Part 3 - Exercise 3.4 - A Persuasive Image

Exercise 3.4 - A Persuasive Image

Part 1

Environmental change is now something we are much more aware of. Just this week the local council issue us a new recycling bin so we now separate glass from tins and a new bag for cardboard. Drive through any village on the right day and instead of just the old grey wheelie bin there is myriad of different colour bins, boxes and bags to allow household was to get collected and recycled.

My youngest daughter, who reaches 18 this month, as a younger child once asked me "how much more harmful emissions would we be making" as a result of a detour I had to make to get home due to local flooding. She hit on 2 issues of environmental change, one by accident the other due school subjects. I think its excellent for this generation to be much more aware of environmental harm that everyday life can cause. It was not a subject or issue I recall when I was at school.That said we we will always be plagued by another increasing attitude of this generation, the "I can't be bothered". I can't bothered to take my rubbish home and instead will throw it out the car window or I'll dump a bag of at the roadside with a council recycling centre just a mile away.

The environment is changing, we see evidence for this. The power of the internet allows us to see so much more. Governments make promises yet the strongest sign shown by many is to instead invent taxes and call them green.

I live in the countryside in the Forest of Dean, I grew up in the hills around Wonersh, a small village in Surrey. The ability to walk just yards to find woodland walks is not lost on me, nor the fact many others don't have this luxury. To wake up and find this one day gone or destroyed would also destroy something of me inside.

Colin Finlay who perhaps is best described as a photo journalist and interestingly was once a photocopier salesman has for the last 30 years been producing images of the environment. He has been as part of his travels including remote locations been producing images depicting the results of climate change. As shocking as some of the images really are the images themselves are stunning, colourful and often vibrant. These images are different and perhaps less shocking than some of his images taken in a Darfur refugee camp, but have a similar impact touching a different element of my physche, and most likely most people's.

Colin's website can be found here: http://www.colinfinlay.com/

Tailing Ponds from Alcoa aluminium plant, Texas

Melting Glaciers, Iceland

Tailing Ponds, Tar Sands, Alberta, Canada

The images are truly stunning a most certainly one of the best examples of Beauty and the Sublime. As stand alone images to the un-enlightened viewer they can be fascinating images full of vibrant colour, shape and movement allowing the eye and mind to wander for many minutes.

An early photography tips given to me once was how do you know which is the professional photographer among a group of many? The one nearly down. The insight was not lost on me, it meant the more experienced photographer was taken images at a different view point, different perspective, creating something different. In this instance Finlay has taken these images from the air and they are more magnificent for it.

However there is a strong underlying theme and a passion close to Finlay's heart. These images are part of a bigger set where is highlighting the disastrous impacts man is having on the environment.

The scale of the impact is perhaps better understood from this viewpoint. There is sufficient information within the image to be able to generate a sense of scale. When this is grasped I think viewer moves from a sense of wonder and awe, to a, in my case, a feeling of pain and sickness.

Finlay wants people to look at these images in the hope they generate interest, empower people to look further and deeper and in some cases simply be aware what is happening right next to people who may not even be aware of it happening.

The images created in me a sense of wonder and beauty but with the underlying theme of horror and destruction. I think the biggest ingredient for change is for people to want it to happen. Awareness of the problem is perhaps the first step and I think Finlay is making a significant effort toward this with these images and many others. 

Part 2

For this exercise we asked to:

"Consider an issue (social, political or environmental) that you feel strongly about. Design an image that you think will have a persuasive effect upon a viewer."

I've thought about childhood memories, things taken for granted as a child and as a parent with children growing. There has always been a fascination of jumping in puddles for children, and a lot of laughs from watching parents.

Using Google images I've searched for an image an image that gives me the potential to adjust the image, convey a message at the same time as incorporating a child's fascination with water.

I've imported the image into photoshop and using a plug in called Color Effex Pro altered the color of the water to something that more resembles polluted water and applied a blurred vignette to help maintain the primary focus of the child and the water at their feet.

Looking advertising fonts I've used Franklin Gothic Demi and applied my own environmental message. I've posted this on my facebook page so it will be interesting to see what response this generates.It will be interesting to see what response come from what people e.g. parents with young children, parents with older children, Grandparents etc