Photographic heroes
In his Tillmans work he experiments with colour and form, often focusing on the natural world as his subject. He considers himself a political activist calling 2003, the start of the Iraq war, his political awakening. The theme in his early work was to show people at ease with themselves showing a freedom which he feels is not expressed elsewhere.
Sosnowska's work largely consists of self-portraits, and since 2005 they have mostly been taken in Iceland. Her portraits depict the rituals of farming and hunting in Iceland, she describes her work as a 'surreal world' with rituals which seem 'unappealing' and sometimes 'grotesque'.
exhibition leaflet
You are required to create a hypothetical exhibition. Imagine you have access to any work, space and money is no object.
Theme:
Sebastiao Salgado
Marcus lyon
Edward Burtynsky
I chose these photographers as their work together portrays the stages the natural landscape goes through before, during and after human development and the building of settlements. Other photographers I looked at were Ansel Adams and Michael Wolf.
http://noorimages.com/feature/shadow-of-change-greenland-consequences/
room 1: a world before development
Vast wildernesses left untouched by humans
Areas were wild animals ruled and humans had a place on the food chain
Areas were wild animals ruled and humans had a place on the food chain
Sebastiao salgadoThis exhibition features Work exclusively from Salgado’s eight year project called Genesis. Salgado has always had a love and respect for nature; he is also Sensitive to the ways in which humans are affected by their own devastating socio-economic problems. Genesis is about the rediscovery of the mountains, deserts and oceans, the animals and peoples that have so far escaped the imprint of modern society. ‘Some 46% of the planet is still as it was in the time of genesis… We must preserve what exists’ Salgado reminds us. Renzo Piano an Italian architect describes Genesis as ‘Salgado’s love letter to the planet’.
https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/sebasti%C3%A3o-salgado-genesis
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/nenets/index.shtml |
Ansel adamsAnsel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, his work consists of black and white photos of the American West and of Yosemite National Park. In the 1930s
'Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters. At first the colossal aspect may dominate; then we perceive and respond to the delicate and persuasive complex of nature.' |
room 2: mass production
In the 50 years from 1950 the world population more than doubled itself.
marcus lyonLyons photos aren’t just one image but hundreds of images which he digitally stitches together. This gives the desired effect of massively crammed megacities which overwhelm the viewer by the enormity of it. His photos teem with urbanisation with no tree to be seen but a world ‘Overrun with planes, trains and automobiles swarming across the globe’ says Alyssa Coppelman. It portrays an exaggeration of the globalised world we live in today with landscapes entirely transformed by developed human occupation.
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andreas gursky
Paris, Montparnasse
1993 Amazon
2016 99 Cent
1999 |
room 3 the DRASTIC consequences
edward burtynskyIn Burtynsky’s project titled ‘Water’ he looks at how people are ‘reshaping the earth in colossal ways’ but focusing specifically on Water. The project focuses on 7 themes: Distressed, Control, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Waterfront, Source and pictures of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Each picture belongs to a theme, for example the one above in the Gulf of Mexico theme, which features the contrast of the dark coloured oil in the clean green ocean. Burtynsky chose water as his subject back in 2007 after hearing about farmers abandoning their dehydrated farms in Australia. He began research in 2008 and decided that shots from ground level couldn’t portray the ‘enormous scale of activity’ . Therefore a bird's eye perspective was necessary. Burtynsky believes the water project encompasses ‘most poetic and abstract work’ of his career.
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nadav kander |