Specialist Location: Research

For my specialist location I had decided to do landscape photography mainly because I didn't much of an opportunity to do it this year and I felt like it would be perfect for my specialist location unit. Landscape photography, as the name suggests, is the photography of natural landscapes. Nature is often the focus however sometimes some man made structures can be incorporated. A common misconception of landscape photography is that it is of vast, open spaces which isn't necessarily the case. Yes, most landscape photography is of vast, open spaces and utilises wide angle lenses however you can take microscopic images using a macro lens and it could still be classified as 'landscape'. Also even though when you say landscapes you immediately think of rolling hills and trees, urban landscapes would also fall under the category 'landscape photography'. So really landscape photography is anything as long as the subject is the space/area you are photographing. It is apparent that this specialism of location photography encompasses a variety of techniques and processes.

I've always been interested in landscape photography so it'll be interesting to see if I like it as much in practise. What appeals to me about landscape photography is the fact that it is a specialism which allows you to work solo which isn't always the case with other genres such as fashion photography (you have models, makeup artists, set designers and clothes designers etc).  Also landscape photography can stand on its own i.e. the images aren't created for a specific purpose like say photojournalism (to go with the article/story) or documentary photography (to present and idea or view point).

I researched a few photographers in preparation for my shoot and here are the lucky six I've decided to include in the blog (NB: first three are historical photographers whereas the last three are more contemporary)...

1. Ansel Adams
I had a look at some of Ansel Adams work last year during the location photography unit but I think that his work is definitely worth another, more in depth look into his work. His work is all in B&W due to the fact he was working in the 1920's...it would have been quite interesting to see how the landscapes would have looked in colour! That said, I think they wouldn't have been as powerful. I personally like his images, the vastness of some of them are incredible. You just lose yourself in them and that is what I hope to achieve.Here are a couple of my favourites. 

I particularly love the one directly above because of the reflection in the body of water and i found myself liking the ones with water more and more. This led me to decide to include water in my images.

2. Fay Godwin

Her work is quite different to Ansel Adams in style, a major difference is the landscapes they photographed. Adams was fond of Yosemite National Park (being American) whereas because Godwin was British she mainly worked with British countryside and thus the end result is very different. I felt that Adams images were more powerful because with there being a lot of rock in his images, this worked well in monochrome. However, her compositions were also very interesting  because they weren't as macro as Adams. Here are some of her images I chose that demonstrate what I mean :)

3. Edward Weston

What I love about Weston's images is that he does a variety of landscapes which makes his work very interesting to look at. Again in B&W but he uses this to his advantage. He incorporate intense shadows and highlights in his images to make his images more powerful. Even though I think it looks fantastic I don't plan on using that technique myself because I want to photograph in colour and that makes it difficult to achieve the same effect as Weston. Anyway, here are some of my favourites...

4. Adam Burton

What strikes me the most about Burton's images is the colour in them. It is usually based on one colour which just makes the image 'POP'. The colour is really intense and powerful and he uses colours that often provokes emotion e.g. reds and deep blues. It makes his work very different from the three other photographers I have discussed... 

Even thought I think that the technique produces amazing results if executed exceptionally well like Mr Burton I intended to use a lot of colour in my images but I won't try to use his technique of using one colour for dramatic effect.

5. Simon Roberts

What I find really intriguing about Robert's work is that he often incorporates people into his images and they are always from an outsiders viewpoint looking at them against the landscape (he is never with them). It adds  layers to his images with this interaction between people and nature. This is mainly because the images were taken from his 'We English' series so really it is as much about the people in the photographs than it is about the landscape. Unlike Burton's work, his are quite dull and dreary but it works...mainly because the lighting is still very good. His aim is to represent Britain and he has succeeded when it comes to the climate. He has in effect used landscape photography to produce a documentary series by incorporating people...

6. Joe Cornish

Something I noticed as I was looking through Joe Cornish's images is that he is OBSESSED with rock. Big ones, small ones, round ones, funny shaped ones etc.... They're usually in the foreground and he has a very large field of view, when combined with a deep depth of field, allows for a very full images with lots going on. I also noticed that to add to this effect he often took images in portrait which is an unusual aspect ratio to use for landscape photography but it definitely works! I do however intend to use landscape and a smaller field of view than Cornish.

(I really wasn't kidding when I said he loved rocks...)

Now that I have done my research I have a general idea on what I hope to achieve in this unit in realm of landscape photography...Time to plan my shoot!