My relationship with the natural world is strong, as I have recently taken a keen interest in going outside and building a bond between me and nature, by taking walks outside to experience the sun, the natural air etc. And if I ever had to choose where to go out to see landscapes, I would prefer to go an urban city at night time or I would choose to go to a country side/mountains at sun set to experience the beauty of the sun set. People decide to take pictures of landscapes to possibly capture the experience of the outside world and to display their view point of landscapes and how they feel, for example, if someone takes pictures of nature, they're possibly trying to display their thoughts and feelings towards it. Photographs of landscapes from other artists enables us to interpret landscapes of the chosen theme in the way the artist views the chose landscape they captured. When hearing the word "landscape", the thing that comes into my mind's eye is the natural beauty of the world and the urban scapes.
When googling "landscape" these particular images came up, I purposefully chose 2 themes of urban scapes and nature landscapes. The reason for this was because these 2 themes of landscapes are the one which I appreciate most, as it is ones which I can relate to most. If I myself had to choose an ideal landscape for myself, I would personally choose to take a photograph in the nature, mainly near the mountains at sunset time, as I love to watch the sunset, because it adds a beauty to the photograph and chosen landscape. When looking outside my photography class, the landscape in-front of me is, a building which has the sun reflected upon it, bringing out its colour to the most, plus grass and a bench on the floor. One photograph i've taken of a landscape was when I went to Greenwich park and chose to capture a photo which contained many buildings from canary wharf, plus the photo had nature as at the bottom half of the photograph was a large field of grass, and in the middle which brings the contrast between the nature and urban scape, is a white large building.
First response to Constructed Landscapes
This was my first response the the theme of Constructed Landscape. The task was to take 12 images of landscape inside our school, and I decided to take 25 photographs where my first initial ones were experimentations and after I refined my work and got a final outcome which I believe had effective elements within them. For example, today was a very bright, sunny day so some of the photographs which I took, the floor was over-exposed thus leading to it looking like the ground wasn't in the photograph.
In my opinion, this was the best photograph from the collection. What stands out to me the most in this photograph, is the lighting of the image. To me, it almost looks as if everything is connected in a sense, and the image not only feels visually pleasing to me but physically, as it gives off a summery vibe and reminds me of summer every time, and to me that is what's most important, the feeling the image has to someone.
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'Bad' Landscape Photographs
We was given the task to take landscape photographs, but the difference was that everything we've been taught about how to take a good landscape photograph, we was meant to ignore and take worse versions of them. In my opinion, I feel like I did well in that I ignored some of the aspects of taking good landscape photographs but I feel like some of them accidentally captured a good landscape photographs, and I think next time I should focus on the framing.
Dafna Talmor
Constructed Landscapes experiment
My first attempt at constructing a landscape is by using found 35mm slides, and the theme is churches. I found 2 photos of churches and my idea is to cut out the church on the right hand side and then to place it on next to the film which is on the left hand side on its right to create the image which i have on the right.
This was my first attempt at constructing landscape which was influenced by Danfa Talmor's work. I started off by getting two films of landscape of the theme of churches and decided to cut out the church from one of the film and add it to the other one to create my final piece. I used a scalpel to cut out the shape of the church but one difficulty is that the film when placed on a normal table without light, is difficult to cut out precisely. Once I cut the church, I got sellotape and stuck it on the other film to get the final piece on the right hand side. If I was to remake and improve my work, I would next time place a light underneath to help me cut the church more precisely and possibly create a landscape one rather than portrait.
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Some of my own landscape photographs
Since young, I've has an interest for sunsets. Sunsets are beautiful to me, it brings a sense of comfort and shows the natural glow and beauty of the world. So whenever I look this image, the thing that immediately catches my eye and I believe others is the sunset. What's unique about it, isn't the lighting for this one, but the shape it's created through the cloud, which makes it almost look like an orange cloud.
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The Idea of Landscape
In the photograph, the artist/photographer chose to include the man on the horse on the far right hand side taking almost half of the space of the photograph and the background of the sky is made up of nearly the whole image with little sand on the bottom half of the photograph. The other image is a 50/50 of land and clear sky. The relationship between the photographer and the image might be that the photographer has an interest in desert landscape and likes to include the sky in his photograph. The vantage point in this photograph is that the image on the left is that the photograph was taken from a high position but aiming down to capture more land where as the photograph on the right is taken from near the ground but pointing up enabling to take less of the ground but a lot of the sky. In the image of the left we are distant and close to the landscape as the image is taken up close and the subject is near us but due it being almost like a road and hilly, so it is far and distant from us.
But the photograph on the right is peculiar as to me it feels as though it is far as I believe the artist may have zoomed in and chose to focus the man on the horse making it seem that it's close when in reality it may not be. The photograph on the left gives the feeling of boredom for me due it being a bland and dull colour. Whilst the image on the left is more exciting and thrilling as the man on the horse is riding it and it looks as though it is going fast and the action brings excitement to the image and the colour is bright because of the sky.
But the photograph on the right is peculiar as to me it feels as though it is far as I believe the artist may have zoomed in and chose to focus the man on the horse making it seem that it's close when in reality it may not be. The photograph on the left gives the feeling of boredom for me due it being a bland and dull colour. Whilst the image on the left is more exciting and thrilling as the man on the horse is riding it and it looks as though it is going fast and the action brings excitement to the image and the colour is bright because of the sky.
Constructed Landscape experiment
Today we were given the task to print one photo and make shapes within this printed photo, and after we took the image outside and took photographs where the printed image is in the whole frame of the photograph and the shapes we created are used as a background, for a landscape, so we created a constructed landscape.
Refined work
After I took inspiration from others, I decided to cut out all the white areas in the image and trim a bit of the right hand side to reveal greater area at the top of the image to possibly create a contrast with the image I constructed and the landscape I will be taking behind the constructed landscape to be able to make unique and creative design and work.
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This project was by far one of the most difficult challenge for me but through practice and refining, I was able to make my final piece. Although, there is still more to improve, I believe this image came out well, through the composition of the building, but I believe the background could have been better picked to emphasise the picture more.
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Photography Trip to The V&A MuseumOn the 12th of June, my photography class went on a trip to Central London to the V&A museum, and we were to look at the different artists and photographs. We was also to take inspiration from constructed landscape photographs and artists because it will further improve our own work when we get inspiration from others and learn from others.
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Dionne Lee's constructed Landscape
Dionne Lee gets her landscape images from magazines which are related to photography and art, and she uses them to create collages by cutting and folding and layering them to construct the landscapes. She usually uses her hands to tear pieces of the images but on the rare occasion, she uses scissors to cut straight lines, and sometimes she leaves them like that, but sometimes she folds the images and overlap with others. Regularly she decides to put some images above others, and once she is satisfied, she takes all the images away and brings out new images or sometimes the same ones she just used and re arranges or cuts or folds them in different ways.
This is a more refined and a different approach to the previous attempt of taking inspiration of Dionne Lee's work and implementing it into my own work. On my previous attempt, my work was much different and it was mostly similar to how Dionne Lee had approached her own work by having a white background and placing pieces of landscape photograph and doing variety of things, such as folding, cutting, tearing and more. Once I attempted that, I chose to change my own approach by making an origami from my own skills and assets and I still used some aspects of tearing and cutting from Dionne Lee's work and this time I tried to use my environment and went outside to have a nice blend with my work as I went for many different themes, for example, green, water and desert.
In my opinion this was the best photo out of the bunch. For this project, my theme was different climates, for example, this image was linked to the forest, and I did some for the desert, the sea etc. What made this image good in my opinion was how the green on the boat was emphasised further due to the background from the grass as it was a more darker colour.
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Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a famous photographer and specifies in blurred landscape photography. I researched about him and his photography work and what he does to create these images. He uses a large format view camera and works in a traditional darkroom. Hiroshi started taking photographs at a young age, as he has always had an interest in them. Hiroshi Sugimoto blurs his building as he wanted to highlight the outlines of the buildings which enables for a focused outline, but a blurred image at the same moment. His work inspires me a lot, as i've never thought about doing a similar type work of black white landscape as I'm use to the typical colourful ones. He may blur the image to possibly change the viewers mind of a 'typical landscape'.
This was the image which stood out to me the most. The mystery behind the photograph really interests me. The fact that it is blurred slightly and the photograph is really dark means you have to use your brain slightly to figure out the photo, this means the person will have to focus on the photograph more, rather than take a glimpse and have an immediate opinion on the piece.
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Out of Focus Landscape Photographs
This was my response to his blurred images. I believe I did the blur aspect of the image quite well, in that people have to work harder to figure out on the image, but looking back one thing that I forgot to do was edit my photo so that it would be in black and white or have low exposure to create more mystery, as the dark colour targets a specific part of your brain, meaning we have to work harder.
Ray K. Metzker Pictus Interuptus
Rey K. Metzker is a famous photographer specialised in his unique and different approach of taking black and white photographs. One of his notorious work which I am researching upon is called Pictus Interuptus. In this work, Metzker takes photographs in black and white mainly of streets and the outside world, but he usually covers it with a piece of paper, or other stuff such as cracks, faces and others, whilst having this thing covering it out of focus, leaving the background a mystery left for the viewer to decide what the original image is without this object covering it. His goal is to have an image to cover the background, but he may have done this to challenge the viewer to look past it and to guess or analyse whats behind it. This is what differs his work to other photographers which is why I personally like his work as it makes me have to use my brain to know what the image is.
Pictus Interruptus
Pictus Interruptus refined
Minimalist Landscapes: What Remains
Geraldo de Barros - from the series Sobras, 1996
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Liz Nielsen - Gardening with You, 2020, Photogram
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What i'm able to see in Barros's image is a tree which has been cut so only it’s outline is visible in the image and the parts of the landscape that have been cut out are then turned black via using the dark room. Nielson's image is fascinating in the sense that she sculptured the image herself by using black paper and cutting it out in specific and unique ways to create a landscape from scratch. The most surprising element or unusual in these images is the the things that are missing out and what is left on these images. When looking at the images I feel confused in what the images are trying to convey, the message they want to send across. Whilst attempting to replicate a similar image to Nielson's image, I mainly focused on how she used unique and abstract shapes in order to create a new landscape with only black paper. The reason why the artists may have removed parts of the landscapes of the images is probably to challenge the viewer to make an attempt to figure out what the missing part of the images may be. Personally I prefer Nielson's image due to its minimalist design and how it is more difficult to make out what the image is.
My Attempt:
The way Liz Nielson’s work had inspired my own attempt at a minimalist Landscapes was that her work influenced me by the shapes she used in her own image to represent a landscape but with shapes and outlines to demonstrate the original landscape or make a new one. The creative shapes she used in her work heavily influenced the way I approached the work by using different and abnormal shapes to make my work more interesting rather than having lines at all same length and cut. I used scissors to have more sharp and pointy edges to represent how a mountain is sharp and jagged. I also tried to make it so that my work wasn't easily able to be described or spotted out of what landscape my work is trying to represent.
This is a continuation from our work on a minimalist photograph where we used our work from last week to create a new and more creative work to show a different story and represent different feelings and thoughts in the image. Both images were made in the dark room which contains safe lighting, paper, chemicals to help create both images. We used a scanned paper copy of our attempt from last week of making a minimalist landscape inspired by Liz Nielsen and brought it to the dark room to create a positive and another altered version of that positive. We first started by using a light sensitive photographic paper and placed it underneath our negative image having the photographic paper's shiny side facing upwards. We then placed both the negative and photographic paper underneath an enlarger and shone light upon it for 10 seconds. After we take the light sensitive photographic paper to the developer which is a special chemical which turns the negative into positive and we leave it in there for 1 minute so the light areas of our negative is turned fully black. After we take it out to the stop and leave it in there for 5 seconds to stop the image from developing any further. Once that is done, we take it to the fix and leave it in there for 5 minutes so the image isn't distorted when taken out and naked to the light. Once left for 5 minutes, you take it out and wash the image as long as possible until you feel is it cleaned, then you use a squeegee to remove as much water as possible and then we leave the paper to hang so it fully drys up. Personally I didn't like the outcome of my positive as it looks a bit to plain and basic in my own views.
The second image has a similar but a little different process to the first. We repeat every process as said in the first but, instead of placing it into the developer, we use the developers chemical and by maybe using a sponge, brush or other objects, we create a unique style of our negative image, and the rest of the process is the same.
Personally, I liked my second image much more as it looks more creative and has different shapes and different tones, such as splats, abstract shapes, different tone of black and white and grey and more. The image has a more chaotic side to it, which helps to better represent a mountain which is aggressive and rigid and doesn't usually have a straight and simple shape. Also the second image has a much more dramatic feeling and represent what a mountain feels like, such as storms, winds and other things which signify this feeling.
The second image has a similar but a little different process to the first. We repeat every process as said in the first but, instead of placing it into the developer, we use the developers chemical and by maybe using a sponge, brush or other objects, we create a unique style of our negative image, and the rest of the process is the same.
Personally, I liked my second image much more as it looks more creative and has different shapes and different tones, such as splats, abstract shapes, different tone of black and white and grey and more. The image has a more chaotic side to it, which helps to better represent a mountain which is aggressive and rigid and doesn't usually have a straight and simple shape. Also the second image has a much more dramatic feeling and represent what a mountain feels like, such as storms, winds and other things which signify this feeling.
Fabien Barrau
Fabien Barraus work with landscape interested me the most as I've always had interest in work which is simple yet complicated, in that although it might seem a lot is going on and over complicated, the images all seem to look simple as though it has one focus within all the images. Another element in his work which was new to me and I haven't seen this before, where he uses images which aren't real but possible AI generated or done using by photoshop.
Experimenting with DALL•E to create future AI landscapes
After seeing and inspired by the work of Fabien Barrau, I used an AI generator named DALL-E. I had to imagine a future, what the landscape may look like in the near by future, either destruction, new buildings, more nature? Or more of an urbanising world? For this image, I imagined a landscape of Athens in the year 2300 in where destruction was caused. For DALL-E I had to write on a bar a description of this imaginations and the website creates 4 images using the description you wrote. With those 4 images, you are able to choose any of them and enlarge them. Whilst enlarging, you are given another 4 options, and can choose what you want.
The process of the futuristic landscape created by DALL-E
Caspar David Friedrich
This image inspired my final piece. Sea of fog, when looking at it at first glance, It had no meaning to me, but whilst finishing my own work and looking again, I had an interpretation to what it could represent. The element of mystery and hiding could try to show how the person who is standing and looking beyond is almost imagining something beyond human capabilities. But he could also be imagining a euphoria in which he could live in. In all, the fog is there to represent his thoughts and imagination of possibly the past, present or future. I transferred his work and idea to my own work by standing in front of a projection of the future.
Projections and self-portrait inspired by Caspar David Friedrich
Inspired by the work of Caspar David and his image of the "Wanderer above the sea of fog", I created 4 different possible outcomes of what the future may look like by using an AI generator. I had to type out the different outcomes in specific ways in so that the photo would come out realistic whilst also being futuristic. For each one i made, i was given 4 options, within these 4 options, I chose one and enlarged it and created a new landscape. Before looking at Caspar David's work, I felt that my work was almost like cheating, and it wasn't even my work as an AI was creating it for me. Then I was given a suggestion to look at the "wanderer above the sea of fog", and I chose to have a similar image in that the futuristic landscapes created by the AI generator that I had, and I would project it on a wall in which i would stand in front of it as though i'm looking to the future and the "sea of fog" which I interpret as the person standing in the photograph imagination, as the futuristic landscape in my photograph. I took several images with the 4 futuristic landscapes that I had and posed differently for each one to match the biome, theme, or area of interest.
Refined images
Removal of shadows using Photoshop.
Using photoshop, I used my images and the shadows that were within my images, I removed them to create an illusion as though I am at the landscape and that there was no projection. The process was achieved by using photoshop and the quick selection tool. By using the quick selection tool, I outlined my body without the shadow and copied it and pasted it as a layer, After I brought the original landscape of the futuristic landscape and put it over my original photograph of the projection and me. Then the layer of myself which I copied, I put it over the landscape and created the image above.
Final Evaluation
After coming back and re-evaluating my ideas, I chose to, instead of removing the shadows, incorporate the shadows into the image but with a lower opacity. This will reveal the part of the images it covered so it almost looks like the shadows are in the images with me. I did this by using the quick selection tool to select myself and copying it into a separate layer and did the same for my shadow (but with a reduced opacity). Then I got the original landscape photograph of the landscape (without myself included) and aligned it with the new edited image.
The Reason behind my whole work and the meaning behind it originates from my thoughts in what the future could look like. My self is in the images to show that the landscapes are my thoughts and what I think these future is or could be. The first one means that how the world used to be all nature and nature is more powerful than us humans and it re-claimed its land. The second one is an urban and robotic future in which humans have fully taken over the world. The third one is a Desert landscape of what the earth could look like if it ended up with us humans fighting with one an other. And the last one is Russia being destroyed with natural disasters. These were some of the landscapes which I had imagined could possibly come true.
The Reason behind my whole work and the meaning behind it originates from my thoughts in what the future could look like. My self is in the images to show that the landscapes are my thoughts and what I think these future is or could be. The first one means that how the world used to be all nature and nature is more powerful than us humans and it re-claimed its land. The second one is an urban and robotic future in which humans have fully taken over the world. The third one is a Desert landscape of what the earth could look like if it ended up with us humans fighting with one an other. And the last one is Russia being destroyed with natural disasters. These were some of the landscapes which I had imagined could possibly come true.
Final Evaluation
During the creation of my final piece, I have taken inspiration from artists such as Fabien Barrau and Casper David. For example, Fabien Barrau's unique idea and his method of constructing landscape appealed to me and interested me in this topic. He used images of objects, ideas and stuff which exist at the moment and possibly used an AI generated app or photoshop and constructed a new landscape which isn't real
To begin with, I used an app called DALL-E which was an AI generated app, and the theme for my images was a futuristic theme which was inspired by the artist Fabien Barrau who used photoshop to create unusual landscape which looked amazing to me. With DALL-E, there is a search box which allows you to write a description of anything you would like. To begin with I experimented with different searches, such as 'Greece in the years 2200 with a disaster occurring'. This allowed me to understand the app, which helped me for my project. After, I was thinking for days on what I would like to generate through the app, then it hit me, in my world, I think about the future a lot, and I like futuristic landscape, such as modern urban landscape. Then I linked it to the natural world and what it may look like in the future. I decided to use the search box and wrote down different future predictions I have made, and some which I thought would look interesting. Once I got the future landscapes, I had to think of a way to present my ideas in a unique way, then I came across an artist known as Casper David, who had a particular image of a man shot from the back looking afar. With this photograph, to me the image was the man was looking afar into the future, so I decided to do something similar where I would look into my image, as though this what I am seeing when I think of the future. And I would do different poses to fit the image. I would experiment with my photographs, as I used projector, so my shadow was still in the image, initially I used photoshop, to remove the shadow, but it kind of felt plain, after I made my shadow transparent, which to me was more unique.
Overall, my final images came out really well and I like it a lot, as not only do I like my image visually, it gives a good message to everyone, the images shows what the world could look in the future, if us humans carry on the way we are going right now, so it is almost like a warning and a message to the people to realx and that us young people, have already taken into consideration for the future, as in the years to come by, that'll be our present.
To begin with, I used an app called DALL-E which was an AI generated app, and the theme for my images was a futuristic theme which was inspired by the artist Fabien Barrau who used photoshop to create unusual landscape which looked amazing to me. With DALL-E, there is a search box which allows you to write a description of anything you would like. To begin with I experimented with different searches, such as 'Greece in the years 2200 with a disaster occurring'. This allowed me to understand the app, which helped me for my project. After, I was thinking for days on what I would like to generate through the app, then it hit me, in my world, I think about the future a lot, and I like futuristic landscape, such as modern urban landscape. Then I linked it to the natural world and what it may look like in the future. I decided to use the search box and wrote down different future predictions I have made, and some which I thought would look interesting. Once I got the future landscapes, I had to think of a way to present my ideas in a unique way, then I came across an artist known as Casper David, who had a particular image of a man shot from the back looking afar. With this photograph, to me the image was the man was looking afar into the future, so I decided to do something similar where I would look into my image, as though this what I am seeing when I think of the future. And I would do different poses to fit the image. I would experiment with my photographs, as I used projector, so my shadow was still in the image, initially I used photoshop, to remove the shadow, but it kind of felt plain, after I made my shadow transparent, which to me was more unique.
Overall, my final images came out really well and I like it a lot, as not only do I like my image visually, it gives a good message to everyone, the images shows what the world could look in the future, if us humans carry on the way we are going right now, so it is almost like a warning and a message to the people to realx and that us young people, have already taken into consideration for the future, as in the years to come by, that'll be our present.