Summative Assessment Commission Unit

Environment
For this project I wanted to look at people being at one with nature. We now live in our man made world and we stand out if we go to natural landscapes. I want to show, through a series of photographs, that we still can be at one with nature, even with our normal clothes. I intend to show this by photographing a series of different terrains and dress models in the same colour scheme as the landscape.

Research David Spero

Settlements Off colours work Blends in well Composition Hides the subject

Justine Kurland
Models match colour scheme of landscape Divide between colour on clothes does not have to match divide in landscape Helps me with varying composition Relaxed and natural feel with the models

Alex Soth
Broken Manual Composition Colour of clothes are off but still blend Positioning of models No one else in frame

Economands.org
After reading about Soths Broken manual I thought it might be interesting to look into the people who decide to live away from society. I found a website called www.economads.org and I searched for places where Spero photographed his Settlements. I found a place called Tinkers Bubble which was a place where people lived that was only heard about through word of mouth. It was a decision whether to go down this route but as I did not have enough time to change my concept I decided to stick with my original plan.

Location scout
First location scout on google maps Walked to location to shoot Learnt hard way not to do this!

Failed shoot
This was due to poor organisation of model. Late at night, camera shake.

First Final Girl in field

Plants rise to waist T shirt matches sky well Softness adds to the image Sky wasnt washed out Colours blend well together

Second final Boy in forest

Alex Soth man in forest Gradient from ground to sky Path creates clear background for model, away from hectic branches Leaves on path match models skin/hair tone Model blends in well

Third Final Boy in field

Try to show the Bare Essentials Plain landscape Only 2 major colours in this picture, they blend well Plain image

Series
If I were to put my work in series it would go: boy in forest, girl in field then boy in field. I would do this because there is a gradient from the hectic forest to the plain bare essentials and a good in between for both of them. I ended up putting them all in the same position because I think this dehumanises them, making them look less like us and it makes them look as if they are trying to blend into the landscape.

City
For my city project I wanted to the look at the main center of each town. I found it interesting how businesses rely of the towns local people to stay afloat. These people move around un noticed but all of them keep each town alive. I thought it would be interesting to show this by doing long exposures of people walking through parts of 3 different locations.

Research Alexey Titarenko

City of Shadows St.Petersburg Shadow people People looks like flowing water Clever use of inanimate objects Places seems very busy I dont want my work to be as dark

Mathew Pillsbury
Photographs popular places More similar to my work, focusing on people passing through Makes area seem timeless People seem less important Objects seem more important

Test shoot - Chatham

ND filter with studio light ND filter Wet, trying to play with shadows/reflections Titarenko, trying to look for objects to look good still Use digital camera to help meter Worked well for test Shoot on 6x6 next time to make it more of a snippet of the area

First final St Albans

Used path to lead into the photo Photographed on raised platform to be above people People make the area seem alive Different types of building make area more interesting

Second Final Harpenden

Hint of Gursky, horizontal lines High vantage point Still man adds more life to the image Car trail at top fills up top of the image

Third Final - Chatham

Couldnt find elevated vantage point Monument and tree match up nicely Tree branches lead towards monument and main subjects are in the middle Good separation between subjects in foreground and subjects in background

Series
If I were to present these images in a series I would have them in the order of: St Albans, Harpenden then Chatham. I would do this because I think the path in St Albans leads you well into the next picture. Then the horizontal lines of Harpenden lead you well into the next picture of Chatham which stops you at the monument. I think this flow works well as a series.

Critical Appraisal Part 1

If I were to display my work I would put both series in a exhibition but I would not exhibit them together. I do think both series can be linked up if I started talking about people being more whole when they are at one with nature but I didnt want to look into this so I would exhibit them separately. For my city project I wanted to try and show that these towns are alive. The only way I thought of portraying this was by doing long exposures of people moving. For my environment project I just wanted the clothes to match up with the colour scheme of the landscape so I had to have a lot of clothes to choose from and a lot of locations. For the first shoot of my environment I was poorly prepared that s why I had a failed shoot. After my formative assessment I was eager to get on top of my work. I did and I was comfortable with the time I had to get my work together. The same was for my city, after the formative assessment I was more motivated to work. The biggest challenge I have come across is finding a model who is committed to work when you can. I overcame this by leaving a few days open to shoot and making sure the model was available at the most important times.

Waste
For my waste project I wanted to look at waste created by light pollution. I was struggling to find a good way I could photograph this and then came up with a clever comparison. I noticed that the light that is damaging our Earth is similar to how light effects photographic paper. I then stumbled across NASAs picture of The Earth at Night and thought I could use this image to get 3 images out of and make a photogram. I first thought of making a stencil to make the photogram then I decided to make a negative that I could print on acetate and then make a photogram of that.

Preliminary Research NASA The Earth at Night

Beautiful but horror Gives our world another perspective Lights mimic galaxies and stars

Jim Richardson
Photographs work on light pollution Uses the mist and clouds to make lights look like stars and galaxies Landscape of salt lake, night sky star trails ruined by light pollution Baby turtles get confused as to which way is towards the ocean so many die

Artist Research Ori Gersht

Rear Window Light pollution from night sky effecting the sky Beautiful horror something bad in beautiful way Subtle hints of what you are looking at, buildings just enter photo at bottom Natural gradients in the photos make it appealing to look at, more interesting

Susan Durges
Stream and Shoreline First saw this work at V and A in Camera-less photography Shapes created by water are so intricate and detailed, great way to capture these patterns Leaves add sense of surroundings Some leaves further away out of focus, adds depth Waves cause a natural gradient

Photograms Man Ray

Rayograms Dada style Uses different objects and textures to create abstract Plays with depth Symmetry is used to add order in this randomness

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Photograms from 1920s Played with direction of light Gives us another view on photograms

Contextual Research
From www.njaa.org: Recent studies estimate that nationally more than 30% of the electricity generated for outdoor illumination is simply squandered by being misdirected into the sky. That comes to $4.5 billion annually. It takes, on the average, 0.47 tons of coal (940 pounds) to produce 1000 kWh of electricity, so one ton of coal can produce 2100 kWh of electricity. It takes about 1.8 barrels (76 gallons) of crude oil to produce 1000 kWh of electricity, so one barrel of crude oil can produce 556 kWh. The wasted light therefore equates to an annual waste of at least six million tons of coal (think of the added acid rain and air pollution!) or 23 million barrels of oil (think of the added oil imports). From www.britastro.org: On average, 30% of the light from a streetlight shines upwards and outwards. The light wasted by the UK's 9 million streetlights costs 110 million a year in electricity bills. In Britain alone, over 120 million worth of electricity is wasted per year from inefficient streetlights. A third of the light from an average street-light never actually hits the street - 120 million a year worth of electricity is simply wasted.

Digital edits
These are the crops and the final images I used for my prints. I decided to choose North America, Europe and India because I thought they were the most interesting places on NASAs picture. All I did was go to Photoshop, change the preset to a negative and then play around with the curves. I then test printed them, then edited some more then printed again. Before I had my final edit I used a preliminary edit to print off on paper then I made a photogram of this and decided to pursue this idea.

Presentation
I decided that I wanted to show my photograms in a special way. I then started to think more about this idea of beauty and how these people in the highlights of my print are blind to the beauty. I decided to represent this by poking holes in the main highlights of each print. I then want to backlight the image so the light that shines through looks like stars in the night sky. This is similar to Richardsons work where he makes the ground looks like the night sky. After printing my finals I tested this and I was happy with the results so this is how I will present my work.

First Final - America

Second Final Europe

Third Final - India

Series
If I were to present this work in a series I would do it in the order of a map, like the original photo by NASA; North America, Europe then India. I wouldnt have to have all these pictures together but they all would have to be backlit.

Critical Appraisal
I would want my work to be displayed in a exhibition. They would not have to be displayed together as each print tells the same story. I decided to go with an experimental approach towards this project because it is something I am not used to doing, I wanted to try something different. Using these techniques I can say I am a lot more knowledgeable about things I can do in photography. I gave myself a lot of time for research at that start. This is because I found it hard to find a way to portray light pollution through photography. I still had enough time to round my idea and comfortably test it, which luckily worked. I think I need to try to get back up ideas incase things do fall apart. I was lucky this time but I should have maybe been prepared for worse. The hardest challenge I have found in these units is trying to get a good idea I want to peruse early in the project timeline. I think this is due to lack of inspiration so I need to go out more and get more inspired.