COMMISION UNIT PART ONE: FORMATIVE ASSESMENT

LANDSCAPE AND THE CITY

CONOR GALLOWAY

'I feel that the Earth and our existence on this planet is at 'tipping point', a point of no return. Since the Industrial Revolution, and especially during the past few decades, we have used our position at the top of the food chain to do destroy the land for our own selfish needs of advancement; to be the best that we can be. The politicians repeatedly say they are striving for sustainable development but the truth is they have achieved nothing, every annual failed global conference brings us closer to our death sentence. Without any action being taken on issues of land deterioration and the impact that the rapidly growing economies of China and India are having on the Earth, there will not be much left for future generations; we are heading for an apocalyptic situation. A land stripped of essential natural resources we take for granted, beautiful land churned up and ecosystems destroyed, a land devoid of life with war over the last resources of oil, minerals and water. The truth is that long after we have wiped ourselves out nature we make a comeback, albeit very slowly and unable to be diverse or support as much life as it once did. The quarry pit with its almost lunar otherworldly landscape is evidence of this possible future. Humans have devastated a area of extreme beauty, left it once all has been taken from it (as well as the breakdown of primary industry in Britain) and now as nature slowly begins to come back, plan to destroy it further and permanently with the development of housing. The scarred landscape is hidden as best as possible by steep chalk banks and forest slopes on the edge of essential farmland. The old chalk pit resembles an apocalyptic landscape, a large pit in beautiful countryside, a pit of churned up ground showing traces of human existence through huge tyre tracks, mounds of chalk, uneven topography and electricity pylons; it almost is an example of what the landscape may be like when we are gone, what we will leave behind.'

INTRODUCTION LANDSCAPE

CONCEPT: THE PIT

Used the picturesque and English rural countryside I live in as both a focus and a starting point, originally wanted to detail small and large details of mans presence in landscape. Listed locations in local area to visit. One location was an abandoned chalk quarry in my village long marked for development. Visited and was overwhelmed by its beauty, in awe of juxtaposition of beauty countryside and savaged land, hidden from view. Decided to concentrate on capturing this one site as I felt it was powerful enough to explore over a number of images and portray my concept, as well as for time efficiency. Through research my concept developed further into creating a project examining the impact of man's aggressive assault on developing the traditional English countryside, highlighting the change of our industry, the power of nature and whether we should let nature keep these once savaged beautiful areas. I wanted viewers to recognise the otherworldly landscape as a warning of a possible future if we continue to churn up the Earth as we do now.

RESEARCH AND VISUAL REFERENCES

Researched and visited forgotten industrial past of area and other brownfield sites in local area marked for development as well as general references to the English countryside under threat from development.

My artist research focused on photographers who had captured epic expansive landscapes in interesting and unique ways, whether they be natural, altered by man or completely man-made. Of particular inspiration and importance initially, especially in the composition of my images was Edward Burtynsky, Jem Southam, Fay Goodwin, Ansel Adams and Sophie Ristelhueber before Ori Gersht and the Romantic painters Turner and Martin were highlighted to me during my tutorial with Steffi as I was keen on discussing ideas of the 'apocalyptic sublime. All the artists researched were influential in different ways.

RESEARCH AND VISUAL REFERENCES

ORI GERSHT AND ROMANTIC PAINTERS TURNER AND MARTIN

Gersht and the Romantic painters were of keen inspiration in waiting for dramatic weather conditions to light the pit in interesting ways (which never came and thus means I will be shooting more images before April).

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JEM SOUTHAM AND SOPHIE RISTELHUEBER Southam (left) influential for his beautiful softly lit and sombre images that were slightly cold.

Ristelhueber (right) for her her survey of violence in landscapes to get across a point.

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EDWARD BURTYNSKY AND FAY GOODWIN Burtynsky (right) has been influential for his use of innovative techniques, huge detailed prints that make the viewer feel as they were with Burtynsky when he captured the landscapes, and creating an beautifying an industrial sublime to entrance a viewer and get across his disgust at the violence humans are inflicting on the landscape

Goodwin (left) was influential for her reference to traditional Romantic paintings that influenced her to create poetic surveys of the British landscape that make you feel as if you are there.

IMAGES FROM FINAL SHOOT NOT USED

I was hoping that this image would come out like I had captured the area during my test shoots but it did not. There is too much emphasis on green in the image, and also less emphasis on the tyre tracks to the right, I was also unable to capture the correct height and impressive features of the peak which I think is done to the lens choice I used. Although there is emphasis on vegetation which influences the colour cast of the image, I do like how nature has more of a focus in this image.

IMAGES FROM FINAL SHOOT NOT USED

At this point during the shoot I was giving up; I wanted to capture another wide view of the quarry and chose the entrance to capture it from as I liked the framing of nature around the image referencing traditional early English rural landscape paintings. However, the long exposure at such a wide aperture and poor weather conditions is evident in the image, as well as the water droplets that collected on the lens. I think this is a very poor image, there is actually a large drop to the quarry that cannot be seen and it's difficult for the viewer to tell what they are actually looking at, obviously also haven't been shot well further states how poor of an image it is.

IMAGES FROM FINAL SHOOT NOT USED

For a long time I wanted to light the rock in an interesting way but this wasn't possible at the present time, I liked how the weak sunlight was focusing on the chalk face and decided to capture it. I don't like the image however as it doesn't portray to the viewer what I wanted, there is no wider context to the image even when part of a series. It's well composed and I like the inclusion of the tracks beneath the chalk face, as well as the detail the wista provided.

FINAL IMAGES

Although slightly green and the sky too white, what I like about the image above is the emphasis on scale and disturbed land; it makes the viewer look twice at the image, causing confliction over whether this landscape could be seen as beautiful. I also like the difference between heavily disturbed land at the forefront of the image and the more flat land below; unlike some of the images below I like how the difference in land height is noticeable. I think the image is also well framed.

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I never planned to use blue sky in my work, but with the above image I think it really works well as well as the inclusion of countryside in the background once again causing confliction; it pairs nicely with the above image. Although once again focusing on the disturbed topography that features in the above image but from a different angle, with the inclusion of a different sky, differently lit rocks and context of the area the quarry is in it stands well on its own. I like how the land is far more barren and disturbed in this image, the inclusion of countryside in the distance allows the viewer to be aware that this actually a man-altered landscape.

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I really liked this area of the quarry but I don't think I photographed it well when compared to the emphasis I placed on it in my reference imagery, hence the variation in the shot below. The weather conditions unfortunately makes the image appear quite flat and brings out too much colour in the vegetation, but the conditions are good in making the image appear cold and the landscape inhospitable, it also works well as a variation in the series. However, I like how the image isn't a traditional flat image, the inclusion of the vehicle tracks going into the distance brings attention to the fact that this land is not natural but altered by man. I am upset that I didn't capture it as well as I hoped I would but I know that I still have plenty of opportunity to do so next semester, using a different lens will help.

 Never got the dramatic weather conditions . Lack of significant image development from my medium test shots the the large format final shots. Portray to my viewer my concept through simple imagery of a dramatic landscape; the landscape does the talking rather than the actual image itself. I feel I have also demonstrated my commitment to my practice and my determination to succeed. It may appear I never managed my time well but for the landscape part of this unit I really did; I investigated my concept deeply over numerous months, as I said it was the weather conditions that let me down. I like how the landscape also appears beautiful through its savage alteration and raises something new and unexpected; conflict in the viewer whether a man-altered landscape like this can be deemed beautiful although it has been savaged. An expensive experiment, it has been very valuable in helping me to get to know the layout of the quarry as well as how to use the wista in adverse weather conditions, I am so happy that I used large-format for the production of the work . Next semester I plan to keep an eye on the sky and the weather conditions I want and capture it again and again till I get what I have envisioned. I think with the right conditions the image will truly come alive and the rocks in the images above beautifully lit. In April I hope to be able to print them as large as my budget allows, referencing Burtynsky, so that the beautiful detail of each image can be seen and the viewer lost in. This unit really has been a challenge complete in time juggling between all my other work commitments, incredibly frustrating as the lack of the weather conditions needed against a time frame.

SELF-EVALUATION

INTRODUCTION THE CITY

'The City is a creature, alive through the hustle and bustle, the sounds, constant movement of light and traffic. It is unforgiving, ruthless; but also intoxicating.'

CONCEPT: METROPOLIS
I have always been fascinated by the modern city, being lost and dwarfed beneath impressive architecture like bridges and skyscrapers and capturing them in a creative way, experimenting with aperture and camera position as well as the use of vanishing points .
As a reaction against the restrictive boundaries set in place for the completion of the portraiture unit, my aim for this unit was to be as experimental and liberated creatively as possible whilst keeping to the small allocated time left, producing unique work that sets me apart creatively from the rest of the year in response to this part of the unit pushing for our work to be more conceptual. My intention was to develop my fascination with the citys architecture and visualise the sounds, movements and textures, the life of the city, placing equal creative emphasis on capturing the image and printing. Creatively experimenting over the course of two days in London across pre-planned sites with positioning the camera, changes in aperture, exposure and employing multiple exposure I distorted angles of buildings and skyscrapers, producing patterns, overlapping images, all by interrogating how the image appears through the Bronica viewfinder and using different lenses with a focus on geometrics, unusual shapes and colours . I wasn't interested in defining London and only used this location because my easy access to the city shouldn't be ignored, I wanted my viewer to imagine themselves situated within an 'unknown' metropolis and enjoy the feeling of being lost.

RESEARCH AND VISUAL REFERENCES

I knew quite early on what type of work I wished to produce with this project and used my own images from my time in Bangkok and Singapore in the Summer as an initial references and a starting point.

Not much in-depth research needed to be done as I wasn't investigating a defined concept. I wanted more emphasis on the freedom of creative and image-making produced rather than to lose time concentrating on research and as such my research was solely investigating visual references, split into two - photographic references for the moment of image-making and art movement references for when it came to actually printing the images.

RESEARCH AND VISUAL REFERENCES

My photographic and artist references for how I wished to compose the images in-frame for this project were a focus on those who produce(d) creative imagery of a unique documentation of urban sites void of human physical perception, using innovative camera processes or simple in the moment manipulation of perception through the way in the camera is handled to create images with a rich tonal range.
RUT BLEES LUXEMBURG

Luxemburg was a major influence to me in how she manages to find beauty in the most ordinary corners of the urban landscape, using large-format to document her exploration of the nocturnal urban landscapes and employing unusual and long photographic techniques like lengthy exposures of scenes lit only by ambient street lighting, experimenting with camera position and image/composition of these urban scenes.

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VERA LUTTER AND RAY K. METZKER
Taking a more objective visualisation and documentation of the urban space, wandering like Luxemburg and visualising the environment as a living, entity using photography to create images that combine the past and present in one moment to document the rapid changes that happen within the urban environment. I was fascinated how she strips down the camera to its basic processes and uses this creatively to achieve what she wants. Metzker may have been the most influential as he turned the urban environment into a technical and creative experimentation for the camera in a way which I wish to expand on, exploring the rhythms textures and human drama of urban existence by creating visual kinetic patterns, mosaic grids and double framed images of American cities. Focusing on darkroom exploration which I plan to investigate next semester, I will take from him his use of multiple enlargers to experiment with composites, multiple exposure, superimposition of negatives, solarization, shadows, tight control of depth

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I have become interested in printing my negatives very large and experimenting with using various experimental papers, films and processes and presenting my work in a way influenced by the combination of fine-art, graphics and advertising, experimenting with darkroom techniques adopted from both Metzker and Jerry Uelsmann. I plan to experiment completely with how the photopaper is used across multiple-enlargers, collaging together repeated images of different sizes across the white background of the photopaper. Of particular inspiration has also been the art movements of Dadaism, Cubism, Collage, Photomontage, Avant-Garde, Abstract

Expressionism and Post-Modernism.

(L-R) Gordon-Matta Clark, Franz Marc and Jerry Uelsmann

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Robert Rauschenberg

Paul Citroen

Pablo Picasso

Over the duration of two days I visited London to capture images for 'The City' in preparation for unusual and inspired printing methods. I found the two days difficult and very draining. With not a concrete plan of locations to visit, I spent the majority of the time in The City on both days before visiting London Bridge, Piccadilly, Shepherds Bush, Westminster and St Pancras, employing multiple-exposure and changes in camera height, angles and lenses (a 40mm and a standard 80mm) with a focus on how the image looked within the Bronica's frame.

VARIATION OF FINAL IMAGES

The small images above are variations in the final prints, I liked the very bright experiments but as well as needing presentation continuity in the three chosen images I felt that the use of a lot of white on a small print would be a waste of a print, dwarfing the chosen image.

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I wanted the viewer to truly lose themselves 'in an unknown metropolis' in my images and turn their heads to try and make sense of what their eyes are trying to tell their brain, entranced by the differing colours and shapes in the image; I wanted to visualise in my work the feelings I have when I enter the city and view modern architecture like those captured, a feeling of wonder, awe and insignificance and pass these feelings onto the viewer in the way the images have been composed.

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I chose the images below also because of the way they were shot and thus play with a sense of scale, the buildings are above the camera and appear to be crashing down onto the viewer, increasing feelings of insignificance. In the interlocking shapes of the city and the brightness and colours of the images my feelings of the city alive is further portrayed to the viewer.

Although these images appear highly edited in photoshop they are actually not; I only employed processes that would be used during the darkroom to keep the images as representative to darkroom printing as possible, cleaning the negatives and scanning them into the computer at a high resolution, cropping the images and slightly changing exposure, brightness, contrast and colours to give a continuity between the images and make the images appear more vivid and bold than in their original negative state.

FINAL IMAGES

SELF-EVALUATION
Time forced my hand into printing my city images digitally and I did not get a chance to employ creative freedom within the darkroom through the use of various techniques and multiple enlargers. These prints should be viewed as templates and experiments, laying the foundation for how I expand and print the project next semester. Even if digitally printed I still wanted my images to reference the art movements and artists I have referenced and I feel that the chosen prints really reflect this, changing the colour and brightness of the images and choosing the negatives employing multiple exposure really helps visualise this to the viewer; an accurate portrayal of the buildings was not my aim. As requested I have approached the project from a conceptual angle. I wanted to visualise movement and life within the city and my own feelings I have towards such grand impressive architecture, to encourage the viewer to take a step into the image and become lost within this unknown metropolis, I feel the images do portray this to the viewer in the way they have been composed and printed. The images deserve to be printed large and I plan to print these images as large as my budget allows in April; also getting rid of the restrictive square medium format presentation. I have missed digital editing and printing and may stick to using analogue capture but combine it with digital printing as it brings more possibilities to the image.

SELF-EVALUATION WHERE NEXT?

I will focus on architecture, employing multiple exposure once again and experimenting at night as well as day, overlapping the images on one frame. I want to be able to get to the top of these buildings and capture the scenes from a new perspective. I need to spend more time next semester printing and experimenting rather than shooting, taking notes over the Christmas break of how I could compose such imagery. I will use photoshop once again to create templates but keep most of my experiments darkroom based, experimenting with different types of experimental films and photo paper and hand processing the prints, researching what I can do as well as discussing in detail with Colin what alternative processes I could use; it will be only with awareness of what I can do with the image and the possibilities of printing process that I will become more aware of how I wish to print these images. I want my final images to appear less pristine and more 'creatively handled' like the prints of Robert Rauschenberg, as well as a focus on the use of multiple images on one print presented geometrically overlapping one another, directly referencing the likes of Picasso and Franz Marc. I find the chosen images in their presentation to be a bit too advertisement like, this may be because of their emphasis on graphic design; with my final images I want them to appear more fine art, the way to do this will be to focus on less strict style of presentation and composition. At the moment the images are focused on presentation of being captured in the moment, I want the post-capturing processes to do the talking.