Because I was happy with the results of that last shoot with some of them being what I want for my final piece, I've decided to do one final shoot using the same techniques as before but putting the camera on a tripod so I can capture images at f/22. Like I showed in my pervious development the good think about doing this is that you produce as high quality image as possible and everything has a really good tonal range and wide depth of field. This means that everything is in focus and all the colours produce really good contrasts.
This image works really good in a few different ways but then not so much in other. Firstly the f/22 tripod technique has worked well to bring out all the details in the image and also create a very nice tonal affect in the colours and shapes one can see. So everything technically is good about this image, but the problem with it is the background of the image is to close. This means that the viewer can get a sense of the scale of the pile of waste and thus it doesn't impact them enough for what I want.
This image is taken of the same pile of waste as the first but its just in a landscape format. I think the landscape format has worked to show more of the overall size of the scrap pile, which means that to a viewer the pile looks a lot bigger. But even though I like the colours and shapes this image creates, the background is still to close to the camera, which means even though the viewer can see that the pile is tall, they don't get to see how far the waste continues for which does minimise the impact created.
Again this photograph is taken of the same pile of waste as the first two images, but taken from a different angle and using a different composition. As you can see, the problems that I have talked about in the first two images aren't seen as much in this instance. Because the foreground objects are a lot closer than the background objects, the viewer gets the sense of a much large scale of waste, thus impacting them more. Also one can see household items in the pile such as a dishwasher, which thus connects themselves to the waste, and makes them feel partially responsible for its creation. I want the viewer to connect themselves to the waste because thats the only way they might think about where the objects they throw away will end up and how bad that is for the environment.
I have re-captured this same scene from the last shoot I did. The reason I have re-photographed it was because it gave the exact effect I was looking for the first time I photographed it. The reason it did this was because it shows a large landscape of waste and the image falls far back, which makes the mass of waste look really big. This is the effect I'm looking for because it will make the viewer think about how big the impact of waste is on the environment. Also in this image the viewer can see household items that they are used to seeing which will make them connect the waste to themselves and should make them feel partially responsible for creating it.
Here, I have captured the same scene as above but just using a portrait format which shows more of the foreground and background. I think this portrait format could work well but I am not as found of the composition here as the image above. The reason for this is that the viewer is able to place themselves in the image which will make it feel to them that the amount of waste is a lot less, thus making the impact feel less.
The problems I had with the image above have been addressed in this image because one can see very little of the foreground and the viewer is focused mainly on the huge piles of waste and the amount of discarded items they can see. I love the tones and shapes this, like all images which capture this scene, create. I also like the fact that it is mainly white but one can see glimpses of colour.
This image I think is my favourite from the whole series. The reason for this is because it shows large depth of waste, which impacts the viewer and makes them realise how big this problem actually is. Also, again they can see the household items that makes them re-connect with this waste being partially responsible to them like it is everyone. Another element I like in this image is the fact that the water in the foreground means that the viewer can't place themselves in the picture and thus makes them feel uneasy and throws them off, which I think works well to make the images wasteful effect impact them more. Furthermore I love that in the foreground it looks like there are two logs partially submerged in the water, but on closer inspection one can see that they are in fact steel pipes. I think everything about this image makes the viewer think of a natural landscape image but with a worryingly man made reality. I think this image does well in highlighting to the viewer the problem with out consumption and thus wasteful nature, and shows the viewer the harmful affect we are having on the environment.
This image is clearely capturing the same waste pile as before but I have moved the angle of the tripod to capture a different side of the pile. This image doesn't impact the viewer as much because one can't see the same scale as before, because the background doesn't fall far enough away. Even though the viewer can appreciate that is large, they don't know how big it actually is. I do really like the affect the water gives in this image because its just about the most natural think in this man-made picture. Also if one compares it to the first images I took of this pile on my last shoot, they can realise how much this pile of waste has changed, which represents the fact that is actually alive and always changing.
Even though I think this image would work well as support work, due to its nice tonal affect and the scale of the waste, I have captured too much of the foreground which means that the actual landscape looks quite flat and not as large as the scenes that are above this image.
These images above and below, show the same kind of problem as the image above this one. Because even though these images shows a huge pile of waste that is taken well to show all the different details and shapes, the pile itself still doesn't look big enough. The viewer can only see the front side of the pile and not how far back it goes, so they can see that it is tall but not its full scale. I do think these two connect really well to Chris Jordan's images though.
This image is very different to the ones I have shown previously, and I already know that it won't be a final piece option for me. But I thought that I should include it because the viewer probably won't have seen a scene like this before. Also it does connect well to the previous photographs such a Burtynsky that I have discussed. Again because one can just see the height of the waste and not so much the length it doesn't impact the viewer enough.
This image concludes my project. I really like this image because of the water affect, and how you can see that its polluted with the oil, which is then represented by the cars in the background. It's a good image to show the viewer some of the effects of our wasteful nature, but again it doesn't show the same kind of large scale waste as some of the other landscape looking images that I have taken.
These images conclude my 'Waste' photography project which I think has developed photographically and through my idea quite a lot since I started. Through the use of a range of different photographers I believe that I have ended in a position where I have produced a few images that really represent our impact on the environment through the amount of waste we have created really well, and hopefully the viewer will understand this through me including objects in the images that they would recognise from their own household. Also I think its really amazing the kind of scale of waste I was able to photograph and show to the viewer from a scrapyard which was in the centre of Coventry and not classed as anything near the size of a landfill.
After producing images that I am happy represent our wasteful nature to the viewer, and implicate them as partially responsible for creating this man-made waste landscapes, I will now think about how to represent my point to the viewer in my exhibition. I have some images that I think I will use in my exhibition, but I still need to decide how to show case my work which might change the images I decide to use.