For this project I decided to base my theme around nature, i did this purely based on my interest in the natural world and to learn more about taking pictures of places, animals, and plants. However, I decided to make my study a lot more challenging by basing my overall theme to do with Nature Vs. Man made.
I had noticed through my research about manmade disasters such as wars, and natural disasters such as volcanoes, that there is always a cycle of competition between the two. At this rate of development in technology and humans replacing the nature more and more, my question was, “Are the manmade creations, taking over the natural elements?” Which basically means are the new manmade creations slowly taking over the basics of what nature already does for us?
To study this further I separated this question into a few different sections as mini projects. My first mini project was Manmade vs. Nature. For this project i decided to break my sections down into three levels where i studied the strength, creativity and beauty of the natural and manmade things.
Nature has everything; creativity, beauty and strength. For example, the beauty of a view from a mountain looking below is very beautiful; the creation of animals and plants is creativity, and the power to break down great building through storms represents strength. Manmade things also have all these elements within them. For example; creativity is represented through every image taken, as it is taken from a camera, which is manmade, beautiful things are also manmade as they can be building or sculptures, and the strength of great machineries are also visible. From this i had learnt that nature and man are always in a continuous battle with each other, and there is no real winner, and you need both nature and man to create the best photograph.
I had noticed through my research about manmade disasters such as wars, and natural disasters such as volcanoes, that there is always a cycle of competition between the two. At this rate of development in technology and humans replacing the nature more and more, my question was, “Are the manmade creations, taking over the natural elements?” Which basically means are the new manmade creations slowly taking over the basics of what nature already does for us?
To study this further I separated this question into a few different sections as mini projects. My first mini project was Manmade vs. Nature. For this project i decided to break my sections down into three levels where i studied the strength, creativity and beauty of the natural and manmade things.
Nature has everything; creativity, beauty and strength. For example, the beauty of a view from a mountain looking below is very beautiful; the creation of animals and plants is creativity, and the power to break down great building through storms represents strength. Manmade things also have all these elements within them. For example; creativity is represented through every image taken, as it is taken from a camera, which is manmade, beautiful things are also manmade as they can be building or sculptures, and the strength of great machineries are also visible. From this i had learnt that nature and man are always in a continuous battle with each other, and there is no real winner, and you need both nature and man to create the best photograph.
Creativty
Here i have taken the word creative in literal sense and created London to something i would like to represent it as. This shows man made creativity, because it is something i have created myself with the use of Adobe Photoshop. Hence it being man made. I really like this image becuase of the contrast and the angle of the photograph. I also really like the depth the image has in it, for example the clouds look very heavy and the parliament looks as if it is going to fall over anytime.
Here i feel the creativity is shown through the reflections made by nature. This shows how nature is very creative in the sense that the image it creates looks very attractive and nice to look at.
Beauty
This picture was taken in Capel Curig, Wales. I really like thispictures becuase it give out a sense of beauty really well. This is becuase the photograph is very beautiful to look at, and it makes the person wish that they were also in this place by looking at the pictures. I feel the use of wide lens and also filling the frame proportionally makes the image look very effective. Whereas if the images had low lighting, and were taken without considering the photographic composition.
Strength
Here is a video showing destruction through powerful man made machienery. This is taken from my Sam Taylorwood research response.
this image shows the close up of man made pipe that have been eroded away becuase of the weather's effect on it. However, these things still work and keep doing their job, for example the bolts are still locked together, and the pipes are still proving the house with electricity. I feel that this gives a sense of competition between the man made things and natures effect on them. Coming to a conclusion that the fight is endless.
Research
I had also done a small project called 5 to 50. This is where i took 50 pictures of the same object, in my case a pomegranate, and i chose 5 of my best images. The rule was to not edit these images at all. I feel that i had successfully completed this project and it really helped me plan what to do for my response.
For my research i decided to use a few relevant artists and photographers. The two photographers i looked at briefly were Paul Cezanne and Amanda Vivan. I did this through my critical study of the pomegranate. When i was researching fruits being observed and replicated in 2D with great detail, I thought about looking at Cezanne. This is because for a painter in the 18th century, Cezanne painted very realistic photograph-like pictures. Cezanne is famous for painting his apples, this is because Cézanne looked at apples—and everything else he painted—very closely and carefully. He would study apples, flowerpots, and rumpled tablecloths until he understood them as their basic shapes: spheres, cylinders, and cones. The objects in his paintings are based on these shapes. He made the objects look more real, more three-dimensional, by gradually shifting from one color to another. "I will astonish Paris with an Apple!"- Paul Cezanne I found Amanda Vivan on Flickr... The close ups she takes of fruits, vegetables, and other food look very appealing. Below is some of her work.
The photographer tends to find unique points about the food, and takes a close up of it. For example, she saw the pattern a bunch of bananas make before they are separated from its branch, and she took a picture that was framed perfectly to show off the gradient and smooth texture of the fruit. Another example would be the red chillies, she used the fact that green is reds secondary colour (The colour opposite to another, on the colour wheel) to its advantage. This makes the two colours really stand out and bring the best out of the picture. (The colour wheel opposite this picture demonstrates this.)
As i evaluated the photographer’s style, i realised how she focuses on the colours and detail of her object. This relates to Cezanne's work, where he also painted fruits with very realistic colours and textures.
For my research i decided to use a few relevant artists and photographers. The two photographers i looked at briefly were Paul Cezanne and Amanda Vivan. I did this through my critical study of the pomegranate. When i was researching fruits being observed and replicated in 2D with great detail, I thought about looking at Cezanne. This is because for a painter in the 18th century, Cezanne painted very realistic photograph-like pictures. Cezanne is famous for painting his apples, this is because Cézanne looked at apples—and everything else he painted—very closely and carefully. He would study apples, flowerpots, and rumpled tablecloths until he understood them as their basic shapes: spheres, cylinders, and cones. The objects in his paintings are based on these shapes. He made the objects look more real, more three-dimensional, by gradually shifting from one color to another. "I will astonish Paris with an Apple!"- Paul Cezanne I found Amanda Vivan on Flickr... The close ups she takes of fruits, vegetables, and other food look very appealing. Below is some of her work.
The photographer tends to find unique points about the food, and takes a close up of it. For example, she saw the pattern a bunch of bananas make before they are separated from its branch, and she took a picture that was framed perfectly to show off the gradient and smooth texture of the fruit. Another example would be the red chillies, she used the fact that green is reds secondary colour (The colour opposite to another, on the colour wheel) to its advantage. This makes the two colours really stand out and bring the best out of the picture. (The colour wheel opposite this picture demonstrates this.)
As i evaluated the photographer’s style, i realised how she focuses on the colours and detail of her object. This relates to Cezanne's work, where he also painted fruits with very realistic colours and textures.
My main artist research was of Sam Taylor Wood. Although Taylor-Wood is quite a different type of artist and doesn't take pictures of destruction by or in nature... i found one of her pieces of work very interesting.
This is called "Still Life" I have added this work below. I thought this piece of work was very inspiring as it conveys so many meanings. The fact that there is a pen in the corner, that displays how everything is perfectly fine compared to the decaying nature, is by itself very effective... it gives us a contrast between the man made item and the natural world.
This is called "Still Life" I have added this work below. I thought this piece of work was very inspiring as it conveys so many meanings. The fact that there is a pen in the corner, that displays how everything is perfectly fine compared to the decaying nature, is by itself very effective... it gives us a contrast between the man made item and the natural world.
Even though this artwork contradicts my idea behind nature being stronger than manmade objects... it is very helpful to see the contrasting views and base my work around that. Below are a few movies that i created as a draft idea of what i would like to look at. These are all still images that i made a movie out of, using Final Cut Pro.
The reason behind doing this is to build up a library of images and movies that would help me decide on what i want to do with my final idea. So far, i have thought about creating a small slide show of the different small impacts our word goes through... going close up deep into the cracks, then slowly building up to show an image with lots of destruction going on.
The reason behind doing this is to build up a library of images and movies that would help me decide on what i want to do with my final idea. So far, i have thought about creating a small slide show of the different small impacts our word goes through... going close up deep into the cracks, then slowly building up to show an image with lots of destruction going on.
I also looked at some research on the natural disasters and looked at some articles as well as dates. This shows how natural impacts on Earth are seen as disasters rather than just impacts. To me, that suggests that the manmade objects can be destroyed and wiped out in seconds, if nature wanted to… and we cannot underestimate its power. No matter how much we try and build more houses over something that used to be a forest, nature, in a different form can come back and always take over again.
Response
This image made me realise the contrast between nature and the man made things. For example, the grey concrete and metal spoon made the coloured pomegranate stand out really well. This took me to the next part of my study, where i decided to have a comparison between natural and manmade things, and i did this with the use of models.
I did this because humans are very natural things, and they come under the main elements in nature. By studying humans i was sure to stay on topic by looking at the main element of nature and then comparing it with manmade creations.
As humans were used as a resource for nature, i decided to use the effects of their environment that other people create for us such as how we have to look, and act as a study for manmade.
For this i looked at two different sections; Physical changes in humans, and use of digital manipulation.
Based on physical changes i made quite a lot of mini projects such as make up and anorexia. This is as explained below.
For this section i also decided to make a flick book as part of some primary research, where i asked a few people to pick the nose, eyes and mouth they prefer from the few that i had presented in a flick book, which i then used to make a mini final project for the next section, which is called Digital Manipulation. For this section i looked at Adobe Photoshop editing.
As humans were used as a resource for nature, i decided to use the effects of their environment that other people create for us such as how we have to look, and act as a study for manmade.
For this i looked at two different sections; Physical changes in humans, and use of digital manipulation.
Based on physical changes i made quite a lot of mini projects such as make up and anorexia. This is as explained below.
For this section i also decided to make a flick book as part of some primary research, where i asked a few people to pick the nose, eyes and mouth they prefer from the few that i had presented in a flick book, which i then used to make a mini final project for the next section, which is called Digital Manipulation. For this section i looked at Adobe Photoshop editing.
Research
For my research i used Jason Christopher a fashion photographer. I decided to look at a fashion photographer for my final and main research for this coursework because my idea was based around a very glamorous photo shoot. To do this i wanted to first see what other photographers did for photo shoots, and use their ideas to develop my own. Here is some of the work i found very interesting by Jason Christopher.
Christopher has the main idea of using simplicity to make a point stand out, and this to me seemed very interesting, which then made me experiment on my own, however, i did not feel that this was the right look for my final piece.
To conclude, i feel that Jason Christopher takes very simple yet effective beauty photographs. However, i wanted to show that man made is slowly taking over the natural basics in life such as natural skin and lips, and Christopher's image look very natural and simple to me. Therefore, i took pictures and exaggerated them and made them look very dark and over the top to add to the effect i was more looking forward to have.
On the other hand, i also decided to use some of the techniques Christopher uses in his images such as having negative space in the image to make it look a lot more effective, and allow the viewers to be allured into looking at the main image.
Christopher has the main idea of using simplicity to make a point stand out, and this to me seemed very interesting, which then made me experiment on my own, however, i did not feel that this was the right look for my final piece.
To conclude, i feel that Jason Christopher takes very simple yet effective beauty photographs. However, i wanted to show that man made is slowly taking over the natural basics in life such as natural skin and lips, and Christopher's image look very natural and simple to me. Therefore, i took pictures and exaggerated them and made them look very dark and over the top to add to the effect i was more looking forward to have.
On the other hand, i also decided to use some of the techniques Christopher uses in his images such as having negative space in the image to make it look a lot more effective, and allow the viewers to be allured into looking at the main image.
Final piece
I felt that this answered my question quite well. Humans have a lot of impact from all the new man made creations. I have for example, demonstrated this through the use of women, and make up.
Girls are naturally born to have perfect skin and good unique looks, however, though external environmental factors they lose their natural beauty, which is why they turn towards manmade things and wear lots of make up and get plastic surgeries done. This already shows that manmade creations are slowly taking over the elements of nature. This is mainly through how the media represents the “perfect human” as glamorous and beautiful, which makes the ordinary natural people want to turn towards this media concept of humans and turn into that.
My final piece shows two different ordinary girls, and the comparison between them from day and night. By day they are normal students and are very natural with not a lot of make up on. However, by night they are models that are very glamorous and have a lot of make up on and with the use of digital manipulation this is exaggerated even more. I really like this final piece because of the comparison between the two completely opposite images.
I feel this answers my question of “Are the manmade creations, taking over the natural elements?” with the answer, Yes, manmade creations have a very strong impact against natural elements, and something as small as the natural element of human beauty, is taken over by something manmade such as make up and plastic surgery. We can see nature being replaced slowly by man as we create many inventions that are slowly taking over the nature’s basics. Showing this through ordinary school girls being completely transformed after school by night shows how much it is affecting every person(being nature), from just a teenager to the older people who are also using so much make up and plastic surgery to defeat nature.
Girls are naturally born to have perfect skin and good unique looks, however, though external environmental factors they lose their natural beauty, which is why they turn towards manmade things and wear lots of make up and get plastic surgeries done. This already shows that manmade creations are slowly taking over the elements of nature. This is mainly through how the media represents the “perfect human” as glamorous and beautiful, which makes the ordinary natural people want to turn towards this media concept of humans and turn into that.
My final piece shows two different ordinary girls, and the comparison between them from day and night. By day they are normal students and are very natural with not a lot of make up on. However, by night they are models that are very glamorous and have a lot of make up on and with the use of digital manipulation this is exaggerated even more. I really like this final piece because of the comparison between the two completely opposite images.
I feel this answers my question of “Are the manmade creations, taking over the natural elements?” with the answer, Yes, manmade creations have a very strong impact against natural elements, and something as small as the natural element of human beauty, is taken over by something manmade such as make up and plastic surgery. We can see nature being replaced slowly by man as we create many inventions that are slowly taking over the nature’s basics. Showing this through ordinary school girls being completely transformed after school by night shows how much it is affecting every person(being nature), from just a teenager to the older people who are also using so much make up and plastic surgery to defeat nature.
I feel that I have answered this question quite well and have looked at many different techniques of photography, such as landscape shots, micro shots, and portraits. I have also looked more into the different types of media such as creating mini moving clip through the use of many images. Doing this has expanded my understanding in photography, and how to use my camera well and appropriately depending on what type of image I am trying to capture. For example, landscape photographs need a wide depth of field so the whole image can be seen, where as a photograph of an insect would have a narrow depth of field where the insect would be in focus and easier to see.
Another thing I felt went well was the use of lighting in my images. I have learnt that using a lot of light and placing it in different places can really make the image look a lot more effective and better. This went especially for my final piece where I took portrait pictures of my model. I have also learnt that it is easier to have more light and get rid of it though digital manipulation, then have too little light, which would be a lot harder to enhance through digital manipulation.
I think one thing I would improve on would be to experiment a lot more with my images, and use more means of media within my photography. This is not only to help me gain the best results for my final idea, but also learn different styles.
Another thing I felt went well was the use of lighting in my images. I have learnt that using a lot of light and placing it in different places can really make the image look a lot more effective and better. This went especially for my final piece where I took portrait pictures of my model. I have also learnt that it is easier to have more light and get rid of it though digital manipulation, then have too little light, which would be a lot harder to enhance through digital manipulation.
I think one thing I would improve on would be to experiment a lot more with my images, and use more means of media within my photography. This is not only to help me gain the best results for my final idea, but also learn different styles.
