Unit 3 Personal Study
Rationale
Throughout this year i will be interested in studying the landscape and environment. I enjoy looking at the issues of an urban environment and feel that ugly and enormous buildings do not need to be photographed as they are, this was shown to me by the work of Michael Wolf who i looked at in depth. I liked his work and thought it symbolised a hidden beauty within an ugly urban enivronment and therefore would like to capture this same inspiration. A fellow phgotographer i looked at was Andreas Gurskey, whos work was very much similar to Wolfs, however seems to focus more on people within that environment and how they live. I also like their ideas of paterns and coordination and would like to capture that in my work this year, however i would most likely need to invest in a lense that would be able to zoom in much further than my standard one as both these photographers have taken their photographs from a disstance and this is why the technique they have used is so effective. I would also like to play with the idea that Gurskey has of using different angles to manipulate the shapes and change he perspective of the photograph.
Land scape and the Environment - Research
Andreas Gurskey - Shanghai
This picture, taken by Andreas Gursky, appears to be distorted and manipulated although it is most likely exactly how the photograph was taken. Another factor to this image is how basic and simple it seems from afar, just some curving yellow lines going from the middle outwards, yet when the picture is examined more closely, we are able to see people on the different platforms and doors and railings, Andreas Gursky's work particularly interests me in the idea of something very complex within something simple.
I am particularly interested in the way Gursky is able to capture the perspectives and designs of buildings and the way they almost look manipulated and twisted. I find Gurskys work very similar to the work of Michael Wolf and am inspired by the way the both use the urban cities as their focus within their photographs and their use of color and patterns. Michael Wolf spent a vast majority of his work photographing urban architecture across asia, similar to Andreas Gursky in a sense that both played with repetition and size in their images and perspective, making buildings and colors appear manipulated. I found that the reason I was in fact most attracted to Wolf and Gurskeys work was their unique way of playing and using shapes colors and angles within their photography, throughout this year i would like to experiment and explore this side of photography. However both Andreas Gurskeys work and Micheal Wolfs work appear to focus on urban sites and landscapes, I would like to experiment with not only an urban landscape but possibly also a natural one in which i would still be very interested in using different angles and shapes and attempting to capture a photograph that appears different to how it is. This is what i believe Gurskey and Wolf attempt throughout their work.
I will also try and find patterns and co-ordinate my photography like i feel they have done. When i look at the work of Micheal Wolf, I feel as if there is a reason behind why he took each photograph. For example, the image below i feel carries an edge of beauty from what is most likely a vast building simply under construction? It also carries with it a co-ordinated pattern of color and shape and makes me respond to it in a unexplainable way.. As if the photograph has a heart beat to it, its calm
I am particularly interested in the way Gursky is able to capture the perspectives and designs of buildings and the way they almost look manipulated and twisted. I find Gurskys work very similar to the work of Michael Wolf and am inspired by the way the both use the urban cities as their focus within their photographs and their use of color and patterns. Michael Wolf spent a vast majority of his work photographing urban architecture across asia, similar to Andreas Gursky in a sense that both played with repetition and size in their images and perspective, making buildings and colors appear manipulated. I found that the reason I was in fact most attracted to Wolf and Gurskeys work was their unique way of playing and using shapes colors and angles within their photography, throughout this year i would like to experiment and explore this side of photography. However both Andreas Gurskeys work and Micheal Wolfs work appear to focus on urban sites and landscapes, I would like to experiment with not only an urban landscape but possibly also a natural one in which i would still be very interested in using different angles and shapes and attempting to capture a photograph that appears different to how it is. This is what i believe Gurskey and Wolf attempt throughout their work.
I will also try and find patterns and co-ordinate my photography like i feel they have done. When i look at the work of Micheal Wolf, I feel as if there is a reason behind why he took each photograph. For example, the image below i feel carries an edge of beauty from what is most likely a vast building simply under construction? It also carries with it a co-ordinated pattern of color and shape and makes me respond to it in a unexplainable way.. As if the photograph has a heart beat to it, its calm
within what is clearly a hectitc and fast moving city. I think the reason for me feeling like this is due to many eliments that Wolf has taken into account beforecapturing this photograph, such as the light against the building, most likely taken with a setting sun. Also the distance from which Wolf took the photograph helps to ease the sheer scale of the building and make the image appear far more relaxed than as if the photo had been taken from possibly closer or above/below.
A further piece of Wolfs work that interested me was his ability to capture refelctions within these buildings, as if the buildings themselves were in fact 'transparent'. Furthermore, Wolf (perhaps by misstake) stumbled onto another asspect of his projects as written by architect Geoff Manaugh anf friend of Wolfs; 'At some point in the evening, Wolf zoomed in randomly on one of the windows while scanning the image for flaws. But he noticed something: there was a man in the photograph—and he was giving Wolf the finger.' Wolf was inspired by this find and 'went back through every photo he’d taken in the city thus far, methodically scanning, passing from one window to the next, row by row, as if deciphering a hidden text. In that newly committed act of visual interpretation, a key aspect to the project was born: when you look into the lives of others, the lives of others might be looking at you' Wolf began to be inspired by this idea and would set out upon the rooftops of chicago for 4-6 hours, yet his image of interesting and different lives was spoilt by his conclusion of how boring every day life is. Returning to his results and concluding that they were more like the paintings of Edward Hopper, whom he began to be influenced by, often taking photographs of people sitting around a conference table or eating dinner for one in a resteraunt, making them seem almost cliche. |
This photograph, when compared with Andreas Gurskeys above, i find is similar in the sense that both photographers appear to try and soften the enormity of modern, urban sky scrapers by taking their photographs from far further away. They also defuse the obvious rush of a city by this and by playing with the light of the picture and the angles. On the other hand, it could be argued that Wolf and Gurskeys work differentiate as Andreas Gurskey seems to focus more on Urban life and the style of living within his photographs whereas i find Michael Wolf attempts to capture beauty and calm within his photos and alter the mood. Making monstrous buildings appear like sleeping giants. This is the kind of work i will attempt to achieve throughout this year.
Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s. I took an interest in Abbotts work whilst exploring urban landscape photography and was interested in the way she was able to capture buildings in an almost distorted or flattened angle. I took Abbotts work as inspiration and took a set of photographs within london, simply capturing buildings at what i assumed to be awkward angles which made the photograph look different and almost more glorified than a common image.
Street Photography - Research
Edward Hopper
Whilst researching into the work of Michael Wolf and Andreas Gurskey I looked at the work of some of their influences, one of which was the painter Edward Hopper whos work i found interesting and would like to try, but with a camera. In a way coming across simply as street photography.
Hopper derived his subject matter from two primary sources: one, the common features of American life (gas stations, motels, restaurants, theaters, railroads, and street scenes) and two; its inhabitants. Throughout the urban environment there appears to be always something new and unique happening everyday, everywhere. However Hopper seems to focus mainly on the ordinary parts of life and society, in a way picking out more the loneliness of city life rather than the extrodinary. Michael Wolf was able to capture this in his photography as well with his set 'the transparent city', and i will aim to take photographs that show the reality of city life. Urban architecture and cityscapes were also major subjects for Hopper as for myself. He was fascinated with the American urban scene, “our native architecture with its hideous beauty, its fantastic roofs, pseudo-gothic, French Mansard, Colonial, mongrel or what not, with eye-searing color or delicate harmonies of faded paint, shouldering one another along interminable streets that taper off into swamps or dump heaps.”, I am looking to capture both this and the loneliness of the city in my photography. |
Photo montage / Collage - Tim RoeloffsAfter observing the urban environment, i took an interest in making my own landscapes using photoshop. I was further intrigued by the work of Tim Roeloffs as i stumbled onto his photo collages by coincidence, and saw the messages he was able to create with his work as well as it being a unique form of art. Tim Roeloffs is the best known collage / photo montage artist in the world famous artist colony Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin, Germany. Having had works commissioned by Versace he has become known for his creations which reflect real life, not only Berlin but the rest of the world.His inimitable sense of humour has been influenced by a thousand impressions of television, beer and daily life on the streets.
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Alexander Rodchenko
Franziska Rutz
Franziska Rutz (born 1956 in Zurich) is a photographer that focuses on the rapid changes in urban landscapes across the world and China in particular. Gigantic skyscrapers, rubble heaps, and construction scaffolds transmit a menacing presence in inner-city spaces. Her works deal with the individual's wish for personal self-determination and reorientation on the one hand and the feelings of alienation and helplessness at the centre of a massive state-controlled structural transformation on the other.
The human being in his diverse surroundings and realities stands at the centre of Franziska Rutz' artistic oeuvre. Her newest images show people who cannot keep pace with the speed of structural expansion and have lost their orientation in the anonymity of the metropolises. Franziska Rutz' photographs explore everyday social organisms and diverse levels of reality by means of austere painterly and emotional results arrived at with overlappings, modifications, colour changes, and integrating people and pictorial objects into a new context. With these works, Franziska Rutz offers insights into the foreign, the unfamiliar and the culturally different.
The human being in his diverse surroundings and realities stands at the centre of Franziska Rutz' artistic oeuvre. Her newest images show people who cannot keep pace with the speed of structural expansion and have lost their orientation in the anonymity of the metropolises. Franziska Rutz' photographs explore everyday social organisms and diverse levels of reality by means of austere painterly and emotional results arrived at with overlappings, modifications, colour changes, and integrating people and pictorial objects into a new context. With these works, Franziska Rutz offers insights into the foreign, the unfamiliar and the culturally different.