Research on Photographers

Topographical Photographers

The Oxford dictionary defines topography as “the arrangement of the natural and artificial features of an area.”

John Davies

I remembered seeing some of John Davies’s images such as his coal mines and canals, and noted that he had been commissioned to look at a River in France. He was to exhibit some photographs as part of the "all that is solid melts into air" exhibition in Nottingham (Jan-April 2014) so I planned a visit. 

He had two large photographs on display (Stockport Viaduct 1986 and Mersey Square Stockport 1986). It was great to be able to stand in front of such large monochrome photographs and pick out the detail of life frozen at the time of taking the image. I thought both photographs fitted into the context of the exhibition, because firstly it captured as it was, and secondly that life may be more modern and people think things have changed
but there are similarities between life in 1986 and life in 2014. I thought the size of the prints on display enabled the interested viewer to absorb the details of the image and find more hidden detail. Being familiar with the image of Stockport Viaduct as I had looked at it carefully in relation to my project on bridges, I was able to see and think about differences between how I had taken the image of my train crossing a railway bridge and how Davies had captured his. I deliberately took mine of the train and bridge in focus; Davies had captured the train passing through the image and it carried motion blur. In my opinion, this lent itself to his image because it was as if the shutter had just been pressed at that moment. 

John Davies's photographic interest is in landscape, politics and surrealism and the photographs I viewed captured a record of what people have done to the landscape and how they live with the man made landscape. His images are large and show form, detail, uses light to enhance certain buildings e.g blocks of flats, lead in lines, mixture of monochrome and  colour photographs. 

On reflection, I am glad I visited the exhibition to see a couple of pieces as Davies intended them to look. It made me appreciate his work and gave me a greater understanding of topographical photography. 

Robert Adams

Robert Adams looks at the effect social changes have on the landscape. I was drawn to his series called "Turning back" about deforestation as I had witnessed it recently within Sherwood Forest, to the extent that people thought deforestation was OK, but when a tornado one Saturday afternoon wiped out a large section  of the forest, people thought differently about it. Adam's analogy of deforestation being similar a Civil War and questioning of the use of parkland gave me a greater understanding of how to question every day situations that we may take for granted and think about how to represent them visually. 

Robert Adams talks about creating stillness within his photographs. He mentions that "people are terrified of visual images". In my opinion, I believe it to be true.  

Adams uses monochrome for his images, has space around the subject, uses natural light. I preferred to view his images in sets which told a story.

Reference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax-pO-M7dQk

Lewis Baltz

Lewis Baltz uses photography as an art medium. He describes his photography as sorting out what is meaningful which I can relate to. Some of his images are abstract; others are graphic. He has a different style to Adams, Davies and the Bechers and yet there are similarities. He also looks at what people have done to the natural environment. He processed his monochrome images to give more meaning such as contrasting the manmade with the natural environment.

Bernd and Hilla Becher

I looked at the work of the Bechers for assignment 3. I found it easy to relate to their work, and I now look at buildings in a different way, thinking about the shape and typography of it. I found their work organised, graphic showing form and included fine detail such as nuts and bolts so everything was in focus. Their exclusion of people meant that I focused on the building itself. Their images seemed completely still and every image had the same perspective which, in my opinion, lent itself to viewing a group of images together.

I revisited their work for assignment 5.

I was interested to note that they used a telephoto lens to avoid distortion, often up to 600mm, using long exposure times and a small aperture. I was able to relate to the distance they were away from their buildings when looking at Newark's Jubilee  Bridge.(Test Shots). During my project, trying to work around the weather was difficult enough - all my days off were sunny or extremely wet and windy which limited the amount of days I could use. They only used cloudy or misty days, so I can appreciate that to take the volume of images they did must have taken a very long time.

Common themes:

·         Mainly monochrome, although John Davies has some colour images

·         Composition – form, framing of image, use some surrounding environment, leading lines

·         Light and weather conditions

·         Ordinary images photographed – e.g. trees, houses, roads, coal mines, factories,

·         The effect people have had on the environment

·         People not included in the images

·         People needed to view images

How does my work relate to these topographical photographers?

I used both colour and monochrome because I thought people may associate some bridges by colour – especially the two in Nottingham which are green. Two thirds of my images are colour because I like working in both colour and monochrome. Where I thought an image showed more form in monochrome, I converted it.

Composition of the images had to include all or part of the bridge. The photographers I looked at had space around their objects and with access to the surrounding area being limited; I found this was the most difficult part of the photograph.  The River Trent means river which floods and most of the surrounding area is floodplains. Once the river was in flood, the challenge became harder. In Nottingham, I discovered the river was so wide that to fit the whole bridge in the photograph meant the bridge was lost within the image. Most of my images include leading lines and in some, I have used a bridge to frame an object but the bridge is still dominant.

I tried to make use of early morning and late afternoon light. Due to weather, environmental conditions and the short timescale of my project, I used a polarising filter so I could photograph on sunny days. Unlike the Bechers who specifically chose cloudy days for photography, I found that some of my structures came alive during sunshine or night-time.

People are not visible within my scenes but have had a part to play within them such as such as maintenance and renovation / preservation, employment in the factory and travelling across the bridge by train or car. The fact that the earliest bridge was built in 1850 (164 years ago) and is still in use shows that it is necessary to have bridges, and where possible, many of these bridges have only been strengthened or adapted rather than replaced. One can look at the engineering history of the bridges and note how well they have stood up to their design and build. This is useful documentary evidence and so for this reason it is important for me as a photographer where possible not to manipulate the bridges.

Chase Jarvis

Following assignment 1, my tutor suggested that I looked at the work of Chase Jarvis as an American lifestyle photographer who photographs extreme sports such as cycling, skiing, running, diving.

I found that he took his photographs from different angles such as road level or below the riders when looking at bikes, above runners looking down on them and using the sun (lens flare, low sun) or weather conditions (large clouds) to add drama and impact to his images. In my opinion he also seems to convey a sense of where the person is going to or has come from which is similar to what I tried to achieve. 

I do find that I go back to his website for inspiration because I think his work is creative, and whilst not necessarily my style, it helps me think about finding an alternative viewpoint to one I may have used in the past.

Eugene Atget

For preparation for assignment 3, I researched the work of Eugene Atget. What I liked most about his work was the spacing of buildings or objects within the frame. I felt there was always a feeling of somewhere to go. his images felt balanced and in proportion. I liked the way his images recorded life as it was at the time in simple subjects such as staircases, bridges, houses, gardens and shopfronts. I think his work helped influence my mind on photographing Sutton Scarsdale Hall, and whilst I cannot compare my images to his work, I think it helped to look at his black and white images.

Berenice Abbott

I discovered the work of Berenice Abbott whilst researching Eugene Atget. She had taken several images which appealed to me, including skyscrapers in New York. What interested me was the use of tone and form. In her work I could see simplicity and few people which is something I wanted to show in my images for assignment 3.  I liked her use of shadows, and to get shadows I would have to visit on a sunny day. This was in complete contrast to the Bechers who I also studied. One of my favorite images was "El" second and third avenue lines c1935-9. It depicted patterns, lines, shadows and curves. I felt that in the images I looked at, Abbot had not shown much texture.

W Eugene Smith

I was interested to look at the work of W Eugene Smith. I felt that his images were balanced, showed texture and a good tonal range. His subjects were varied from war, people and buildings, and in my opinion, along with the title, the photograph told a story. 

Edwin Smith

Edwin Smith's images were of buildings, British landscapes, and people. I read an article discussing whether he was / should be classified as a social documentary photographer. I am still open to suggestion on this and would have to read around the issue further. His images documented parts of British landscape which are no longer seen due to disease (of trees such as Elm). Smith's images are inspiring to me because they show use of form, texture and tone and show life as it was  during the last century. I especially like his landscape images which have leading lines, diagonals, graphic shapes and foreground interest. His work has inspired me to go out looking at the Derbyshire landscape in more detail having spent some time mountain biking and walking around Mam Tor last autumn.

Sian Bonnell

I looked at the work of Sian Bonnell in preparation for Assignment 4 real or fake? It reminded me of the work of putput which I had seen at the Chocolate Factory in Derby last year. I found the way that Bonnell used the landscape as her background interesting. The series on "where the domestic meets the wild" featuring pegs and teatowels etc I found easy to relate to as I had used a washing line, pegs and washing for as assignment image last year and could see myself building upon this and exploring the garden in this way. Her jellies were an interesting concept and I questioned the "reality" of this. I saw it as a creative image although they look like real jellies in real situations.