What is a landscape picture?
If i was to go see a landscape or get a photograph of a landscape, I would probably go to a field or a hill because I could take it from a high point of view. I personally take photographs of nature so that Im able to capture the moment for the future. Photographs can easily make us change the way we view the world because it can tell us the backgrounds of peoples lives and places in general.
The first thing I think about when I hear the word landscape is a photograph of some type of view, whether it be of the sky or just a field. The type of words I associate with landscapes are views, skies, fields, sun, rain, weather, art, scenery, horizontal, horizons, sunsets, sunrises, the night etc. When I search up the word landscape, the type of photographs that come up are typically photos of sunsets and sunrises on a field or mountain from a high view (example photos above). My type of ideal landscape would probably be a simple photo taken from my window of the sunset behind a row of flats or taken in a park with a clear view of the sky. The type of landscape I see from my bedroom is a row of blocks with the sun peeking out from normally the left side. I have taken many landscape photographs because I want to capture the view.
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The idea of landscape
Richard Prince, Untitled (cowboy) 1989 |
Roger Felton, The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death 1855 |
In this image, I can see a man riding a horse in front of what it looks to be a backdrop since the clouds look very animated, or it could've been taken from a distance.
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In this photo, I can assume that it was taken after a war since along the dirt patched road theses been cannon balls scattered across it, Fenton had also taken this during the time he spent fighting in the Crimean War.
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The main difference between these photographs is that Prince's photograph uses more vibrant colours, which thus causes the subject of it to be the man riding the horse, whilst Felton uses a darker tone. this could indicate the losses in war. Prince also doesn't only take a photo of the landscape. but he also uses a subject so that instead of focusing on the blue sky, the eye is drawn towards the man on the horse. Whilst Fenton doesn't use two subjects and only takes a photograph of the dirt road, however it could be suggested that he uses cannon balls as a second subject. However even though there are some differences there's similarities such as they highlight the landscape by giving the audience a feeling that the pictures are never ending, Felton uses the track and you can clearly see as the road goes on there's no end which could present the losses in war whilst Prince uses the horse, he takes the photo in the point of action so we know that the horse has gone on and there's no full story to the photograph. What I'm drawn to the most in the first photograph is how animated the blue sky looks. the way the clouds look almost fake. But when you look closer to the image you can see how its not only the sky which looks fake but also the horse, this could be a technical error or just how Prince wanted the photograph to come out, maybe by using different filters. Whilst in Felton's image, the thing I'm most drawn to is the trail and how it slightly represents time, how it never ends even though the photo doesn't capture it. Due to the dark tones in Felton's photograph and the time it was taken, it would make someone feel the pain of war and the amount of losses that's happened due to it, whilst in Prince's photograph it would make a person feel some sense of childhood due to the light tones and the character of a horse.
Tanja Deman
Tanja's landscapes are in black and white, it seems to be edited since the colours are the same. Although it seems like she's merged different photographs in order to make these unusual photos. The first photograph seems to be taken in a theatre since we can see a stage and what it looks like to be people on the sides. The main subject of the photograph seems to be the trees in the middle since it doesn't look like its been edited in and looks like its real. The second photo looks like some sort of cage holding the tree, but it also looks like its some sort of building made of glass. The third photograph looks like its a really fancy and modern building, however its very unusual since theres a lot of palm trees in the middle, it looks very realistic as she's merged the colours to look alike. All of her pieces have merged really nicely together and look very realistic yet unusual at the same time, making it seem as of she is trying to project the abnormal parts of life that isn't usually shown in the world.
Positives and Negatives
The first thing I did was merge two images together using a scalpel and glue, I cut out parts of other photographs and glued it down onto another to make it seem more unusual, the photographs were two landscapes one of them being a photograph of a city and the other was a photograph of a cliff. After I was happy with how the photo turned out, we turned it into an Acetate using the printers, this is a clear sheet of paper with our photographs printed onto it so that we can use it to make negatives. Then we went into the dark room and used an enlarger to create a negative. After we used the enlarger onto photographic paper,we then dunked the photographic paper into a developer so that the photo would come through we then left it too dry. We then used the negatives to make positives, using the photographic paper and enlarger again then putting the photographic paper into a developer and leaving it too dry. We were then left with a dark photograph which helped merge the two original photographs together in a grey scale.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Sugimoto is best known for his black and white photographs of well known subjects, like these photos of the eiffel tower, chaple of notre damne du haut, church of the light and the world trade center. These images have been explored in depth by Sugimoto for many years, he discovers the natrual history behind the photographs and the stories behind them. What makes them interesting is how the photographs are blurred which contradict what a landscape should look like. It could be suggested that by blurring the photograph, it makes the subject clearer as your not paying attention to the background. What I like the most about these photos is how they're all in black and white, giving the photographs a darker vibe to it alonng with helping make the subject more clear.
Bill Armstrong
Armstrong produces lush, semi-abstract, semi-figurative photographs. Armstrong uses bright vibrant colours to make his work more abstract as its more pleasing to the eye, the colours he uses for his backgrounds and subjects juxtapose each other to make the photograph seem more unusual, like how he uses a blue face with a black and orange background and a green body. The photos are unrealistic which causes us to be more drawn to them. What I like most about this style of photography is how the colours cause the subject to be more clear to the eye.
Out of focus images.
Dionne Lee 'Drafts'
Drafts from Dionne Lee on Vimeo.
Dionne Lee's draft video can be considered to be a constructed landscape because she uses multiple photographs and layers them on top of each other to create a collage. lee did this by putting different photographs on top of each other a ripping them as she went along, revealing the photographs underneath. What I like about these collages is how different and unique they are from each other, for example she put a photo of space ontop of a photo of the sun, the two photographs juxtapose each other. Its similar to other landscapes as the photos are of different views, but its also different as a lot of the photos she layers are complete opposites. The photos she uses may come from magazines, books or newspapers.
- My Response to Dionne Lee's 'Drafts'
I have responded to Lees work by photocopying different landscapes that I found in an old national geographic. I started pioling them on top of each other. I then experimented with them, wondering how it would look if I ripped pieces off to reveal the photographs that are hidden underneath, they turned out to look really cool. Some photographs matched each other whilst others didnt, which you can see when I swapped them out with other photos. If I was to retake this video, I would try to experiment with photos that completely contradict one another, like a vibrant bright photograph mixed with a black and white photo.
Minimalistic Landscapes
After layering the photos on talpel op of each other, i printed it out so that it could be on one piece of paper. I then experimented with the photo by cutting out random shapes using a scalpel so that it wouldn't tear up the entire page. I decided on using a circle in the middle of the page so that I could cut tiny triangles from the edges of the paper to the middle, giving it a nice effect. After successfully cutting out enough triangles, i turned it into a photogram. The circle in the middle of the photogram turned black, making it seem like a dark sun setting on the lake. The triangles had faded into the paper so it wasn't as clear as before, although towards the edge more you can see the triangles. My favourite out of the two has to be the photogram as i like the dark hue to it and the large circle in the middle. What I did well was that I was successfully was able to keep the cut outs similar and I like the cutting of the bridge in blended really well in the photograph making it seem like it was there the entire time. If I was to do this project again, I wouldn't cut out triangles and would probably used just straight lines coming out from the circle from all directions of the page.
Peckham Photo Walk 29/09/23
Dafna Talmar
Dafna Talmer speacilises in constructive landscape photography. For my six photographs, i picked photos from our school trips peckham walk and printed them into acetate. After that, we used a scalpel and cutting mat in order to layer different colours of tissue paper over the acetate. This gave the photos different types of filters, as the acetate and tissue paper are clear it worked perfectly, giving the photos a more unusual pop of colour. The photos we printed were small enough to put into individual slides so that we could then put it through a slide projector, which would project our work onto a blank sheet making it more easy to see.
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Penelope Umbrico
Penelope Umbrico started off her Sunsets project (first image) by searching up photos of sunsets on FLICKR, once she found around 500,000 photographs, she put them into a collage using a Kodak Snapshot . The reason behind this project was because Umbrico's aim was to produce a collage of the most searched photographed subject which turned out to be sunsets. Umbrico found images where the technology of the camera is exposing the sun causing the people in the photo to appear with a black silhouette. This caused the subject of the photo to not be the people in it, but the sun instead. The point of view of the photograph is taken from in front of the sun, causing us to assume that the photo had been taken from a beach, giving us a clear view of the sunset on the horizon. A sunset has the connotations of perfection, completeness, mystery, quietness, beauty, and good vs evil. The fact that Penelope Umbrico has also done the same thing with the second photo, once again she used FLICKR to find good clear images of the moon that must've been taken with high end expensive equipment. This is interesting as mentioned in Chinese culture, the sun and moon are seen as a juxtaposition almost. The two almost completely opposite forces assembling and almost even praising each other, which correlates to the photos Umbrico has taken, the two photos are the complete opposite of one another but at the same time have similarities.
Ed Carr
This was made by a wide variety of cyanotypes which were put into an animation exploring birds and their relationships to climate crisis. The mass extinction is when a high percentage of biodiversity die out, in the past the earth has experianced five mass extinctions. These animals include reptiles, bacteria, fungi, plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, invertebrates. This all happens during a short time period however the term 'short' really means thousands of years. Experts now believe due to the large amounts of extinctions happening, experts and scientists believe we are now in the sixth mass extinction. Ed Carr focuses on the extinctions of birds. What I find interesting about this project is how the soundtrack is made from bird noises, it causes us watching to feel sympathy for these animals who are constantly going extinct due to climate change. Carr focuses the project on the relationships between birds and climate change.
Base Photographs
Diptych’s
I made these photos with instagram, using the layout filter I made sure there were 4 frames and chose a common theme amongst the photos. For example, with the first photograph the theme was the buildings. In the top right corner, I had taken the photo underneath the links so i could capture it with symmetry, I got it to be symmentrical by standing in the middle of two poles and using frame on my phone to make sure it was all centred.
Final Pieces
For my final piece i've chosen this photo seagulls flying off a building because I feel like it links to the Birds in the Sixth Mass Execution by Ed Carr. What I like most about the photo is how the seagulls are flying in all different directions and how their shadow is casting off onto the buildings and also on the grass. When I had initially taken this photo on my phone, I had used the grid filter on my phone to try keep the pole centered in the middle. What I want to do further with this photograph is turn it into a cyanotype using cyanotype paper and the sunlight from the window. I want to try and get a photo that mainly captures the birds but as their really small im worried that it wont show up. I did this by using a UV light that allowed me to get my cyanotype finished in around 2-4 minutes, I then washed the paper and stuck it onto the tiles so that it can dry.
A second project I want to make is another cyanotype but with flowers disrupting the image. For example, I was thinking of using a similar photo of a landscape and put it into an acetate, I would then sprinkle flower petals all over the acetate so that I know where i want the petals to come from, instead of using normal flowers I want to use dead ones. I want the dead flowers to appear dead, which will help the photo look a bit more unusual which is what im aiming to do. The dead flowers are also dry so I was thinking of crumblimg some of the flowers up which'll make them blend in with the birds flying in the photo. This was also reminds me of the work done by Stephen Gill. Gill's work was achieved by collecting stuff like flower petals and seeds, he then rephotographed them with other photos like a staircase or a chair and he would put the flowers in places where it seems quite unusual.
Final Projects
For my final pieces, i didnt achieve the photograph I wanted with the cyanotype but instead i made a series of positives and negatives using some flower petals to disrupt the photographs. I was able to achieve
Next Steps; GCSE Ideas
- More dead flower images
- Overlays using photoshop of the landscapes but change the photos to being opaque/transparent
- Make triptychs to present to an audience
- Landscapes printed large
- Cropped images of flowers so that you cant tell its a flower
Dead Flower Photographs
Final Evaluation
I began this project by researching a variety of artists and photographers whose work expressed the theme of constructive landscapes. I particularly responded to the work of Stephen Gill. His images are imaginative and skilful and I was keen to explore collections of flowers, petals and seeds. The individual image that had the most affect on my own work was Outside In
I have explored a range of media's, processes and techniques in this project including cyanotypes and photograms. I selected the techniques of photograms since I liked the way the flowers looked on top of my base photographs. I chose to work in the dark room because I hadn't really been working in there with face value. Throughout this project my work develops in a number of ways, for example it helps me learn more about base photographs and positives/negatives. I have refined my work in various ways for example I've cut out parts of photos and removed blank spaces. I found the technique of disrupting my images three placing photos on top of my base images
I am partly pleased with my final outcomes because they represent how I feel about the theme of constructive landscapes. I've chosen to display them in a particular way because I enjoyed the dark tones I used. If I had more time I'd like to explore the theme of landscapes and more detail by expanding the sizes of my images and displaying them in a better way. My photographs are personal because I used a lot of images around my house. I hope that viewers on my final photographs will understand that I didn't have enough time to display my final outcome in a better way.
I have explored a range of media's, processes and techniques in this project including cyanotypes and photograms. I selected the techniques of photograms since I liked the way the flowers looked on top of my base photographs. I chose to work in the dark room because I hadn't really been working in there with face value. Throughout this project my work develops in a number of ways, for example it helps me learn more about base photographs and positives/negatives. I have refined my work in various ways for example I've cut out parts of photos and removed blank spaces. I found the technique of disrupting my images three placing photos on top of my base images
I am partly pleased with my final outcomes because they represent how I feel about the theme of constructive landscapes. I've chosen to display them in a particular way because I enjoyed the dark tones I used. If I had more time I'd like to explore the theme of landscapes and more detail by expanding the sizes of my images and displaying them in a better way. My photographs are personal because I used a lot of images around my house. I hope that viewers on my final photographs will understand that I didn't have enough time to display my final outcome in a better way.