Beauty within neglected and abandoned spaces
My intentions for my first idea are to find a scene that relates back to neglected and abandoned spaces in the built up landscape and to try and capture beauty within these photos either through primary or development of these images. I will be looking closely at the work of artists who associate themselves with this scenery and this kind of photography, I hope to work closely with the inspiration I get from what they have achieved. I am leaning towards the idea of visiting locations such as Southend and maybe some parts of London that can be perceived as abandoned or neglected; this allows me to stick to the rural landscape which I have taken to well in the past.
Mood Board
Chris Frazer Smith Michael Kenna Paul Politis Henk Van Rensburgen Sarah Pickering
Rut Blees Luxemburg
Idris Khan Frank Breuer
Keegan Gibbs Keegan Gibbs is a well-known graffiti photographer; I took to him because of the locations graffiti photography connotes to me. Street art is more notably found in run down, derelict places; a prime example for neglected and abandoned spaces. Gibbs captures neglect in a particular way that separates himself from most other photographers in the category. I believe he does so through a high noise and large crop area. In this photo I have chosen as an example of his work these features are evident. This image I think has the key visual qualities that anyone would expect of neglect and abandonment, mostly through the saturated and simplistic flat colours. There are a number of leading lines in this photo adding to the busy composition and aiding the neglectful sense. These lines running straight through any dominant areas enforce the flatness we see, it can be strongly argued that this was Gibbs intentions; this could be the reason why he has cropped the vanishing point. Keegan Gibbs has presented a non-conventional take on the subject, one that I really enjoy studying. I will look further into ways to taking and developing my own photos in a similar way to this. He uses interesting techniques that challenge the norms and values of a typical neglected and abandoned scene.
Idris Khan Idris Khan was born in the UK in 1978 and works centrally from London. He studied at the Royal College of Art completing his Master’s Degree with a Distinction in 2004, since then he has gone on to receive international fame for his Simplistic approach to photography. He has then expanded his interests into videos and sculpting with the same ideology. Over the course of his career he has gained the status of being one of the most intriguing artists in his generation in Britain. This is an example of his Bernd and Hilla Becher Range. Since 1959 Bernd and Hilla photographed industrial structures such as water towers and gas reservoirs to embody modern engineering. As we Can Khan takes these images and layers them Significantly to the point where defining lines Disappear and we see an ethereal like form standing Centre of the photo. This editing is cleverly Structured and integral to the composition being a success; Whereas we would expect a dominant middle drawing our eye in, The layers upon layers ensure that our eye browses over the image as a whole. There is very little colour in his images, he has intentionally made These images black and white, by doing so he captures the different shades. Black fading into a grey in front of a light grey With a Backdrop effect, this may not be intentional however but a product of the number of layers he uses, even so it works Effectively in creating a sense of neglect to the location. I will be using Idris Khan as a source of inspiration for a Development of my own photos, although images are different I Believe this feature he uses can be completed in a number of different ways
Idea 1 evaluation For my project I am looking at beauty within the neglected and abandoned spaces, for this I decided to look closer into detail with the urban landscape, specifically Southend; a place that can be considered to be rough and neglected in areas, and yet still attract a large amount of tourism as a sea-side location. This therefore to me was an obvious choice as it captures the two oppositional subjects in the project title. Having been to southend a few times before I had already formulated a rough idea on what I wanted to take pictures of however looking at the artist Keegan Gibbs was helpful in giving me an insight into how to go about shooting in terms of composition. Steering away from his work I chose a bright day with no clouds so I would have a calm background keeping the foreground highlighted. To add to this I have many leading lines in my images to emphasize the man-made sense in the hope it relates to the neglect of the location. For my development I looked at the work of Idris Khan and his Bernd and Hilla Becher series, I believed that with flat backgrounds images such as the pear would capture his idea of layering pictures of industrial structures; displacing them each time breaking down the defining lines creating a ghostly sense about the structure, likewise for the rest of my first idea. I am pleased with the outcome of idea 1, I kept my artists relative to what I wanted to achieve and so they have proved to be very useful. I hope to find more artists that will inspire even better work for my second idea.
For idea 2 I intent to find locations from large heights in an attempt to find a mix of large open landscapes and small enclosed drops like what the artist Rut Blees Luxemburg present in some of her work. I will be visiting places such as London as I believe locations such as this present the best opportunity to find the photos I expect to find. I will also be taking some night photography as it portrays a cold scenery highlighting the neglect sense further.
Rut Blees Luxemburg Rut Blees Luxemburg’s production as an artist and photographer revolves around the representation of the city. In 1993 Luxemburg attended the London College of Printing Photography she then went on to graduated from the University of Westminster in 1996 with an MA in Photography. Luxemburg how now become best known for her distinctive photographs of the urban landscape at night. She picks corners of the city which are obscured, overlooked and the more avoided places after dark. Long exposure times allow the ethereal like artificial glow from the street to define the image. I have chosen to look at Rut Blees Luxemburg particular for This image she has taken. The immediate thing you notice is The angle that it has been taken at, it is an intriguing and very original way of capturing height; I believe this is why I Have taken to it so well. I think to attempt something like this I would have to find locations such as flats and multi-story car parks, locations like this connote areas in London and the surrounding area. Luxemburg uses a variety of washed and faded colours, this portrays a very quiet scenery and signifies an almost abandoned location. In this particular photo the mix of darks and hues help to give a deeper sense of height and enclosure. I will be looking into these sort of locations and compositions for my second idea in my projects as I think these features can gain a abandoned and neglected sense with some editing.
Daniella Zalcman Daniella Zalcman is based in NYC where she works as a freelance photographer for the Wall Street Journal. Born in Washington, DC, she graduated from Columbia with a degree in architecture in 2009. Other clients include The New York Times, the New York Daily News, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Saatchi & Saatchi, National Geographic, Wired, and The Nation. This is an example from Zalcmans New York+London Project. The most noticeable thing we see would be The double exposures, two images layered on one Another to collaborate images taken from her home City of New-York and a city which she fell in love with From her first visit; London. Zalcman uses a broad range of very vibrant and bold colours in her work with strong defining lines around Objects and subject matters. This may be however A feature used to differentiate between the combined Scenery. From an esthetical or design perspective these colours help to make her work and in particular this piece so visually striking. All photos seen in her New York+London series were to my surprise, taken from her smartphone. The choice to use an iPhone to create these was deliberate. “The iPhone was my camera of choice because I’ve grown to love the informal nature of smartphone photography,” Zalcman tells us. “The bulky digital camera I use for newspaper and magazine assignments demands a level of deliberation that can be restrictive, but my phone frees me from those constraints.”
Nicholas Kennedy Sitton I chose to look at the work of Nicholas Kennedy Sitton as I wanted someone who could present to me a unique way of manipulating their images, I have known of Sittons work for a while and so it was a natural choice for me. The San-Francisco based artist has tagged this project ‘twisted’ which although very fitting, from his perspective is a very simple way of looking at your own work; I think however that the simplicity of the title does go some way to highlight for us the simplicity of the idea itself. To contrast this the execution of the idea to me seems like a very intricate process of trial and error. The colours that Sitton chooses to use as we can see from the examples varies in pieces. The one to the right creates a flat sense about itself; in this piece he has chosen to capture everything worth noticing in the mid ground which then continues to blend in with the background of a foggy whether, by doing so he brings everything forward which in turn highlights the layering feature and supplements the intricacy mentioned earlier. To the image on the left we see almost a direct opposite to this, He uses vibrant colours which not only direct our eye To the main editing feature but he takes up nearly the Whole page in twists. I believe unlike the one on the right he doesn’t just guide us towards this feature He instead finds a balance Between the two; twists and Colour which unlike the other Allows us to take it all in at once. When looking at both examples and more over his whole projectI start to see a strong symbolic reference to the growing landscape of built up areas, especially In the one shown on the left. In this the daunting angle of shot is what brings me to this conclusion, Sitton is facing up at the Buildings towering over him to give a Sense of scale of building compared to People today. Although this may be an Unintentional feature made I think it Still sends a clear message of buildings And cities that are growing beyond our Need. I believe the complimenting style of Nicholas Kennedy Sitton with my own will give me some insight into how I can develop my images further. I do Realize however that I should aim to not Just take on board the features put Forward by him but instead look at Alternative ways of presenting his style in my own work.
Idea 2 evaluation For my second idea I wanted to stay in the urban landscape but find a way to present it in a way Different from the one we always see and know off. After deciding this would be what I was definitely going to try and achieve the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg stood out to me. She took a Photograph from what I assume is a tower of flats looking directly down over the edge, this fit exactly into my idea of what I was attempting. Taking her work into consideration I chose to go To Romford, I knew the area very well as I used to live there, I knew most vantage points where I Could go to get good quality images, some however took a bit of exploration to find; so as to be expected I was happily surprised with all my photos. I found an artist called Daniella Zalcman for inspiration on how to develop my second set of Photographs. Although finding her work was fairly easy, trying to replicate it and change it to match my own interpretation was a bit harder. I wanted to match the right images so that when they were layered over each other you could still see elements of both, so I took a trial and error approach to reach where they are now. I am again pleased with my second idea, I think I have improved upon my first idea which is what I was aiming for in the process of finding artists and developing my work.
Aidan McManus I find Aidan McManus has shown an extensive range of skills over his career with various experimental techniques which for the most part push photography to the limits of what it can be as a subject. I think in this particular example McManus has set the bar high not so in subject matter but technical features such as the angle of shot. Looking straight down at the ground from a height similar to Rut Blees Luxemburg is a clever way of exploring a less common perspective as I also found shooting my first and second set of images based around this concept. I believe the work of McManus for me has picked up where the work of Luxemburg didn’t; the black and white feature in this example exaggerates any sense of vertigo an audience may feel when looking at this piece. I think This is a strong factor in this Form of photography any May help me to conclude My final outcome choices.
1st Final outcome
2nd Final outcome
3rd Final outcome
Final evaluation For this project I chose to see if I can find whether there is beauty in neglected and abandoned spaces. Over the course of this project I travelled to two different locations in a hope that I would find images that looked aesthetically pleasing and that could be traced back to the artists that I studied on some level. This proved to be a little difficult as I was on a time limit and I did not have the resources to travel to places such as New York to compare the opposite styles of architecture to London Like Daniella Zalcman. All things considered however I believe I put to good use the locations and resources available to me. In total I found four artists; Keegan Gibbs, Idris Khan, Rut Blees Luxemburg and Daniella Zalcman. I think it was good to keep a nice mix of heavily founded artists to more low key artists. This ensured that I took influence from some very original sources compared to what may be considered as more mainstream photography artists. I am however happy with all influences and I enjoyed working with the key elements I took on board because of them. For my final outcomes I decided to come away from Photoshop and in a way my comfort zone. I work by hand to complete all three; using a screen printing technique, for this I would have to print off the images in black and white and use a specialized printer that works through light exposure transferring the image onto a mesh material. I would then press this against a piece of paper and other materials, in this case I used tissue paper and run a fine amount of different coloured inks over it, ultimately to transfer the image onto the desired materials. This proved to be a slightly tricky task but I am pleased with the outcomes and my projects as a whole.