Landscape & The City

David Bromley

Concept for Projects

Landscape: My Concept for Landscape is about how we consume food, the demand for food and recently how weather conditions, food prices have effected food production, farmers and us as consumers. I am going to be shooting in my local area and want to incorporate the theme The Garden of England as Kent is called that. City: My concept for the city is about how the city is fragmented due to the combination of the past, present and future being intertwined into the city. This means looking at architecture of what was once the city, the same buildings still being there but almost forgotten because of the need of urbanisation in small towns/cities. To represent this I am going to be photographing architecture with multiple exposures to break down the traditional rules of architectural photography

Mind Map for Landscape

Research : Landscape
Lucas Cranach

I have been inspired by the Biblical Story of Adam and Eve and researched a painter called Lucas Cranach who was a German Renaissance painter and painted a series on Adam and Eve and The Garden of Eden. In the series Cranach makes many visual references to himself like his monogram inscribed on the tree of knowledge combined with the lion's outwards gaze. The Animals in the painting also make a reference to Christ like how the deer and the lion living together amicably in paradise.

Research : Landscape
Frans Synders

Another Painter I wanted to Research was Flemish Painter Frans Snyders who painted Still life of Animals, Fruits and Vegetables. This series of images represents the abundance and fertility of the land, the celebration of fairly modern agricultural methods but also shows the toil and hard work required to make the bountiful harvest in the top left and right hand corners.

Research : Landscape
Simone Nieweg

In this Series "Nature-Man Made" Nieweg is interested in the small scale working on the land and the interaction between man and the land rather than industrial farming. The series has a sense of tranquillity to it because of the soft lighting used where there is no shadows or bright light. There is also a presence of man in the photographs even though there are no people in the photographs. Also I find the series quite intimate because of the choice of camera height and distance.

Research : Landscape
Hannah Collins

The Fragile Feast is a series where Collins photographs the origins of Ingredients of thirty dishes used by Michelin Star Chef Ferran Adri. I think that the layout of the photographs work well because the two photographs compliment each other because one photographs shows the ingredient in detail and then alongside a photograph of the landscape it came from. I like the shifting lighting between the different photographs in the series from harsh sunlight to soft overcast light because I believe it strengthens the message about where we get or food from / it being shipped from abroad.

Research : Landscape
Freya Najade

In this series Strawberries in Winter Najade photographs Food being grown artificially in greenhouses so that out of season food in available all year round. I find the composition to be central because of the lines created by the rows of produce. The lighting is soft which creates soft shadows. The series gives off a very clinical and clean feeling which emphasizes the nature of plastic fake ness of the produce being grown.

Article Research
Food price crisis: What crisis?: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19715504 Charity food banks serving record numbers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/17/charity-foodbanks-record-numbers?newsfeed=true

Location Scouting
Newmafruit

Broad Oak

Test Shots: Newmafruit

Test Shots: Broad Oak

I am pleased with the results of the test shots but I think what is working is to focus on the detail of the landscape like the photograph in the top left rather than having a more broadened view of the landscape.

Medium Format Newmafruit

Some of the frames are a slightly underexposed
Avarage Shutter Speed: 1/125 Apeature: F22 Lighting Conditions: Bright with some cloud

Medium Format Broad Oak

I think I need to reshoot this series because I think the light is a little too harsh and there is some lens flare in some of the frames and would be better if I had shot on a day with more even lighting.

Avarage Shutter Speed: 1/125 Aperture: F22

Final Prints Landscape

Time: 9 seconds @ Grade 3 + 3 Seconds @ Grade 5

Time: 11 Seconds C:0 M:45 Y:55

Evaluation for Landscape

In this project I have been looking at how we consume our Food and problems that we face in the 21st Century about Food Prices and Food Sustainability. In terms of my Understanding of the context I have found out about how bad weather conditions have increased the prices of Staple crops which has had a domino effect on suppliers and consumers. I have looked at painters such as Frans Snyder's who painted about the fertility and prosperity of the land and Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach who painted the depiction of Adam and Eve. The reasons behind my photographic choices are that I wanted a print to focus on the detail of the landscape and a print to focus on the broader view of the landscape as a whole. I think I have been more inspired by the work of Hannah Collins and Freya Najade because I find their work more interesting because they highlight more alarming issues concerning food about we can get whatever food we want whenever we want it due to Importing and Exporting and Artificially growing food. I think I want to overhaul my landscape project because I feel that my ideas have changed since starting and I want to still stay on the subject of how we consume food but move on to how Agriculture has changed e.g. Out of season foods can be available all year round. This means trying to get access to food greenhouses and photographing food production in a way that is more modern than traditional. In terms of Time management I think I have done alright but to improve I need to look more constantly for sources of new Inspiration and try to improve on multitasking with multiple projects at once. I think the biggest challenge for me in this project has been shooting in the right lighting conditions because my colour landscape lighting is too harsh and it bleaches out the landscape so to overcome this I need to shoot on an overcast day to minimise the harshness of light.

Mind Map for City

Research for City

Alexey Titenrenko

In this very politically agenda series "Nomenklatura of Signs" Titenrenko represents the injustice suffered by the Russian People because of the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The series was created by overlapping of several negatives, traditional photographs, individual objects and installations. I think that the images chosen to be overlapped work well because of the complex lines and shapes created. Text also works well within this series and unusual angles because they are visually stimulating again because of different textures and architecture use.

Research for City

Yenny Huber: 48 Hours

The Series "48 Stunden/ Hours" explores the many faces of a city, its diversity and contradictions, it looks not only at places of wealth and prosperity but also those than have been neglected and forgotten. It engages with the deep complexity that is embedded within every centre of history and culture. I admire the strong a vibrant colours produced by using a Lomography Camera because it draws the attention of the user and helps the viewer engage with it more.

Research for City

Yenny Huber: Urban Rooms
The series "Urban Rooms" is a global project about capturing the ethereal beauty and the overwhelming loneliness of urban space that surrounds us. This project visibly confronts the loneliness present in large cities. In this context, loneliness refers to the emptiness within as well as the physical and psychological distance between people. By overlapping the same and different images within the same frame Huber separates each of her images into sections where the views looks at the image by the different sections also I admire the use of street lights in this series because it gives a nice sickly ambient glow to them.

Research for City

Hans Malm: Forecast

Our Planets Continents are in constant motion, Geologists predict that within 250 million years virtually all landmasses with merge into one super continent, in this series "Forecast" Malm travels all over the world, shoots a roll of film in one city and then rewinds the film and shoots the same roll in a different city in a different country. The Resulting double exposures shows different cities, countries and continents merged together. This series is an attempt at showing the future- although this in itself goes against the very nature of photography. I find his double exposures to be quite subtle and contradictory dreamlike because of the simpleness of the chosen location to shoot but dreamlike because of the complex shapes, lines and tones created.

Research for City

Lee Friedlander Friedlander photographs the street in car mirrors which makes the city seem fragmented, this is further backed up how he splits his images up through using a frame within a frame which makes the viewer look at the pieces individually rather than as a whole image

Double Exposure Test Shots

I am really pleased with the result of this experimentation and I think this is working because I am getting a lot of complex shapes, lines and tones that work well together, so I think this is the way to go.

Medium Format Double Exposures B&W

Average Shutter Speed: 1/60-1/125 Aperture: F11F5.6

Medium Format Double Exposures Colour

Average Shutter Speed: 1/601/125 Aperture: F22F8

Final Prints for City

Left: Time: 7 seconds @Grade 5 Right: Time: 6 Seconds @ Grade 3 F8

Time: 12 Seconds, Dodge Time, Left and Right hand sides: 6 Seconds

Evaluation for City

In this project I have been looking at how the city is fragmented due to the past, present and future being intertwined within a city. The reasons behind my photographic choices are that I wanted the Black & White Print to have a meaning of the past and present overlapping which is represented by the clock symbolising the present and the tree which is a symbol for longevity and I have chosen to show the clock and the tree connecting to connect the past and present. I wanted the colour print to represent my concept but in a more open space rather than an enclosed space. I wanted the double exposure to line up with the shape of the high street to represent how the past is written but the future is not set in stone. In terms of my research I have looked at some helpful photographers who work with multiple exposures such as Hans Malm and Yenny Huber which has helped me in developing my ideas for my Final Prints. To improve I need to look at more Architectural photography than just looking at photographers that use multiple exposures. I think the greatest challenge for me has been to get the best tones when using double exposures especially for colour, to over come this for my final submission I need to think about what buildings I want to use like buildings and objects that have similar composition and colours to make printing easier for myself in the future. In terms of time management I think I needed to spend more time on testing rather than doing just one test shot to develop my ideas further. The context I would place my work in is fragmented because of conflicting elements within a single frame that breaks the very nature of photography. I am pleased with the results of my Final Prints but I am more satisfied with the Black and White Print than the colour because I find it relates better with my Concept.