Deconstructing Environmental Photographers

Today we had our 3rd seminar with Steffi on Landscape Photography. Today's subject was contemporary photography and at the end of it we were told to choose one of the photographers and elaborate on 3 of their images.

The photographer I have chosen is Mitch Epstein. A North-American photographer that has travelled around the world doing all kinds of photography and several different series that have been published and shown in various galleries. The series I am going to focus on is called "American Power". It is a series of photos from around USA which he started after he visited Cheshire in Ohio and saw the neighbourhoods being torn down to construct a nuclear power plant. The power company payed the residents to leave but there was an old lady who refused, named Beulah "Boots" Hern, who Epstein photographed. She lived with two security cameras on the window and a gun in her hand intending on protecting her property.

Epstein wanted to explore the cultural relationship with the subject of energy in the USA. In Epstein's own words of this series: "I am trying to find and convey truth about how we Americans live, what we want, and what it costs to get it" (Mitch Epstein - WORK pg 221). The series is neither a critique or an acceptance of these power plants or the affect they have, it is just an exploration of how people live with them. He has since won the Picket Prize 2011 for this body of work.

The 3 images I have chosen from this body of work are:
1.- Oildale, California 2006


2.- Amos Coal Power Plant, Poca, West Virginia 2004


3.- Gavin Coal Power Plant, Cheshire, Ohio 2003


All 3 images are different. In a sense that the first one is a landscape of a direct view of an oil field, where the landscape and the various industrial and oil machines and transportation tubes are mixed together.
The second one is also a landscape but more of an indirect way where he mixes the high contrast colours of the football team with the industrial and non-environmental friendly backdrop of the nuclear plant's cooling towers, mixing two very different photographic genres: photo-conceptualism and documentary photographers. The main focus of this image is the football team but the nuclear plant in the background gives it a feeling of the overwhelming presence of the industry.
The third one is a totally different picture then the two before that, when first looking at it I saw two clouds but then you notice where they are coming from, two smoke towers and realise that it is in fact contaminating the environment. It strikes me afterwards that something that is initially beautiful might be a man-made monstrosity. I believe that Epstein is trying to portray this feeling of not knowing if it is a good thing or a bad thing what these power plants produce. But also the clouds and the lighting behind it make it highly artistic.

Object Brief

The first brief I received for this first semester is the Object. In the brief it states that we have to shoot a constructed image of a still life were the theme is something thought by ourselves but that relates to a bigger and current social issue. I had several initial ideas:

- Growing Up, this idea came from my initial experiences at university were I felt it as more than a place of learning but more of another chapter in my life where I progress into adulthood and become independent. As this is my first experience away from home and I believe that most people in their first year are experiencing the same. But then Jonathan mentioned that it had to be a wider social issue so I went off the idea.

- My next idea was drink driving, I had no personal reason to take this one up but I believed that this was a big issue as most car fatal car accidents are caused by the effects of alcohol. I had an image of a toy car crashing into a wine glass with red wine spilling out of it, the red wine being a representation of blood, but I figured that it was kinda a standard image by many people and wasn't particularly passionate about this project as it didn't relate to me.

- My next idea, and the one I have decided to go with, was about the differences between the Spanish culture where I am from and the English culture that I am now living it and how it made me feel. I also feel that the world is becoming much more multicultural in a sense that more people are coexisting together, especially in England and Mallorca. England has received immigrants from around the world since the Great British Empire and Camden is a great example of this. Mallorca is also a place where people from around Europe and Africa have moved looking for a better lifestyle. I am thinking of making this work a bit more personal and focusing on what I felt moving to England and what is the most important thing I miss. I still don't know how to go about this but I am constantly thinking of it.

EDIT.

I have now shot and printed my object shoot. I scoured all over Rochester and Chatham to find the objects I had in mind for my shoot over a week long period but to no avail as it seemed nobody had what I was looking for. The day before the shoot I panicked and decided to go back to my previous idea of drink driving. I bought a wine glass, a toy car and a piece of A2 paper up to uni but once there got told that my idea of smashing the wine glass a bit and spilling the red wine over the car and the paper too make it look like blood could not be done for Health and Safety reasons, so even on the day of the shoot had to rethink my idea. I found a plastic wine glass and was allowed to smash that. So in the end I filled the wine glass with wine, smashed the plastic wine glass and the front of the toy car, ripping one of the wheels of, simulating a car crash. I also borrowed some fake blood of Ashleigh, a girl from my study group, and spilt it over the car and the smashed wine glass with a bit going on the wine glass. Here is the neg and the final shot with a test shot and a close up of the car.

- Test shots



- Negative and Positive of the Negative