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Sophie Grogan
Compare and contrast the styles and messages of Faye Godwin, Edward Burtynsky and Christoffer Relander
“The most important thing about global warming is this. Whether humans are responsible for
the bulk of climate change is going to be left to the scientists, but it's all of our responsibility
to leave this planet in better shape for the future generations than we found it.”
Through the centuries, the environment around us has always been seen as somewhat
beautiful and miraculous but how can we
remain with that opinion when so much of
what we’ve come to love, is being destroyed
beneath our feet? Maybe even without our
conscious awareness of it happening.
Nevertheless, every decision we make; whether
to walk to the nearest bin or just leave it on the
wall, to walk to college or save a couple of pounds and walk the whole way, has an impact on
how we will see the world 100 years from now. For that reason, I think it’s important to
underline how humans and the environment come together because after all, we both exist
simultaneously. To do this, I will be analysing the work of Faye Godwin, Edward Burtynsky
and Christoffer Relander and the message they convey to a wider audience of naturalists.
Faye Godwin, a British
photographer who was and still is, despite her
death, continuously known for capturing
images of the coast and countryside but not
just their own mere existence, more often than
not there would be the influence of a man
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made object in the background either distinctly or vaguely. However, these objects are never
obvious, it requires you to search for a part of the image that no longer makes the photograph
peaceful or beautiful and makes you step back and look at it again with a whole new mindset.
For example, in this image the central image would be the mountain with attention to detail
towards the snow and the path along the left-hand side. However due to the image being in
black and white, this further enhances the outlying aspect being the road using leading lines
techniques and with the contrast boosted, which I see in the dark and light areas within the
mountain that differs to that of the road, the whites become whiter and highlights the fact that
the mountain is one of the main aspects of the image as It is central which I think was done
purposefully. The dark road also gives the illusion of movement; you can’t help but feel like
you’re in a car on the way to the mountain in question. Due to the graininess and
monochrome effect of the image, I believe it
may be possible that her collection of images
we’re created using dark room chemicals and
developers. Furthermore, there is some
negative space at the top of the image which I
think was give the image a tinge of normality
as it helps balance out the image. It begs the question; why did she do that? Was she trying to
imply that our natural landscape isn’t as important as the landscape we’ve come to know? I
think she did this because she wanted to really focus on texture and the contrast between
natural and artificial objects and how she believes that she “owed something back to the land
she loved so much” (1). She wanted to justify how beautiful the landscape was by
photographing moments she deemed spectacular. The message this conveys is that we pay
extra attention to the things that don’t look nice than we do to the things that look beautiful.
Her images also have a vignette around the corners to give it a worn out, vintage polaroid
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effect which I think further enhances the idea that landscapes can become old, dull and that
may be why there are alterations. The general mood, given the colours contained within the
image, are quite sinister and dull yet calm and collected at the same time. In an article
published in 2011 she stated that she believed England was very much about the "melting
corpses of farms" (2) describing the black
chimneys and the “millstone grit” which I think
describes how her viewpoint was masked by a
sense of perfection. When this wasn’t seen,
everything appeared to be ugly and dark. This
suggests it’s important to display something in a
way that makes people appreciate it rather than see It as an opportunity to change it. The
uncertainty of the images gives it an added interest; it makes me see the images from a
different perspective each time as there is so much to take, such aspects include the vast
variety of gradients or the subject matter. The underlying meaning, I believe to be behind
these images is obviously the ever changing composition of the world’s natural state
nevertheless Faye Godwin could have also used the hidden and discrete destruction of the
landscape in a psychological manner to mirror the destruction we as human beings feel in our
lifetime. We change our environment in an
attempt to change ourselves. Similarly, Edward
Burtynsky also directly addresses the issue of
today’s society; “manufactured landscapes”.
He uses low angles to capture a larger area
below which contains artificial material which
in this image the object is roads/motorways.
Burtnysky believes the idea of showing these unfamiliar landscapes is to reconnect us to them
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(3), make us see the impact we’re having on the environment we ultimately have to live in for
the duration of time we spend on earth. The image presented above illustrates how the
majority of a special area consists mainly of things that wouldn’t be there without humans.
The composition of the roads exaggerated the imposing nature of the barriers which adds to
the contrast along the outside. The lines of the roads running parallel to the opposing roads
keeps the eye moving constantly around the shot to keep the viewer intrigued at all times
(4). The eye however distracts from the central image to the colour of the distained
greenspace. This area of the image addresses the aftermath of alterations to the
environment in that even though there is some greenspace left for us to see, it’s
discoloured, tatty and not worth looking at which as human beings is shameful. The colours
used are very generically monochrome with high attention to contrast, highlights can be
seen throughout on the motorway lines. The
composition of the photograph can be seen
horizontally or vertically as the ‘twisty’ roads
flow in all directions using repetition of
curves. Especially in the second image, the
texture I can see is very rusty and gritty as the
vehicles are worn out, old and faded
suggesting they have been there a long time to be left to rot away. The lighting is diffused as
the image isn’t too bright or too dull which suggests the light source was very broad to allow
the image to be a lot softer. (5) “Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are
all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a
daily basis.” (6) Edward uses the images as metaphors of what is to come of our economic
greed for success meanwhile we unconsciously make decisions that we are unware of how
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will affect the environment yet still continue to do so. Everybody wants to live a good life
with good resources and those resources derive from good materials which can sometimes
only be found naturally. While we are
succeeding in our own field, we are allowing
the world to suffer and to deteriorate
gradually until one day, it will give up and
have nothing left to offer us. Negative space
within all of Edward Burtynsky’s work is minimal as each image is filled with activity as there
is always more than one subject matter keeping your eyes busy searching at all times.
Judging by how much content is identified within the images, it’s clear that the image was
taken a fair distance away and cropped down also. Due to the image being taken in 2003 (7)
it may be possible the photograph was edited in Photoshop or Lightroom but this isn’t
obvious which indicates there is high levels of control to keep the photograph as genuine
and clean as possible. At first the image is quite satisfying and interesting because it makes
you interact with it by turning the paper around to view all the different angles and maybe
to solve which way the image was actually meant to be presented. However, the longer you
observe and analysis the image, you realize it’s not pretty and in actual fact you were paying
attention to it for the wrong reasons. I admired the twisty roads as a clever technique as a
central image but then started thinking about all the destruction and time and polluted area
that went into constructing this ‘marvelous’ structure. The busy roads give a sense of a
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cluttered loud atmosphere which I find deafening for the wrong reasons again. When I’m
walking through a field I am consumed with
the noises of birds engaging in conversation
and trees whipping their branches at one
another and those noises are enjoyable and
filled with mystery that is lingering in my
mind all day but this scene, this scene I
would be happy to flee from. The colours
drag the image down even though they are well highlighted, they are still dark and dreary
and make me feel almost sad to see a once luminous green scene only making up 10% of the
final image. The key to Burtynsky’s images is that he photographs areas that aren’t only just
beginning their descent into destruction, he photographs them in their absolute peak to
accentuate the brutality of the damage, he does this to open the eyes of his viewers and to
scream the words ‘this must stop’ through each image of this particular project. Through
research, I have also found this isn’t the only project where he seems passionate and
determined about raising awareness of the environmental impact that we have using gas
emissions, deforestation and climate change. This makes it clear to me that his area of
interest spreads not only across manufactured landscapes but also photographing oil,
shipbreaking, salt pans and mass consumerism which, in respect they are things we need to
survive but on such a mass scale? The idea of constructing buildings derives from creating a
more aesthetic environment that makes people feel comfortable and open to new ideas
however the underlying knock on effect is ignored which makes me feel manipulated into
believing that industrialization is only a good thing and ignorant to the fact that I never
thought of the bad. One final
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photographer who captures the relationship between humans and the landscape is
Christoffer Relander. “The series is not about any specific individual; it is about man and
nature itself. By keeping the identities of my models anonymous, it leaves space for the
viewer’s own perception. Our perception is subjective.” (8)
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His images evidently combine the to types of photography through layering and blending
two images together to create a silhouette of a human with transparency to allow the
underneath layer, the landscape, to shine through to become visible. Relander calls this
collection of images ‘We are nature’ which for me couldn’t be more accurate. Unlike Edward
Burtynsky, these images don’t illustrate destruction or damage In anyway in fact they show
quite the opposite. They suggest that as humans we have an aspect of nature in all of us in
that we are beautiful creatures who just want to live, make the world better and see places
that leave a mark on us psychologically. The genre remains landscape but also bringing in
more portraiture. The colour of the images within the 5 collections; volume 1-5 switches
between entirely monochrome and some that are green. The monochrome images are very
contrasted with a large variation between highlights and shadows which makes the images,
ironically more brighter despite being in black and white. The shape of the images doesn’t
finish with a solid line around the image, the neck or wrist used as the body part to layer
with a portrait image is blended away to create the illusion of the hand or head breaking
away and becoming an object in their own
right. Relander uses lead in lines through the
branches especially in the black and white
image used above, the branches migrate
towards the center of the body almost going
towards the heart as if to say that nature is
inside all of us and that elements of the environment construct our personality. All images
are centered with minimal negative space surrounding it while maintaining a strong positive
space with strong definition towards the facial features. The lack of negative space suggests
that the subject matter is what we should be focusing on, that nothing is more important
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than what is in the middle of the image, it’s in the middle for a reason in order to draw our
attention to it. The prints are printed onto German Etching Paper which is age resistant,
which cleverly illustrates how nature will never grow old, it will always be around us maybe
in the same state it was 500 years ago but it still remains. The work is developed through
manually setting double exposure onto his DSLR camera taking two pictures one after the
other to automatically allow the images to join and morph into one. Powerful and beautiful
are the words that come to mind because it’s such a strong play on nature as opposed to
Faye Godwin and Edward Burtynsky who focus solely on man-made objects interfering with
our natural environment. Relander ignores how involved we are with our world by instead
zooming on how much nature is involved with us. It almost makes me want to go outside
and lie in a field filled with daisies and buttercups and have a new found admiration for
nature, it’s that beautiful. That’s the aim of the pictures I think, to make you forget about all
that’s wrong with the world; all the war, the politics, the crime and just think of instead
everything that’s right; the animals that allow us to walk with them, the trees that create
magical tunes as we pass by, the sky creating a spectrum of portals through colour when the
sun meets rain. The work was essentially made for anyone who needs to escape reality, to
find tranquility in an otherwise chaotic
atmosphere or just for anyone who wanted
to see just one beautiful thing that day.