the backing in the first shot, as I hoped to create a mimic scene if you will. Make it obvious that this should be a bedroom, a person and a mirror with a reflection, but instead it is replaced with man made proxies.

After some reflection however I decided that I wanted to have a complete blackout background, to emphasise all focus on my objects, and to convey a negativity through the void of blackness.
I did this by slightly repositioning the mannequin, and then using a fine honey comb attachment to the studio flash I was using. 
After reflecting on this for my film shoots, I will attempt to keep the blackout background, but I would like more light falling onto the frame and mannequin, to really bring them out and into sharp focus.

I took my final shots on a large format Horseman 4X5 inch camera. As I wanted the blackout effect I used the large black backdrop camera with a black poly board to help absorb any stray light. In order to light my frame and mannequin I used a broncolor studio flash light, and I tried 2 shots with a medium grade honeycomb attachment and then 1 final shot with a beauty dish attachment.


My final shot was taken with my flash box set to 8/10 power, synced to my Horseman camera which was set at F22.4 at 4/1 second exposure time. 
I was in two minds about my aperture setting, as I was torn between having a really really shallow depth of field, to create this real unclear and hazy sort of dream world effect to show this image of uncertainty as this mannequin stairs into the mirror, and to create this idea of wondering. I also however wanted to do the opposite with the aperture, and use a longer exposure time with the smallest aperture possible. The idea behind this, is to make everything completely crisp and clear, we can see that it is a mannequin, and to take away any hint of personality behind it that a shallow depth of field may lend it, so that my message of soul less and dead personality was all the clearer.


Comparing my negatives, I settled on my final shot with the beauty dish attachment over the honey comb, as the beauty dish really brought out the texture of the mannequin and the wood of the frame, which was so much clearer in the negatives over the honeycomb, because as much as I loved it's blackout spotlight effect, it was too much and there was almost no light falling on the frame completely taking it out of focus and context.

I began with my enlarger set to an aperture of f22 and made my first test strip with standard 5 second gaps for each exposure, however I found that this exposed my paper far too quickly, and so I switched  my lens to f32 for a better exposure range and made my second test strip, where I settled on an exposure time of 17.5 seconds, as I was undecided between my 15 second and 20 second exposures I cut it in the middle, and moved onto my first full test strip.

My first exposure was done at neutral colour filter settings, at Cyan:0 Magenta:60 Yellow:80 which turned out as a very magenta tinted picture, so I decided to add another 10 Magenta to counter balance this.

I was very happy with the colour balance on the picture, particularly with the colour balance on the mannequin's face, however I wanted to have a quick attempt at switching the colour to bring out the wood frame a bit more. So I subtracted 5 Yellow from the filters and made another test strip, unfortunately this made the mannequin's face very yellow, so I tried adding 3 Yellow back to the filter, but again the yellow tint was very noticeable on the mannequin's face, so I reverted back to my original.




I also took a test strip of just my wooden frame, as it was hung with black boot laces, and also I could tell it was rather dark in the centre of the frame, so I decided on a test strip to get a clear idea of what dodging and burning would be needed.




This was my first full print, there are some smears and smoke looking flaws, which was some smudging on the scanner, so most of my full prints appear to have some flaws that are not actually present on the prints.


I was pleased overall with the print, however there was some dodging and burning needed around the frame and the lace hanging it up, I mostly wanted to try and either blackout the lace or at least darken the top a little so it's presence was less prominent, and also I didn't like the brightness of the right edge of the mirror as it was over exposed in comparison with the rest of the shot, this was where my beauty dish was angled slightly too far to the right and just clipped the very edge of the frame.

I did some burning around the edges using a box shield the majority of the image, but to burn the edge of the mirror and the top of the photo around the lace, however the burn turned out to harsh and a clear diagonal line was present where the burning was not smooth enough.
So I repeated the process, but for a few seconds longer and using my hands to burn, I also did some dodging during the main exposure time around the centre of the frame just to highlight it a little more as I found it too dark.

This was my final print, I fine tuned the border a little, and did a mixture of dodging through the centre of the frame to highlight it a little more, and then some burning around the edges to darken the right edge of the frame and the top near the lace.


The dodging of the frame gave the blackout background a central glow effect, that was not unintentional as such but it was more of a by-product of the dodging done to the frame, and reflecting upon it I prefer this glow effect in the centre of the blackout background as instantly your eyes know where to look, and then you can begin to decode what is present in the image.