Assignment 1 - Beauty and the sublime - with Tutor feedback

Assignment 1 - Beauty and the sublime

Now with Tutor feedback. I'll add my tutor feedback in red and my comments / updates green

Assignment Brief

Produce a series of 6–12 photographs that convey your own interpretation of beauty and/or 

the sublime within the context of landscape. You may choose to support, question or subvert accepted definitions of these terms.

Your images don’t necessarily have to be made in the same place or type of location; however, they should complement one another and attempt to function as a cohesive series. 

Introduce your work with a supporting text (around 500 words) that:

• Describes how you interpreted this brief.

• Describes how your work relates to aspects of photography and visual culture addressed in Part One.

• Evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of your work, describing what you would have 

done differently or how you might develop this work further.

•  Identifies what technical choices you made to help communicate your ideas, and also 

references relevant artists and photographers who have influenced the creative direction 

of your project.

•  Explains your reasons for selecting particular views, and arriving at certain visual outcomes.

Overall Comments

A very good start which augurs well for future development of the course.

Thank you. I have pushed myself to try and think outside the box but I may have focused to much on this and not sufficiently on my images e.g. I have tried to be creative and to extend the brief but in doing so I think some of my images could in hindsight been improved e.g. lighting, time of day

Feedback on assignment and supporting work

The accompanying text is logically laid out, comprehensive and lucid.

What’s of overriding importance in this first assignment is that you’ve understood the need to make the work about ideas rather than pleasing or even spectacular pictorialism.

You’ve evidenced that in your approach, your research, your intelligent commentary on that research and finally manifested it in the images.

I’m not a particular proponent of the dead pan style or typological classifications where a picture that records is simply enough. I believe the ideal, while also suiting those purposes, is to include some of the emotive values that raise photography above a simple descriptive recording medium so that an image, as well as conveying information, can elicit a more profound yet elusive resonance. I think some of your images achieve that higher state.

I would always aim for that, an image that ‘tells’, in whatever ambiguous way that might be, as opposed to an image that describes, for example one that just says ‘this is what an apple looks like’. Well we all know what an apple looks like.  I want to be encouraged to speculate more about the apple; why am I being shown it and why in that particular way, otherwise what’s in it for me as an audience member.

This is excellent feedback and helps point me in the right direction to where I should aiming and helps me to formulate the options around the elements I can include in my images. Pictorialism will produce stunning images and those traditionally accepted as landscape images. There is a modernist perhaps more imaginative approach that can be included to introduce some narrative into the images. This is what I need to learn;  how do I do this. I think I need to look at how other photographers achieve this

Assignment Introduction

Electricity has been around since the world was created, it hasn't been invented, and was observed in ancient times. Though the tools were different, they may have used amber and a soft cloth, today we may use a balloon and a jumper and demonstrate it with someone's hair but both methods can be used to create static electricity.

This static electricity can be very powerful as we can see in lightening during stormy weather. My house has been hit by lightening, ironically whilst watching a TV Programme "Worlds Worst Storms". This also resulted in some appliances catching fire and the metal of some units turning molten.  Benjamin Franklin and his kite was able to demonstrate that lightening was electricity and many others such as James Watt, Thomas Seeback, Michael Faraday, Nicola Tesla, Thomas Edison and many more have helped promote its abilities and uses

For the person living in modern times in the western world we regard any loss of electricity as a major disruption to our lives and take for granted its supply to us. How does it arrive? It often originates at a power plant and is boosted by a transformer to enable the electricity to travels long distances. It then travels via substation transformers and pole transformers during which the voltage is decreased to about 240 volts, a big decrease from a likely starting amount of over 700,000 volts. There can be no doubt that electricity in all its forms can create beauty; from its powerfully sublime natural beauty to its man made originations and its uses

The transmission of this powerful force requires infrastructure and depending upon where you live may determine how noticeable this infrastructure is. I don't believe that pictorialism ever embraced or included electric infrastructure in any images or paintings and its visible presence. Its presence can probably be regarded as a blot on the landscape. A Surrey landscape had some infrastructure re-routed for filming of Nanny McPhee and War Horse.

On the 15^th September 2015 the BBC announced that electricity pylons are to be removed in four areas of England and Wales to reduce their visual impact on the landscape at a cost of £500 million.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34254392

The link above confirms the 4 areas prioritised are:

1. Dorset AONB

2. New Forest National Park

3. Peak District National Park

4. Snowdonia National Park

However for those areas that wont benefit from the removal of the visual impacts of this infrastructure how will the landscape continue to affect us? 

Beauty is considered to be only skin deep so should we ignore or pretend to ignore the visible man made imperfections on the landscape to recognise is inner beauty? Have we learnt to ignore.

One definition of sublime is "of great excellence or beauty"  and another is "(of a person's attitude or behaviour) extreme or unparalleled". This may allow me to stretch  Freud's interpretation of sublime to the uncanny seeing something alien yet familiar which is how I think modern man sees pylons etc. in the presence of rural beauty. I'd like to attempt to examine with images how man's need in recent times to progress has resulted in a visibly damaged countryside as a result, yet how local people and nature have attempted, either successfully or unsuccessfully to overcome the presence of poles and pylons.

Assignment Research

The Electricity Pylon is considered beautiful enough to have resulted in a website called "Pylon of the Month" featuring a monthly image selected as Pylon of the Month:

http://www.pylonofthemonth.org/

There is also a Pylon Appreciation Society

http://www.pylons.org/

The Guardian in 2012 published the designs of potential pylons in the future which resulted from a competition where the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Department of Energy and Climate and National Grid requested future designs of Electric Pylons with aim of creating designs that had less impact on the landscape.

Below are 2 images that were short listed:

The winner below:

However in generals terms the majority of landscape images will seek to avoid the inclusion of electricity pylons and poles. For the early pictorial painters their views would not have been a feature of much of the scenes they painted, and being a painter, much easily excluded from the finished result.

The following clip from you tube are the observations of Gloucestershire dairy farmer in Tytherington,who has made several video clips of family life on his farm. On this occasion he has made a short film watching electric pylons on their farm land getting painted. During the video he explains the pylons are 45 years old and get painted every 15 years, the expected life of the pylon. The painters in this clip are painting the pylons with the electricity remaining on, the pylon arms are painted at another time when the electric is switched off. Interestingly one of the painters confirms each pylon costs around £600,000 so maintenance and protection of the investment is very important

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZCzj5x49lo

Interestingly the painting of the pylons is with a yellow undercoat and a grey top coat. The question I ask is why would anyone deliberately paint infrastructure to be installed in the countryside grey, instead of say green? Is the because of its height it more easily blends with grey skies? True if looking up or where the infrastructure sits, when being looked at on the horizon. I'm sure this has been the subject to much debate and the paint colour has been carefully selected

In looking for images of electrical infrastructure I came across the work of Thomas Weinberger and his synthesan effect. Weinberger combines two images of the same location but one taken at night and one during the day:

The book European Landscape Photography by Liz Wells devotes several pages including a double spread image of Weinberger's work. She details Weinberger's  describing his "Synthesen" series as being the "reflection on time and light. I see light as the photographer's language, just as  color is the painter's" 

However the image above includes electrical infrastructure which has become a common and accepted view around electrified railways.

Maros Krivy is producing a set images under the reference "political economy", where the the work is classified as being in political economic branch and how this branch impacts the landscape, described in photography. Well this my interpretation of the quote from Krivy's website:

http://www.maroskrivy.eu/?go=foto&album=political-economy-of-landscape&n=1

Production, distribution and consumption is fundamentally defined by its spatial organization. Production, distribution and consumption is always production, distribution and consumption of space.

For statistical and organizational reasons, economy as a whole is classified into particular branches.

Photographs loosely take one of these systems of classification as a departure point. I look how somebody whose work is classified into this or that economic branch might perceive the landscape with which s/he is concerned.

Looking at the images produced as part of this set, I notice how they are either a single image split into 2's, 3's and 4's (diptych / triptychs / tetraptychs) else multiple images joined but with separation. However its clear from looking at these images that they do give an economic view of the landscape being portrayed in some cases a bleak view. Producing images as *tychs I wonder if the purpose is to show the landscape in this way to be broken, disjointed? The term Krivy uses "political economics" I interpret to mean economy and its own many interpretations such as wealth, trade, and political influence

Much like cityscape, street images could be used to describe the political economy of a location and I would be more familiar with this but Krivy's work as expanded in applying this to images of landscape. I think slowly I am beginning to see how photograph can be used as a meaning for explaining situations or ideas much more diversely than I would have considered like Weinberger and Krivy. 

Some facts about electric pylons

• There are more than 88,000 pylons in the UK
• Design has changed little since 1928
• Stand 50m high, weigh 30 tonnes and carry up to 400,000 volts of electricity
• To be less intrusive pylons are often placed below the skyline

A spokesman for the National Grid advises "They are largely transparent to a large extent. You look through them, rather than at them. That was part of the original intention, as well as improving their wind resistance." 

This quote may therefore answer my question regarding the choice of colour used to pain them, grey is considered less of obtrusive and doesn't bring attention to itself. Itself interestingly aligned to spies being regard as "grey men"

My set of images below demonstrate electric pylons and poles and their place in my local area. How much they remain unnoticeable is debatable but their presence has been around in many cases for 45-50 years or more and so those living in their proximity have learnt to live with them. That said, whether a local, a tourist or a visitor they will all agree they most certainly do spoil a picturesque view. The painter can exclude these from the scene they paint, the photographer generally has to include, the human eye will notice and the mind decides how much. It will be interesting to see how well I achieve this intention with both with my current skill set and self critique and also how much is of the impact to the landscape in these images is conveyed to the viewer. The emotion I attempt to convey is the sublime beauty of what they are achieving and the cost of their impact to the landscape and the people within it. In some cases we have learnt to live with what could be described as a necessary eyesore or a necessary evil. If you see the unwanted on a regular basis does it start fade away?

Image 1

Whilst a a landscape module I've chosen my opening image of an electricity pole viewed from below. Living in the Forest of Dean views are downward, upward and straight ahead. This image was taken within a wood, so whilst the context is only apparent through my text the electric pole is actually a tree trunk so quite apt for the location. The pole has recently been installed as you can tell by the darkness of the tar stained wood, what is missing from the image is the smell. The exposure has been adjusted to maintain the texture and detail of the pole.This set of images will demonstrate the increasing impact of electric poles and pylons.

This is a classic view that we’re all familiar with and as photographers we’ve probably all done a version of this shot at some point but taken with the caption we suddenly have a new perspective, of course it used to be a tree trunk. One can almost imagine the top being lopped off where it stood and the metal work bolted on.

It’s rather like the futurologist idea of man being replaced by robots and in later images they’re reminiscent of H G Wells’ War of the Worlds tripods stalking the land.

I think had I taken a lower positioned camera point of view and included more of the trees / forest then the narrative would be in the image and not in the supporting text, well less of it

Image 2

A different pole within a different part of the wood. The wood of the pole has been completely bleached confirming the length of time of its presence and will likely be considered for future replacement. This image has been composed to accentuate how much this pole stands out amongst the trucks of the trees, the green leaves an indication that the trees are living and growing, the pole isn't and doesn't belong.

Given more context it makes that reading even more clear.

In the print it doesn’t look critically sharp, perhaps a hint of camera shake and the highlight at the top of the pole looks slightly blown, it could do with a touch more detail.

Perhaps I have over emphasised the contrast between the leaving trees and the bleached pole. Whilst I did take more images than I would normally I should also have considered a more stable camera position and / or a faster shutter speed

Image 3

This image details a row of poles as they carry wires and electricity toward the small village at the bottom of the hill. From this image you can see the "pathway" that had to be created to insert the poles and would have resulted in the felling of trees along this path. The low camera view point details the ferns and bracken that returned as demonstrated in the foreground of the image but too small to cover the intrusion of the poles. In this image I've also attempted to create a sense of depth and whilst only 3 poles can be seen the mind understands the number of poles continue downwards. Again exposure has been adjusted for the front pole. As noted in the exercise performed earlier I find using the zone system can result in an over exposed sky. Arguably this scene as with the next could / should have been taken using multiple exposures. I'm aware of this opportunity to create a HDR image but I have tried to to include a new learning element in my work using the Zone system.

Here they are on their route march.

I thought this rendering was rather dull, i.e. there’s not much tonal contrast over the majority of the image. Here I’ve used the Shadows/Highlights tool in Photoshop to create a bit more tonal separation in the foliage and I’ve also used the Levels control to set the white point to 247 so that there’s enough tone in the white to differentiate it from paper white without noticeably degrading the highlights.  This is a quick fix for blown out areas adjacent to edge that destroy the integrity of the image frame where photographic white bleeds into paper or screen white.

I can see how this small change prevents the bleed into the background, subtle but effective.

With simply shaped areas one can of course select it and only adjust the white point for the selection but when there are complicated shapes, such as a tracery of twigs against a white sky it’s much easier to do an overall adjustment.

Nowadays with digital the Zone system is useful for conveying what exposure means but it came into its own as an end to end system from film to print when there was much less post production control available to photographers.

To reiterate what you already know....

The main thing to bear in mind is that what one is doing is capturing data from the scene and one wants to capture as much data as possible.

The camera will often optimise this but sometimes it’s deceived. A typical situation is shooting an interior with recessed halogen lights in the ceiling. If they’re included in the image then the camera will often set the filament of the bulb as the white point of the image when one isn’t interested in retaining detail in that or even the reflector. Consequently most of the interior will be under exposed with all the data you’re interested in squeezed to the left hand end of the Levels bar graph.

Of course you can expanded it with the Levels control to cover the whole distribution but you’re not making any more data, simply spreading what you have more thinly.

Another classic situation is where the image includes large areas of the same tone. If it’s dark tone then the meter takes that to be mid grey and over exposes, or conversely if it’s a light tone then the camera under exposes to make it a mid grey.

You inevitably see that on the student forum when drawing students post picture of their drawings on white paper, they’re invariably a couple of stops under exposed.

Compare the tonal brightnesses in the subject with the distribution in the bar chart. If it’s a classic average subject, green grass, blue sky, red pillar box then the chart should show the classic Normal distribution bell curve without any skew.

If it’s predominantly dark tones then it should be skewed to the left but not clip on the extreme left, just sweep down to zero at zero. For predominantly light tones it should skew to the right but not clip on the right but sweep down to zero at zero.

The appropriate strategy for maximising data collection is often not the end of the story. Students often make the mistake of accepting what the camera has delivered and send it to straight to print without modification. This can lead to images that lack contrast because a safety margin has been applied at one end or the other or both of the tonal distribution so that there are no real blacks or whites or both. Maximum use should always be made of the available tonal range so that the very darkest tone is tied to black and the very brightest to white in the bar chart.

So in the vast majority of cases in post production one of the first steps is to set the black point where the chart starts to rise from zero on the left hand end and the white point to where the chart meets zero on the right hand end.

In this way one has optimised ones available tonal distribution to the fullest extent and prints won’t look dull and muddy or flat and washed out.

When it comes to fine tuning files for printing then one can adjust areas of the image borrowing techniques from the darkroom by localised soft masking to make the prints more expressive and less generic.

Thank you for explaining this so well. I understand this completely and its a focus of many aspects I need to retain in my photography. I currently seem to have a grasp of most elements but in focussing on one area I seem to lose focus in another. This has helped me understand much better having tonal range in an image. This particular scene was difficult to capture in the camera what I wanted and I did go back several times. However armed with this information I have a much better understanding of how I can achieve this

Image 4

This image required an intrusion into a field and a low perspective to help to create the horizon / skyline and convey how the skyline is impacted by the electric poles. A backdrop or separation of the fields with trees would have allowed the poles to be less obvious. I've exposed for the grass and poles which has blown out the sky a bit. Whilst the poles on a skyline was what I wanted to achieve I've tried here to suggest an impact to the view but its severity less than some of the images to come.

Well found and a good rational for making the image.

This is also an example of how I've let the sky bleed into the paper / white screen or even a picture mount

Image 5

Here the poles carrying the electricity lines are shown as being significantly higher than the trees and the image implies, correctly, they extend considerably to the left and right of the image. Their proximity to each is close and so the impact to the landscape is even more severe. Either from ground movement following installation or exposure to the elements over a period of time they have each deviated to varying degrees from their original perpendicular installation into the ground. I would normally have cropped an element of the top of the image as the sky is not what I want to demonstrate however in trying to maintain a ratio of 3:2 across all my images, cropping the sky would have reduced the inclusion of 7 sets of poles which is the purpose of the image and better demonstrate the landscape impact of them.

One of the shots of the assignment but I think there’s a balance to be struck between being faithful to the reality of a lowering gloom and what is pleasing to the eye physiologically, especially when it comes to paper prints which by their nature have a low contrast ratio.

I’ve made adjustments to what I think would make a good print for an audience that weren’t privy to the reality...

I think this would be sufficiently rewarding to the eye as a print.

Yes, this is so much better and the impact of what I was trying to achieve is fulfilled so much better than my production. Looking at this now I'm wondering why I didn't see this and I suspect its because I'm remaining faithful to what my eyes recorded rather than the impact of what I wanted to achieve

Image 6

Tutors amendments below:

I'm right in amongst the structures in this field. Parallel rows of power lines are very distinct in open land and not running in parallel with any tree lines they stand out even more.An  UWA lens has been used to demonstrate height of poles and impact to skyline. The image has been adjusted using Lens Correction within Photoshop for vertical adjustment to avoid the impression of the poles appearing to lean backwards, a common problem with UWA lenses in close proximity to vertical structures.

This is also a strong one. It has a presence over and above its descriptive function and I think my first edit heightens that.

Ansel Adams used to lightly burn progressively out towards the edges of the print. Without a direct comparison its imperceptible but it does help to ‘contain’ the image and focus the viewers attention.

With the freehand mask tool I drew a very rough ellipse in the middle then using the refine edge tool soften it till it nearly disappeared, inverted it and then using the Levels tool adjusted the grey point to the right to darken the edges without changing the black and white points.

Here I’ve made a couple more localised slightly gratuitous changes to illustrate how one can and should work over the image optimising areas for maximum effect by making the smallest adjustments. ...

The image has much more clarity with this change and I feel much more part of the image as I was when I took took it. This is a very interesting technique and not something I had consider. This is clearly another area to focus on and raise my understanding. Armed with these techniques simple and with minimal intrusion can an image be adjusted

Image 7

The mid ground sheep help give some perspective to the size of the electricity pylons and their close proximity to the pylon helps to demonstrate their size and impact on the landscape and how the view of the surrounding location is disturbed by their presence.

The slope emphasises the implacable monumental challenge of the pylon; another effective image.

The sheep on the extreme left is possibly a gnat’s too close to the edge. It wouldn’t hurt the whole crop to move to the left to crop the first tiny sheep on the horizon at the extreme right if that’s available on the original.

I've amended the crop and darkened the edges slightly to help maintain the pylon as the centre and focus of the image

Image 8

You can hear the hum and feel the slight charge in the air when close to the electricity pylons yet rugby has been played along side these for at least the last 50 years. An elderly gentleman interested in what I was doing explained he used to play on this rugby pitch and has always been a regular drinker in the clubhouse (out of shot left) over the last 50 years. I asked if he noticed the pylons and he said" yes, they've always spoiled the view and the location but after a while you learn to ignore them".

Another well worked image that makes its point and also adds a little humour in pointing out the symmetry between the rugby posts and the small pylons, overseen by their advancing Big Brother.

Image 9

This image was taken at an electric substation just outside Gloucester City Centre. Five or so years ago this flooded and many parts of Gloucester was without electric, and water for up to a week. An eyesore they are, but this pylon and the adjacent substation demonstrate their importance when put out of action. The purpose of this image is to demonstrate their build structure and the individual pieces that make up a single pylon and also the size of the pylon's presence when close to one.

A classic view point reminiscent of Russian Constructivism. It’s a good example of how images can draw power from the history of image making, a set of readymade connotations to support their interpretation.

I cant claim credit for Constructivism research but I feel drawn to create this image to illustrate structure size and presence. However it did lead me to have a look at this website:

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-constructivism.htm

Image 10

Understanding the size of the pylons in the earlier images may enable an improved insight to the impact of the landscape in this image caused by the electricity pylons. The rainy windswept scene adds to the emotion that I want to convey; that the landscape is scarred by the presence of the many pylons

An excellent overview image to close with; again I think there’s some tension between conveying the atmosphere and reproducing it.

The overall feel is effective but it militates against reading the image.

The eye is too quickly drawn to the brightest area of the sky, which is right at the top of the frame and stays there.

Here using a localised soft mask I’ve darkened the bright patch by using the Levels control to adjust the white point and mid grey point. Then I’ve put a graduated mask over the whole image and used the Shadows/Highlights control to lighten the shadows in the foreground and increase the contrast a touch to encourage the eye to linger longer on the foreground before travelling up to the sky.

Thank you, yes this is a better image. I clearly need to spend a bity more time on my images, almost finalising the image looking to correct some problems either from digital capture, my composition, or simply reducing unwanted dominant elements that distract from the intention I wanted. 

Assignment Summary at Completion
I find it difficult at my current development point to be able to fully express in my images my full intentions. Looking at some photographers work, such as Krivy and her images "political economics" I think these sets of images may take a longer period to collect than the time being spent producing images for my assignment. That said the majority of briefs given to photographers would likely be over a much smaller period than the time I have had. However I think it better to start stretching toward new goals in an attempt to push the boundaries of the assignment and develop my skills as part of doing so. This has been encouraged by my tutor. 

This set of images has been a build up toward the final image, and an explanation of what they are and their impact on the landscape at an increasing scale - a telling of a story. I think 6-12 images similar to Image 10 would have lost impact had they all been the same or similar. I wanted to create a story though each individually building into a set and ending, or end result. I think perhaps I may be torn between this story telling within a set and the creation of individual images or all similar images. I expect there may be room for both - I'm not quite there in terms of fulfilling my creative intent

At a different time of year I may have had opportunity to create images where farmers, say ploughing or harvesting,  were working around the pylons and some images including this would have helped demonstrate how man has to live side by side. 

Post Script
As I was adding the link of the assignment post into the appropriate section of my blog, perhaps as a result of the poor weather, we suffered a power cut. Whilst it only impacted us for 15 minutes it was a very apt reminder of the importance of electricity and how reliant on it we have become. So thanks to Energy people for restoring power so quickly and thanks to my PC for its recovery

References

Liz wells (2012). European Landscape Photography. London: Prestel. 128-132.

Liz wells (2012). European Landscape Photography. London:Krivy. 134-139

Maros Krivy. (unknown). Political Economy of Landscape. Available: http://www.maroskrivy.eu/?go=foto&album=political-economy-of-landscape&n=1. Last accessed 09/10/2015.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

By now you’re a very experienced blogger. It’s going well but these are the points you need to always remember to be addressing.

What the assessors look for in blogs...

• A wide range of research, in photography, in art and in culture in general; not just stimulated by the needs of a particular assignment but from general interest.
• Sophisticated reflection in the light of that research; paying particular attention to contextualising ones work within contemporary image culture.
• A developing conceptual appreciation of that culture and the location of one’s work within it.
• Critical analysis of some of the works from the reading lists as evidence of having engaged with them. Some students simply supply lists of books they’ve read. This doesn’t meet the 
• need.

Suggested reading/viewing

In line with that try Camera Lucida if you haven’t already or anything else from the Essential reading list that you think might challenge you and write a blog posting critiquing it.

Pointers for the next assignment

• Read the brief through carefully a few times and on different occasions so you can meditate on what you may do and give ideas a chance to develop.
• Think of a ‘journey’ that could be meaningful to you.
• It doesn’t necessarily have to be linear or chronological; be creative in your interpretation.

That's very good advice for me regarding blog, my research, and contextualising it within my work