This is our final Unit for Year 2 on the photography degree at Manchester Metropolitan University. The title of this unit is 'Exhibit In The City', which in-tales the year being split into even groups and curating an exhibition between your individual group, which we have to do all the planning for.
The point of this unit is to refine our photographic practice, teamwork and networking skills. We have to collaborate between our group to decide on all the different parts of an exhibition including the theme, location, fundraising, publicity and more. This will improve our collaborating skills extensively and thus improve our abilities to work in large groups in the future, which is very likely when going into the professional working place. Exhibiting work will also improve my skills at producing work that uses the gallery space creatively, and thus make it intriguing to visitors. As well as our final pieces being showcased in the exhibition, they also need to be adapted to fit a book style format, which will go along our sketchbooks/blogs at our final submission. This also poses some interesting questions on how I will showcase my final outcome of work in both the exhibition and book format as these two are very different from each other.
Our project brief for our Exhibition is- 'What is Photography?', this calls us to research, investigate and speculate the many definitions that photography might take and the varied ways, in which the photographic image is produced, consumed and distributed in contemporary society. Also we should consider how new imaging technologies might contribute to the discussion and how photography might be thought about in the future. The brief is an invitation to think about how the photographic images function, how the subtly act on us in their different formats.
So when our group is deciding our theme and title for our exhibition, we need to bare in mind how it will be connected to the 'What is Photography?' brief. Furthermore, when I am responding my personal work to our groups theme and title I also need to think about how I'm connecting my idea with the brief.
Exhibition Group
After talking with my exhibition group we decided that our theme should be 'Culture and Society', this is because everyone has a different style of photography including fashion, documentary and others, but everyones individual practice can fit somewhere under this theme. Furthermore our theme of culture and society can be explored under the brief of 'What is Photography?', because we all believe that photography is intrinsically linked towards culture and society, which means our theme and the brief go hand in hand. Also because our theme is quite broad, it means we all have a good chance of being able to apply ourselves towards it, and be able to create our individual work under the same collective ideas.
After deciding the theme with my group I can begin thinking about what idea I am going to follow for my individual work. But I need to bare in mind that we still need to decide the title of our exhibition, which could have a influence on what idea I decide to go with.
Theme: Culture and Society
Ideas
After coming up with the our theme of 'Culture and Society' I have started to come up with different ideas of projects I could do.
First of all, when deciding an idea for an up coming project I try to always look in the news for current stories that I could form a project around, and capture it in a documentary photography medium. This means that my project and resulting photographs should end up being interesting to view because they respond to current story that is happening at the moment, which the public are taking an interest too.
My first proper idea that I came up with and thought could be interesting to follow, was a project that focuses on Islam in England. The first reason behind this was because of ISIS being in the news a lot with the different terrorist acts they were committing in the middle east under Sharia Law, which is a strict version of Islam. This has begun to reflect quite badly on Islam and especially immigration of islamic people to the UK. This idea could also be connected to the up coming general election, as many UK residents may change their vote due to the different immigration standings that the individual parties are taking. I could visit and local Mosque and begin a documentary project, showcasing the peaceful beliefs of Muslims. Some problems I found with this is many Mosques not wanting to take part, and also some prohibiting photography in such a religious place. Another way of showcasing this idea is to follow a Muslim family and document their daily and family lives, which then could represent their peaceful religion, I remembered the work of Adam Patterson which I used for inspiration for this.
Patterson's series was titled, 'Another Lost Child' and followed the life of a man called Jean-claude. It started with Patterson aiming his project on the problem of knife crime within London, but he quickly became friends with Jean- Claude and ended up following him through the changes and development of his life from crime to family.
I think this works as perfect inspiration for my idea of following a Muslim family, in a documentary fashion.
The projects I have talked about also respond very well to my theme of Culture and society, because it will document how different cultures come together and join into a mixed society.
Another idea I had which follows on with the religious theme of my last was a documentary photography project that looks into how a church, or multiple churches connect with the local community. Again this mixes ideas of culture and society together very well. Another good reason to do this, is that the Easter holiday is approaching so it would be a good time to document how different churches celebrate this time. I could go deeper with my idea, and document how the specific churches support and help the local community, thus show how they mix the religious and general societies. This idea responds well to my theme, but apart from the date there isn't anything in the news which makes this specific project current and thus interesting. Something I could do, is mix both ideas I have to document how different religions infiltrate and mix British society, which could be make for an interesting comparison. Again like my first idea, I would capture this in a documentary manner but capturing portraits, candid and close up photographs of the religious surroundings to give a full picture of the Christian community. Both my ideas are documentary because this is the photographic practice I'm most interested in, so naturally my ideas revolve around it. A photographer who's work could inspire this project is Rineke Dijkstra, a dutch photographer working in Amsterdam.
I think the last potential project I have discussed could be quite portraiture based, and could be heavily influenced by the work of Rineke Dijkstra who's work can be seen to the left.
I think her portraits really capture the viewers attention in a way which makes you feel like you can't look away until you've studied all the details of the images. This technique I feel makes for some great portraits.
I think if I were to base my project on Christian churches, I would definitely use her as one of my main influence when capturing my portraits of the series to go along side my other images.
My exhibtion group is going to get together at the end of this week to talk about where we are going to hold the exhibition and also the name and proposal of it. The title of the exhibition could change what idea I decide to follow.
First of all, when deciding an idea for an up coming project I try to always look in the news for current stories that I could form a project around, and capture it in a documentary photography medium. This means that my project and resulting photographs should end up being interesting to view because they respond to current story that is happening at the moment, which the public are taking an interest too.
My first proper idea that I came up with and thought could be interesting to follow, was a project that focuses on Islam in England. The first reason behind this was because of ISIS being in the news a lot with the different terrorist acts they were committing in the middle east under Sharia Law, which is a strict version of Islam. This has begun to reflect quite badly on Islam and especially immigration of islamic people to the UK. This idea could also be connected to the up coming general election, as many UK residents may change their vote due to the different immigration standings that the individual parties are taking. I could visit and local Mosque and begin a documentary project, showcasing the peaceful beliefs of Muslims. Some problems I found with this is many Mosques not wanting to take part, and also some prohibiting photography in such a religious place. Another way of showcasing this idea is to follow a Muslim family and document their daily and family lives, which then could represent their peaceful religion, I remembered the work of Adam Patterson which I used for inspiration for this.
Patterson's series was titled, 'Another Lost Child' and followed the life of a man called Jean-claude. It started with Patterson aiming his project on the problem of knife crime within London, but he quickly became friends with Jean- Claude and ended up following him through the changes and development of his life from crime to family.
I think this works as perfect inspiration for my idea of following a Muslim family, in a documentary fashion.
The projects I have talked about also respond very well to my theme of Culture and society, because it will document how different cultures come together and join into a mixed society.
Another idea I had which follows on with the religious theme of my last was a documentary photography project that looks into how a church, or multiple churches connect with the local community. Again this mixes ideas of culture and society together very well. Another good reason to do this, is that the Easter holiday is approaching so it would be a good time to document how different churches celebrate this time. I could go deeper with my idea, and document how the specific churches support and help the local community, thus show how they mix the religious and general societies. This idea responds well to my theme, but apart from the date there isn't anything in the news which makes this specific project current and thus interesting. Something I could do, is mix both ideas I have to document how different religions infiltrate and mix British society, which could be make for an interesting comparison. Again like my first idea, I would capture this in a documentary manner but capturing portraits, candid and close up photographs of the religious surroundings to give a full picture of the Christian community. Both my ideas are documentary because this is the photographic practice I'm most interested in, so naturally my ideas revolve around it. A photographer who's work could inspire this project is Rineke Dijkstra, a dutch photographer working in Amsterdam.
I think the last potential project I have discussed could be quite portraiture based, and could be heavily influenced by the work of Rineke Dijkstra who's work can be seen to the left.
I think her portraits really capture the viewers attention in a way which makes you feel like you can't look away until you've studied all the details of the images. This technique I feel makes for some great portraits.
My exhibtion group is going to get together at the end of this week to talk about where we are going to hold the exhibition and also the name and proposal of it. The title of the exhibition could change what idea I decide to follow.
Exhibition Title/ Name
After our exhibition group came up with the theme of 'Culture and Society', we thought that we should also come up with a name for our exhibition so we all can respond to the name and theme collectively as a group to produce work under this. We felt it was important to have name for our exhibition that also connected to our theme, so they would both work well together to make sure that each individual in our group produces work with similar themes and inclusions.
After much thinking and contemplating it was decided that we would name our exhibition-
After much thinking and contemplating it was decided that we would name our exhibition-
'Products Of Our Environment'
The reason behind this name is that we are all 'products of our environment', thus meaning it mixes with our theme of culture and society well. While also having a catchy ring to it which will make the general public remember it and thus want to visit it.
We have also made a manifesto to go along side our exhibition title, which can be sent to different galleries and organisations to let them know what our exhibition will showcase. This will help us when trying organise to rent some exhibition space, which we still need to sort out. We also have a quote to go along side our own manifesto.
Manifesto:
Our exhibition showcases the products of our environments through the medium of photography. Maybe through our own eyes looking out, maybe through another’s looking in, or maybe through our conditioning. We aim to reflect the cultures and societies that have nurtured us individually, and to investigate how we can be led by the influence of other cultures. Through fashion, documentary and many other mongrel hybrid genres we aim to showcase a plethora of Products Of Our Environment.
"You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?"
W. Clement Stone
Business Man / Philanthropist
After we as a group decided on what our exhibition title should be we also thought that our group should have a collective name that we can fall under. This will help when writing to potential galleries and newspapers, because we can just refer to ourselves as said group instead of always saying we are a group of students from Manchester Metropolitan University. Furthermore this name will help for the making of our website, because we can have the address for it as the name.
We collectively decided that 'Neoteric' would be a good name for our group of students, the reason behind naming it this is its definition: Neoteric- 'belonging to recent times; recent'
This name fits are group well, because we are all upcoming photographers that are creating work that responds to our current culture and society.
Business Man / Philanthropist
After we as a group decided on what our exhibition title should be we also thought that our group should have a collective name that we can fall under. This will help when writing to potential galleries and newspapers, because we can just refer to ourselves as said group instead of always saying we are a group of students from Manchester Metropolitan University. Furthermore this name will help for the making of our website, because we can have the address for it as the name.
We collectively decided that 'Neoteric' would be a good name for our group of students, the reason behind naming it this is its definition: Neoteric- 'belonging to recent times; recent'
This name fits are group well, because we are all upcoming photographers that are creating work that responds to our current culture and society.
Idea Re-Think
After our group decided on titling our exhibition 'Products of our Environment' and keeping our theme as 'culture and society', it has given me different ideas for what I could base my project on. Because of the title we chose, I feel like the first two ideas I came up with which were documentary series on the faith of Islam and Christianity don't fit very well under it so I'm going to think of some different idea's.
New Idea
While looking on the website Vice and watching their documentaries an advert popped up for a documentary called 'The Plastic Age' so I read the article and then watched it.
The Plastic Age is a documentary about how much plastic we create and then how much ends up floating in the sea to be washed up on shores all over the world. They suggest that like we have names such as the Stone Age or Iron Age for different era's, we are now living in the plastic age.
We make roughly 288 million tonnes of plastic a year, and unlike paper, metal, glass or wood it doesn't biodegrade, instead it ends up in our oceans, making the ratio of plastic the plankton 100:1.
There is even an area in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch thought to be the size of Texas and made up almost entirely of discarded plastic. Over the last 50 years, an estimated 300 million tonnes of plastic has ended up in the sea, and has worked its way up the food chain, ultimately into the blood of humankind. Due to fish eating the stuff and so forth until we eat the fish.
The documentary takes you through all of these facts and then shows you what Bionic Yarn is doing to counter this problem. Pharrell Williams is the creative directer at Bionic Yarn, a company that turns this waste plastic into fibres and then makes them into clothing. This shows how a group of people have taken a global problem such as plastic waste and began thinking of ways they can turn this now useless material back into something useful again.
The documentary can be found below.
This documentary really got me thinking about how much waste we create and how we don't think twice about throwing it into the rubbish and thus never consider it again. This made me start to think about basing my project on waste in general, because firstly it fits really well with our theme of 'culture and society' due to it being about our throwaway mentality as a society. And secondly, it fits really well with our exhibition title because I would be directly focusing my project on 'products of our environment'. Furthermore, we currently have a growing problem with how much waste we create which would mean if I based my project on this, it would be very current and thus interesting for a viewer to look at.
After watching this documentary and beginning to think into this idea of a project on 'waste', I've decided to follow it up.
Waste- Elin Hoyland
After deciding that I'm going to base my final project and exhibition on our waste problem, I decided to start googling articles that include photographers who have already focused their own practise on this. What came up was an article on Elin Hoyland and her photographic project in the Maldives.
The Maldives are an archipelago of 1,192 islands in the Indian Ocean, grouped into 26 atolls. Tourism is the country's most important source of income. The country has a population of 270,000. But last year 650,000 tourists visited the islands, but each of them produces
Rubbish is shipped in daily to Thilafushi where it is sorted and sent to different zones around the islands. The authorities turned Thilafushi into a rubbish island at the beginning of the 90s because they could not cope with the ever-growing quantity of trash form tourists
Elin Hoyland is a Norwegian photographer based in Oslo, and focuses her work in a documentary/ portraiture format. Many of her recent projects focus on the slow and steady rural lifestyle that is found in many areas of Norway, she captures this through her photojournalist/ photo documentary eye while keeping her gaze fixed on the human aspects of these areas.
About five years ago she travelled to the Maldives to document the growing problem of waste disposal on these tropical islands. Thilafushi which is an island in the Maldives receives hundreds of tonnes of rubbish from the other islands surrounding it each day. Twenty years ago it was an unspilt coral reef, but it is now growing by one square metre every day with rubbish.
She responds to this project in a very photojournalist way, by taking some wide landscape photographs of the area before focusing her lens on the masses of waste there is within the area and the people who's job it is to clear it up.
The Maldives are an archipelago of 1,192 islands in the Indian Ocean, grouped into 26 atolls. Tourism is the country's most important source of income. The country has a population of 270,000. But last year 650,000 tourists visited the islands, but each of them produces
Disposing of plastic water bottles is a big problem on the island which was originally seven kilometres long and 200 metres wide. During its early years, pits were dug. But the volume of rubbish became too great to cover over with sand
The second and third images I have shown out of her series on the island of Thilafushi are my favourite because I think they best show how large the scale of the problem actually is. These images look like alien landscapes and nothing like I have ever seen before, which adds to how ore inspiring they are. I think these two photos have a really nice quality to them because there is high levels of repetition from the colours seen in both and also the objects captured which creates a level of order to the madness of the piles of waste. In the second image she captures a subject in the mist of the waste which gives the viewer a needed reference point to how large-scale the site actual is. The other two images are more of a documentary style compared to the other two which are more like still life, this is needed for her project due to its photo-journalistic nature.
I think her work really captures the viewers attention to the certain waste problem in the Maldives, through the use of well shot images that show how large-scale the problem actually is. Her work provides great inspiration for my project, but I'm not sure how I will capture anything as large-scale as her images, without travelling far away.
Beijing's Waste- Wang Jiuliang
Another photographer I have found and thought I should reflect upon before carrying out my own photographs responding to my title 'Waste', is called Wang Jiuliang.
Jiuliang was born in Anqiu, China in 1976, and graduated from the Communication University of China before working as a freelance photographer based in Beijing. Before completing his series on waste in China, his previous projects focused on Chinese traditions and worshiping gods and spirits. But in the year of 2009 he turned his gaze to the garbage crisis surrounding Beijing, where he visited more than 460 landfills around the city and took 10,000 photographs. He also produced a 76 minute documentary called 'Beijing besieged by Garbage' that received extensive Chinese media coverage. For his project he won a gold award as outstanding artist of the year at the 2009 Lianzhou International Photography Festival. The documentary which I have attached below runs the viewer through Jiuliang's photographic journey of documenting the certain problems with the amount of waste Beijing is creating and how they don't know how to handle it apart from dumping it into one of the hundreds of landfills that surround the city.
Jiuliang was born in Anqiu, China in 1976, and graduated from the Communication University of China before working as a freelance photographer based in Beijing. Before completing his series on waste in China, his previous projects focused on Chinese traditions and worshiping gods and spirits. But in the year of 2009 he turned his gaze to the garbage crisis surrounding Beijing, where he visited more than 460 landfills around the city and took 10,000 photographs. He also produced a 76 minute documentary called 'Beijing besieged by Garbage' that received extensive Chinese media coverage. For his project he won a gold award as outstanding artist of the year at the 2009 Lianzhou International Photography Festival. The documentary which I have attached below runs the viewer through Jiuliang's photographic journey of documenting the certain problems with the amount of waste Beijing is creating and how they don't know how to handle it apart from dumping it into one of the hundreds of landfills that surround the city.
This image above shows the areas that Jiuliang visited on his photographic journey, it also shows how Beijing is surrounded by waste and thus provides the viewer a very visual understanding at how bad this waste problem has got. I think this is a really good way to start off his project, due to it being an easy way to see the scale of the problem.
The first and third images show his next photographic technique which show the scale of the problem. He produced large format landscape photographs of all the land fills surrounding Beijing, because this gives the viewer a good sense of the scale. The reason large format cameras work well is that they capture high levels of detail due to the large format. He took these landscape images on a tripod so he could capture these scenes using a high f/stop number which then gives the image a large depth of field meaning everything in focus from the fore to the background. I think I will have to remember this technique of using a high f/stop number for when it comes to my images.
Like the second image shows in this group of three he also captures images of a much closer scene, this helps to increase the idea of the impact this waste is having on a smaller scale, but when put along side the landscape images this shows the total affect of Beijings waste problem.
Wang Jiuliang used different techniques including documentary, google maps, large format landscapes and close ups to portray to the viewer the problems that Beijing is facing with its waste management. I think his images like Hoyland's who photographed the Maldives are really ore-inspiring and work well as visual information for waste problems.
The idea of Beijing being surrounded by waste and landfills began my thinking about my home city of Coventry, and whether it had anything compareable to the likes of Beijing. One can imagine waste being a problem in far away countries such as Beijing or the Maldives but I wonder what its like in England. I will use these two photographers as the first inspiration for my project that focuses on waste within England.
Waste in the UK
After looking at the works of Elin Hoyland and Wang Juiliang who have produced photographic documentary series on waste in the Maldives and Beijing, it got me thinking if these kinds of sights that they photographed are possible to see in the UK. Because one cant imagine what the waste management program of foreign countries are so it makes sense that these photos of huge amounts of waste are found there, but we could never imagine this being the case in the UK.
I began looking into facts and figures of the UK's growing waste problem, to get an idea of scale before responding to my project outline in a photographic manner.
Go Green report that household waste in the UK is becoming and increasing problem, with people throwing out over 1.07 tonnes of waste per household every year, of which 403kg is recycled. Per person, 473kg of household rubbish is thrown out and 173kg recycled per year. The average amount we through away per household each year is the equivalent to the weight of a small family car. More than 27 million tonnes of waste is thrown into landfills across the UK each year. Whereas in Germany, which has a population that is 25% larger than the UK just 10 million tonnes are thrown away each year. Furthermore, according to a BBC report landfill space in the UK is 109 square miles which is roughly the size of Warwick and increasing each year.
Looking at the facts and figures its obvious that the UK has a problem with recycling. I believe that much of our society does not consider where they're waste of any type ends up after they throw it away, this connects with us having a 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality. The problem with these figures is that many people need visual information such as photographs to grasp the scale of the problem, because it is proven that images are a much quicker way of getting information into the brain. Also this point connects well with the 'What is photography?' part of my project because it can be said that photography is a very effective way of getting quick information into the brain, such as the scale of our waste problem. These points show that creating images that reflect and show our scale of waste in the UK will help in educating people to consider what they throw away, and that it will end up somewhere. This is because a lot of people feel they don't have time to read about certain problems, whereas visual information can impact them a lot faster and thus educates them without them knowing.
This means that my project on waste will hope to be used as visual information for the public of UK on how bad out waste problem is, and to consider where an object will end up when you throw it out.
I began looking into facts and figures of the UK's growing waste problem, to get an idea of scale before responding to my project outline in a photographic manner.
Go Green report that household waste in the UK is becoming and increasing problem, with people throwing out over 1.07 tonnes of waste per household every year, of which 403kg is recycled. Per person, 473kg of household rubbish is thrown out and 173kg recycled per year. The average amount we through away per household each year is the equivalent to the weight of a small family car. More than 27 million tonnes of waste is thrown into landfills across the UK each year. Whereas in Germany, which has a population that is 25% larger than the UK just 10 million tonnes are thrown away each year. Furthermore, according to a BBC report landfill space in the UK is 109 square miles which is roughly the size of Warwick and increasing each year.
Looking at the facts and figures its obvious that the UK has a problem with recycling. I believe that much of our society does not consider where they're waste of any type ends up after they throw it away, this connects with us having a 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality. The problem with these figures is that many people need visual information such as photographs to grasp the scale of the problem, because it is proven that images are a much quicker way of getting information into the brain. Also this point connects well with the 'What is photography?' part of my project because it can be said that photography is a very effective way of getting quick information into the brain, such as the scale of our waste problem. These points show that creating images that reflect and show our scale of waste in the UK will help in educating people to consider what they throw away, and that it will end up somewhere. This is because a lot of people feel they don't have time to read about certain problems, whereas visual information can impact them a lot faster and thus educates them without them knowing.
This means that my project on waste will hope to be used as visual information for the public of UK on how bad out waste problem is, and to consider where an object will end up when you throw it out.
First Shoot
For the start of my project I have taken great inspiration from Wang Jiuliang's 'Beijing Besieged by Garbage', this is due to his use of google maps and pin pointing the land fills around Beijing I think this is a really visual and effective way of starting the project.
I have decided to base my project on waste within the very normal English city of Coventry. The reason for picking this city is its positioning in the UK with it sitting right in the middle, and also its medium sized population. I didn't want to pick a city with a very large population such as London or Manchester because I felt that the city would be too large and take too long to get an idea of the waste problem. Furthermore I have decided to cut down my definition of 'waste' and only look at a few different types which come under the heading of scrap, this allows me to look specifically at this and understand our problem with throwing out things we could potentially recycle.
Like Wang Jiuliang I decided to start my project by going onto google maps and typing in 'scrap coventry', this has then highlighted the different relevant places inside the Coventry area that I can visit. These places are highlighted with red dots, and as you can see, even in a medium sized city there is many dots for the specific term of scrap waste.
After looking on the map I picked a small scrap place to start my project because I thought it would be better to start small and then work my self up to larger places. When I arrived I was really taken back how it was placed within a residential area but surrounded by gates so the public couldn't see inside for safety. This scrapyard was mainly for old or crashed cars, and I was amazed at how many they had in such a small scrapyard in the middle of a normal estate in the centre of Coventry. I began by taking documentary photographs of the scrapyard to get the general size and scale of the site, I do this because I think this is the best technique to show the viewer how big it is. I had to call the scrapyard owner to organise a day to come by which was good for him, but he was quite happy with letting me visit his yard.
This image is interesting because it shows the difference between nature and man-made objects, because of the composition it looks as if nature is struggling to survive and being taken over by man which actually is the case and is thus a perfect image to start my project. On the other side of the tree's are houses which shows how the scrapyard is within the residential area which you wouldn't ever know from just passing the site from the outside.
The images above and below, help to show some of the scale of the site due to the many cars that I have captured in the image. This image also shows how the scars are not even that old, and could probably have been repaired but now they are just sitting gathering dust. These photo's also show a cold and dismal outlook for our waste problem, which is seen in the images being really grey and look lifeless.
I think this image works really well in showing the busyness of a normal scrapyard, this is can be seen through the many different tire marks on the ground. Rule of thirds can also be seen in this image, as it is split evenly up into one third of the sky, one third of the building and one third of the ground. One can also see the England flag in the background which shows the proud heritage and culture the owner has.
These two images above and below, show the randomness of what you can find in these places such as a stack of tires or old engines from cars. I prefer the image below because it gives you a better sense of scale, and also the old metal sheets on the floor make an interesting composition.
This is the first image the viewer can see which shows how close to residential houses this site actually is, this reflects our 'out of sight, out of mind' culture. Because we don't think about where our waste will end up, and because we cant see it we don't ever consider it again, but these places are all around our city.
This image shows a strong value with heritage and culture, with the England flag taking up the centre of the little workshop. This place is very small and privately owned which can be seen through the use of these personal items, that probably wouldn't be seen at larger companies.
This image looks interesting through the use of 'faker Mr fish' text, whatever that may mean. I asked the owner about this but he said that the car just arrive with this already on it.
This image again shows the English heritage on the vehicle they use the transport cars around with.
Here you can see more engines and other odd bits of scrap lying around underneath of a car on a jack. The letter 'A' is used to know which cars they need to put up on these things which allows them to get to the underside of the car.
These two images use levels of repetition, and show how the scrapyard is organised into different areas. So even though to an outsider it looks completely random, when you get closer and begin documenting the yard you see that it has actually been organised in this way.
This image further shows what random objects you can find in this place, because they don't really know what might come through the door next. This can be seen with the randomness of the car seat on top of the car.
This shows how they transport the cars/ objects to and from the yard, as you can see this is an always changing environment with cars coming in and out. This juxtaposes the idea of a scrapyard because even though the cars have reached the end of their life, the yard is alive and always changing.
This shows a nodding dog wearing an English flag, which furthermore shows how proud the owner is of his heritage and culture.
These images were my favourite that I took to start my waste project. I think documenting this place was the best way to start my project because it has given me a good idea of what to expect in one of these small scrapyards. Its also made me start thinking about re-visiting this sight to photograph some of the scrap closer up.
Second Shoot
My first shoot worked really well to show me what one of these places is like, and to give me a feel off what there is to photograph. The documentary technique I used was one that Hoyland and Jiuliang used in their projects to show the viewer the scale of the problem.
In this first image it looks like the whole world is covered in this yellow plastic boxes, and works really well at showing the viewer the scale of the problem.
Again in the image seen below, all the viewer can see is plastic bottles and no ground. Because the viewer can't see any ground they cannot place themselves within the image which further increases the scale of the waste problem to them.
While looking through Hoylands images again, it clicked that what makes her images look so ore-inspiring is how she makes it so you can only see multiples of one object. This makes it look like the whole space is taken up by this waste. The images that I am talking about are found below.
Again in the image seen below, all the viewer can see is plastic bottles and no ground. Because the viewer can't see any ground they cannot place themselves within the image which further increases the scale of the waste problem to them.
The images I produced in the first shoot of my project on waste work well to show what a scrapyard is like inside and the general scale of the problem, but I haven't used any of the techniques Hoyland has used to increase the look of the problem, which results in a more impacting photograph.
Thats why I have revisited the same scrap yard as before and took another set of photographs, but while using Hoyland's techniques as inspiration. My favourite images from the shoot are found below.
I think this image works well in showing the repetition of a certain type of object, in this case its car engines. And in the background of the image you still get a sense of scale due to the wheels and barrels. Also I like the random affect all of these engines create when pictured like this. Even though the viewer gets a sense of scale he cant place himself in the image because I haven't captured the floor in the photograph.
This image is my favourite from this shoot because I like how it captures the houses in the background which reminds the viewer of how this is all captured in a residential area, while also captured the mass of engines and cars which shows how our scale of waste well. Again like above, the viewer can't place himself in the image, but gets a sense of scale from the size of cars.
These two images above and below show where I have gone in closer to the car engines, which results in them taking up more of the frame. I think they look really good because of all the different lines and curves that can be seen within them. These could look really good blown up large when printed, because it would allow the viewer to study all the different details in them. I just wish that I used a large f/stop so there was a greater depth of field aka more of the image was in focus, this would then allow you to study the whole image in focus. But I really like the image below, because of the little details of yellow in the mass of black and grey colours.
The images above and below, further capture the randomness of all the crap to suggest to the viewer how much of it there is. This has been carried out through them not being able to see any sky, they can only see waste in the image.
These two images above and below show further how the scrapyard is split into different sections depending on the material of the object, this helps the viewer see how its managed. I think both images work well but I prefer the photo of the tires, due to its simplicity.
I think this shoot was successful in using Hoyland's techniques to increase the scale of the waste in the viewers eyes. The problem with improving on this is that because its a small scale scrapyard its impossible to capture the kind of scale Hoyland has in her images where there is only multiples of one object and the sky visible. I think to get these kind of results I will have to find a larger scrapyard. On the other hand, I really like the close up images of the engines because there is so much to study and look at. I think I might do one more shoot in this scrapyard and capture macro photographs of the waste, which could be a good development to go down for potential final pieces.
Ansel Adams
While looking for new inspiration for my project on 'Waste' I stumbled upon Ansel Adams still life nature work and it got me thinking about using his techniques in my own project.
Ansel Adams is arguably the most famous landscape photographer who ever lived, he was an American photographer and environmentalist, which thus gave him a keen eye for representing nature in his work. His black and white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park have been widely reproduced and are well known throughout the world.
Adams help develop the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterised his images. He mostly used large-format cameras because of the their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his image, this is similar to Wang Juiliangs techniques which I previously noted.
Along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston, Adams founded the photography Group f/64. This group was created in the 20th century on an invite only bases, their style was creating images which are sharp-focused and carefully framed with a large depth of field. These photographers all created images that were primarily landscape or still life black and white images of nature.
Apart from taking inspiration from Adams amazing compositions and print technicality I have researched into him for some of his specific pieces. I am looking at in detail for inspiration from his images that can be seen in Intimate Nature: Ansel Adams and the Close View, these represent an under recognised and rarely examined aspect of Adams long career, in particular his study of the intimate details of nature through the close view of his camera. He focuses his lens on the form and surface of the natural worlds small details, even though these images aren't as captivating as his Yosemite series they are still strong and powerful in their own light. In these images he captures nature on a more human scale, getting very up close to the nature he captures. When photographing something in more detail a lot closer up, it begins to look more like other objects on the earth. And one can begin to see different patterns and lines, that make the photographs really visually interesting.
I feel that I could do the same in my own work on waste, by capturing the small details of the waste in the first small scrapyard that I have visited. These objects should look very different up close than they did from afar, this will turn these useless scrap objects into more still life/ sculptor objects. Even though Ansel Adams produced photographs that studied solely on nature, I think that I will be able to use his close up techniques on my photographs of man-made waste to the same affect for the viewer.
Ansel Adams is arguably the most famous landscape photographer who ever lived, he was an American photographer and environmentalist, which thus gave him a keen eye for representing nature in his work. His black and white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park have been widely reproduced and are well known throughout the world.
Adams help develop the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterised his images. He mostly used large-format cameras because of the their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his image, this is similar to Wang Juiliangs techniques which I previously noted.
Along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston, Adams founded the photography Group f/64. This group was created in the 20th century on an invite only bases, their style was creating images which are sharp-focused and carefully framed with a large depth of field. These photographers all created images that were primarily landscape or still life black and white images of nature.
Apart from taking inspiration from Adams amazing compositions and print technicality I have researched into him for some of his specific pieces. I am looking at in detail for inspiration from his images that can be seen in Intimate Nature: Ansel Adams and the Close View, these represent an under recognised and rarely examined aspect of Adams long career, in particular his study of the intimate details of nature through the close view of his camera. He focuses his lens on the form and surface of the natural worlds small details, even though these images aren't as captivating as his Yosemite series they are still strong and powerful in their own light. In these images he captures nature on a more human scale, getting very up close to the nature he captures. When photographing something in more detail a lot closer up, it begins to look more like other objects on the earth. And one can begin to see different patterns and lines, that make the photographs really visually interesting. 
I feel that I could do the same in my own work on waste, by capturing the small details of the waste in the first small scrapyard that I have visited. These objects should look very different up close than they did from afar, this will turn these useless scrap objects into more still life/ sculptor objects. Even though Ansel Adams produced photographs that studied solely on nature, I think that I will be able to use his close up techniques on my photographs of man-made waste to the same affect for the viewer.
Third Shoot
After researching into the work of Ansel Adams, in particular his images that capture close up details of nature, I've decided to use this as inspiration for my next development of images. I went back to the scrapyard in Coventry and produced this series of images which use a more still life kind of technique to show waste in a way that I haven't shown before. Hopefully it kind of turns this waste into something new and interesting which juxtaposes how useless it actually is. My favourite images from this development are shown below
This image works really well because the viewer doesn't really have any idea what its actually representing which makes them study the image for longer. I also like the clarity I have shown, which makes even the fine details of the engine show though. This clarity gives the image a nice tactility and appeal to touch from the viewer.
This image is a little different from the first because first of all you can tell what its capturing, and also there is a lot more going on due to me standing a little further back when taking the image. I have still used a high numbered f/stop, which allows the depth of focus to be wide and thus everything is in focus. I think this image would work really well printed off large, because the viewer could get up close to study every part of the image in depth.
I think compared to the first two images, these two above and below don't work as well. This is because the actual engines themselves are not as dark/oily which makes the colours look a little washed out and not as tonal. Also the image above isn't in focus throughout, which makes the overall composition less impacting.
I like this image because like my first one, it shows a part of an engine that you wouldn't recognise, so it means the viewer doesn't have any idea what they are looking at without some context to help them. Also the orange and brown colours add some vibrance to the image, which isn't seen in the previous ones I have taken.
This image is one of my favourites that I took from this development series, this is due to the objects on the outside of the image being quite large and simple, but with high detailed objects on the centre. This draws the subjects eyes into the centre of the image where the main focus is. Also this image has a nice tonal range with light whites and dark blacks, which makes it more pleasing to view.
The images above and below are another two of my favourites, because of their high levels of contrast between the lights and the darks. Also the image below has a few different sections of vibrant colours, which draws the viewers eye to those particular areas.
Like the first image I talked about this has the same level of detail seen, and thus its created a really nice tactility affect which makes the viewer want to touch the object. Also I think the shapes and lines that are seen and created in this image make it look really unusual and interesting to look at. It also means that the viewer has to guess what they are looking at, and might see completely unrelated objects in the image its self.
These two images where taken of a fan on a car engine, I thought the pattern would look really interesting and abstract if the image was enlarged. Also I love how the fan has been marked and discoloured in places, which creates a really nice imprint pattern, and gives the sense of age to the viewer. I think I prefer the image above because I have captured two wires which go against the manufactured grain, thus giving a little more added detail to the image.
This image is a lot to take in on first glance, which is why I think it would look better if printed out larger, which is the same for many of the other images I have captured on this development. I think it connects really well to the work of Adams because it captures the beauty and difference of all these bolts together. I think the image is more impacting because they are all the same object but in different sizes and conditions, which makes the viewer realise how different each one is even though they all look the same when looking from afar, which is also what Adams shows in his work.
I think this development worked really well in some cases but not so well in others. Some of the images have a really good tonal range with dark blacks and light whites, which definitely makes the image look more appealing. Looking at the images have made me think about potential final images, and possibly printing some close up images of waste really large to make the viewer study it in detail. Printing the images of waste off large might also help them understand the scale of the problem due to the scale of the image.
I think this is the last photoshoot I am going to carry out at this small scrapyard in Coventry because I feel that I have documented it from all different angles and what to photograph a larger place in Coventry that deals with scrap. These three shoots have made me realise that I think still life images may work better for my project and potential final pieces though.
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