Deconstructing Environmental Photographers -

For this task i have been asked to study 3 photographers. Russ Blees-Luxemburg, Richard Wentworth and Vera Lutter. They are all photographers who photograph the urban environment in the city.

- Rut Blees Luxemburg is a german artist who explores cities at night through photography. Her series of the Piccadilly is displayed in the Airport Heathrow terminal 4. The influence of romanticism painters like Caspar David Friedrich and other impressionism painters is remarkable. She photographs the urban space at night using available light and long exposures. In her images there is and absence of humans and the usage of high contrast adds texture. The subjects she chooses to shoot are random occurrences or findings during her night time walks. She wants to expose the overlooked or that which seems non important. Her images are often taken in an undefined space that can be seen everywhere and experienced by anyone.

- Richard Wentworth plays and explores the stories that can be told through random object findings and positions that they are found in. Wentworth uses objects and materials which appears domestic, industrial or discarded. He explores the accidental in the urban space. All of his images are in colour. He is another artist that doesn’t use human characters or shapes in his images but references the human actions through the obj

- Vera Lutter is an artist inspired by the city's presence, light and architecture. Vera Lutter is a photographer who has a tendency to present her imagery inverted, black and white. This particular technique transforms her photographs into something unique and unfamiliar. Because of the very small aperture to keep the entire image in focus the artist uses a very long exposure. Because of the unfamiliarity of this type of image, we find ourselves looking at the vertical and horizontal lines that make up the image rather than the objects themselves. There is also a hint of ghosting above the buildings, maybe merging of two negatives of slight movement of the camera. "Instability, uncertainty, suspense and monumentality are entities that I consider and think about; they generate work." Vera Lutter.ects and their positions. The camera position doesn’t identify the exact location of where the photograph was taken. The meaning the images try to portray are about the life in an urban environment.


- The three artists are exploring the urban space to reveal a human condition without the use of human presence but with different photographic approaches. Rut Blees Luxemburg analyzes the texture and the composition in the non-space, giving us a new and sometimes uncomfortable view of a public space, thanks to her night view of these non-spaces. Richard Wentworth focuses his work on the everyday objects and materials found around the cities to investigate about our society, and transform these objects into something emotionally meaningful representing the human presence in the urban space. Vera Lutter plays with the sense of perception that we have about reality, showing us the skeleton of an unfamiliar cityscape.