Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz is a well known pioneer of the New Topographics movement. "The New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered landscape" was an exhibition in 1975 documenting change and the in the American Landscape. Baltz's photographs are minimalist in composition, this is emphasised by the stark black and white colours and strong contrast. His photography clearly references Lee Friedlander and Robert Frank. Frank shoots very similar images of american cars quite often cutting out part of the car in the same way that Baltz does. |
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Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky is a German photographer famous for his large format architectural landscape shots. Befores the 90's Gursky did not digitally edit or manipulate his photos. He now composes large scale, highly detailed photographs and dramatises them through digital manipulation. Gursky talks about his 1999 'Rhine' photograph and says “In the end I decided to digitalize the pictures and leave out elements that bothered me" (quoted in Annelie Lütgens, ‘Shrines and Ornaments: A Look into the Display Cabinet’, Andreas Gursky: Fotografien 1994-1998, p.xvi). |
Paul Strand
Paul Strand was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century and one of the pioneers that helped to define modernist photography. I really love his black and white images, I like the very strong contrasts and the impact they create on the image. Strand produces photographs with a defined focus and attention in conventional settings. I much prefer this truthful approach when it comes to capturing structures, compared to the more artistic, manipulated images that I have studied in the past. |
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I was inspired by the intense colours in Andreas Gursky's and decided to go and photograph an abandoned sports club near to me as it is covered in brightly coloured graffiti.. The building has had the roof removed and now only the structure remains. The inside is covered in very vibrant paintings and graffiti, I wanted to capture the intensely vivid colours against the broken down surroundings. I spent a lot of time editing these photographs, I initially converted them all into black & white, but I decided this did not work as the bright colours were lost and these are what make the photos stand out. Overall I prefer the few abstract black and white shots as they are more subtle and I find them more interesting compared to the 'stereotypical' colourful graffiti photos. For my next experiment I would like to change the landscape and shoot something that is more suitable to display in black and white.
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After studying Paul Strand's work I was keen to go out and take some black and white architectural shots, focusing on the geometrical side of buildings and shapes.
Situated 9.4 miles east of Charing Cross, stands the vast housing estate of Thamesmead on 1600 acres of marshland. The area rapidly declined into a 'sink estate' with much of the estate standing empty with burnt out rooms and boarded up windows. Because of the pollution from two nearby power stations, the tower blocks could rise to no more than 13 storeys. Spiralling costs led to the original master plan being greatly scaled down. The promises of a shopping centre built around a marina, a train station and even a bridge across the Thames were scrapped. Problem families from all across London were dumped on the estate Intimidating walkways, and dark, damp garages line the floor of Thamesmead. The 'murder' estate is now a damp, mouldy slum with churned up football fields and motocross bikes running wild in the streets |
The Ladywell Baths were built in 1884 to the designs of Wilson & Son and Thomas Aldwinkle. In its day the The building must have been very amazing with its gothic features, stained glass and circular tower that originally had a coned roof but this was sadly lost during the second world war. The bath houses are one of the oldest surviving baths in London and are now a grade II listed building, however they are owned by Lewisham Council who have let the building fall into an appalling condition. The Baths have recently been named on the top ten most endangered victorian buildings in the UK.
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After photographing the victorian bath underneath the floor I decided I would love to photograph another underground place. Some research later I found the abandoned subway in Brockley. Brockley Lane station opened in 1872 and closed to the public in 1917. The subway still remains hidden amongst dense brambles. The subway proved the hardest place to get into but was definitely worth it for the photos. The entrance to the subway was covered in thick, crusty cobwebs. Inside, the long tunnel was pitch black, once I illuminated the tunnel you could see and breath the thick layer of dust floating in the air.
I was very pleased with the way the photo turned out. The light from my green torch reflected perfectly off the walls and my other torch worked well to illuminate the rest of the tunnel. I am glad that the green is not too bright as it would then have looked a bit too artificial. |
Originally built in the 18th century as a public house for travellers moving from the Kent coast to central London via Blackheath. It's busiest time was prior to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 when for three weeks troops continuously moved from London to Dover via Lee Green. Sadly the pub closed permanently in 2006 and the whole of Lee Green has followed in its footsteps with almost every shop in Lee Gate closing. I should hope one day it is converted back into a pub but I think sadly it will be converted into flats which is the current trend across the whole of London. The building itself is rather grand with two big brick arches in the main entrance, ornate brickwork and a stone Tigers head that sits atop the centre of the building. I had hoped the inside would be as grand as the outside but unfortunately all furnishings in the pub had been completely ripped out as seen in the photos below.
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Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen is a Finnish photographer who has worked in Britain since the 1960's.
The exhibition consisted of photographs from Konttinen's time in Byker, an estate located in North East England. The nineteenth-century terraced houses here were already near to being demolished however Kontinnen was inspired by the people that lived there and wanted to document the vibrant atmosphere created by the working class community. The series of images called 'Byker' captures the twelve years of her life that she spent here, I like the mixture of photos in this exhibition some of the images are spontaneous street photography and some are personal, posed images in the homes of the residents that live there. This created a nice contrast in styles and meant all images were interesting in their own ways. I was inspired by the strong natural lighting in most of Konttinen's photographs. I love the dark black shadows that loom over the images, I feel this helps capture the dark depressing life that they live, yet the expressions on their faces show that they have overcome this and enjoy living and get on with life. For my next experiment I am keen on creating a selection of high contrasting shadows in my own style whilst documenting depressing aspects of my area. |
Situated the A20 between Lee and Mottingham, stands The Dutch House, a huge 1930s public house. Sadly the pub closed due to complications in late 2016. I was a regular visitor to this pub as I used to attend the monthly Dutch House Strip 'N Drag meet here.
When the pub closed it immediately became a canvas for graffiti artists and taggers, this along with kids smashing windows has run the site down in the space of only a few months. In the photos below I attempted to capture the dilapidated ruin that the pub now sits in. I decided to edit all the photos into high contrast black & white shots as I felt this made the images appear a lot more striking together and shows clearly how run down the outside of the pub is which was not so evident in the original washed out colour photos. |
Richard Steinheimer Born in 1929 Richard Steinheimer was an avid railroad photographer throughout the 50's and 60's. Steinheimer documented steam and diesel locomotives focussing on their elegance, beauty and power. He captures the golden age of steam and it's transition into diesel trains in the American West. I think Steinheimer's night shots are some of the most beautiful railway images I have seen, I love the high contrasting colours and the way the trains seem to glide through landscape like big metal creatures skating along. There is something very elegant and admiring about the old steam and diesel trains, not only are they built to function but they are built to look good too. I love the styling with the big bright headlights perched in the centre of the locomotives, sat upon the curved steel walls that bend round the shape of the train making no sharp corners. Richard Steinheimer is a master of railroad photography, he superbly captures this lost era and shows of the magnificence and grandeur of the 50's, something that we no longer experience with modern railways. |
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Jim shaughnessy
Jim Shaughnessy is one of the great railroad photographers of the 20th century. He successfully captured the golden age of steam travel by displaying the beasts of the railroads in all their splendour and impressiveness. I love the plumes of steam bellowing out of the chimneys leaving a trail in the air behind them. His images are much more striking in black and white as the smoke is more noticeable against the pitch black night time sky. I particularly like the first image of the train standing still with a man next to it. The front of the train is well illuminated, but only part of the side is visible as the rest of the locomotive quickly disappears into the darkness of the night. The right side of the image displays the man built train and railroad looming high above the man standing in the middle and the left side displays a leafy tree growing up from the banking. To me this photograph sums up the birth of the railroad and how it has helped to evolve and connect cities together that before were forgotten and not visited by anyone other than it's inhabitants. |
To further my research on railway photography I purchased four photo books all based around trackside photography. Each book apart from Dessous displays black and white only images. Dessous has a mixture of both colour and B&W images all taken on 35mm film. I particularly like the colours in this book, most of the images are flood lit which creates a warm orange glow over the photo. I also like the black and silver book called 'Argent'. This is printed onto silver paper which creates a selection of very funky, abstract images. Different objects are silver on each page due to the way it has been printed, this is a very clever design and makes every page very different from the one before.
The top left book 'MJU II' by Pavement Studios was created with trackside images by six different photographers, I particularly like the images of railways in abandoned Welsh quarries. These shots are far different to the gritty, urban track side shots seen in London. I feel these shots are quite mysterious and unusual, probably because all of the man made tracks and tunnels are completely abandoned in the rocky welsh hill sides. Years ago they would have been packed with miners and workers, I am sure in real life they would feel very eerie too. Lastly there is the 'OFFLINE' a quarterly publication by V.BLOCC. This is a 56 page black and white book by a dozen UK photographers, Offline consists of a mixture of street and railway photography, it is a very raw, gritty book that shows how things really are. All four of these books showcase grainy, high contrast black and white imagery in the style I like best. |
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When exploring London at night the streets are illuminated with artificial light. Luxemburg's London images document the amazing artificial light pollution created by structures in London. I love the intense orange glows that even create an ill looking yellow haze in the sky. My favourite image is the second shot looking down over the balcony of a London tower block, the colours are beautiful and very unusual, the angle is also very interesting and makes an image that is definitely not your stereo typical tower block photograph. I like the fact that this image is not immediately recognisable, the viewer has to spend a second to analyse the image and they will then see the roofs of the cars. Without these cars the image would not be as capturing as it would be too confusing and not meaningful in the same way. the red cars also add a nice hint of colour to the photograph and help to break up the vibrant green glow along with the black shadows. I intend to photograph the artificial London lighting for my next experiment.
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