Edward Burtynsky - Manufactured Landscapes (book/web)

The Canadian photographer, Edward Burtynsky asks global questions about industrial costs on the natural world and how we are changing our planet. Working closely with several large companies, his images provoke feelings of wonder tinged with a sadness embedded deep within the destruction and ever-present changes taking place within the photographs.

A large section of his book is shot in China where the scale of the images intensifies. Burtynsky uses very small apertures (f45/f64) on a large format 4x5 camera for amazing detail and depth of field to capture everything in the field of view, for example warehouses half a kilometre in length. In both contextual and compositional terms, as here i think the two are divided, i believe his work sits somewhere between Peter Bialobrzeski's and Andreas Gursky's as the idea of transformation is present plus they also have tonal and vantage point similarities.

The image above is taken at the Three Gorges Dam on the in China. The largest h.e.p dam in the world will be the main source of power for the Shanghai District yet a total of 2 million homes including 3 entire cities have had to be "moved" for both it and the reservoir it creates. By moved, the Chinese government mean paying the locals to demolish their own homes and relocate locals to specially built cities tens of miles away. Personally, i think this is a great oxymoron to photograph, the push for clean power and sustainability is undermined by the human costs of moving.

The book - Manufactured Landscapes describes the series well. It is a very honest book without the slightest feeling of pretentiousness often found when ideas of globalisation and exploitation of natural materials arises. He's documents what he see's and this style reminds me of Winogrands images, showing the world for what it is with a vision for what it may become.

Click here for video talk on TED.com about Manufactured Landscapes.

Click here for website and to view his other books such as Oil

Salford Keys Review

Imperial War Museum North

Cecil Beaton - Tyneside Shipyards - Outside exhibitions

This work by the famous, late Cecil Beaton documents the dying ship building industry in one of Britain’s most important pre-war ports. The work also shows the positive effects the war had on this industry. The need for battleships meaning that the workforce almost doubled in only a few years. I think this is an interesting/positive take on a subject often conveyed so negatively through images such as McCullin’s and earlier Capa’s. I am by no means saying that The Second World War was a good event but i like to think there are opportunities in bad situations.

In terms of the exhibits themselves, I went expecting a usual gallery style showing but was surprised to find the 6 large scale prints outside the building and as I walk around them now the shadows and sunshine become part of the photographs, it is nice to be able to be amongst the images, pick how you want them to be viewed and see how the environment changes them. However, this might not be as enjoyable in the rain.

Gerry Judah - The Crusader 2010 - 3D Instillation

Although not a photograph, this 3D piece really caught my attention in the main exhibition space. From some angles it looked like a cross. Contrasting the holy symbol with an object of discord and the destruction that war brings. Personally, i believe that the vast majority of wars and conflicts have something to do with religion and differences in belief - I think this shown well in this composition. It’s form is quite sharp and broken which relates to the impacts of war yet it is the purest of toneless white which not only make it bold but bring in the idea of god and the greater being.

The Lowry

Harry Hammond - Halfway to Paradise - Iconic singer and band photography

Sometimes said to be the “founding father of music photography” Harry Hammond shows his work with bold, black and white portraits often with multiple catchlights and top-lit images. However, are these images really about music? Or are they more about the personalities, characters and our own understanding of the 1960’s celebrities in the images? The photography from around this time was starting to portray the ideas of the celebrity and what they were like ‘off the stage’ - could this of paved the way for the reality television and celebrity obsessed culture of today? V&A website

Photography and everyday objects via Athens

Anne Tallentire: This and other things.

The london based artist, Anne Tallentire has many interesting projects covering many different mediums. I do not think that her photography is her strongest area, the unremarkable objects she exposes with unremarkable lighting create images which personally i do not enjoy or find interesting but this style of image making causes the viewer to imagine what is around the photograph and also makes us want the image to be more than it is. Is this simply photographing for the sake of photographing? However, when i take away my golden section bias i can see that the juxtaposed compositions try to make statements about the things we do not notice. I think of a photograph as a moment of time in the past, wether seconds, days or years - it is always a reminiscent object for us to experience and cast our opinions . Tallentire's images go a little further than this and explain past events which have happened to the objects she captures, such as damage/discord. These ideas reveal a narrative which is prominent throughout quite a lot of her bodies of work. They leave me wondering what events had to transpire for these images to be made and i like how these are out of control of the photographer - almost natural events that she has stumbled upon.

Overall i would say that these images and the ideas behind them are growing on me and maybe have taught me to look outside my Magnum favourites and compositional comfort zone and look at images which at first do not come across visually strong yet still explain more about how they are made as they become more than the sum of all their parts - a phrase which i finally understand.

Athens PDF link

Photography identity and age: Web source

Trent Parke

One of Australia's most famous contemporary photographers, Trent Parke toys with the idea of both identity and age in his compositions in a less obvious way than the longer term members of Magnum. Although his photographs are breath taking in form because of the high contrast monochrome prints which often feature backlit subjects, i think his images contain a hidden undertone. Do his compositions contain any people at all? or are they merely silhouetted outlines which want us to create an identity for them? Can we tell the age of these people? Does the playful dive of the swimmer mean this person is young? This raises the question - Can identity, age, and personality really be captured in a photograph? Personally, i think we donate and stereotype perceptual identities onto such subjects in images and in turn make them more interesting to experience, objectify and create meaning from for ourselves. Is this the trait of a successful photographer? These people are mere figures, we look at them knowing only half or even nothing of what they see, where they are going or what they feel - yet we are left contemplating and imagining these very things. I believe a good photograph has elements left behind, waiting for the viewer to fill in the gaps.

Images from: Magnum Photos

Photography as a Surveillance Device - Source Magazine

Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin

As photographers we are always surveying our environment, wether it be as solid granite cliff or as fluid as a persons gate, we give it meaning, turning it into an impression though our camera lens. When I think of the word Surveillance, I think of cameras recording for our own protection, crime prevention via the closed circuit television. However, what if we think of it in a different light, one where the vantage point is not high on a lamppost but in amongst the the action? - with the decision of the photographer influencing its perspective and composition. Does this then give it more meaning? Does this then mean its more of an art form?

Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, two photographers from West Belfast, Northern Ireland documented the cities troubled past away from the main violence and heavy media attention the political problems caused. The images are mostly of people ducking for cover or vandalising places seen as the opposition. They seem to have a genuine feel to them, as if the photographers want to "expose" Belfast for the city it was. Almost circular windows to view the scenes playing out before us.

What caught my eye with these images rather than the other articles i found was the different format. To me the circular images seem suited to the information within as it adds the "looking from afar" - as if through a telescope effect. Also Chanarin talks about how easy it is to create a 'bad' archive of images, giving commentary about how the circular images help collate the works into a single piece.

Finally, and arguably most importantly I believe there are two sides to these images, they raise the much debated question "how far does the photographer influence an image of an event?" The naive side of me wants to believe that these two photographers want to show Belfast for how it was, broken but not shattered. The other part sees that these "snapshot" style photos are deceiving in their appearance and do not really reflect an unbiased, surveyed world.

Article from - Source Magazine. issue 65 - winter 2010/11. Pages 43-49.

The body as an aesthetic object

by Joe Light

Sam Taylor-Wood’s book - Contact - combines the body as a beautiful form mixed with images of disturbia. Using strong colours, particularly reds and blacks she objectifies her characters, presenting them as a contact sheet. This creates feelings of uneasiness with edgy compositions. As it is presented as contact sheets it seems to be unfinished. As a result this seems to offer the viewer a secretive look into the personal lives of the people photographed. They seem to be no more than objects trapped by the frames of the black contact sheet borders. In a way Taylor-Wood asks the question, what is beautiful? and tries to emphasise imperfect humanistic aesthetics rather than beautiful forms. This makes the subjects seem vulnerable as if they are objects being controlled.

Cindy Sherman, Photograohic work 1975-1995 - “Often, her photos present images of women who have dedicated themselves to the cliches of the fashion world and advertising. - Elisabeth Bronfen. I think this quote best sums up Sherman’s work. Using models shot in this style takes their esthetical beauty away, humanising them rather than recording them in compositions which grow more and more gruesome throughout. However, because we are told they are models, some viewers may still see the women photographed as objects of beauty. This adds a disturbing contrast to the book and i like how the photographer is challenging conformist views of the way people should look and be viewed.

Alex Kayser’s extensive archive of photographs entitled “Heads” looks deeply at the aesthetics of what must be hundreds of mens faces. The book is a great record of differences in face and is not a new idea. The way that victorian physiognomy looks into facial shape to determine a persons personality is made to seem absurd because under the images it tells you the persons name and occupation. Every man photographed is either naturally bald or shaves their head daily, this small insight shows what men sometimes do to be how they want to look and want to be seen.

Recorders

by Joe Light

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's exhibits encourage the viewer to take part, change and construct with varied methods. Many senses are appealed to and also used to experience each individual instillation. I found it intriguing how the eye becomes secondary in viewing the recordings of both yourself and others before you. The idea that a piece of work does not exist unless someone is experiencing it is very apparent here and the fact that the works are allowed to openly evolve brings in the 4th dimension of time. Space is also a key factor - most peoples reaction is to occupy the negative space in different ways as they are encouraged to by the exhibits. This means that it becomes less about the work and more about the reactions. The viewer becomes the viewed.

The recordings of pulse i found particularly interesting and is something i've never seen converted into such visual forms. The pulse of electricity flowing through the lights exhibit not only had a strong visual appearance because of their height over the viewer but also showed around 100 heartbeats in flashes of regularity. I found this to be quite an emotive piece because of this.

Identity - as a theme - also comes across strongly. As individuals experience the different ways that aspects of their personality are recorded, the thought that their information (finger prints, pulse, images of them) is being taken gets diluted. In a different scenario/context such things may seem intimidating, yet displayed in this way it becomes a fun, intuitive and a thought provoking place to be.

For me the paradox of this collection was the work involving shadows and enlargement. Where the other works focused on waiting for input, it seemed this was revealing an output of the human form - reflected through shadows. However, it too did encourage movement and was a good way to end the visit.

As a result of all such things Hemmer becomes less of a 3-D artist and more of a curator of human behaviour, movement and recordings.