Some initial ideas
Personally my relationship to the natural world isn't quite connected as I usually don't go outside too often and I don't really go anywhere other than areas that are surrounded by buildings, shops and establishments. I would go to a countryside or park to see a landscape as some parks are very large open areas that not only include a lot of nature but also man-made structures (stalls, small shops, playgrounds, benches, etc.). People sometimes take pictures of the landscapes to memorise these locations and moments in time. They also do it to sometimes capture the beauty of nature and the beauty of how constructed the landscape looks as it takes years and years to mold and form. Photographs can help us change the way we see the world and the natural landscapes in it through the power of capturing the moment. Nature has moments in time where it looks beautiful and some moments that really show the power of the way it changes and moves or the power of storms and sunsets, sunrises, and sunlight in general.
What is a landscape picture?
When I hear the word landscape makes me picture a large open area full of nature and grassland. Or it could be a landscape of a city like a view of a long high street with buildings and shops lining the sides of the street. I could make a list of some words that I could associate with landscape. For example; greenery, nature, calm, new, clean, area, interesting, mellow, light, lively. The kind of pictures that appear when I search for the word landscape are large open areas with lots of nature and greenery. Nearly all of the images are outside shot in large areas and based around nature with no animals or creatures in the photos. Almost surreal like. Personally, my ideal landscape would be a large open area full of green hills with trees lining the small valleys and hilltops with the sun lighting up the clouds turning the sky a lush orange colour as a flock of birds fly through the sky past the shot. I see a large area of greenery with buildings on the skyline lit up by the sun high in the sky. I have never taken a landscape picture before and I am looking forward to it as I have a few ideas in my head for starters.
These are some photos that I associate with the word landscape.
These are some photos that I associate with the word landscape.
Landscape Pictures: Personal Response
*These photos are all taken within school grounds within school hours. ((10) - number of photos)*
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Dafna Talmor Research
Dafna Talmor is a constructive visual photographer taking pictures of multiple landscapes and melting them into one. Her landscape photography is much more abstract and different from the general standards of normal landscape photography. It doesn't look like the natural wide shot of an openly large area full of nature, urban areas or big fields, not a mashed up jumbled picture that looks like it makes no sense. Most of her work consists of this and will have sometimes, barely any variety between each photo except for the jumble of burnt looking lines streaking across the image. Some photos have distinguishable features, for instance, there can be a persons face and a waterfront seen in the middle photo of the triplet collection to the right. The left photo could be seen as another waterfront but lined with rock faces and pools of sand jagging across them. These two pieces of work produced by her, bring me a vibe / mood of an unsatisfactory feeling as for me, they don't seem 'completed'. They seem like they miss something or the gaps of void in the photos look like they could contain so much more. They really create a sense of unreality as they don't look so obviously like they were once real pictures.
The images of Dafna Talmor really influenced me to take more urbanised utopian landscape photos of my city, borough or area. Dafna Talmor inspired me to introduce some abstractivity into my work on Dafna Talmor. For instance, taking two or more photos of a landscape picture and collaging them together to create a more inspired photo that resembles toward her work. From Dafna Talmor's film on her work, I took away the fact she is always worried on whether it be perfect or not. You can always take a good or "perfect" picture, but there will always be another that will be better than it so there is no "perfect" photo. My one slide I was not very proud of as I used two seperate slides to make it, I had no markings or colour variation within them, all I'd done was cut some key parts out and stick them together.
Landscape Pictures: Personal Rendition
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The Idea of Landscape
It looks like the artist / photographer has chosen to create the landscape on the left using a completely barren area with slight hills each side and a path of rocks leading round an unknown bend at the edge of the photograph. The other artist / photographer has chosen to place a rider and a horse within the photo riding across the photo in a similar arid land as the other photo except this time, with a lot more saturation and natural colour instead of the old yellowish-grey colour. The relationship with the two artists / photographers and their two photos could be that the one on the left could view landscape with no life or subjects within the landscape. Just an open endless area. The other artist decided to make a subject to give the photo more life and decided to give it more saturation to give it a more vibrant presence. In both photographs the artists / photographers have decided to give it a straight on ground view vantage point to give a POV view of the artists / photographers. Depending on how you view the landscape, you can either be quite distant from it (focusing on the background of the photo) or close (focusing on the foreground of the photo). The artist / photographer on the left has chosen to give us a surreal mood by removing all life and any kind of clear signs from the image. The idea of a subliminal empty landscape can toy with our feelings and pull us between feeling safe because there are no immediate threats or any views that can create fear, but, there is a fear of the unknown present in the photo as the corner at the edge around the bend could produce anything ranging from the best possible thing imaginable or the worst thing from your nightmares. The other photo can also be presented to us as hopeful or peaceful as the horse and horse rider looks calm. But, it can also present fear as whatever the rider is heading towards could, again, range from the best thing imaginable and the worst thing imaginable. The mood of the image is quite mixed as both the landscape and mood of the horse and rider can vary from however which way you view the image / outcome of our viewpoint changing to the subject / place that the horse is heading towards.
Bad Landscapes: Personal Response
These photos are my own rendition of what a bad landscape photo looks like. I have read the rules of creating a "good" landscape photo and completely thrown them out the window and did the complete opposite of them to show any photographers that view these images how not to take a landscape photo.
Taking these "wrong" photos felt odd but also felt understandable as well. They could all have a hidden meaning behind them maybe representing the artists feelings as their life could be 'out of focus' or 'upside down' and the photos that are taken with an object in front of the camera could suggest that they feel like they are being blocked by something or they could be looking through a sort of object imprisoning them and stopping them from taking the perfect shot. The photographs to me don't look all 'wrong'. As I said before, they all could mean something and they all suggest an 'out of focus' viewpoint as they all present the possible chaos of the artist as they could feel confused and don't know where to look so they take their photos in a 'wrong' way. I would use other objects that aren't part of the landscape / already there and I would move around views and angles to present the messiness of the photos.
Constructed Landscapes
My own rendition of constructing landscapes by using other landscapes to fill in the gaps. (Abstract and naturalistic)
I did not prefer this idea of constructing landscapes, I did try my best to make the landscapes, as you can see, they are not very good. I took one of the photos I took for a lesson 2 weeks ago and used that. I removed important / foreground aspects of the image and used the landscape outside to fill those holes / cuts in creating a whole new landscape photo. I definitely have room for improvement on these photos. The shapes within the photo are really abstract and a few do not make sense. The two on the ground are opening up holes to consume whatever enters it's territory, maybe even consuming the tree trunks maybe which is why they are not present. The space in these photos is used up quite well in my opinion as the space within the holes and gaps are like I am trying to fill up the empty space with anything, ranging from the ground to the sky to the poles and benches in the surrounding area. There are many words I can use to describe / associate with in these photos, for example; surreal, strange, trivial, unimaginable, resentful, bold contrasting with subtle. These words already show that these images are not the 'normal' rendition of a landscape photograph, they've been changed, moved around and cut out. They stand out. These 6 photos could remind me of a hole that needs filling, like an empty chasm that is searching for a perfect object / background to fill it. Almost nothing except what originally took the holes place seems 'perfect' or 'right'. It's almost a little unsettling to know that all the backgrounds filling the cut out shapes aren't 'supposed to be there'. The main interests of these photos would be the landscapes filling the holes / chasms / cuts in the images but I feel you need to pay attention to where the holes are and why they are there. They could be random, they could be places specifically, they could be placed there for a purpose, to represent something, a state of mind? An emotion? Anything. Other than all of that, I would personally re-take the photos, my rendition I felt was quite bad. I could definitely improve.
Dionne Lee's Constructed Landscape
Personally, the video is a bit strange towards most viewers as it doesn't seem explicit of what they are doing or how she is doing it. I feel like she is randomly ripping and cutting pictures and moving them around, sometimes conjoining them with each other. If that's not the case, I don't know what she is doing. She looks like she is using her hands to rip the paper or using scissors then using her hands. She is supposedly using magazines or separate pictures that came out of a photography book? Possibly, she could be taking some of those herself but they way she rips and cuts them, doesn't make me believe that she made those pictures. Personally, if those were my pictures, I wouldn't be tearing them apart, moving them with other pictures, then disregarding the product as if it wasn't "finished". She seems to be a bit sparse with her pictures. The photo with the amount of lights in it being unrealistic, the photo of the landscape that looks out of place compared to the rest of the photos gives a surreal, unknown feel throughout her making of. Her way of making those "landscape" photo is a bit sporadic and doesn't look planned out. She is using her common sense of picking up random photos and pin pointing ones that fit with each other and making it happen. Sometimes, it looks like she puts two and two together, but then rewinds and puts a different two together. Almost like she is subconsciously making small irrational decisions to change her work drastically.
This is a collection of images created on our project following in Donne Lee's footsteps at Constructed Landscapes. This is also a timelapse video of how we made two of our renowned pieces.
Blurred Images Research
Throughout this research section, I will be looking at a photographer named Hiroshi Sugimoto. He has a large variety of images ranging from portrait colourful photos to landscape, blurred photos. I will be focusing on blurred landscape images. Found below will be 4 of Sugimoto's blurred images.
These 4 images are all quite good representations of blurred landscape images. Unfortunately, non of them have colour and so do not produce the lights like we would normally see in a blurred image. I do feel like these 4 images bring out colour themselves without actually having colour in them. Even though they are all black and white, the colour can still be seen through it as it is out of focus and allows us to use our imagination to fill in the gaps. Interestingly, the out of focus shots look like they have a story, almost as if they are transporting us visually back in time to view these images but not as clearly. Almost as if we are looking through someone else’s eyes. I find that the "Church of Light" image is my personal favourite due to the fact it is very different compared to the rest. The other images focus on blurring the entirety of the image and disregarding the light (mostly), but, the "Church of Light" image really 'focuses' on the light, Not literally, but metaphorically, it looks like the light is the main focus of the image as it is clearly seen as a light, but we're not sure the source of it (being either an artificial light or a natural light). The "Chapel of Notre Dame Du Haut" also 'focuses' on the light not literally, as it seems that the only 'thing' you can depict from the image at a first glance is a small spotlight shining on a backdrop with absolutely nothing attached near, around or on the backdrop. It confuses me why he has taken this image as there is nothing specifically to take away for me personally as the POV is quite omniscient and not obvious. The location is quite obvious as it is the title of the image, but, the rest of it seems mysterious and quite looming, as if lost.
Personally, this image to the right is my favourite out of the four displayed above. The real uncanny atmosphere presented by this image gives me a proper sense of possible mysteriousness. The light could possibly be a representation of a higher being as the name of the photo is "The church of light" which could give it away possibly. The representing image produced here can tell us that this could be a POV from someone who has entered that church for the first time. It feels like a new experience and the blurred image really amplifies that by suggesting that this new experience could be confusing and quite the opposite of a linear straightforward photo.
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Pictus Interruptus
The landscapes look and feel really obscured and obviously made to look like the photographer has no idea on what kind of picture they are taking. Almost as if it's a mix between a basic black and white landscape photo mixed with an abstracting kind of POV. Personally they look like they could be accounted for a constructed landscape. But in reality, they are name "Pictus Interruptus" by Ray K. Metzker. These images have an obsolete feeling to them as you cannot understand what is going on in the image without having to speak to the creator of it or analyse it critically and in depth. Most of these images are taken with a rough undercut surface present and in focus while the interrupting object / person seems to be out of focus to give a real sense of depth throughout them. Even just the name, "Pictus Interruptus" announces the fear of the unknown and possibly represents the uncanniness shown throughout these photos / images. These 12 photos really represent the focus on "interrupting" or blocking the photo from its focus / subject. Personally, the images look clustered and confusing like they represent someones jumbled mind as if they are slowly falling apart being blocked from their certain core memories.
Pictus Interruptus: Personal Response
Shown below, are 12 images inspired by Pictus Interruptus.
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Brea Souders
These six photos really grabbed my interest when examining Brea Souders work. They stood out as abstract and quite original compared to her other work. The first three images almost look unreal on how they are positioned and taken. They feel as if they were hand made by the artist, like they were meant to look like that. Even though all the images are all coincidences on how the Google engine mixed up where the photos should go when creating a 360 degrees panorama, they look surreal and unnatural for the engine to mess up that bad. Like the photographers intended it. Brea Souders took these images off of google maps, refined them and altered them. She took a real interest in the distorted shadows of the original photographers instead of the amazing landscape they were trying to portray which confuses me. Why not take the beautiful area surrounding the photo instead of the photographer's shadow all cut and messed up by the software. The software only makes these mistakes due to it wanting to merge the images that look most natural, when the photographers shadow comes into the mix, the engine gets confused and tries thinking the shadow is, say, part of the sky or rock face and not the photographer. In other cases, it tries removing it the best it can, but fails in doing so also thinking it is part of the picture. These create these mistakes of the shadow being distorted, the ground and sky no being where it is supposed to be, the photograph being obscured slightly, etc. These specific glitches can catch the eye from time to time as it looks unnatural but can also be minimalistic as you don't always see them. Our view on landscapes can be changed and altered by these specific glitches and photos as some people might think these are greats work of arts (Brea Souders) and others might dismiss them and think nothing of it.
Minimalist Landscapes: What Remains
Liz Nelsons piece on abstract landscape photographs really looks mystical and quite obscure / outlandish. On the other hand Geraldo de Barros's piece on landscape photography takes a turn as taking the actual physical prop out of the picture rather than using cardboard / other material to represent the landscape. Even tho Liz's is much more simpler than Geraldo's, I prefer Geraldo's as it actually presents a landscaping rather than representing it using rather odd shapes. The feel of Geraldo's picture makes it feel like the tree is suspended in a motionless void landscape. I would personally not be able to make as abstract of a piece as Liz has, but Geraldo's, I could take an urban area, cut out the buildings and use parts of those buildings to create completely new buildings, therefore creating a completely new urban landscape area. In Geraldo's photo, I would personally remove the couple of gaps that are in-between the branches on occasions. For Liz's, I would add some more unnatural shapes to make up for the empty space in-between the recognisable objects. Some of the techniques I wouldn't us my brain and think too deeply into what I am making and only really outline the most obvious parts of the object in the landscape. I would also make that object be separate parts so it looks more tranquil rather than simple and plain looking. I personally wouldn't use Liz's when creating a landscape, but if I need to, I wouldn't have outlined the ground as so to make the objects / most defining parts look like they are hanging in a white void of nothingness. A landscape void.
This is my response to Minimalist Landscapes. How I made this was using 1 sheet of plain white paper and 1 cardboard black sheet. I used rough edge scissors to cut out random lines and shapes to make the minimalistic landscape of a city, plane and moon. I roughly made the shape of a small city and a boat heading underneath a bridge. This piece could almost be depicted as that in the darkness of night and the shadows of the day, both are exactly the same and both feel as minimalist as one another.
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Constructed Landscapes Artists
These three photos are a representation of the unknown and mystery. They all produce an uncanny feeling, as if they are obscuring something obvious. Like the second one is obscuring the ground blocked by the shadow and how it cuts off as if trying to fix itself. The last picture looks the most out of focus as it is a blur of multiple images together as if they are confused on wether it is one image or multiple. The first one has a surreal feeling that the barren lifeless landscape produces. The feeling of unclarity of wether the place in the first picture is an actual place, or a made up digital place constructed by the photographer. It gives the feeling of having no place to go, as though its infinite but has a finite attention to detail. Most times, when a person looks for a landscape picture, I would expect them not to look at the middle or far right image as they are not the exact definition of a "landscape". The far left picture could be used as a "normal" landscape photograph due to the presence of a wide open area taken in a wider shot than a portrait, but, the other two can also be classified as a landscape photo. This is due to the fact that even though the middle shot is of someones upper half as a shadow on a rock face, it is still a landscape as it is taken in landscape fashion. The far right is also part of the "landscapes" category as it is an obscured abstract landscape. Someone has taken a photograph of a landscape, obscured the focus with an object and then edited said photo with an image editing software and changed colours, design / effects and the orientation of the image.
Personal Response: Constructed Landscapes
These few gallery images are my experiments during my personal response to Constructed Landscapes which inspired my final piece and how to structure my Online Gallery.
The image presented to the right is one of my favourite pieces made throughout my final response. The way the silhouette holds the ball of light gives a symbolic affect on the image. The vibrant bright colours really bring out the defined edges of the rays of light and the persons shadow. The way that the colours and rays fall underneath the shadow shows the dedication put into the piece of work. All of the different bright colours makes a sort of mosaic feeling. The light orb in the top middle gives a spiritual feeling like the person below is either praying to the higher entity above as if they are ruled by said orb. The different colours could also represent the emotions that the person is presenting. These could range from; red being anger and purple being love, teal being calmness and yellow being joy etc. This piece is one of my most developed pieces by far compared to all of the other ones due to the fact that I had a set idea and actually had and end focus to present the piece.
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The following images below are the original image and the production of the final product. The thought process of making the shadow seem like it was on the top most layer even though it was the bottom most layer shows how I played with depth. I took the ingenuity and inspiration from the black hole image as I also used depth there. Additionally I made a completely solid coloured version of the image to have a perspective of how that would turn out and I am very pleased by it.
The image shown here is also one of my favourites, not because of how good the image looks, but because of meaning behind the image. The giant splashes of sky seemingly seeping in through the blurred image. Almost as if the image is being restored to its former glory. The segments of the Eiffel Tower being blurred and black and white and some being fully coloured and focused shows the contrast and contradiction of one another. The bushes and trees sprouting from the bottom of the image show new life and present a sort of refreshing feeling. How the focused coloured segments of the tower suddenly cut off could show that whatever is restoring the image is making quick rushed work as if they have maybe "accidentally" collided the two realities forming one conjoined one.
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These are the two images produced while working on the final product.
This photograph named "The Orb" also represents a kind of spiritual mosaic piece also with the focus on the white orb at the "centre" of the photo. This picture has more of a pretence that the person has captured the orb and the light of other dimensions are seeping into reality as if that orb holds it all together. The slight filter covering the person could be the orb absorbing said person as the uneasy feeling of fight or flight is presented here. The mosaic feeling comes from the two vibrant colours of purple and red giving off a very alerting look as they aren't really associated with the picture whatsoever. They give a very in your face, miss-placed look as if they weren't meant to be there. This work would be my 3rd most favourite.
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These are the few images created when finitely finishing the final image shown above.