Definition of a Landscape: A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, and how they merge with man-made objects, or the flow of nature...
Personally I believe that I have a good connection to the natural world. This is for many reasons but the main one is probably because I love being around nature in general. I enjoy the beautiful things that it has to offer, such as the animals and the insects that live in it. I enjoy the flow of nature due to the natural feeling that it gives off.
There are landscapes everywhere, even outside your house, but there are many places that you can go if you want to see a landscape. For example, you can go to the city to see landscapes, or cityscapes. Landscapes are just pieces of land that look appealing to the eye or aesthetic. Anywhere that looks appealing to the eye such as an empty field or a line of aesthetic buildings is a landscape. If I had to go somewhere to see a landscape or photograph one, I would maybe go to central London, since there are a lot of skyscrapers and beautiful views there. There are also good views in Canary Wharf.
In my opinion I think that people that images of nature because of how beautiful it can be. For instance, the inhabitants of nature, such as insects and other animals. There are many aesthetic insects that look beautiful such as a butterfly. Someone might want to take an image of a butterfly because of how appealing it looks; not just insects but also the vines and trees. Most of the time, water is involved with nature, and personally I like to take images of water because of the way it flows, I find it interesting. There are a lot of cool things that are in nature.
Photographs can almost be like another perspective from someone else's eyes, or it could be an entirely different way to see things, created by the artist. Photographs can change our ideas, and our ideals; they can even tell stories. Photographs can show us the truth of the world, or it can teach us facts about the world. Sometimes we don't just see a photograph as just a photograph, but something far greater, or something much more than just an image. Photographs show change over time in a different way.
my response
photos from photography trip
Constructed Seascapes
Both images seem to have water in them. Both images are quite flat. Both of the images have the same composition or the same aspect ratio. Both images also show ripples in the water and the image on the left is quite abstract. The image on the left is constructed, whereas the image on the right is natural. The image on the right is quite simple, whereas the image on the left is a lot more complex, since a lot more is going on. In the image on the left, there are a lot more darker areas, and the edges in the image are burnt. There are a lot of ripples in the water in both of the images, and it could be said that the shapes in the left image are abstract in some type of way. There is minimal colour in both images, but a lot less colour in the right image, since it is in traditional black and white. The image on the left also has a limited colour palette, but still more colour than the image on the right, since the image on the right has little to no colour at all. In my opinion, I do like the first image more, because it's unique and a lot more interesting than the image on the right, since there's more to talk about and evaluate.
collage attempt
hiroshi sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a famous photographer from Japan where his realistic images of "intangible or impossible phenomena" had challenged the fixation of photography and has stopped the idea of photography being an "objective" art form. Hiroshi Sugimoto is mainly known for his black and white
In my opinion, I believe that the video is quite boring. I think this because there is a lack of communication in the video, and no directions given by the person in the video. For instance, the person in the video making the collage did not say what they were doing, however this can be a different approach to a video, and the person making the collage might have not said what they were doing on purpose, so that the watcher can figure out for themselves. Personally, I believe that the person in the video should have added background music, for example lo-fi music. It does not have to specifically be loud, but it can be low to add personality to the video, since the video seems a little bit boring and dull - but that is just my opinion. The art was made by cutting and ripping specific images that were most likely chosen by the person in the video. The art was made by putting different images together, creating a collage of some sort. The person in the video is clearly trying out new things, since they are constantly moving their hands and their work. It relates to the topic (constructed landscapes) because the person in the video is constructing a new landscape using images that they have. The collages of the landscapes are not natural, since they are being made by someone or something, which is why it is related to a constructed landscape. A photograph of a natural landscape can be taken at any moment, since there is landscape all around us; a constructed landscape is something that is made, for example, Dafna Talmor. It is different because there are a bunch of different landscapes merged within a singular landscape, ultimately creating a constructed landscape. The performer in the video has a wide variety of different landscapes, however they are finding different ways to put them together, and make them look good as a collage. The images were either taken by the performer in the video, or they were found on google images. This is because there are a lot of random images of landscapes, which means that if the photographer took all of them, it must have taken him quite some time, since that means that he would have had to go and explore, to look for different types of landscapes.
photos of landscapes (taken by me)
Today, we took blurred photographs outside. I did not have my phone today, so I had to use the camera. It was hard to make it out of focus because i had to keep using my fingers, and placing it in front of my lens; however it eventually started to work. There were limited places that I could take the images outside, so some of them look like the same area. I had tricked the camera to go out of focus, since it's harder to do on camera, and easier on phone. I took pictures near the blocks, and also where the grass is, near the basketball court. One thing that I do not like about my photograph is the fact that it is blurry. Personally, I do not enjoy finding it hard to understand what is in the image, and my images were just too blurry. That is why I do not enjoy out of focus photographs, because I dislike how hard it is to see what is going on, despite that being the main point.
ray metzker: pictus interruptus
Ray Metzker views the landscape in unique ways, for instance, he uses different objects and frames to see the landscape from another eye, and create something far more different than just a regular landscape picture. This is effective because it allows not only the photographer, but also the viewer to see from the photographer's point of view. The photographer also uses light to create specific images, for instance the two images that I have chosen have heavy uses of light in them. This can create duality or a more eerie feeling to his photographs. It is said that Ray Metzker is mainly known for his Composites, meaning the way in which a whole mixture is made up.
photos by me (again)
- He has been doing photography for four decades. - Has won many awards for his photography - He attended the University of California - Is a contemporary visual artist. - He lives in California. - Was born in Los Angeles. - His work has been featured in many solo exhibitions. - His work is on display in many different universities. - He uses deserted houses for his pictures.
charles wilkin
Charles Wilkin is a well-known collage artist and designer. He works in many studios situated in Brooklyn and New York. He had grown up in Grand Island, New York, which is said to be a rural suburb; he had relocated to New York City in 2001, after he lived in Ohio and Arizona for a long while.
Facts about Charles Wilkin:
- He began collages at a young age by mistake. - He makes collages due to the feeling of making something out of nothing ! - He is well-known for distorting reality with his work. - His work is a "loose collection of thoughts." - His work is seen as a reflection of the world that we live in. - He felt good to do it. - His teacher said "your photos suck; make a collage with them." - He makes collages because he likes how it doesn't have to make sense. - "making something out of nothing." - He didn't have a lot of time during the week.
"A Sudden Gust Of Wind"
Wall created this collage of other photographs and some paper to help with his working process while making this image.The photograph is a large image presenting four people that are frozen and shocked, as they are responding to a strong gust of wind in a flat, open area. The sky is scattered with papers from a folder held by the woman on the left side of the picture. Wall has used the sense of movement across the image from left to right, resulting from the flying papers and other evidence of the wind’s direction. Wall photographed actors over five months in a landscape outside his home town, Vancouver, at times when weather conditions that were very windy had arrived. He then collaged elements of the photograph on his computer/laptop in order to achieve the composition that he wanted. It shows the landscape in black and white, the four figures placed on it and above them, the series of papers in the sky, each marked with a red cross and annotated with numbers.
penelope umbrico - "Sunset Portraits"
The first impressions that I get from Penelope Umbrico's sunset work is the substantial beauty that it entrenches. Her images have a sort of power, which makes you feel as if you're there with the people in the photograph, staring in awe at the enchanting sun. The purpose of this image could be the bonding of people and their relationships with one another; it can also relate to the power and beauty that the sun withdraws, as the sky slowly emerges into a dark atmosphere, as the sun departs from the sky. The composition of the images all seem to have a sunset, and people in the image. The photographer could have easily taken pictures on the internet of just sunsets, however they have chose to bring people into the image instead. This could have been done to evoke the more realistic feeling, and the thought of s being those people, in that place at that time. In my opinion, I would personally say that this image has done what it was sought out to do, and had done it more than effectively. I think this because I can sense a strong connection between me and the images, even though I am not there. I feel as if I can see out of the people in the images, and see through their eyes, even though I have never met them before in my life. This sort of photograph seems to be a landscape photograph, mixed with still life. I say this because the images are in a landscape format, while also having still objects, that being human beings in the image. The image is clearly showcasing the power of the sun and the stellar imagery that it beholds. It seems like the image was taken at a time somewhere in the evening, and at a similar time as the others. It is a truthful depiction of the subject because the images present the sun effectively, and it is realistic, meaning that it is real life, and not an artificially made photograph. Penelope Umbrico is an American artist that's best known for her work that gets her images that are found using search engines and picture sharing websites.
photography mock
My first experimentation consisted of two landscapes, both originating from different countries that I have a connection with. Those two being Pakistan and Ghana. I had decided to merge the two landscapes together but to also add in the flag of those countries in the image. That being the sky. There were a lot of things that were very wrong with this experimentation, one thing being that I started creating a design and I forgot what I was supposed to actually be doing, which is constructing a landscape. I also did not use my own images, and rather used some that I found online, which was a huge mistake.
I started the experiment by placing two of the images and cropped them so I had half of each of them, and then putting them together to create one image. I wanted to merge two of the landscapes and make them look as if they were blending into each other.
first experiment
After I had mixed the two images together, I wanted to add the flags of the countries which I ended up doing. I had put the symbols of the Pakistani flag behind the building in the first image, which was an image from Pakistan, and then I had put the Ghanaian flag in the sky of the image from Ghana.
My first experiment had a lot of things wrong with it, however I had decided from this to learn and improve for the next experiment that I did, but I also wanted to continue the idea of taking two images and merging their landscapes together, to make one landscape, so I did. I had decided to create a landscape with images that I had taken myself. My second experiment consisted of two images that I had taken, however I had lined them up to look like one single image. I also thought that the image would be bland, so I added a gradient map on photoshop.
second experiment
For my third experiment, I wanted to do something similar to the second experiment, this is because I love how the gradient map looked on both images, resembling a clean cut between the two images. I feel like I like this one the most because it almost resembles two sides of the same coin, almost like heads and tails.
In my third experiment, I had decided to do something very similar, however I wanted to play around with different colours in the gradient map.
third experiment
Personally, I love how this one looks due to the beautiful, warm colours, however one thing that I really do not like about this piece of work I made is the lack of contrast. This image has only one set colour to it, and it is on both of the images also. The lack of contrast makes this image not pop out.
fourth experiment
full evaluation
During constructing landscapes, we had mostly researched the theme of landscapes, but over a period of time, I had found myself integrating a lot of other themes into my work, such as still life with some of my images. During my mock examination, I had started my work with more of a cultural theme, however it did not go as planned. Instead of giving up, I had decided to try something new. I decided to create images split between the middle, adding another image that looked quite similar, and making them blend in with each other to evoke the feeling of them looking like they were taken at the same place. I had also decided to add different shades of colour because I thought that colour seemed like a nice addition. We had researched a wide range of artists/photographers during the time that we had learnt about constructing landscapes, such as Charles Wilkin, Ray Metzker, John Divola and many others, however my most favourite out of all of the photographers that we have researched is John Divola. This is because I think that the use of shapes is very unique and smart to almost make an outline of something/someone. What I can infer from all of these photographers is that photography does not have a fixed meaning, and that it can even be stated as an umbrella term for something far greater; there are many opportunities given in photography, and many ways in which one can express themselves through the art that they create. All of these different photographers that I have researched all have styles that are so much different from one another, but their work is still classified as a form of photography, which shows the true beautiful nature of this subject. I have most definitely tackled a good amount of the Threshold Concepts of Photography, one of the main ones being Threshold Concept #1. "Photography has many genres, some old, some borrowed, some new." This further links to the point that I had previously made about photographers all having different ways in which they do photography, but this is the nature of photography, in which new genres can be birthed, but old genres can be taken and further modified.