Specialist Location

SPECIALIST LOCATION:

Sea Defence Walls in North-West England
(Blackpool and Wallasey)

The beginnings

In its most basic form, landscapes are works of art that feature aesthetic scenes of nature. Derived from the Dutch word "landschap", it can refer to a variety of settings from the traditional mountain or hilly scenery to seascapes (large expanse of water mostly with some land features and often with human presence in the form of ships and beaches); to cityscapes (urban settings in either a wider rural scenery or a complete urban setting) and waterscapes (settings primarily featuring fresh water for example, the work of Monet on the Seine).

Early European landscapes tended to be static, matter-of-fact or scene-setting backdrops for events of human interaction or story-telling in the foreground; while, in the East, especially in China, landscape paintings were depicted as the main subject of interest in itself. Chinese landscape painting has been called "China's greatest contribution to the art of the world".

"Luoshenfu"

By Gu Kaizhi (344 - 406 AD)

"Departure Herald"

Painted during the reign of the Xuande Emperor (1425 - 1435 AD), he shown traveling with a large escort through the countryside.

As with all art, landscapes went through a process of development and interpretation. One of the most important discovery was perspective, first depicted by Giotto and Duccio in the early Renaissance. Another was the discovery of three-dimensional shading or "chiaroscuro" as it is known, of how the position of the sun and clouds (and other weather conditions) effect areas that are either fully exposed to sunlight and those that are either partially or completely hidden from it. This brings to light (excuse the pun), the importance of our growing knowledge (in the form of science), of the world around us. English artist John Constable was celebrated for his observation and studies of a variety of cloud formations in his drawings and paintings as well as his depictions of scenes of rural life. 

Two of constable's paintings.

The top shows a detailed cloud study and the bottom one, 

of daily life and again, detailed sky and clouds 

Constable's paintings conveyed scenes of pleasant, idyllic and sedate English countryside and how it contradicted with life in the dark, miserable industrial cities of the time that were being create throughout England.

Constable's contemporary William Turner however, experimented with the concepts of time, space and movement within a static two-dimensional painting. His "Snow Storm" and "Rain, Steam and Speed" are examples of this. 

"Snow Storm"

"Rain, Steam and Speed"

Turner's experiment of motion have recently become popular again with photographers with the use of a new breed of filters (like the "Big Stopper"), that allow for lengthy shutter exposures that capture scenes of moving water features like rivers and the seas that then appear ghostly, smooth cloth-like features. Or the ferris wheel at a fun fair, those slow pondering movement is turned into something reminiscent of the Catherine Wheel. 

With the growth of The Enlightenment, Europe and America turned from unsubstantiated, old wives tales, thoughts and ideas based on superstition and intolerance to reason and scientific methodology. The development of science and mechanisation fueled industries across Europe and America and in art two major events happened: Scientific discovery and the invention of the camera changed the art of painting irrevocably. Photography robbed painters of some of their main source of income for example, painting of landed gentry with the landscape of their expansive property often used as a backdrop. A new generation of painters began to pursue new challenges that science discovered and changed how we view the world.  Artistic movements like Impressionism, Pointillism, Post-Impressionism  and others changed the direction of their art into new avenues and frequently used landscapes as subject matter, that helped art to maintain it's pre-eminent position over photography.

"Mont Sainte Victoire"

Paul Cezanne

"Les Nympheas"

Claude Monet

"A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"

Georges Seurat

Meanwhile, photography too was busy discovering itself and showed new realities and misconceptions artists painted. The English photographer Eadward  Muybridge's conducted important studies in motion that showed that horse movement differed greatly as painted by George Stubbs. 

Photography's immediacy and portability allowed photographers to produce dozens if not hundreds of images in the time that a painter would produce one painting. In its infancy, photographic equipment was often cumbersome and heavy but it did not hinder photographers from pursuing individual interests: some ventured into inner-cities to expose the injustices of businesses and land-owners; others ventured into the death-fields of wars and others who preferred the challenge of scaling dangerous peaks of mountain ranges and alien territories. Yet, all producing ground-breaking images that showed the world in new light that helped to change our beliefs, attitudes and laws.

THREE HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHERS

William Henry Jackson

Was an American painter and a veteran of the American Civil War who became a geological survey photographer and explorer and was celebrated for his landscape photography of the American West. 

Leaving the east coast, he travelled West, first by train and then by wagon train, eventually settling in Omaha, Nebraska where he took up photography. It was while there, he photographed several tribes of American Indians. In 1869, Jackson was commissioned by the Union Pacific Railroads to document the scenery along the various railroad routes for advertising purposes. His work came to the attention of the explorer Ferdinand Hayden who was organising a geological survey to explore the Yellowstone region enlisted him for the expedition. Later, he was invited to join the US government survey of the Yellowstone River and Rocky Mountains and then Hayden Geological Survey of 1871. Both of these and other expeditions were led by Ferdinand Hayden until 1878. Accompanied by two artists and a detachment of the US Cavalry, they charted these regions for geology, cartography and indigenous life of flora and fauna. As the official photographer, Jackson captured the first photographs of major landmarks of this region of the West.

Jackson's work played an important role in establishing Yellowstone National Park as America's first national park and his reputation as one of the US's foremost explorer and photographer.

HIS EQUIPMENT

William H. Jackson travelled with three cameras: 

- stereographic camera (for stereoscope cards)

- 8x10" plate-size camera

- 18x22" camera

These cameras required fragile, heavy glass photographic plates which had to be coated, exposed and developed on-site before the wet-collodion emulsion dried. Light meters had not been invented at the time so exposure was guesswork. The development process usually took about an hour. Hot water springs reduced the time of development by half but water from melted snow took much longer. Jackson had a team of 5 to 7 men who carried the equipment on mules and rifles on their shoulders. His military experience and photographing Indians was an asset to the expedition. The weight of glass plates and portable darkroom limited the number of possible exposures on any one trip. 

The extreme conditions of the terrain, variable weather, and age-old method of transportation sometimes resulted in days or weeks of work to be lost through accidents. Sometimes, they would have to backtrack and re-take the lost pictures again. Despite occasional delays and setbacks, Jackson returned with first ever photographs of numerous landmarks in western America: Grand Tetons, Old Faithful, Yellowstone, Colorado's Rockies and the Mount of the Holy Cross as well as photographs of the Ute Indians.

Jackson exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Expositon in Philadelphia and later, he established a studio in Denver, Colorado were he showed a huge inventory of national and international photographs. He turned to photographing the development of America when he was commissioned to photograph the "White City" and then returned to railways like the Baltimore & Ohio RR and New York RR which were exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Other notable work included the photography for the World's Transportation Commission when he produced over 900 images of America's railways. Some of these images are on permanent display at the Library of Congress.

Ansel Adams

Photographer and Environmentalist

20th February 1902 - 22nd April 1984

Born in San Francisco, he was the son of a businessman and grandson of a timber baron so, Adams grew up in comfort and culture. This changed when the family fortune collapsed in the financial panic of 1907. Although his father tried to resurrect the family fortune, it was never the same again. The only child born to elderly parents, he lived in a conservative Victorian environment both socially and emotionally. His mother felt the lose of the family fortune and position but his father encouraged and supported his son.

His isolated life resulted in his failure to blend in with other children at several schools and eventually was tutored at home by his father and aunt.  Ultimately, he managed to earn a diploma from a private school. 

His only "friend" seems to have been nature. He regularly took long walks in the still-wild sand dune areas of the Golden Gate and other natural areas near the coast. 

At the age of twelve, he taught himself to play the piano and read music. He began taking lessons and he discovered his first love music and by the age of 18, he seemed destined for a musical career. Although he gave up music for photography, the piano bought discipline and structure to his reported unsociable youth. The careful and exacting training he gained from learning music he applied to photography. 

If Adams's love of nature was nurtured at the Golden Gate, it became a life-long cause in the Yosemite Sierra and the Sierra Nevada. He spent substantial time there every year from 1916 until his death. He began using the Kodak No. 1 Box Brownie his parents had given him. He hiked, climbed, explored and photographed. In 1919, he joined the Sierra Club and spent the next four summers in Yosemite Valley as a caretaker. He became friends with the clubs leaders who were founders of the budding conservation movement. The club was vital to Adam's photography as his first published photographs and writings appeared in the club's 1922 Bulletin and he had his first one man exhibition in 1928 at the club's headquarters in San Francisco. 

The Sierra Club organised annual month-long trip, usually to the Sierra Nevada, which attracted up to 200 members. The hikers were accompanied by pack mules and a contingent of cooks and assorted helpers. As photographer of these trips, Adams realised he could earn enough to survive more so than as a pianist. By 1934, Adams had been elected to the club's board of directors and was well established as both photographer of Sierra Nevada and the protector of Yosemite.

1927 was a key year for Adams. He photographed the Monolith, The Face of Half Dome and took his first High Trip. It was also his first meeting with Albert M. Bender, a San Francisco insurance magnate and patron of the arts and artists who set about publishing his first portfolio "Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras". Bender's patronage of his work dramatically changed his life. His creativity and abilities as a photographer grew as did his confidence in his work. More than this, Bender's patronage, according to some authorities, transformed Adams into an photographer of merit, as critic Abigail Foerstner wrote in the Chicago Tribune (3rd December 1992):

"...did for the national parks something comparable to what Homer's epics did for Odysseus."

Although Adams's transition from the run of the mill musician to photographer did not happen immediately, his passion shifted with Bender's influence. The projects and possibilities increased and with the publication of "Taos Pueblo" in 1930. In the same year, Adams met photographer Paul Stand who had a significant impact on him and moved him away from the "pictorial" style. He instead, pursued "straight photography", in which the clarity of the lens and the final print gave no appearance of being manipulated in the camera or the darkroom. Techniques such as "burning" and "dodging" as well as the Zone System, a scientific system developed by Adams, is used specifically to "manipulate" the tonality and give the artist the chance to create as opposed to record.

In 1927, Adams met Edward Weston and became friends and colleagues. The renowned Group f/64, founded in 1932 was a platform for Weston and Adams greatness as photographers. Group f/64 was short-lived but it impact was nation-wide. San Francisco DeYoung Museum gave f/64 an exhibition. In the same year, the museum gave Adams a one-man show. Adam's reputation grew and he met his photographic hero Alfred Stieglitz with whom he developed a friendship and Adams spent the 1940's frequently commuting between the West coast and New York where Stieglitz was based. During that time, Stieglitz played a vital role in Adam's artistic development. Apart from another one-man show, he started writing technical articles for Camera Craft and in 1936, Stieglitz organised a one-man show.

Although Adams profile increased nation-wide, he wrote to Weston how he was busy but broke and he spent most of his time being a commercial photographer. He felt he had to undertake such work and this was causing him to loose focus on his real passion. Financial stress remained until late in his life.

Adams's technical knowledge was second to none and more than any other photographer. Weston and Strand frequently consulted him for technical advice. He served as consultant to Polaroid and Hasselblad and others. Meanwhile, Adams continued to develop the "zone system" of controlling and relating exposure and development, enabling photographers to creatively visualize an image and produce a photograph that matched and expressed that visualisation. Adams produced ten highly-regarded volumes of technical manuals on photography. 

Adams's was an industrious worker and often worked for eighteen or more hours-a-day and week-on-end. He never took a day off for vacation. His intense working periods were frequently punctuated with bouts of exhaustions, partying and alcohol. He endlessly travelled the country in search for beauty and an audience. He was consummate in his dedication to and promotion of photography as fine art and played a key role in the establishment of the first museum department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He had a close relationship with the museum and Adams and Nancy Newhall (of the museum), on a number of books. Two of these books "This is the American Earth" and Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" played a seminal role in launching a citizen environment movement.

Adams was very active in the wilderness and the environment cause. Over the years, he wrote profusely, attended numerous meetings with supporters and lobbied colleagues, government bureaucrats and politicians. But what supported him mostly in this was his photography, his images that became symbolic of wild America. His black and white images were not "realistic" documents of nature but instead, "...sought an intensification and purification of the psychological experience of natural beauty. He created a sense of the sublime magnificence of nature that infused the viewer with the emotional equivalent of wilderness, often more powerful than the actual thing."

The Yosemite National Park, the national park system, the preservation of wilderness and the "resortism" of parks were his utmost concerns. He wanted to keep the wilderness wild, untouched and uncorrupted of human presence. He was devoted to numerous causes: lobbying for new parks in mainland America and Alaska, the Sur coast of central California, the redwoods, sea lions, sea otters, clean air and water, highways and billboards and the like and others. The great Henri Cartier-Bresson attacked both Adams and Weston: "...the world is falling to pieces and all Adams and Weston photograph is rocks and trees." But with the all consuming, unabated march to concrete America it is precisely the areas that Adams and his colleagues photographed that have been saved and preserved.

In the traditional art history context, Adams could be seen as the last in the romantic tradition of nineteenth-century American painters and could be bracketed along with Thomas Cole, Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt. Philosophically, he was the heir to Ralph Waldo Emerson and David Thoreau. 

Adams died in Monterey, California. In his old age, Americans expressed a great affection for Adams and that has not abated since his death. Adam's subject matter, the magnificent natural beauty of the West became one of the most ardent symbols of America.

Eliot Porter

A contemporary of Ansel Adams who also serviced as director of the Sierra Club and knew both Adams and Alfred Stieglitz who went to exhibit his work at the New York Art Gallery.

Born in 1901 in Chicago, he was the second of five children to a middle-class family. His father was an amateur architect and a natural history enthusiast, managed the family's real estate. He instilled his like of nature and knowledge into his children. 

Eliot Porter was given his first camera at the age of ten and he started to photograph nature local and then spreading towards Great Spruce Head Island, Penobscot Bay, Maine. He followed the family tradition and entered Harvard and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering in 1923 and a medical degree in 1929.

Although he took up a post at Harvard as a biochemical researcher, he still had a great interest in photography. Encouraged by one of his brother, the acclaimed painter Fairfield Porter and an introduction in the mid-1930's to Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams, he began photographing the northern New England landscape with a renewed purpose. A small collection from these black and white photographs were exhibited by Stieglitz in 1938 along with several taken in Austria at the renowned New York City gallery, "An American Place". This one-man show signaled Porter as a leading photographer, equal to the likes of Paul Strand, Adams and Stieglitz.

The success of the show led Porter to give up medicine for photography as a full-time career. He also made an important decision to pursue colour photography rather than the black and white photography that had been so successful at the exhibition. He returned to his childhood subject matter to photograph birds and then woodlands. He became the first established photographer to commit to exploring the colourful beauty of the natural world.

This preference for colour set Porter apart as his important contemporaries believed black and white was the higher art medium. This changed in 1962 when the Sierra Club published "In Wildness is the Preservation of the World". His colour photographs of the New England woods were set to the words of Henry David Thoreau. This book was groundbreaking for the use of colour photographs, the design of the book and method of printing that proved that there was a market for fine art photography books. The success of this book once again renewed his conviction and spent the rest of his life photographing a large range of natural subjects all over the world. 

At first, he stayed close to home, photographing Maine and then the Adirondacks and then Glen Canyon in Utah. He began to move farther and farther afield. He photographed in Baja California in Mexico then the Galapagos, East Africa and Antarctica. Along the way he published books of his work. He sought out ecologically diversity and the environmental conditions and threats and these drew attention in the books. Later still, he added cultural subject matter when he photographed classical Greek and ancient Egypt ruins. He went to China to capture its rise to modernity. 

He continued to photograph his first love of birds until failing health prevented him in the 1980's. With his science education background, he was always fascinated with the subjects deeper meaning, be they mineral, plants or animals. In the 1950's he photographed scientific subjects such as new-born spider or the life-cycle of mosquitos. Lichen was his other favourite subject and he sought it out where ever he traveled in the world. 

Porter's insight into the workings of nature and his strong environmentalist ethic never seemed to supercede his passion for art. He took great care and attention to making meticulously rendered dye transfer colour prints for exhibitions. In the 1940's and 1950's, when the line between nature and art were much more blurred, he was just as likely to be exhibiting at the American Museum of Natural History as the Museum of Modern Art. The 1960's and 1970's saw the gradual acceptance of colour at art museums and galleries. "Intimate Landscapes" in 1980 was the first one-person show of colour photographs presented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

In all, Porter had twenty-five books published and was working on more when he died in 1990. He was married twice, he had five sons, he was based in Tesuque near Santa Fe.

THREE CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHERS

Frank Gohlke

For over three decades, Frank Gohlke has been one of the leading figures in landscape photography. He first came to prominence during the 1975 of the groundbreaking George Eastman House exhibition "New Topographics: Photographs of the Man-Altered Landscape". 

New Topographics signaled the emergence of a generation of photographers who no longer held the prevailing romantic and pictorial standards embodied in the work of pre-eminent photographers such as Ansel Adams. The exhibition included the work of ten photographers and apart from Gohlke, there was Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore and Henry Wessel Jr. Instead of the romantic ideal they explored in greater depth the interaction between man and nature, how the human environment met, related to and joined the natural environment. William Jenkins described the photographs as "...eschewing entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion and opinion."   

Whatever the interpretation of this new style (Gohlke disagreed with Jenkins), the New Topographics has entered art history as a shift in photography, one that interprets a collective sense about how industrial and urban development and decay affects our ideas of landscape. Since the first exhibition, Gohlke has continued to question and test the relationship between man and nature, unsettling the practices of landscape representational photography. 

Gohlke made his ideas concrete in a book entitled "Thoughts on Landscape: Collected Writings and Interviews".

Gohlke's style of picture-taking is to frame landscapes as a man-made construct: an artifact of the way we live, a projection of human actions, ideals and aspirations onto the horizon. Landscape is where the human and the natural worlds connect and in Gohlke's interpretation, nature is supreme while humanity is limited, fragile and temporary. "What is the web of relationships that one perceives in the visual appearance of things?" he questions. "What particular objects in the landscape (natural or human), give one a sense of that incredibly complex tissue of causality, that makes things look the way they do?" he asks in his book. It is a fascinating examination of his thoughts and ideas.

Gohlke's photography of Mount St. Helens is in someways reminiscent of Ansel Adams's images but the two works differ substantially. Whereas Adams idealises the beauty of nature Gohlke focuses on the disruption and the geology that have produced the landscape. Adams's work generates a sense of serenity while Mount St. Helens generates a sense of fear and fascination. He wrote in 1985 that "Mount St. Helens is the only place on the continent where one can see so clearly the effects of forces comparable in scale to those produced by nuclear weapons."

New Topographics was a career springboard for Gohlke but his own ideas and practices soon went beyond the definition of  that style. In an interview in 1978, he said that he was uncomfortable being pigeonholed. While Gohlke's early work resonated with contemporaries like Stephen Shore and Robert Adams, it was also influenced by terms such as geography, place, space and landscape. In that era, geographers and architectural theorists were challenging the assumptions of these fields. In his writings, he acknowledges the influences of such writers as Carl Sauer and John Brinckerhoff (amongst others) about landscapes.

The benefit of the chronological structure of his "Thoughts on Landscape" is that we can trace the conceptual progression of his photography through his writings over an extended period. An example of this was his photographs of grain elevators which he had been photographing 1971 to 1977, and writing about them until 1992. Later, in an interview, he talked about the artists' processes of "finding their subject"; he expanded that the themes he discovered from the grain elevator project helped to solidify this work processes. Later still, in 1992, in an essay "Measures of Emptiness: Grain Elevators in the American Landscape", Gohlke talked about his fascination with the relationships of human and natural order: 

"The grain elevators could not be considered in isolation from the landscape; the building and its concept were inseparable..."

"At the same time, I was beginning to realise that the landscape is not a collection of fixed objects on static spatial grid but a fluid and dynamic set of relationships. Its appearance is the result of a multitude of forces acting in time on the land itself and its human accretions."

Gohlke viewed grain elevators as an expression of the intricate ways in which nature, humanity and perception intersect. Originally intrigued by their forms which seemed functional, he then began to see their impact with people and the landscape, similar to Le Corbusier with undecorated machine-buildings that he described in "Towards a New Architecture" (1923). Gohlke's research of this strange, tubular structure became aware of their role and function within a rural communities. This allowed him to go beyond their distinctive form and realise their significance as markers in an otherwise uniform and flat landscape. After years of photographing them from all viewpoints he concluded that the best view "is obtained through the windshield of a car or truck while traveling on a highway in Kansas or Oklahoma or the Texas Panhandle. It is not a static view, but one that begins just as the elevator becomes visible above the centre line, about five miles out of town, and continues until it disappears in the vibration of the rearview mirror."

Gohlke has continued to explore the relationship between nature and humanity similar to the grain elevators. In 2003, he underwent an urban photographic survey of Queens, New York with photographer Joel Sternfeld. About the same time, he surveyed the land within a single line of latitude, moving from the Atlantic Ocean west to the massachusetts-New York border, a strip of land roughly one mile wide and 165 miles long. Although not a complete or scientific survey, it celebrated the arbitrariness of boundaries and the centrality of imagination in transforming terrain into place.

When questioned about his approach to photography, he said: "We have to understand a problem before we can solve it. I would sometimes advance this modest proposition to defend my choices of subject matter, which some people found irritatingly perverse, cynical, depressing and boring. The gloss of social responsibility occasionally distracted my critics but it unfortunately also confused me. In some sense, what I was doing was perverse for I was drawn to photograph in places where I didn't particularly like to be. I would say 'I love these places', and I didn't really, at least not in the sense my audience probably thought. I was secretly afraid that the discrepancy indicated some irremediable bad faith at the heart of my enterprise, but I didn't know what I could do about it since I didn't want to do anything else. It took some time for me to understand that my discomfort was a sign that I was where I needed to be."

Lewis Baltz

Born in Newport Beach, California 1945, he is one of America's most influential photographers. Now working in Europe, and since 2002 has been a professor of photography at the European Graduate School EGS. A photographer and artist (with a Master's degree). He has exhibited the world over and some of his work in the collections of many institutions, museums. Lewis's aesthetics is often referred to as "counter aesthetics", as he photographs desolate landscapes and forgotten places with a dispassionate eye. His style is expressionless and obsessive as he examines his subjects over long periods of time. Since the 1990's he has been working on information architecture, exposing the crisis of technology. This interest in information has expanded to include surveillance.

Lewis Baltz is one of the original photographers in the "New Topography" movement in the late 1970's and like Frank Gohlke (above), his work brought a shift in landscape photography from the romantic, picturesque and heroic vision of America to the bland, functional human landscape and how it altered the natural landscape. It's been over thirty years since it's opening, this exhibition still remains one with the strongest impact on landscape photography world-wide in it's attempt to define both objectivity and the role of the artist in photographic creation. Baltz's photographs at the exhibition included industrial warehouse complex in southern California. His images consisted of blank concrete walls and prefabricated buildings convey an impression of monotonous, claustrophobic existence of urban life. He often displayed them in a grid format as it was important for Baltz that these pictures be seen collectively as a group or series, as for him one image should not be taken as more true or significant than another. His original approach is regarded by some as clearly embodying the essence of the movement's critical depiction of the American landscape. This, according to some authors, makes Lewis Baltz more closely aligned with conceptual art than with traditional photography.

"The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California" was the first of a trilogy of works with "Park City" (1980) and San Quentin (1986). This series of photographs exposes the crisis of technology and man by documenting the changing American Landscape. His pictures reveal landscapes not as Ansel Adams had captured them but by capturing his fears, by capturing a "landscape-as-real-estate" and Baltz has used the images of construction sites as a way to deconstruct the surrounding society.

In "Neveda" (1977), Baltz  presented a new direction. By alternating panoramic views of the horizon with photographs of construction sites, trailer parks and streets to show the disappearing landscape. This was the beginning of a highly detailed mapping he explored over the next decade and that culminated in his epic work "Candlestick Project".  The previous projects were photographed between 1984 to 1988, and explored in detail a landscape left devoid of natural features. It was created in an area between the airport and the ballpark south of San Francisco.

After Baltz moved to Paris, he made large-scale installation works in colour with soundtracks: "Le Ronde de Nuit" (1992), "Docile Bodies" (1995), and "The Politics of Bacteria" (1995). In these works, he continued to examine his interest in man-made environments and their impact on ecology and society. This body of work addressed the blurred interaction of humans and machines and taking us within the recesses of the ambiguous cyberworlds. In these worlds, we see the representation of multiple forms of control and power exercised over human beings.

From the beginning of the 1990's, "89-91 Sites of Technology", Baltz showcases places where the technical research was being undertaken at companies like Toshiba, Mitsubishi and France Telecom. He photographed what could only be termed as invisible concepts of development.

Andreas Gursky

Born in Leipzig in 1955, Gursky is a German artist and photographer who achieved fame for his large format landscape and architectural images that often used high points of view. His "Rhein II" sold for $4.2 million (£2.7 million) at Christie's in New York in 2011, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold.

His family history is of photography as both his father and grandfather were commercial photographers. Part of his training as a photographer was under the wife and husband team of Hilla and Bernd Becher, famous for their unique, bland and clinical method of systematical cataloguing industrial machinery and architecture. Gursky demonstrated a similar methodology in his photography. Another influence was British landscape photographer John Davies, who produced photographs of large scale structures like tower blocks and power stations. Generally, his vantage point is high-up. 

Gursky's subject matter is varied: skyscrapers, mountain peaks, large-scale industrial sites, car manufacturing, technology, Formula One motor racing, tower block housing and others. In many of these people play a secondary but crucial role. In some, people appear ant-like, small and insignificant to majestic backdrops of mountain ranges or greater social or industrial scenery. In other, amongst his most famous, housing and office tower blocks, people whether individuals or  individual groups are pre-occupied  in their cell-like rooms, offices or homes. The there are larger groups organised as a working unit in factories, Formula One racing pits. 

Gursky often explores the fringe of where nature meets civilisation, like in  In places of nature we find global industries encroaching. 

The images are not always comfortable. Most if not all, are colourful and superbly composed are beautifully photographed even though at times the subject matter is of unpleasant subject matter. Whether because inner-city architecture, heavy industry or people sunbathing on a crowded beach. His "Salerno I" shows hundreds of cars parked in orderly fashion, waiting to be loaded onto ship that are in the harbour. Once again, he takes the photograph from a high vantage and a classical landscape scene of an idyllic harbour with sailing boats against a distant mountain range is replaced by a concentrated industrial complex of the present. Breath-taking modernity has carpeted over what was once a lush green landscape barely touched by mankind. The image leaves the viewer with a sense of both awe at the vision of human development and regret at the speed in which  man-made structures and cities are replace the nature that created us. The breath-taking speed of globalisation and the smallness of our own existence in the presence of great natural features like mountain ranges is the subject of Gursky's work. His vast photographs of the Hong Kong stock exchange, massive ships docked at a harbour, cargo planes preparing to take off, a government building, testify to this power. In "Montparnasse", he captures a gigantic stretch of an apartment complex in the centre of Paris. The image was assembled from several photographs in such a way that it is possible to see the side view of the building which in reality, cannot be seen since the viewer could never have the required distance when actually standing before it. The photograph shows the building more clearly than we could see it. In the windows, innumerable scenes are taking place that break and enliven the monotony of the uniform facades in an incredible, voyeuristic way.

Although his photographs give us images of globalisation, the growth of mankind in their concentrated, condensed colonies and the replacement of nature by human development, they invoke the sublime because of the size and style of the composition. Gursky openly admits to manipulating his images, altering where needed in order to heighten the sense of the sublime.

Gursky's pictures can be taken as aesthetic compositions of sociological studies. They are never merely beautiful: They are above all intelligent, metaphors of our times. The most amazing things about his large-scale pictures is that they draw the viewer in. Such is the intensity of the details within his photographs. The narrative details are concealed in around the structures. Survey of the whole and precision in details are decisive for Gursky's style.

Just as his subject matter of the boundaries between nature and human development, his photographs too sit on the fringe of documentary and fine art photography and thus between photography and painting. Although they work with reality, they are also wholly subjective. Gursky constructs pictures thus distorting reality. In a way, they are fictions based on reality. Since the 1990s, he has increasingly worked with digital post-processing to effect his photographs, to either enhance or emphasis details he considers important. He shows us the world not as it is but as he sees it: idealised and stylised to his vision. He has a flair for exemplary places and scenes. In his "99 cents II" he is making a statement about the present state of the consumer society. That this picture recently sold for $2.2 million is also making a statement about the varying standard of the same society.

“What I do it is not purely photography”, Gursky comments on his own work. “All of my pictures draw from direct visual experience, from which I develop a pictorial idea, which is then tried and tested in the studio in terms of its worthiness of being used for a picture, and finally developed and rendered precise on the computer.“ (Andreas Gursky)

Nearly all of Gursky's photographic works are based on a multitude of shots. They are montaged together on a computer to become a single composite.

“Invariably, Gursky initially starts off by searching for images, and in a second step invents his picture. Gursky’s pictures do not appear out of nowhere, they are always based on a picture which existed previously. No matter, to what extent - he works on the ´pre-picture` until it finally matches what he had in mind.” (Beat Wismer, Generaldirektor Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast) 

In the series "Bankok", Gursky is both an artist who works conceptually and a painter working with photography. The work shows no hint as to the location (except the title of the work), but depicts a shoreless flowing water. The light falling onto the Chao Phraya river's surface mixed with floating debris gave him an idea for a new series. But he does not present the picture as it is but manipulates it. He increased the density of the dark, oil-like river to bring out the areas of the reflected light and the inherent colours, to create high contrast and abstraction. They are reminiscent of Abstract Expressionist pictures by Clifford Still and Barnett Newman. This series finally developed into a total of ten works from the river's light-shadow camouflage. In contrast to the "Ocean" series, Gursky used portrait format for Bangkok. 

To some, his photography becomes digital painting. He is also likes to photograph the works of modern artists which hints at the sources from which he borrows for his kind of photography. 

In 2010, Andreas Gursky was appointed professor at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art, where e teaches free art.

What I have learnt from these six photographers

My choice of historic and contemporary photographers is naturally, based on my decision to pursue landscape photography.

In the historic category, at least one of the three choices was obligatory: the name of Ansel Adams, the preeminent landscape photographer. Leaving him out could be reason enough to fail a student, I presume. The equivalent would be I guess, leaving Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo out of the history of the Renaissance. My other choices were William Henry Jackson and Eliot Porter.

My first choice, William Henry Jackson was based on the observation that although he might or might not have been a photographer of great talent, it was his pioneering spirit that bought him fame. That very American of qualities, first brought to the attention of both Americans and the world, new landmarks that had not been photographically recorded before. Places like Grand Tetons, Old Faithful, Mount of the Holy Cross and in general, Yellowstone. 

With the few trips I have made to the Peak District and a few coastal towns for my first ever ventures into landscape photography, what I have learnt from Jackson is that no matter how well known an area is, there are still natural features that can be photographed from a new perspective or there are features or scenes so insignificant that if the photographer has creative flair, could turn them into images that become interesting and eye-catching. In this way, every photographer, in their own individual way, have a pioneering spirit.

My second choice was Ansel Adams. He gave me historical perspective. He, at one level, captured landscapes of great beauty in a style that linked him to the great landscape painters of the past and pre-photography. On another level, his technical brilliance and expansive knowledge of the camera and photograph-taking, showed me that a photography student can still take significant photographs and continue to pursue photographic knowledge that will make me a better technical photographer. Adams took decades to gather knowledge that even his 'heroes', and renowned photographers in their own right, Edward Weston and Paul Strand, were known to seek Adams's advice on technical matters.

My third choice was Eliot Porter. A contemporary of Adams, I chose him because he was significantly different from both Jackson and Adams in that he preferred to photograph in colour at a time black and white photography was considered the superior medium. He was also a scientist before he took up photography and looked at the natural world with a deeper understanding of the subject-matter than most other photographers. Apart from his favourite subjects birds, he took colour experimental photography of reflections in water and creative compositions like "Foxtail Grass" (1957), that compositionally would not look out of place taken today. 

What I learned from Porter was to believe in myself. His pursuit of colour over black and white eventually earned him fame. Some of his experimental landscapes (reflections), reminded me that ideas are recycled. Very few things are original, that originality is a difficult goal but not an impossible one.

My three contemporary photographers were Frank Gohlke, Lewis Baltz and Andreas Gursky. All three exhibited at the groundbreaking "New Topographics" in New York in the 1970s. The New Topographics has had a significant effect on my photography both in content and style. The line had shifted from the romantic, pictorial to straight photography to a new way of seeing subject-matter and form and composition. Before my awareness of the New Topographics, I would have taken photographs of the cliched sunsets and the like but now my whole attitude has changed and I look differently  at possible subject-matter

Gohlke's choice of subjects and his attitude to composition were often matter-of-fact and ordinary and simplistic. His series on grain elevators showed that a long-term project can be educational beyond its appearance. No subject is too small or insignificant.

I found Baltz's subject and compositions striking. A corrugated wall or drainage pipe or the edge of a building could be great subject-matter, if the photograph is well composed. My photography in Blackpool show's Baltz's influence.

And finally, just like Adams, Gursky cannot be excluded. His epic subjects, epic prints and commitment to digital technology is an approach that I too believe in. My experimental photography openly shows my dedication to software like Photoshop. He is above all, a technical photographer. That is the foundation his digital images rest upon.

SPECIALIST PHOTOGRAPHY

Landscapes -  North West Sea Defence Walls at Blackpool and Wallasey

Landscapes were one of two areas of interest in Photography for me (the other being architecture), and I felt that this was the last chance to get into it before the end of the course. I had never done landscapes before so I had a great degree and uncertainty before embarking on the "business end" of choosing subject matter and locations.

What confused and compounded the situation further was the presentation of my Specialist Location. My ideas were simplistic to the point of ignorance on the subject. At the presentation, it was pointed out to me that I needed to be more precise about the subject matter. 

Upon embarking on my first trip into the unknown. I headed towards what I assumed were the general Pennines. I took the M62 and viewed several possible locations. Making my way off the motorway, I finally found my way onto the A58. Driving west towards Rochdale, I stopped where ever I viewed a scene worthy of photography.

Being a student my camera equipment is limited: a Canon 400D with a kit lens (18-55mm); a flimsy tripod that a gentle breeze would knock over and no filters except a UV filter to protect my kit lens. The weather was overcast with vary degrees of gray clouds. The subject matter was varied as I took photographs of scenes that appealed to me, little knowing that landscape can be broken down to many sub-divisions: certain types of weather conditions, types of hills, types of farming and so forth.

A few days later, I ventured into the hills surrounding Woodhead Reservoir on the A628. Once again, the weather conditions were dull, cloudy and in the distant rain clouds were emptying their load. Here and there, the sun would attempt to break through. It rarely did. At times the layers hiding the sun would thin and create interesting light effects both on the clouds and on the land below.

The success of some of these photographs gave me the confidence to venture to Southport, for a different type of landscape for a different set of photographs under different weather conditions. A key lesson learnt here was the need for preparation. In Manchester, the weather was pleasant with outbreak of sunshine amongst broken clouds. In Southport, the weather was similar if not less cloudy. But with little experience of coastal conditions, I was struck by the bitterly cold winds sweeping in from the sea. I was grateful that I had brought enough cold weather clothing to protect myself while I photographed.

After showing some of these photographs to lecturers, I was advised to return to the coast again to take more photographs on a theme of the coast that was developing amongst a few of the photographs. Within the next few weeks I went to Wallasey (on the Wirral), and then to Blackpool. Wallasey was an accident at the end of a generally unfruitful day of location searching. LESSON: Location searching is a field in itself. 

Although I ended up in Wallasey by accident, it availed me an opportunity to develop the coastal theme further. The sea defence wall was high and there were features ahead and behind of interest. Blocks of flats, stairway leading to the beach, wave-brakers and a few other presented themselves as photographic features.

On another occasion I awoke to a rare clear and sunny day. An hour's drive later and I arrived at Blackpool. Parking my car at Lytham St. Annes (which was just a stone's throw south of Blackpool), near the sand dunes with bulrush-like tall grass. Although the dunes and grass was not my real subject-of-interest, I grabbed the opportunity as I found them fascinating. Further up, the Blackpool sea defence wall started but I had mistimed my arrival. The sea seemed far out and I took my time with the dunes but in less than an hour, the sea rushed back in again and was touching the wall. I cursed my luck and lack of foresight but in fairness, I live in a city far from the sea so, how was I to know! Thinking that I would have to return on another day, a local man assured me that the sea would withdraw again by mid-afternoon. Knowing that, I busied myself photographing the coastal-line, or in another words, where humanity meets nature: the sea defence wall and the narrow area that runs along it.

My plan was to start at the south of the city and wall (if possible) all the way to the northern end. The weather condition was exceptional: There was a clear blue sky with only an occasional hint of a cloud, often in the far distant. There was no wind either so, it was pretty much a perfect day. As mentioned above, my camera equipment was very basic but in detail I had the following:

Canon 400D, lens 18-55mm

Canon S95 compact

Canon 1Ds, lens f/1.8, 50mm

Tripod

...and all batteries fully charged with no extra batteries (so, I consciously kept turning all the cameras on and off to reserve energy. 

I had only recently acquired the Canon 1Ds so I wasn't as comfortable with it as the other two cameras and since this photography was for the Specialist location, I decided to use it minimally and if the 400D run out of power.

Clothing was an important consideration. After my experiences at Southport and Wallasey, I decided to wear a hooded jacket even though it was quite warm just in case the weather changed and I might be some distant from the car. I decided to keep a cheap, plastic hooded poncho in my camera-case just in case it rained later in the day (after all this was England)!

I was ready. The time was about 8:30 in the morning and Blackpool lay ahead. I had only two concerns. Firstly, to find subjects of interest and secondly, find a cafe were I could get some breakfast!

On a serious note though, what concerned me the most was the subject-matter. I had been influenced by the New Topographics and counter-aesthetics in the work of photographers like Frank Gohlke and Lewis Baltz (and others of the Topographics exhibition). Also, the Dusseldorf School and especially Becher's star pupil Andreas Gursky. I wanted to experiment with these styles but I had to see what presented as possible subject matter. 

I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve: simple compositions with the minimum of elements in them. Where possible, I would avoid any human presence in my photographs; I just wanted to photograph the areas around the sea defence wall with two over-bearing subjects in mind:

THE SEA:

I had no interest in seascapes except in relation to the sea defence wall (nature meets humanity). 

THE COAST: 

where the sea meets man-made structures. These structures were of great interest as they were not simple sea defence walls but they had been shaped to serve several functions: to protect the line of buildings (hotels, eateries, places of entertainment and the buildings beyond them) and features built into the wall so that it would allow holiday-makers and day-trippers to maximize their enjoyment. Features like railings at the top of the wall so that people were protected from the sea; stretches of area shaped into steps that would allow people to walk down to the beach at low tide; seating areas just beyond the railings so that people could sit at a near-distance to look out at the sea view and attractively designed walkway for people to walk the length of the wall. There where other details like small openings (tastefully designed) allowing fishermen to set their fishing-lines. The top of the wall had other structures for entertainment, the pier, and food and drink stalls. There were three types of people: workers (looking after the access to the beach and the safety of people and stall-holders), visitors and locals (walking dogs, jogging). Beyond that was the tram system and road and the shops.

One final observation about the sea defence wall was that its style varied the length of Blackpool. The north of the city had the oldest wall while the south part of the wall (that run the whole length of the "entertainment" area), was very new and seemed to take into account greater human presence. While the older, north section was a plain wall with seating areas designed without human comfort in mind.

SPECIALIST LOCATION:

SEA DEFENCE WALLS IN NORTH-WEST ENGLAND
(Blackpool and Wallasey)

The Photographs:

PHOTOGRAPH ONE: 
Blackpool Tower throw metallic pipes

I spied these interesting pipe-like structures in the process of being installed. They looked like stylised bulrush to me but I could be wrong. The area around the installation was fenced off but there was a seating area next to the fence. Mounting the top of the seat back rest, I noticed that the tower through the pipes. Standing precariously, I looked at several composition options. If I'd lowered the camera I would have caught the top of the buildings. If I'd lowered it further I would have caught the street scene. Discounting the various distractions and options I choose this final composition. The sight of five vertical pipes and the vertical tower in the distant was the right composition to my mind. I had from the start, decided that I would not take any shots of the obligatory iconic Blackpool Tower but this composition was too enticing to ignore. With a graduated blue sky in the background, the elements are set against a background which was plain and helped them to stand out.

Possible improvements:

Overall, I am satisfied with the photograph. I would have liked to taken the photograph without the shadow on the tube to the right of the tower. Also, I would have liked to have gone around the tubes to see if I could have developed a theme or series but considering that its a new installation and was fenced off, I was restricted.

Further development:

A possible subject for further photography once the installation and landscaping is complete.

PHOTOGRAPH TWO: 
North Blackpool Sea Defence Wall Stairs to Beach

Walking along the older northern wall, I walked down a set of stairs going down to the beach. Turning back after one flight, I saw that the lines of the walls and stairs created an interesting convergence of lines and shape set against a deep blue sky. What was equally interesting was wear and tear on the walls. The evidence of erosion and discolouring caused by the salt sea water and bacteria had ingrained into the surface of the thick walls. It was also hard to imagine that something as insignificant as salt water and bacteria could damage walls that looked as if they could have kept out an army. The white zigzagging lines was testimony to how high sea levels could get. It was simply frighting for an inland dweller like me to contemplate living near an area where the might of the sea could one day consume the area. 

As cold and devoid of emotion the scenery is, it is softened by evidence of an unsavoury aspect of human presence - graffiti. Apart from the shapes, I would the variations of the colours interesting. The light-gray concrete, the blue sky, the white zigzagging line, the brownish-green to black bacteria stains, the bleached stairs and the red and blue graffiti.

Possible improvements:

It would have been interesting to use a wider lens. Perhaps a single person peeking over the far wall or even perhaps, walking down the stairs but it was always my intension not to introduce people into the pictures; just cold, sometimes amusing scenery.

Further development:

It might be interesting to see how different lighting and weather conditions would have effected the subject here. 

PHOTOGRAPH THREE: 
New Wall and Stairs to the Beach

This photograph took nearly one hour to take. The area was crawling with beachcombers. It seemed every time I raised the camera some other person would walk into the field-of-view. It could be said that people would complete the scene, (after all, that's the reason for their existence), but for me they would pollute it. The pure forms of the clear sky, the clean shape and lines of the wall and stairs and the safety railing atop of the wall was the composition I wanted. Once again, the image is cold and unforgiving but it still has a certain charm. The rounded form of the wall and features that are familiar somehow softened the image. 

Possible improvements:

A single person in several possible locations: resting on the top fence, or walking next to the high wall or sat on one of several positions on the stairs.

Further development:

Once again it's a very clean image with simple objects and lines. I could zoom in more, certainly, I couldn't zoom out any more as other architectural features would 

have reduced the overall quality of the subject and composition.

PHOTOGRAPH FOUR: 
Sea Defence Wall, Wallasey

Different location, different day, different weather and light conditions changes the effect. Instead of bright strong clean colours we have somewhat muted colours.

This photograph was inspired by likes of Gursky, Baltz and Gohlke.

The clean line and division of the space: beach, wave-brakers, sea wall and the area beyond it with the tower blocks and sky. The play area (beach), the defence (the wall) and civilisation. Just a wall but it's the last line of defence protecting a town from death and ruin. 

Possible improvements:

This image has possibilities. Different positions and angles might produce a better composition. Different weather too, might change it in some way.

Further development:

Photographs from the other side might be interesting. It would be interesting to see the view from one of the blocks of flats. There is a smallish hill with house behind 

the flats that would also give an interesting composition.

PHOTOGRAPH FIVE: 
Arch and the Sea Defence Wall, Blackpool

Another section of the sea defence wall at Blackpool. What I found interesting about this composition was the square arch between the wall's stair entrance and behind it. The diagonal angle of the shot was taken so that I could centre the vertical lines of the arch within the entrance of the stairway. The diagonal lines of the wall and the arch (and to some degree the angled stairs), give the image a dynamism and splits it into two distinct areas: The top-half of the photograph with the play of angled lines and the bottom-half which is relatively sedate and patterned with the nut-like architectural features. The "nut" on the wall give it added interest as does algae which somehow soften the hard lines of the feature.

Possible improvements:

The first thing I could do is to centre the arch and stairwell in the middle of the composition. The reason I didn't was the small feature protruding from the left-side of the wall which is a part of the overall square arch beyond it. The small feature adds nothing to the overall scene and would consider deleting it in Photoshop and re-centring the arch feature into the middle of the composition. This then would also allow me to zooming in closer to the key features and show less of the "nuts". 

PHOTOGRAPH SIX: 
Old Sewage Pipe, Blackpool

This old sewage pipe emerges about a 100 yards from the shoreline and offers a very contrasting view of not only the old and the new but about lessons learnt by society. The emerged pipe is about 100 feet long and ends with an opening. I presume that the sewage would exit at this point and the incoming sea would wash it back onto the shoreline, towards holiday-makers of past generations.

There is an interesting "T" composition: the old sewage pipe in the centre points towards the new coastline of Blackpool with its bright, mostly white buildings. There are several contrasting features: old and the new; the dark and the light; life and death; the ignorance of the past and the bright knowledge of the future. 

The photograph could also be referred to as evidence of documentary or anti-aesthetic.

Possible improvements:

I could brighten the foreground to bring out more of the details on the eroding pipe and wooden stakes. Alternatively, I could create a montage of the same image. The top in full detail and the bottom with pipe in full focus and bringing out the full details. 

Further development:

The sewage pipe and the decaying wooden posts offer many photographic possibilities. both compositionally and for a source of textures. 

I did look at the sewage pipe in isolation with the beach in the foreground and the background or with the sea in the background. I also looked at the possibility of a composition looking down the beach with the shoreline on one side and the sea on the other side but I have to admit, the composition I captured in this image: looking down the decaying pipe with the modern coastline in the distant was the best option.

PHOTOGRAPH SEVEN: 
"The Big One" Roller Coaster, Blackpool

I tried not to take a picture of this structure because it's not something I wanted to photograph as it wasn't really a part of my theme. But it was at the end of a long day of photography and I was returning to my car and I passed this fun fair again (euphemistically called "Blackpool Pleasure Beach"), and decided to take a photograph. A part of my hesitation was that the structure was tall and without a tilt-shift lens, my kit lens would capture the rollercoaster leaning back, that is, distort the perspective. Regardless and after several attempts, I almost captured the image I wanted: the ride/mini train at the apex of the arched track. Once again, the iron-frame structure in black and red is against a deep blue clear sky. 

Possible improvements:

I did try to correct the perspective in photoshop but limited myself to small changes. To fully correct the perspective I would first have to get the vertical lines straight which would have "fattened" the structure and then lengthened the image to correct the "fattening" effect. I would also have to crop the image down as the change of perspective would have resulted in the image enlarging. I chose for the above example to go halfway.

PHOTOGRAPH EIGHT: 
Stairs, Old Sea Wall, North Blackpool

The obvious change is the materials and styling. These old stairs are built with red bricks and concrete whereas the new wall is all concrete. The square shape of the old stairs have been replaced by the rounded, organic shapes in the new wall, stairs and seating. These stairs do not go down to the beach but from the high main road to the walkway on the top of the old sea wall. The effects of the salty sea water is clearly evident: the metal rails some major signs of corrosion. No doubt, it won't be too long before they have to be replaced too. Whether they simply replace the metal railing or replace the whole old wall is difficult to say especially since the new sea wall further south has cost Blackpool in the region of £65 million. This is cost is still significantly small compared to what the city makes from holiday-makers and day-trippers. 

The diagonal angle of the composition was an attempt to capture the different position of the two flights of stairs: the top flight is angled towards the beach while the bottom stairs is angle parallel with the beach. I attempted to capture both flights stairs and railings. Apart from the forms, there is a clear division of colours: the blue sky, the gray and reddish rust of the concrete stairs and the red bricked wall that the stairs are supported on.

Although it is clear that the forms are the key features of the composition, the rused and mangled safety railing draw an emotion reaction because of their battered and decaying appearance.

Possible improvements:

Perhaps, I could have captured more of the bottom part of the steps but the steps themselves was not the main reason for the composition. I wanted to capture the overall shape and angles of the stairs and railings. I paid much attention to not capture anything else.

I would consider sharpening the image further to see if I could bring out the texture of the concrete steps and the decaying railings. Perhaps also adding contrast to aid in bringing out more detail. 

Further development:

The two levels of the stairs in themselves offer much opportunity for a variety of stops: top, middle and bottom offer several possibility for compositions. As does a more wide-agle shoots to capture the area around it. Overall though, I am happy with this composition. 

PHOTOGRAPH NINE: 
Railing, South Blackpool

This photograph is a railing wall that is inset from the main sea wall itself. Beyond the railing there is a walkway. On far side, the sea and on the inside this circular area that is walled off as a way of framing a variety of architectural and sculptured features, for example, a glass-tiled spinning globe, a styled sculpture of a fish and another feature was a mini-submarine.

What interested me was the arched shape of the wall and the railings and the shadow it caste on the concrete ground which accentuated it's circular shape.

The soft colours of the concrete floor and for once, the light sky and sea contrasts with the shadow. The shadowed back wall helps to reinforce the image of the front wall.

Possible improvements:

Several possible improvements: the sun is on the right-hand side of the image but out of shot. Its position has bleached out the sea which is slightly unattractive. Perhaps, if I had waited longer, the sun would have been further north and I might have captured a complete strip of blue sea running the length of the composition. The only consideration then would have been how the position of the sun would have effected the angle of the shadows as I feel the angle of the shadow of the railing is about right in this photograph. 

Alternatively, I could have moved further along and avoided the sun's refection in the sea. But I seem to recall I tried that but for some reason(s) that didn't work. 

Further development:

If I had more time to spend on this composition, the day would have to be similar but unfortunately, sunny days with clear blue sky is a rarity in this part of the world, so that I could take shots at different times of the day and with the shadows in different positions. This would give me a cross-section from which to choose the best option. 

PHOTOGRAPH TEN: 
Old Sea Defence Wall, North Blackpool

Amongst the variety of photographs I took throughout the day, I find this one to be one of the most intriguing. The sea was once again receding from the beach but was high enough to still be touching the sea wall. I walked down the steps leading to the beach and then mounted the area of the wall that was curved vertically to join it where the wall angled to meet the beach. Standing on the joint of the curve and angled wall I aimed the camera northwards and composed the image roughly where the wall, the cemented join and the sea met. This had the result of dividing the composition into about four quarters with each quarter showing different scenery. 

The converging perspective lines of the wall, the beach, the sea (shallow and deep depths) all meet in the middle of the canvas.

Possible improvements and developments:

Although the clear blue graduated sky adds an abstract quality to the image, I would like to see how different weather conditions would change the overall emotive-value of the composition. I would also like to vary my angles to see what alternative angles I could achieve. If I had a wide-angle lens, I would have been interesting to capture more of the sea. A composition in which two-thirds could be the sky and sea and one-third is the seal wall, is a photograph that could work in my mind.

PHOTOGRAPH ELEVEN: 
Sand Dunes with tall grass, South Blackpool / Lytham St. Annes

At the southern most part of Blackpool there is a line of sand dunes protecting the town of Lytham St. Annes from high tides. The dunes are covered with thick patches of grass and while walking on both sides of the dunes I noticed this block of apartments two deck high. Climbing on the top, I noticed that the ground floor apartments view was completely blocked by the dunes while the top floor had a clear view of the sea.

I felt that I wanted to capture this "hidden" quality of the apartments so, moving up and down the sea-side of the dune I composed this final image. The tall windswept grass glistening in the sun obscuring the view of and from the block of flats.

Possible improvements:

There are several changes I could make. I would have liked a darker sky and I would consider deleting the airplane vapour trail which serves no purpose except that it is there. It would also have been interesting to use a tilt-shift lens to capture the building with the right perspective. It would also have been interesting to capture the same scene with a wide-angled lens, to see more of the dunes and grass to see if I could make the look more isolated and a wilder environment.

Further development:
I deleted the vapour trail which was somewhat distracting but also added a quality to the scene. Removing the trail simplifies the composition and there is a clear division of space between the sky and the land.

This photograph has the potential for a theme: dunes, grass and man-made objects. Even the introduction of people in this theme might be permissible. 

PHOTOGRAPH TWELVE: 
New Street Lights, Blackpool

These stylised multi-directional street lights cover only a short area of the promenade. After considering several options, I took the photograph with the intention of of excluding everything except the lights. With their unusual shape and futuristic styling and the added dimension of a somewhat abstract graduated blue sky, the lights look alien or at the very least an anachronism. The arched arrangement of the lights also adds to the mystery.

Possible improvements:

There really weren't many alternatives that I could think of. I considered alternative compositions that included a close-ups and other buildings but the mishmash of styles in other architectural features reduced the impact of this final image.

Overall, the composition is very simple with very little space taken up by the line of street lights against the glowing, ethereal quality of the blue sky leaves few other details that might need improving.

One possible consideration is to exploit the rather abstract quality of the image by perhaps, by adjusting the hue and saturation and other experimentation with other filters but ultimately the composition works because its simplicity. 

Further development:

These lights are definitely worthy of another trip. I would like to see how they look against backgrounds of varying weather conditions. A foggy day would be interesting. 

PHOTOGRAPH THIRTEEN: 
South Promenade, Blackpool

One of my earliest photographs that helped me to establish the style of photography I wanted. It captures the far sea defence wall and an inner arched wall that is low enough for the public to either lean against or sit upon.  To me, the styling is reminiscent of Art Deco. Other features like the repeating square indentations in the far wall and the pastel colours only add to this styling. The Walls start at the top right hand side level with the sea and then curves down with the inside wall finishing just off-centre with the cut-off face facing the camera. The floor too, has bluish-gray and pink paths that follow the curves of the wall in an erratic pattern. The weather and rain stains on the walls add a realism to the scene.

Possible improvements:

I think this image could be turned into an abstract piece of art with just outlines of the key features and single solid colours. 

Further development:

A higher angle perhaps. A walk around the area might yield further photographs as I did not spend too much time in one area. I was on a one day photographic excursion of Blackpool and there was much more to capture. 

PHOTOGRAPH FOURTEEN: 
Stairs, Blackpool

This flight of stairs are from the promenade to what I can only describe as the lower promenade which leads to the beach. The (relatively) new steps and silver handrail are set against a wall that is in shadow. The shadow appears darker because of bright sunlight. 

Like many of my photographs, it is a very simple image that relies heavily on the composition: stairs, handrail and wall to make an impact.

Possible improvements:

The back wall is very dark, even for a wall that is in the shadow, I would look at that. A wider lens might take more but I think what I wanted to. I am the character that if I can't get the image I want then I won't settle for second best.

Further development:

There is really very little development I can do here. I could perhaps, try a frontal shot or go to the top of the stairs and take a shot from the top looking down and through it onto the beach and the sea but they are not what I had visualised.   

PHOTOGRAPH FIFTEEN: 
Seagull on Street Lamp, Blackpool

While I was photographing these street lamps, I spotted this seagull settle on the top lamp. This was definitely one of those Henri Cartier-Besson's "decisive moment" opportunity. It occurred to me that with luck, the seagull would take within a few minutes. I knew that the camera settings were okay, I just had to adjust the shutter speed as I was potting straight into the sky. I potted the camera and waited but nothing happened. It just sat there surveying the landscape. I moved the camera back as it was tiring keep the camera aimed at the sky with my camera and head tilted back. But then I noticed that it changed its posture, stretched and straightened itself and I knew this was the moment. I quickly aimed the camera and took about three photographs as it flew off. Quickly looking back on the photographs I had taken, the above photograph was the only one that caught that "decisive moment". 

Although this photograph does not fit in with theme I had in mind, it was an opportunity regardless and I ended up with a photograph that has brought a smile and an immediate reaction from those who have seen it. 

Possible improvements:

I could have changed my positioning so that the lamps were at a more of an diagonal angle so we see them fully but I think I choose my position in align with the seagull's. A shift one-step to the left would have captured the back wing more but then it might also have obscured the head somewhat. 

Assessment

I spent one day photographing landscapes. Before even taking the first photograph, I knew what I wanted from the shoot. I was interested in areas bordering nature (sea, beach, sea life) and man-made features (sea wall, other walls and fencing for protection of people, walkways, roads, lighting and any other features of interest).

Primarily, I was interested in form, colour, light and the interaction of these features. I didn't want the presence of people in these images as they would have changed the emotional value of what I was attempting to capture which was where nature meets man; I wanted to show, as with the "Topographics", man-altered landscapes, both their ugliness and beauty but in a unique personal style.

"Photograph 06: "Old Sewage Pipe" represents many elements of man-altered landscape. The old sewage pipe in the foreground with the modern bright, colourful buildings of Blackpool hugging the shoreline in the near distant. A century ago, the old sewage pipe spewed decades of human waste, some of it poisonous, polluting not only the local sea but also the innocent and unsuspecting bathers and holiday-makers. It left me wondering why it hadn't been removed. Perhaps, it's a testimony to the unenlightened past as a symbol of how not to do things.

The bright light and the clear blue sky in many ways made the photography easier, and added their unique quality to the images. The clean lines of the forms I was interested in were only enhanced by the graphic quality of the sky.

The other feature that added to the quality of the images was nature's hand on man-made structures: Photographs 02, 04, 05, 08 and 10 all show signs of the erosiveness of the salty Irish Sea and how micro-biological life clings onto concrete features and begin their decaying effects on the stone-hard concrete,  changing not only its look but its colour and scarring it with unique patterns.

Photograph 04, although photographed in a stylised way, exposes the fragility of the two blocks of apartments almost cowering behind the strong sea defence wall and illustrate man's control of his natural environment, holding as bay the might of the sea. 

The walls though serve a dual purpose. The first is the obvious one, that is, to protect man-altered landscapes from the might of the sea. The second, illustrates how man has shaped features on and around the walls to satisfy his fascination of the sea; to be close to, to appreciate its beauty and its pleasure. Where ever there are people, there is the human circus. Hotels, restaurants and a variety of entertainments like in photograph 07, Blackpool's the "Big One".

Photographs 03, 04 and 10 illustrate the different approaches to wall design. From the straight wall in Wallesey to the combination of angular and straight in Blackpool. 

As I stated earlier, I was at Blackpool for one day from 7.30 in the morning to 7.00 in the evening. I took about 400 photographs. About 40 of them were, in my humble opinion, good to decent. I photographed a variety of subjects. Normally, I have a great aversion to places like these tourist seaside towns. What I photographed showed me that there is always something else if you dig just under the skin.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Health and Safety

I took a few chances; one or two I would normally not have taken. There was nothing life-threatening but would have caused me grief and damaged my cameras.

There were a few occasions when walked on the angled sea wall or when I walked on the "nut"-shaped sea breakers that are built on the southern sea wall that were still wet after the sea had receded. I wanted to get to the beach but the water hadn't withdrawn completely. My fear of getting wet seemed to have frozen my brain because the dangers of walking on the wet and slimy "nuts" were far greater. Had I slipped, I could had banged my head against the hard concrete or somehow twisted or caught a leg or arm in one of the nuts while my body rolled down. I risked potential serious injury because I didn't want to lose a few minutes or get my shoes and jeans wet.

Exhibiting, displaying and Selling My Photographs

Copyright

Generally, photography is protected under the law under copyright and moral rights. There are areas of society that are protected from misuse of photography. Privacy of individuals and organisations like the military and children are protected under public morality. 

The recent Instagram Act has changed the position of photographers considerably.  The recent reform of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act have shifted the power away from the individual towards large corporations and organisations. 

Previously, and in most of the world today, ownership of your creation is automatic and legally considered to be an individual's property, a basic property right which gave the individual owner (in this case the photographer), the right and permission through the courts for compensation. The government has now reversed this right. The new law now stipulates that the commercial exploitation of images where information identifying the owner is missing, so-called "orphan works", by placing the work into into what's known as "extended collective licensing" schemes. Since most digital images on the internet today are orphans, the metadata is missing or has been stripped by a large organisation, millions of photographs and illustrations are swept into such schemes. For the first time anywheas in the world, the Act will permit the widespread commercial exploitation of unidentified work. 

The dust still has not settled on this act. In practice, there are two choices for the photographer: remove your work from the internet entirely or register it and this will cost time and money.

Where would I display my work and why

There are several possibilities:

Local libraries 

Local and national newspapers

Local art galleries (with free or cheap space)

Photographic publications

Pubs, clubs (associated with subject matter)

Hire a market stall (eg Lowry Outlet Centre, Salford)

Hire an agent

Approach art and photographic galleries

The internet:

- stock photography sites

- WordPress

- Exposure Manager

Others:

- local coffee shops

- restaurants

- greeting cards

- post cards

Prepare yourself

Get or design a range of stationery like business cards (plenty of these. The more you print the cheap it is!). Letterheads (both printed and digital) and Compliment Slips. You might also consider invoices too.