Edward Burtynsky was born on February 22nd, 1955 and is a Canadian photographer and artist who is well known for his photographs of industrial landscapes. His work has been displayed in over 50 museums including: the Nationa Gallery of Canada and the Guggenheim Museum.
Burtynsky's most famous work focuses on methods of industrial urbanisation, including: mine tailings, piles of waste, cranes and quarries. Burtynsky has numerously travelled to China to photograph certain areas of the country to present the importance of the industrial development needed, as well as photographing the construction of one of the most well known engineering projects, the Three Gorges Dam. He has been influenced by four particular artists; Edward Weston, Eadward Muybridge, as well as Carleton Watkins and Ansel Adams who's work I have enjoyed analysing. Alot of Burtynsky's work has been taken using a large format field camera with 4x5 inch film screen which have been developed to produce high resolution photographs of various sizes from 18x22 inches to 60x80 inches.
I like this image photographed by Burtynsky due to the fact that teh composition of the main subject ( the pile of tyres) presents a theme of growth, almost in a natural way as Burtynsky did not arrange them in a specific way to be photographed. It also presents a link between people and the actual subject matter in relation to my exam theme; Growth and Evolution as the effect of a growing population would be a an increasing production of waste over time as the population increases. I think that this would be an interesting theme to follow for my project, to portray the effects of a growing population on earth. I could initially do this by photographing landfill sites, recycling as well as more personal waste, for example: clothes/toys being given to charity to present the idea of a persons growth, as apose to the general public.
For my personal project I was required to submit supporting studies, a linked personal study of 1000-3000 words and practical outcomes from my initial starting points. At the start of the project, after analysing the brief I decided on an overarching theme that I was going to follow which was: landscape photography. I made this decision based on previous work that I had enjoyed when following this theme throughout my AS Photography course. When I was aware of the theme that I wanted to focus on I made four mindmaps presenting my initial ideas. These were: Expressing the beauty of landscapes; Expressing the beauty of landscapes around London; The History of landscape photography and lastly, The evolution of landscape photography. For the two first themes the idea was to enhance landscapes using techniques in the darkroom and digitally on photoshop, and for the last two themes I intended on using techniques to convey views in relation to famous photographer's work of the past, which would be a part of the last theme as I would also use techniques to present views of today and express how photography has developed over time. After annotating each idea with locations to focus on, camera angles to use and final outcome ideas I decided that my chosen idea would be History of landscape photography. This decision was widely based on my appreciation for a particular landscape photographer: Ansel Adams, which is clearly stated in my personal study.
Three photographers that I researched in relation to my chosen theme were Ansel Adams, Carelton Watkins and Bill Brandt. Analysing these photographers enabled me to gain insight on different ways to portray my ideas by using specific camera angles when taking photos and selecting locations aswell as areas within the area. As I observed their photographs I realised that they used an extreme wide shot angle to present how beautiful the natural landscapes are, and decided this is the ideal type of shot I will take my photographs in. Due to this I focused on photographing natural landscapes using the same camera angle, and then edited the photos digitally in association with the theme. I did this by manipulating theme on Photoshop, altering them to black and white images to make them look as if thy were taken in the past where colour photos were not possible to create. These photos as (shown in my sketchbook) were quite successful.Once I had done those experiments I thought it would be interesting to explore another theme so that I had a variation of experiments. The second theme that I followed was: 'Expressing the beauty of landscapes' which was largely influenced by the work of Claude Monet. As I explored this idea I tried to recreate the method he used to portray his 'impressions' of the landscapes that he painted. I did this by using Photoshop tutorials to make the photos look as if they had been painted. Unfortunately I was unable to get a desired outcome for these experiments. As a result of this I used images of fur to blend with the landscape photos, resembling the soft brush strokes Monet used to paint his art work, which was a much successful technique. The texture used was able to express the beauty of the landscape as the soft strokes enhanced the serene vibe that the landscape portrayed.
When analysing my work for the two themes I was more appreciative of the photos used for 'The history of landscape' theme as I had thought of ways to develop the idea. I did this by doing darkroom experiments as it had the potential to allow me to enhance the images, highlighting areas and creating contrast with the photos like Ansel Adams has done. I managed to reach this goal by dodging and burning areas of three specific photos that I had previously indicated that I will use on my annotations of a contact sheet. For my darkroom experiments I photographed areas from standing on a bridge in London, which interlinks this theme to 'Expressing the beauty of landscapes around London'. As I had to be persistent when trying to find settings for the photos and dodging/burning effectively, I thought that it would be interesting to present this process for my outcome, in relation to Magnum photos that I have previously looked at (which are shown below).
This photo presents annotations that have been written by the photographer to inform them on how to develop the photo to have some areas darker/lighter than others. I used this idea and placed the photos on a notice board for my final outcome to present the journey used to get desired images.
