Photographers

I did some researching looking for artists that in some way or another have photographed nature. Upon this search I found the photographers like Jamie Mchugh, Ansel Adams, Galen and Barbara Rowell, William Henry Jackson, and Eliot Porter just to name a few. With each photographer I found something inspiring or even just plain interesting. I truly enjoyed Mchugh's photographs that capture nature just close up enough to create very abstract and organic looking images. When it came to some of the historical photographers I became more interested in how their work inspired conservation acts and for national parks and such to be created. Adams' photographs are breath taking, literally, but to me they look almost too touristy. So, I kept looking. I eventually found the Rowell's who photograph nature, similar to Adams' work except they focus on a variety of subjects that include many animals. Out of all the photographers that I researched, Eliot Port stood out the most to me. His work captures many overlooked features of nature that can be found very visually appealing. I found that many of his photographs exhibit distinct visual lines that not only draw your eyes into the photograph but around it too.

After all of this research, I began to ask myself what I really truly wanted to point out with photographing nature. At first I answered with wanting to photograph nature in a way that expresses the little things that are usually overlooked, similar to Porter. First thinking of photographing fungi mainly, since many are uneducated about mycology and because Washington has some of the best conditions for fungi to grow. Then I pushed harder because there are very important issues surrounding nature, just to name one pollution. With this sorta new idea, I thought about how I could photograph this idea. Plastic bags in trees? Litter at parks? Then my train of thought turned and I realized that I could only make plastic bags look interesting so many times. At last, my train finally arrived, nature clashing with man made objects. Inspired by an article I randomly found on facebook. The article shows some photographs taken in Russia of old weapons from past conflicts imbedded into tree trunks. I was completely amazed by these photos and the idea that nature doesn't care, it is just going to keep on growing. Finally, I feel as if I found what I need to capture, man-made objects being taken over by nature and in a way, returning to earth. This idea can still capture an overlooked beauty while also capturing an environmental and economic aspect as well that, I think, will result in a meaningful project.

Ideas!

Scanned image of Paint the City: Seattle series

          This quarter for photography given the freedom, I would like to experiment with utilizing older processes. The processes I'm interested in using would possibly be litho film and cyanotypes, though I have not completely decided. Previously, I have worked with both mediums in 325 last spring. I used litho positives over marbled paper to create the image below. I made a series of these utilizing photographs I had taken in Seattle. For a while I was thinking to continue the series with photographs of other cities or even of nature. Or even to create a litho positives inside of a wooden frame and sealed with resin to create a lit photography, but I think that will need to wait since I do not have all the skills needed to create a well crafted light box.

          So then my train of thought lead me cyanotypes and photograms. I think it would be interesting to create large cyanotype photograms out in the field by collecting a variety of plant materials and construct some sort of composition. As I said before, I am still uncertain of what exactly I would like to create this quarter and I'm even open for ideas. Though I feel that I tend to move towards nature because people just do not spend enough time appreciating the world around us and the all the little things that this planet has to offer.