Category: Research blogs

For this sample of my photograph development I have chosen to show these three images from a secluded rural walk in Kings Worthy. The second two photographs depict horses grazing in the field. I aimed to portray the animals as undisturbed and going about their daily life. The images convey a sense of peacefulness that I experience whilst walking on this particular route.

The first image conveys how nature and man meet through capturing an electrically-wired post besides a tree top. The clear blue sky helped to emphasise the two contrasting objects, giving the photograph an aesthetically pleasing look. This technique of combining man-made objects with natural structures follows the work of photographers Soth and Bendikson.

I aimed to capture the vibrance from the natural environment on days when the sky was a clear blue. The blue sky compliments the greenery in the three photographs. Moreover, due to the brightness of the sun, the two dark horses contrast effectively against the grass, almost to make them appear as a silhouette.

Alec Soth is a photographer from America, born in 1969. He currently makes “large-scale American projects” that feature the Midwestern United States.

Soth’s ‘Walks to work” is collection that I admire in particular. His photographs are of generic urban structures and objects. As the photographs are taken in the morning, the variety of natural lighting, despite being at same the time of the day, makes the images aesthetically pleasing. This links in well with my project for I have produced photographs using the natural light in a way to aesthetically enhance my images. I am interested in the different ways that lighting can help accentuate the natural scenery of Kings Worthy.

In addition, the project itself depicts Soth’s experiences. Similarly, my project offers insight into my personal experiences into where I have grown up. The collection that I am constructing gives a clear reflection of both my recent experiences and some of my earliest memories growing up.

Furthermore, the angles Soth has used to take photographs of man-made generic objects is admirable. I appreciate the way he captures everyday life through the images in his collection, without using people. Convincingly, I have applied many similar techniques to my photograph development.

For this set of photographs i chose to predominantly focus on the beauty of the nature in Kings Worthy. The images are paired for specific thematic reasons. Convincingly, Jonas Bendikson contributed to the production of these images, for they amalgamate both human and natural aspects of my hometown together. Moreover, alike some of Bendikson’s work I showed images in which nature is outlasting structures that humans made.

The first two images depict the same route to walk, however this is not why I chose them to be paired. They link together through the property of containing both man-made and natural aspects, in which the man made structure is deteriorating and being consumed by nature. The first image depicts a WWI bunker that has been consumed by growing bushes and weeds. The second image shows a rusted and out of use plow, that has been set aside. These images convey the ephemeral nature of mankind’s creations, compared to nature which continues to grow and flourish. They also highlight an ongoing conflict between man and nature, in which nature is winning.

The second two images can be interlinked by their sentimental meaning to me. The first image of the cows grazing portrays the view that is opposite my house, that I see on a daily basis. It’s paired photo, whilst appearing irrelevant to the other, is a walkway close by that these cows are often herded through in single file. Interestingly, when the cows are not in the field, they will be being led through the thin walkway to be milked. This means that in Kings Worthy, generally the animals can be seen in the places depicted in either photograph.

The third pair of photographs, alike the previous, may not appear to be interlinked. However, the bench depicted in the image is the place in which I most associate the girl in the second image. These two particular places are of great significance to my experiences growing up in Kings Worthy. The photograph of the bench in front of a house is particularly interesting as it reflects how nature and human structures can be combined to create a pleasant image. The house is covered with decorative flowers that compliment the structure, in addition to following my theme in reflecting how nature meets man.

Jonas Bendiksen is a Norwegian photojournalist, born in 1977. He has received various awards, being from The World Press Photo, International Centre of Photography, National Magazine Awards and Pictures of The Year International.

The work of his that is particularly relevant to the development of my photographs is that of ‘Greenlands Vanishing Villages’. This collection of photographs is one that I admire and greatly appreciate. Despite depicting contrasting icy terrains, I can see how much of my work so far shares similar properties to this collection even before discovering his work. The use of man-made structures surrounded by ice and snow creates a truly remarkable aesthetic effect. Interestingly, the element of disorder to the photographs, in which the human objects have been covered or affected by nature, gives the images a further beauty. This almost chaotic property, accentuates the aesthetic effect.

Convincingly, after seeing how well executed a collection containing open natural spaces and human structures can be, I will continue to utilise this technique in creating my upcoming sets of photographs. Contrastingly, rather than capturing white snow and buildings, I shall be capturing the combination of human structures and vibrant flowers/greenery.

For my photographs I have chosen to use open spaces from my hometown of Kingsworthy in Hampshire. During my time in lockdown I have been considerably more appreciative of the natural beauty of the area in which I live, as a relatively rural village Kings Worthy is surrounded by various walkways, forests, and open fields. All of the photographs in this collection demonstrate a very clear sense of place to me personally.

Convincingly, Bieke Depoorter’s work with open spaces has contributed to the creation of my photographs. Similarly, I have amalgamated aspects of both man-made structures and objects with the natural settings of Kings Worthy in the creation of my photographs.

My photographs can be viewed in sets of threes, in the rows presented, as they interlink with each other through similar properties. The first three photographs are from the one particular route to walk that has great sentimental value to me. Whilst they appear contrast in content, the middle photograph contains the paths displayed in the other two from a different perspective. The second row of photographs shares both a natural and man-made element to the content within. Moreover, the natural part of the images is their key feature. Cohesively, the third row is solely images of nature, all depicted from the same route as each other. I was intrigued in how lighting could be effective in displaying these trees, thus I decided to choose a different time of day for each image. Following on from the other rows, my fourth row of photographs focuses on perspectives and time of day. All three of these images are taken from the same spot, yet facing different directions and at different times of day.

Whilst individually unique, all of my photographs are from places of great sentimental value to me. Perhaps I can credit Mark Powers’ work on ‘Leaving Home’ for influencing me to use something meaningful to me in my collection so far. Initially, I had decided to leave out photographs of people from my collection. However, using my Mum in the first photograph, the person I associate the most with Kingsworthy seemed fitting to my project. I chose my fascination with natural settings, complimented by the use of a variety of meaningful human features.

 

Bieke Depoorter, born in 1986, is a Belgium photographer. She received a master’s Degree from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. She has won various awards, such as the Prix Levallois, the Magnum Expression Award and the Larry Sultan Award.

Bieke Depoorter has released many books, one of which that is relevant to my work is that of “I Am About to Call it a Day”. Specifically, what I admire is Depoorters use of lighting in a few of her photographs. The use of an orange tinged lighting creates a certain homely feel to some of her images. This may prove to be useful to my upcoming portfolio as I have chosen my theme of my hometown, and may potentially influence my techniques of lighting in some of the photographs I create.

In the collection “I Am About to Call it a Day” I admire the choice of time of day, in which the evening and night is chosen. The landscape images of a snowy terrain are impressive when combined with a dark lighting. I believe that for the creation of my own images, daytime lighting will be better to portray my rural green hometown.

Mark Power, born in June 1959, is a British photographer from the city of Brighton. He has been awarded the Terence Donovan Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society. In addition he has been awarded the World Press Photo Award for Arts and Entertainment.

There are a number of Power’s collections that I am impressed by. Perhaps my favourite, ‘The Sound of Two Songs’ captures a variety of open spaces in an aesthetically pleasing way. Each photograph has a unique feel to its content, all of which include man-made structures and objects. These are combined with elements of nature to create some remarkable photographs.

Power’s collection of ‘The Sound of Two Songs’ use of open spaces has influenced me in the  creation of  the theme of my portfolio. I will focus my work upon the area in which I live, using a mixture of both natural and man made objects to give a clear sense of place to my work.

A particular interest of mine in creating my own work is that of his ‘Leaving Home’ collection. His choice of positioning for the objects within his photographs is admirable. The ability to use an array of colours in the collection, whilst linking the individual photographs together, can be commended.

An aspect of this collection that I shall utilise in my portfolio is the mundane realism captured within Power’s images.